Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Dec 29, 2021

  [h2]Amatarasu Riddle Star[/h2] [i]Wishing upon a shooting star.[/i] [h3]Preclaimer[/h3] - This is an Adult Visual Novel - one with a free R18 Patch (obtainable at MangaGamer's webshop) at that - designed to be R18, which is why I consider the R18 content part of the whole and will include it in this review. If for whatever reason you are not interested in this content, or aren't legally allowed to play it, you should just skip this review. - Since many Visual Novels are similar in a bunch of ways, I'm gonna review this one on a few common aspects. - This is my first impression (4/5+3 routes done). I will update this review as I progress further through the game. [hr] [h3]Graphical & Technical Quality[/h3] If I were to summarize, Amatarasu is an upper mid-tier VN. It has as many cool features and as much potential as it has flaws. Though, considering this VN is originally from 2013 and uses the RenPy engine the benefits outweigh, making it an overall enjoyable game. Despite only having 720p assets, which you clearly see on FullHD and above monitors in fullscreen, Amatarasu has a really beautiful art style and level of detail - except for the few SD artworks. While not having directly animated character sprites, they commonly change these static sprites even mid-sentence and we get a huge amount of animated [i]scenes[/i]. The music too sounds really nice, although there are only around 15 different tracks that aren't changed that often, becoming rather repetetive after a short while and taking away some tension potential from the story. Furthermore, the instrumental version of the opening theme is cut-off half way through and 2 or 3 voicelines are broken. Nothing too major, but still worth of note. Seeing as the game runs on the RenPy engine, there isn't that much customizability. The settings are minimalistic though do cover all the necessary base features, including volume settings per character. We get 100 most simplistic save-slots which you can't even edit or delete from ingame, and there is no backlog or scene jumping, so utilizing them in order to quickly setup routes is recommended. One notable gimmick - if it may be planned or not - is that the displayed dialogue waits for mid-sentence sprite or background changes to occur, creating pauses that reflect the way the characters talk at times. Also, as mentioned before, the game has several animations which furthermore have controls for speed and camera position as you might have seen on certain flash games out there. Considering its age and engine, these animations certainly are the biggest and best feature of Amatarasu, making it a worthy competitor for modern VNs. [hr] [url]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2678469868[/url] [hr] [h3]Content & Runtime[/h3] So, what can you expect from this game? A story about wishes, dreams and the sparkling stars in the night sky. Doumoto Takaya once was a big dreamer. Being a sickly young boy he spend most of his time making up stories and gazing at the beautiful night stars, wishing upon them for wonderous things to happen. Because he believed that "when you die, you become a resident of the stars", and those stars will grant your wishes. Though one day, a tragic incident changed his life forever. His believes were shattered by cruel reality. Wishing upon the stars has become nothing more than a childish fairy tale, and reality nothing more than a dull nuisance without any action to him. Solely believing in logic and realism, Takaya became a shut-in who prefers to read fantasy novels and fairy tales to escape the boring reality where nothing wonderous will ever happen, since it's impossible. ...or so he thought. Because one day, his inner wish for "something wonderous and exciting" to happen was granted by a shooting star. As his home town was suddenly turned into a living mix of various fairy tales, will he be able to find his lost enjoyment in life? And who are all these new characters that seem to have some form of connection to him? And what about those memories Takaya sealed away long ago? Amatarasu is a supernatural slice of life drama with equal amounts of humor and emotional lore. Sadly though the full potential of this story is hold back by all the explicit adult content that takes up 50% of the character routes, making some scenes look rushed as a result. Nonetheless, Amatarasu has a connected story that is told throughout the 5 main routes. Because routes build up on each other, playing the game in the original character order - the one in the gallery - is heavily recommended. Alternatively, playing Yua's route last works too. Some of the routes are more emotional, deeper while others are a bit more lighthearted. Though in the end, uncovering the whole story of what happened in the past and what is happening now is a worthy journey. Additionally there are three bonus routes for side characters, of which one is locked behind completing a specific main route first, though these are just rather short and pointless bonus adult scenes. All the main characters, including the protagonist who has a commonly shown face, have well developed, distinct personalities and some form of character development, as well as more or less severe main story relevance. The side characters are all ridiculous as usual though. I don't know if that is even possible, but maybe knowing the original works behind some of the fairy tales used helps reducing the amount of randomness in the story. Oh yeah, and most of the characters are overbearing in at least one body area. Choosing a route happens through up to 12 dialogue choices which are rather obvious. The common route takes ~10h, the main character routes the same, resulting in around 70h worth of content, not rush-skipping. The gallery is available from the very beginning, where you can look at the 94CGs, listen to the 16 OSTs and watch all the scenes and animations again, sorted by character. [hr] [url]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2676367164[/url] [hr] [h3]The R18 content[/h3] Now this is where this VN both shines and falls. There are around 5-6 H-scenes per main character, 1-2 per side heroine. In the gallery these are divided into their single segments (poses that can be part of a single H-scene), of which there are exactly 9/3 per character, and of which exactly 5/1 are GIF-loop animated (though with a rather detailed finisher animation). There are a few, scarcely used sound effects but no background moaning, and the only choice you get is between two character styles (glasses or no glasses) in a single occasion. Besides some backdoor-poking no fetishes are served. There are nude sprites which appear even outside of H-scenes, though no sprite viewer to look at them otherwise. And when it comes to the depiction of bodily fluids, the inhuman stamina of the actors or the overall intensity of the action - it's just casual over-the-top hentai. Though there are one or another surprisingly believable/relatable moments. The game is [b]fully uncensored[/b], which doesn't look too bad thanks to Amatarasu's great art style, except for some weirdly non-matching color choices maybe. [hr] [url]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2685465925[/url] [hr] [h3]Conclusion[/h3] Is this game worth it? In general, yes. Though I would recommend getting it on sale. Amatarasu has some nice elements that make it surpass its old roots and become something better than expected, though it also has a higher than usual asking price, which kinda contradicts with the flaws it has. But don't worry, for there will always be another sale! [code]Helpful review? Maybe take a look at [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37389784/][u]the rest[/u][/url] of my reviews too![/code] [code]𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33853800/]𝐎𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐤𝐚𝐢'𝐬 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞[/url] 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐑𝐏𝐆 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬[/code]
• gamedeal user

