#It will either be Gakuen Heaven or Omegavampire but probably GH

[everythingblreview]

Laughter Land Review

Long time no see, dear readers.

I feel quite ashamed for sharing this so late, but I was sick and then busy with real life and couldn’t finish this review. (I even had to replay some parts to write this) But I still hope you enjoy reading my review of Laughter Land. This game was recommended by my friend, and first, I didn’t want to play it because, let’s say I don’t like shota much, but she promised me its good and that it doesn’t have much sexual content. She was right with both, so here we are.

Warning for 18 content (spoiler are seperated)

Description:

Dick is a young boy living in a village who is bored with schoolwork and his everyday life. One day, he attends the village fair and meets a mysterious boy dressed like a court jester called Guillered who offers to bring him to a world called Laughter Land where one’s every wish is granted and there is no work, only play and no one ever grows up. Dick agrees and is brought to Laughter Land.

Story:

For a game that came out in 2006 I was honestly impressed how good the game was, not to say older games always have to be bad, but they usually not as well developed and lack in pacing and writing, so it’s hard to compare them with newer games, but this one stands the test of time quite well. I finished it in one week and the game is not near as short as one might think. The story kept me glued to the screen because once you finished a route you would unlock new parts that continued the story. I really liked the pacing in the game, it didn’t feel rushed at all, and everything felt well developed. Despite most of the characters being very young, it didn’t feel like you were playing a game aimed at children, it still had a good share of mature and serious content. The game felt like a modern Peter Pan story and revolves around the topic of growing up, which is why in that context it makes sense for the characters to be as young as they are. As for the routes, the game has normal routes (which continue the story) and character routes (where the romance parts take place). You need to finish the normal routes to unlock new routes. Once you finish the first normal route you start the game at a different place. There is a also true route in the game. The quality of the routes depends on the one you play, some are really good some are not so good. The normal routes are better in comparison to the character routes but this is to be expected.

Characters

Dick

We have the main character “Dick” (yes that’s his name) who is taken to Laughter Land (by force btw, Guillered didn’t bother asking much). Dick is funny, cheeky and despite his young age rather mature. He has his childish moments but is quite smart and I had a good time with him. Oh, and he tops 90% of the times.

Roddy

The free spirit boy, who lives in the forest in Laughter Land. He loves to go on adventure, is very kind and a good boy and he loves to fly. He was the first route I played and the one I liked the most.

Ioan

He is the apprentice of the greatest wizard of Laughter land, Mater Northbrook. Ioan is very childish, very clumsy, and way too criminal looking for my taste. I didn’t like neither his route nor his character (he sounds kind of annoying, too).

Sergi

He lives in the Forbidden Zone, a place where children who lose their permission to stay in Laughter Land have to live, which is basically just a slum. He is looking for his family that is still in Laughter Land. Sergi is rather calm but can have his sassy moments and he’s slightly tsundere. His route is connected to the plot of the game and therefore was interesting to play.

Cornel

He and his older brother are living together in a mansion in Laughter Land and hunt the “blue” people (the one who lost their permission to stay in Laughter Land, like Sergi), and bring them to the Forbidden Zone. His route was something…. Truly something… not bad just something.

Greg

Greg also lives in the Forbidden Zone and is friends with Sergi, he is the “womanizer” in the game and his other hobby is to pick up poor children off the street and animals (He had a crocodile names “Stephanie” living in his bathroom. Despite his womanizer ways, I actually really like Greg a lot. He is very motherly and very funny.

Dag

The criminal ossan of the game. His route was terrible and honestly, I didn’t expect anything to be worse than Ioan and no I’m not saying that only because of the FBI worth calling- age gap. Despite that I thought his personality was actually quite nice. He works as an inventor and Dicks works for him in every route where he lives in the Forbidden Zone. He also likes alcohol, a LOT, so Dick has to go full mother mode on him sometimes.

Guillered

The “mastermind” behind Laughter Land, he brings all the children to laughter land. To be honest, this shota needs 3000h of therapy before he is ready to be released at humanity again. Although he has his reason to be the way he is, I just thought that he was absolutely bonkers. And he is also one of the more criminal looking characters.

