Muv-Luv (2011)

As a big fan of other well-known visual novels such as Umineko and Fate Stay Night I knew sooner or later I would read Muv-Luv. It was just a matter of time!

Trying to spoil as little as possible – the story takes first a rom-com themed, slice-of-life format approach with different girls you get to interact with as “love interests”. However, at some point in the story there is a “plot twist” and it takes on a different direction, while keeping its overall themes.

I guess what made Muv Luv so popular in the first was this change in narrative, which I also received positively. The second part of the story pretty much builds on the first one, so I think it was a good call.

Anyway – the story itself is not thaaaaaat deep. The strength of this visual novel lies in its characters. Most of them are presented in a generic way at first (i.e the childhood friend girl, the neko-girl, the bossy-girl, etc) but as the story moves forward you get to know a lot from each of them (and even more if you continue to choose options to get closed to them).

The music was repetitive for the lenght in my opinion.

Then the second part of the story (once again, avoiding spoilers) slams you with some coming-of-age and interesting views of life – that I personally did not expect at all given the nature of how the whole thing started to begin with.

I think some of the episodes dragged a little. The first part of the story has a small sports-centered arc that was a nightmare to get through, and similarly the second part had a mecha/military exposition dump that personally I feel added no value to the overall plot.

The 2000-ish anime humor also clicked a lot with me, but I can understand that’s not for everyone.

Apart from these few points I really enjoyed reading it. I would definitely recommend it for people who are more familiar with the medium and have read some other Visual Novels though.

I feel kinda conflicted about reviewing this because Muv-Luv has two parts (Extra and Unlimited) and I only finished Extra. And in googling Unlimited, it seems like you really should get the two main Muv-Luv Extra endings before starting Unlimited, and I'm not a good enough visual novel player (reader? player?) to spike more than one ending; I don't like rereading (unless I actually want to replay, which is different of course) and I've never been a "juggle multiple saves" kind of person. So I'm putting off Unlimited until such a time as I decide to replay Extra and get that second main ending. But I still want to review Extra here because: (1) It took me so long to complete and (2) Extra sounds like the longer, main Muv-Luv experience anyway and (3) I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on the things I liked and disliked about Muv-Luv Extra and would be shocked if Unlimited changes that any.

So Extra is, essentially, your typical high school harem. The perspective character is male, and he's surrounded by a gaggle of eager ladies carrying a torch for him. I guess he's skating through life pretty obliviously until one morning he wakes up and discovers he's sharing his bed with a girl he doesn't know. Awkward. She turns out to be a Person of Standing in the world, who has decided to live with him. This does not excite his neighbor, a life-long friend and secret crush holder. Thus Muv-Luv spins us through a variety of events covering a school semester as they vie for his attention.

My biggest problem with Extra is that our protagonist is unlikable. He's abusive towards his neighbor, and generally acts like a prick. And yes, she gives back the abuse as well as he dishes out, but it still feels like a big relational red flag that Muv-Luv normalizes and, to an extent, romanticizes. Not helping is how goddamned stupid he is. Look, I realize that narratives out of Japan (regardless of medium) have leaned hard on the weird, oblivious, fumbling male trope that guys are utterly clueless about obvious signals sent out by the girls around them, but here it's been magnified to such a glaring, obvious level that it reflects very poorly on him. It's not a dynamic I like to begin with, and here it was extra aggravating. Probably because as a player there was no mystery to the feelings of those around him; we're left slogging around with this clueless protagonist as we're attempting to cross the finish line and he hasn't even realized he's in a race.

He—and by necessary extension, Muv-Luv Extra as a whole—is very sexist and homophobic. Considering everything the girls do for him (waking him up in time for school, doing meal planning and prep), you'd think it might occur to him that, you know, there is a reason, but he just sort of accepts it as the role women play in life. There's not a whole lot of LGBT content, but what is here feels particularly nasty, especially a memory he recalls when a boy confesses to him and he runs away after punching the guy. I don't know that either element is too surprising, especially given Muv-Luv's vintage (originally released in 2003), but that doesn't make it enjoyable to read.

But as a narrative Muv-Luv works pretty well. The various events the story takes us through do a good job of steering the characters, providing good variety for the conversations and a mixture of stakes. The girls themselves are fairly distinct and develop well as the story advances. There's a decent number of choices to make, most of which (thankfully) are pretty obvious re: their potential impact on the ending. I knew fairly early on which character I wanted to see him end up with at the end, and Muv-Luv didn't throw me any surprises to muddy things. Which might not be good in certain games/narratives, but here I found to be a perk; after spending three weeks with these characters, I wanted—and got—the emotional resolution I needed.

I realize I outlined a lot of negatives above, but I still enjoyed my time in the Muv-Luv world. Enough so that I could see myself trying to get a few more endings at some point, and then advancing on to Unlimited.

It took me 49 hours to complete it 100% with achievements. I understand why some people don't like this as an entry into the Muv-Luv universe, but I personally found it alright after playing it. There are two parts in this game that's supposed to lead up to an epic climax in the next game/part (Muv-Luv Alternative). Visual novel games are kinda new to me, but I think this on was pretty good. The parts were totally different in tone. Even if you don't like part one, I think you might still like the second part. The voice acting was nice, but I turned off the MC's voice before starting the game. Fun-fact; there is an 18+ patch for the original version if you have the PC release version. You know, in case you wanted to go patch your game 😉 Do bring tissues (for more than one reason) Q-Q

Conclution: Extra is slow, but it gives you good insight to the characters you wanna know. Alternative is actually pretty sweet. I had a good time while playing and sometimes even a broad smile. All things considered I'm stoked to play Muv-Luve Alternative!

These are not my normal first impressions.

I wanted to put this on Grouvee, because I think my reactions after 1 hour of playtime need to be shared in case anyone is willing to go down this same path I am just to read Muv Luv Alternative.

"ok so

this is probably the dumbest most overexaggerated rom com i've ever started reading

to a point where it's clear this is all setup to some sort of big payoff way way down the line or I'm having my time eternally wasted

it was such a chaotic ridiculous hour that my emotions are still in a process of understanding whether i was wincing the whole time, laughing internally, or appalled in a critical manner

either way, i think i lost a brain cell

it's the incarnation of all stereotypes that someone would think up of when thinking "harem anime"

despite actually being around really shallow subject manner i legit thought while watching it if I had reached a new low

somehow I'm still going to keep reading"

Read this summary instead.

There, I just saved you 20 hours of mind-bogglingly inane, repetitive harem comedy slice of life. Most of Unlimited is even repeated in Alternative (except with the twist of Takeru being more experienced).

Even if you do decide to read Muv-Luv before Muv-Luv Alternative, I recommend liberal usage of the control key whenever you start to become bored, and reading the synopsis afterwards to confirm you didn't miss anything too significant.

Rating

9/10

Mini-review

Really slow in Extra and a bit boring. Unlimited picks up a bit of the slack but can be a bit dry still. The characters are great and the twist for Unlimited is interesting.

Recommendation

As said the game can be a bit dry and if Alternative didn't exist this game would be decent at best, however since it does this game is completely worth it just for Alternative alone. If you can take reading with no gameplay I recommend it.