If you want a visual novel, this is a visual novel. TSUKIHIME – A piece of blue glass moon from developer Type-Moon is a deep and well-written monster and mayhem-driven story. It’s quite a journey.
While I would certainly like a bit more interactivity in my visual novel, as you’re often making dialogue choices rather than action-based ones, having a good story with hard turns and twists makes up for the lack of strategic button-pushing. As I have said in the past, if you have a game that contains a good story, then you’re bound to make the journey memorable and worthwhile for the player. And this journey is certainly worthwhile and very memorable.
So, sit back, close the shades, and make sure you’ve got your knife at the ready because we’re about to slice and dice this game review up.
Story is everything…literally
The story of TSUKIHIME – A piece of blue glass moon revolves around a young boy named Shiki Tohno, who has been sent away by his father to go live with another family because Shiki is ill, after a terrible incident that nearly kills him, and is considered weak blood in his family lineage. While Shiki gets better in a hospital, he develops a terrible eye condition where he can see the world in literal slices. The slices represent outlines he can use with knives to dissemble objects and possibly people. Like a dotted line, but in the real world. Everywhere in the real world.
Freaked out by this new power, Shiki cannot get away from these slices he sees and begins to question his sanity. Concerned, doctors encourage him to go outside and get fresh air, as they think he has just been traumatized by his event, but, sadly, the slices follow him, as a bigger worldview shows off more and more slices in objects and people.
Convinced he cannot handle the sight of the slices anymore, Shiki gets desperate. Right before he makes any rash decisions, he meets a stranger who understands what he sees and what that will ultimately mean for him in the future, though the stranger gives no detail on his future with these slices. More importantly, this stranger, who he eventually calls Master, shows him how to tune such a painful view of the world out with the magical glasses she provides. With a firm understanding of how to control this issue, and now an easy solution, Shiki gets healthier and healthier until his family calls him back home. Sadly, his reunion with his family comes with the death of his father and he has him living with his sister again, who is now bitter for him leaving in the first place.
Shiki’s life soon becomes that of a prisoner, as his sister, who is now in charge of the family, puts unreasonable restrictions on his life and rigid rules that he can’t break. Shiki’s simple life before the hospital becomes a stressful hell, which leads to health problems cropping back up and ultimately leads Shiki down a mysterious and unavoidable path toward monsters and things that go bump in the night. His health also sets off his need to explore the slices of the world once again and gets him to do terrible things to strangers.
Of course, his terrible deeds unlock an even deeper world he didn’t know about and he soon finds his involvement in this world much more in sync with the dreadful and eventual slicing ability.
I’ll stop there, as there are too many twists and turns that you should discover on your own, as I don’t like ruining a good story. And this story is quite good.
When the narrative began, I wasn’t sure where it was going, as I have had no previous run-in with this series. I have read its history, its inception, release, and now re-assembly – and it all seems like an impressive feat. As someone new entering this story, and who has no expectations prior, I found that what Type-Moon has done with this game has been far more than I thought a visual novel could go.
The game started as a whack-a-doodle typical anime storyline where the antics of the main character were at best going to land him in hot water. It had a simple story running for the first hour of gameplay. It fooled me into believing this wasn’t at all a deep or unique adventure, but rather an anime visual novel that relied on its visuals more than its novel. Just a kid with a hard life, mysterious powers, and goofy friends.
Then the story started to distort.
Right around the time that Shiki makes his way back home, the darker undertone of the game starts showing itself. The inclusion of a serial killer who hunted people down, even going as far as killing a teacher in the game, was a distant dark blot from the narrative but gave some hint that all was not well in Shiki’s world. When Shiki’s health issues and unsettling home life started to take shape and match up with the serial killer tone in the story, it all started going from a light-hearted adventure to a dark horror story. To help push this sentiment even further, Shiki’s reactions started getting eerily familiar with someone who is psychotic. Shiki’s health episodes that push him in and out of consciousness started to develop questions about his sanity and why those slices were such an alarming tip-off to his Master. The story and the game reached its zenith when Shiki lets his instincts take over in public and he tracks someone down uncontrollably and brutalizes them. At this point in the story, the game had my full attention. I didn’t know how far it would go in its dark twists and turns.
There was so much build-up that started from basically nothing. When the game shifts and unveils a bigger world for Shiki, it becomes an epic and travel-worthy journey that is quite simply hard to put down. And don’t get me wrong, perusing through miles of dialogue at the beginning to understand Shiki’s situation was painful, mainly because I had no expectation of where this narrative was taking me. Once it started kicking on all cylinders, I had a hard time not wanting more of the story. Just a bit more here and a bit more there to provide context to Shiki and why he was doing what he was doing. It hit hard at the right time. It reminded me a lot of Your Name, where you’re just going through a whacky adventure of two people who can switch bodies, but when the ‘oh, shit’ moment arrives, it’s hard to stop watching. It’s hard to get away from thinking about the story. TSUKIHIME – A piece of blue glass moon had that ‘oh shit’ moment where I simply wanted more. And it didn’t disappoint.
The story in this game was more than I anticipated, and I couldn’t believe how easily it hooked me. It’s one of the best visual novels I have experienced in my game-reviewing life. It’s certainly a triumph in masterful storytelling. It has compelling characters, and a well-defined world, and it contains a competent multi-act narrative that makes you happy you rode its rollercoaster.
If you like visual novels, then this is a must-have.
Stumbling here and there
While the overall story is absolutely crystal clear and impactful, there are occasions where the narrative wanders off course just a bit with tone changes. For example, some obvious sexual moments come up in the narrative that feel forced for humor, and sometimes for settling the scene down, but don’t match the overall tone of the story being told. I get some of these are there to truly bring down the darkness of the story, but they also end up distracting and taking away from the body of work, as most didn’t have to be there for any reason.
These distractions just seemed very much out of place. They don’t fit what is going on with Shiki, nor do they give his character pieces and parts for necessary development. Simply put, these probably could have been left on the cutting room floor and no one would have missed them.
Anyway, these are far and few between, but they do take away from the story enough to be noticeable.
Gorgeous game
The many visual novels I have come across over the years typically have simple graphics that feature more artsy flavor to them with more reliance on the viewer’s imagination. With TSUKIHIME – A piece of blue glass moon, the visuals are straight from a well-drawn anime and hit where they need to hit to strongly reinforce Shiki’s predicament and the world around him that keeps pressing on him. The character graphics and environment designs are positively stunning. They are some of the best I’ve seen in visual novels and help to sell the world that Shiki lives in.
On that note, these are the pieces and parts that make up the game, so let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
TSUKIHIME – A piece of blue glass moon from developer Type-Moon is a stunning game that weaves a deep and terrifying tale reinforced by strong main characters and good narrative flow.