Music &Art

The art is really cute and has this soft childlike feature (which makes sense in the setting of course) and no yaoi face syndrome because you know shotas and all. Music was also really good, I really loved the ending song.

Conclusion

My personal order from best to worst was Roddy/Greg/Sergi/Cornel/Guillered/Ioan/Dag. I didn’t want to go far into spoiler here because I want to engage people to play it because this game is too good to not to play so I fully recommend it, please try even if you aren’t into Shota.

Spoiler Part

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Now let’s talk about the spoilery part about the game. Like said the game is a Modern peter Pan story. Laughter Land is completely controlled by children. And for it to stay that way the characters have to remain a child inside their mind (well and outside too because they don’t age), meaning any mature behaviour can lead to you being kicked out and put into the Forbidden Zone, where you have to live in poverty (and grow old) Children sent to the forbidden Zone can grow up to adults because the rules in Laughter Land don’t apply there, but how do they know that a character is too mature and needs to be send to the forbidden Zone, well when children are taken to Laughter Land, they all get a red gems implanted inside their bodies by Guillered, this gem can grand any wish. If they characters begin to make mature choices, their gem slowly begins to turn purple until it’s blue, once its blue it’s impossible to turn it back to red (apparently). That’s why the people from the forbidden Zone are often called “the blue”. Blue crystal can’t grant wishes anymore and are practically useless. And that’s how the choice system in this game works, you basically make childish/mature choices, which lead to Dick either staying in Laughter Land and ending up with one of its residence or him being put in the Forbidden Zone where he ends up with one of its characters. Since growing up is a part of live, it’s only to be expected that the Forbidden Zone is full of people.

And now let’s go through the different route.

Normal Route

The first route I played was the normal route, which has no romantic partner for Dick but needs to be played to unlock more routes and is important for the plot. It begin with Dick going to the village fair where he meets Guillered who brings him to Laughter Lan. There he gets his gem an meets Roddy and Ioan (and Ioan fucking Onee-san broom who can speak and makes really weird sexual comments, A FUCKING BROOM jesus I’m not over that broom…. Oh and also a speaking plush toy dog who also can speak. Both of these are made for Ioan by his Master Northbrook). Ioan agrees to let Dick stay with him until he builds his own house. So, the next few days/weeks (idk how long it took) are spent with Dick building his home and meeting people in Laughter Land. Once he finishes his house, he meets Cornel and his big bro who are looking for “the blue” with an army of iron soldiers, who are made specifically to hunt for “blue”. Following an adventure with Roddy in the forest at night, Dick actually gets to meet one of the “blues”, Sergi. This encounter leads him to wonder why blues are even being hunted, despite them being the same as the people from Laugher Land. But sadly, Dick doesn’t have much time to think about it, because his own gem has turned blue after making too many mature choices. This is soon discovered by Ioan and Dick is brought to the Forbidden Zone. (Boys barely had time to life in the house he spent weeks on building)

There he gets immediately robbed by a young boy named Aby, and is picked up by (Mother) Greg, he also gets to meet with Sergi again and gets to know Dag. Greg also picks up Aby up after the poor boy’s brother is killed and he is sold into prostitution by a fucking asshole name Zachariah who also drugs him (god I want to stab this man so bad). Dick later gets a job at Dag who helps him with his inventor job and plays the mother role because Dag is a mess. One day Dag asks him if he want to return home and Dick says he does, so Dag gets the crazy idea to build a machine to bring him back to the real world. This plan has to stay secret because if the organization name Serpent, who basically controls the area finds out about it they will be in big trouble. Like you expect they do find out because a girl name Leesha, tricks Aby into telling her about his plan, by promising him to let him take revenge for his brother’s death, which only leads to Aby dying by fucking Zachariah (who killed his brother btw). While Aby is having a not great time, Dick is put in the machine and before they can use the magic of their gems (yes, I know in normal case it shouldn’t work but Dag promised it will work) they are killed by fucking Zachariah soldier army. With Dick still stuck in the machine, he can only hear how his friends get murdered, but for some reason their gems actually manage to work, and Dick is brought back to the real world again. His first goal back at home, is to give the letter, to the person Dag asked him to deliver it. And here is where the first part of the story ends.