  Feb 3, 2022

  Amaterasu Riddle Star is an enjoyable moege. I loved the art very much, and the common route was very fun. The following routes afterwards sometimes had some interesting twists that changed the whole fun atmosphere into an ominous one instead, which kept it interesting. If I had to mention anything that I didn't like about this VN, was the fact that I felt like I was listening to the same BGM music over and over again, especially within the routes. It seems the BGM didn't vary that much. Also, while h-content might be a plus to some people, I found this VN had way too many of them (of course this point only applies if you have downloaded the patch). I found myself skipping through them just because I wanted to get back to the story, which also seems to make the routes very short when skipping them, I might add. Regardless, if you are in the mood for something with a cute and fun atmosphere, then I would recommend giving this VN a go.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 26, 2022

  Art	🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨	Gameplay
  Difficulty		Replay
  Music	🎹🎹🎹🎹	Voice	🔊🔊🔊🔊🔊
  Story	📘📘📘📘	Translation	📜📜📜📜📜
  Comedy	🎭🎭🎭🎭🎭	Drama	🎃🎃
  Kawaii	🐹🐹🐹🐹🐹	Ecchi	🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
  Impact	💣💣💣💣💣	Score	🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻

  Notes

  The perfect VN doesn't exist, or so I was told. This must be an illusion. When I wake up, everything will return to normal. Let me pinch my cheek… OUCH! Is this real life? Is this fantasy? If I see a shooting star, I will wish I can find more VNs like this one. Easily my top favorite Visual Novel (so far). But what makes this VN so good? Everything! Let's jump to the next section to understand some pros and cons.

