Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon (2021)

Recently given an official English release, the first of two significantly altered and expanded remake games of the 2000 visual novel Tsukihime (“Moon Princess”) offers a pretty exciting horror fantasy story. I found it easily able to stand alone while setting up interesting things for its upcoming sequel and developer TYPE-MOON's broader universe. High production value, memorable main characters, and a cool sense of mystery and tension throughout make it a pretty easy recommendation for those who can stomach its gore and other darker elements.

It takes a few chapters to set the stage, but the story here does escalate a lot as you make your way through its two main routes. I actually think it escalates too much in the true ending, which feels long and too over-the-top in a way that got away from what hooked me on this in the first place, but most of the game strikes a good balance between fantastical powers and a somewhat grounded sense of danger and impact.

With those routes and the game's three major endings having an enforced order, it's able to keep surprising and adding more depth as it diverges from how you first experienced the story's events. Some sections do feel bloated with excessive explanations or retreading of ideas, but on the whole I found this pretty well-paced. Most of the action happens at night, while the daytime is more for investigation or lighter home and school scenes, so it ends up feeling pretty balanced.

This definitely met my expectations based on the original's doujin classic status. The overall polish in this version, with fully-voiced dialogue and pretty dynamic visual presentation, helped make it very enjoyable to experience. Above all, it just has a pretty intriguing story to tell and some likable (or at least interesting) characters that I was happy to spend the time with.