Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 1 Box Art

By Sandy Kirchner-Wilson eleven.09.2015

Review for Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru: Part 1 on PC

Not every game features the ability to pretend to be notepad and have no audio when minimised… Steam only hosts all-ages versions of visual novels, just "all-ages" doesn't mean "suitable for children," and Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru is no exception. Featuring an abundance of risqué jokes and innuendos, the game is a spin-off of the popular Grisaia series of visual novels created by Frontwing and published by Sekai Project, split into 13 chapters beyond 2 game parts in an 'Anime-like' format.

This visual novel provides a humorous narrative detailing the life of part-time idol Matsushima Michiru through her weird and wonderful magic adventure. Ane day, after a show, she's walking home when she bumps into, of all platitude things, a talking black cat named Nyanmel who'south trying to hire magical girls to salvage the world from the 7's Chaos. Michiru is reluctant, thinking it might be a prank, just somewhen agrees to take upwards the mantle afterwards existence told that if she succeeds, she'll be granted 1 wish.

Taking place in the modern world, many of the happenings are shown as a news report on TV. The narrative itself is excellent, as it doesn't bombard the thespian with too many in-jokes. It does its best to balance progressing the story with having a express mirth, commonly at the primary characters' expense. For example, while Michiru is learning to wing it turns out she's rubbish at it. Barely able to hover, she goes on patrol after beingness convinced it's the right way for her to travel, and gets herself into trouble in a café and thus makes her go out on foot, much to Nyanmel's please.

Screenshot for Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru: Part 1 on PC

In that location isn't much gameplay to annotate on, which is a shame. It doesn't even provide any game-changing choices which are so popular in current titles similar Until Dawn or Telltale's series. Instead it'due south an exercise in monotony, where the but input is to click to go on reading. Information technology'due south a expert thing the script is fun to read. The artwork plays a huge part in keeping the story live equally it is bright, vibrant, and interesting. Graphic symbol designs are distinctive and tend to somewhat reflect the character's personality, for case the chief character is bright with big eyes, frilly clothing and a twin tails hairstyle and, for fear of stereotyping, has barely an iota of brain power. Occasionally to show off some class of action or funny moment the game uses a pocket-size explosion motif window with chibi art inside information technology that depicts what'due south happening in the current dialogue. This art is charming and expressive and helps to emphasise some of the more hard-to-imagine moments.

It'due south also fully voiced in Japanese, so if the voice work is bad, information technology's difficult to tell for a non-speaker. The voices are expressive and fun, with no particular grapheme holding the trophy for most annoying voice. The fact that the actors managed to reflect, to an extent, the emotional land of the grapheme they are portraying helps keep the immersion up. The music is too practiced, and mostly used to help convey the mood of a scene with light plinky, plonky tunes for comedic effect and darker, more tense ones when an atmosphere shift is of import. Each chapter is surrounded by anime-style opening credits and ending credits with vocal tracks. These are surprisingly catchy and hummable, with the typical overlay of English and Romanji subtitles for anyone dauntless enough to try and sing along.

Screenshot for Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru: Part 1 on PC

Cubed3 Rating

6/10

Idol Magical Daughter Chiru Chiru Michiru is an extremely competent visual novel that expertly presents its humorous spinoff story with plenty of gusto and flair. It is consistently endearing and interesting, with some great audio work and a vivid, clear, vibrant fine art way that, despite not being very unique, is better than a majority of other visual novels available through Steam. The primary downside is the lack of player interaction, which puts the score down to just to a higher place average. Information technology provides ample experience for its price every bit it lasts a proficient 3.5 to 5 hours at roughly 30 minutes per chapter, just like an blitheness would exist, and should please nearly visual novel fans out there looking for a lighter read. Hopefully for role ii things get a little more serious as the boxing heats upwardly between the two Magical Girls!