  Pros

  + Art quality is the best you will find in this medium + Some scenes are animated, which is a rare combination for godtier art + A charming and beautiful custom font, this is something I almost never see in any VN, it took me by surprise and makes reading a lot more pleasing + Voice is so good that I end up repeating a lot of dialogue lines just to hear the voice again + Fantasy story that will immerse you in a world of possibilities and amazing things + Heroines are extremely adorable with distinct charms + BGMs, while not top class, are great at conveying mystery and fantasy scenes + Awesome comedy, specially with the rabbit

  Cons

  - Sprites during dialogues are not low resolution, however the algorithm used to downscale them during dialogues is bad (perhaps nearest neighbour was used as opposed to bilinear or other methods) making their lineart appear serrated (with lack of anti-aliasing). We can observe they are higher resolution when the sprites zoom in and actually become better - Small number of options for interface - No flowchart - If you don't like fantasy stories like Alice in Wonderland, you probably won't like the story

  Status

  Finished 3/5 routes and 1/3 mini-routes.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 13, 2022

  If you are looking for a deep and serious romance novel ..... then keep looking strongly suggest Kinkoi. If you are looking for one that will give you good /cough material /cough and has a nice selection of girls then by all means you have found the one. The quality of the routes does vary quite a bit but the characters stay consistent and are well thought out. Make sure you have the free patch that will give you the adult content without mosaics and enjoy.
• Coldbutcool

  Apr 24, 2023

  This game looks so gross and perverted. I need to buy it and download it just to know how gross and perverted it is and to also let my friends know to buy it because it is gross and perverted.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 11, 2019

  From what Ive seen so far > The characters have nice Art Designs.. > The VA is really nice and the voices fits the respective characters really well....the VA cast is also really well known.. like Cinnamon from Nekopara and Ritsuko from PE > Side Heroines also have routes/Mini routes > So far the Premise seems interesting.. > Even tho its Developed by the same company who mostly makes popular Nukiges... This title is actually NOT a Nukige and has a decent story to it , It also has high amount of H content > As the Devs behind this one Primarily focus on Nukiges.. expect great quality H scenes.. and the Patch is available for free on their website.. > And yes.. its mosaics free Edit : 20 hours in.. I'm still liking the VN.. and what i said above regarding the story etc still stands.. The overarching plot kinda has this mystery feeling to it.. like " Why is all this happening " and i like that about it..
• gamedeal user

  Oct 17, 2019

  I did not realize they were going to borrow so heavily from Alice in Wonderland. If you are o.k. with that it may be good-- but I refunded.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 5, 2019

  I hate giving Mangagamer's VNs bad reviews but this one really dissapointed. Lets talk about the story, or more precisely about absence of it. At begining there are falling stars which brings all kinds of fairy tale creatures down on earth. And rest of game is basicaly about living among the new inhabitants and enjoying life. The story goes nowhere, there is almost nothing going on. There is hint of drama time to time but its so weak and absolutely forgetable. I completed Yua's route, just to see if it gets any better and no, its just gibberish and boredom. Grafic-wise and sound-wise its pretty good, but that alone doesnt make good VN. I looked forward playing this a lot, so the dissapointment hit me that harder.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 12, 2020

  Amatarasu Riddle Star is your typical high school romance story. It doesn't have anything unique that hasn't been done before, and the common route is a bit boring and confusing. You won't really understand why the town has been transformed the way it has, or the reason why there are such strange inhabitants around, until you get into the individual routes. Speaking of routes, it is critical that you complete the routes in a very specific order, as detailed by the guide published by lylat in the guides section of the community hub. Each route reveals important story elements that assume you have seen the previous route before it. The first route, Yua, was a bit boring and kind of served as an extension of the boring common route. Don't let this deter you from continuing! The story gets much more interesting as you progress through the other routes. The game completely lacks secondary character voices. If they aren't a main character, then all you get is text. This can be annoying and feels cheap at times. A good portion of them don't have character sprites either. You just have to stare at the background image and pretend they are there as you read. But where the game falls short with the secondary characters and boring common route, it makes up for with absolutely amazing high quality artwork and scenes for the main characters, as well as top notch voice acting. (Although the character Adam was intentionally written to be annoying, and his voice actor doesn't disappoint in helping to convey his character flaws). Besides Adam, the main cast is very likable. You have 5 main routes and 3 mini routes to go through. The only route I didn't like was the Rina mini route, as it was very pointless and boring. As I mentioned previously, Yua's route is a bit boring and generic as well, but again I think it serves as a story foundation that leads up to the other routes. My personal favorite was Ai's route because I tend to enjoy routes that pluck heart strings the most, and I think she has the best personality out of the bunch. Your mileage may vary, but this one is worth the read, PROPERLY PATCHED.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 17, 2020

  Animated scenes! 👍