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Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Grisaia no Kajitsu Review

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Grisaia no Kajitsu, or The Fruit of Grisaia, is a visual novel developed by Frontwing. It's one of the longest visual novels currently on Steam, and the first of three parts in the Grisaia series.



Overview

The plot of Grisaia no Kajitsu opens with our protagonist Yuuji Kazami transferring into Mihama Academy, a school with a total head count, him included, of only a principal and six students, the five others all being girls. At first glance all those girls lack common sense, but well, Yuuji is just as peculiar, except he spends every scene being a total badass.



The six of them are being educated in such an isolated facility because their pasts and circumstances require as such, all of them for their own individual reasons. Over the course of the story, all these reasons are brought to light, in a classic galge plot structure.

Structure



Grisaia no Kajitsu's structure is ridiculously simple. The blue dots in the graph represent choices, and this is all of them. You first get about 10 hours' worth of a comedic common route before the story eventually branches into character routes. Once you reach the branching point, it's literally just "Do you want to enter this character's route? Yes/No" choices, and then every route ends in either a good or bad end depending on the single choice you make somewhere along the line. I've rarely seen a simpler structure in a multi-route galge.

Though the choices that determine whether or not you reach the good end can be quite poignant sometimes...



Story

As I mentioned, the first 10 hours or so are primarily comedy. If you're 1-2 hours in and you don't like the distinct comedic style of Grisaia you may as well quit now cause it's not gonna stop anytime soon and it's a big part of why I enjoyed this visual novel as much as I did. Turned around however, if you do like it there's a lot more where that came from.



Once you're past that long stretch you have the character routes waiting for you. This is where the game has some massive ups and downs. All of the routes do their job of establishing backstory and context for the girl they focus on quite well, however the pacing and writing suffers at times and the resolutions aren't as satisfying as the could've been. The only route where I have no real complaints is Michiru's.



Generally I'd call the routes worth reading as long as you like the character in question, and/or you're interesting in seeing how a romance between them and Yuuji develops. Other than that, unless it happens to be Michiru, I'd say skip it.

Characters

Thankfully, I liked all the characters, so going through all the routes was quite enjoyable. While some of the girls can get on your nerves at times, generally speaking I just loved watching them interact as a group. And that's what Grisaia no Kajitsu did really well, as far as I'm concerned. The group would just be incomplete if even one of the girls weren't there. And then there's Yuuji...



Yuuji is what you'd call a Gary Stu and it's not hard to see where criticism for Grisaia being "otaku pandering" comes from. I personally had no issues with it. His over-the-top awesomeness yet occasional cluelessness leads to some hilarious scenes. And when the situation calls for it, he fulfills his role as the protagonist well.

He reminds me a lot of Kenichi from Sharin no Kuni, except more on the cool and edgy side and not quite as likeable and eloquent.



"Look at how suave I am!"

There are a few side characters such as the principal and Yuuji's boss, and they do well to supplement the main cast. They get some extra screentime in some arcs which I appreciated as the latter especially was a pretty interesting character.

Overall a pretty good cast of characters, even if it doesn't do much to avoid falling into tropes.



Soundtrack

Gotta say, the title screen theme of this game, The Final Fractral (Instrumental), is one of the best of its kind. It does a wonderful job capturing exactly what's so good about Grisaia no Kajitsu: it's FUN.

Other than that, however, there are only very few standout tracks. Most of the soundtrack doesn't stand on its own, but it does a fair job supplementing the story. Though admittedly it does get monotonous sometimes when the same track plays for hours (*cough* Amane flashback *cough*).



Summary

I very much enjoyed Grisaia no Kajitsu. Simply put, reading it was just having a good time. It's over the top and ridiculous, but also self-aware. And at times it cuts the lightheartedness for drama. It's as typical of a galge as you can get, but it's also a great example of why I like the genre.



Unintentional or not, this was the best reference ever.

And if you like this sort of story as well, don't pass up on Grisaia no Kajitsu. It's the first part of the Grisaia trilogy and it's still gonna be a while before Meikyuu and Rakuen hit the stores, but for the time being Kajitsu stands well enough on its own.

Overall, Grisaia no Kajitsu gets a score of

8.5 / 10

from me. There are better visual novels of the same kind, but it's still definitely worth your time if you're into this type of visual novel.



Oh, so he's god now? That actually explains a lot.

Comments

  1. Pumpkin's Avatar
    I was looking at this but it's expensive~ Or it was when I checked. I like their uniforms
  2. Karifean's Avatar
    It is quite expensive; $37 is a considerable amount for a visual novel of this caliber. Oh well, it's Steam so there's bound to be a sale sometime.