Important to note is also that when you get your gem in the beginning you also get a list with people’s name on it. These names get crossed out with every wish you make because they represent people in the real world, who forgot about you. Oh, and Dag also mentions that Laughter Land is actually call “Slaughter Land” (yeah fun times)

Being the first route, I played, I was really glued to my scream especially when a “to be continued” appeared on the screen after the route ended.

Roddy

Now let’s talk about the character’s routes. Roddy’s route hurt me on a physical and emotional level. Like I mentioned Roddy is a good boy who lives in the forest and loves to go on adventure where he takes his friends with. He also loves to fly (which he can do because of his gem and all) and take Dick (by force) with him on his flying adventure. If Dick stays a good (childish) boy he can continue living in his house in Laughter Land and becomes friends with Roddy and together they go on adventure like in the forest, where time stands still. There they find a random machine and are curious what it’s for, but can’t figure it out, so they decide to ask around. They look in the library at Ioans place and ask people, but just can’t to find the answer, so they come up with the idea for Ioan to ask his Master to make the machine talk by itself.

While this is all happening it also becomes really clear that Dick and Roddy both developing romantic feeling for each other, but Roddy is very pure so he doesn’t understand his feelings. At some point he also tells Dick that he likes him, with Dick questioning what kind of “like” his like is and tells Roddy to figure it out.

Meanwhile Ioan calls Dick to have a private conversation with him over this machine. Ioan then tells him that he should not tell Roddy about it because the machine is actually something from the real world and was inside Roddy to help keep his heart beating.

So, while all of this is happening Roddy begins to have weird dream in which he sees a boy in a hospital. Well as you can guess, Roddy was actually heart sick in the real world and the machine was there to keep him alive, but it turns out that he was supposed to die, which is why he was brought to Laughter Land, where he could finally fulfil his dream of living a normal life and flying in the sky. But Roddy doesn’t remember his life at this point yet.

At some point he urges Dick to continue searching for answers about the machine, but Dick tell him he wants him to stop. After some arguing, Roddy then promised him not to look for it anymore. Then they have the whole conversation about liking each other with Dick showing him what kind of like he has for Roddy (yes, I mean they have sex).

To be honest I was a little scared of the H-scene in this game and wanted to skip them in the beginning, but it wasn’t too bad actually and more bearable because they are around the same age. Generally, the H-scene in this game fall into 3 categories: Criminal underage, young but bearable and criminal age gap (aka Dag).

The next day, after their love play Roddy falls asleep and doesn’t wake up anymore, so Dick calls Guillered, seeking for help. Guillered tells him that normally children don’t dream in Laughter Land and that Roddy does because of Dick’s special power he has in his hand that makes people remember their forgotten memories, which is currently happening to Roddy. The only way to save him is either to delete all memory of Dick and for Dick not get close to Roddy anymore or to let Roddy die, because as it turns out Roddy is already supposed to be dead, the only reason he is alive in Laughter Land is because his special power. With his power he can stop time, like in the forest he lives in and in himself.

Dick has a hard time deciding and ask for more time, which he does but after a few days it’s already too late and Roddy wakes up with all his memories restored. He thanks Dick for all the time they spent together AND FUCKING DIES *credit role*…… I was sobbing in my pillow at this point wtf this is so sad TT_TT

But luckily, we get an after-credit scene and as it turns out Dick actually erased all his memories, so Roddy is alive and doing well but Dick can’t be with him anymore, and yet Roddy wants to get to know him and take him on adventure (more crying into my pillow)

The route was so good but so terrible sad TT_TT and the worst part is that it’s the only pairing in the game, that has no happy end like WHY. My friend also told me there is a drama CD and apparently, they keep falling in love, with Roddy having his memories erased every time…. My heart is hurting. 10/10 tears for that route.

Ioan

So if you get to know not very legal Ioan you learn that he’s struggling with something. And that something is trauma of killing a child (like wtf?). Apparently like 20 years ago (how old are these shota again?) Laughter Land fell in disaster with monster like things attacking the residence and the only way to stop it was to kill a child, which Ioan dropped from a building or something. And that must have been very disturbing for him because he now takes fucking drugs to deal with his trauma and he is pretty addicted to it (ah yes, the classic drug bl plot that I so much can’t stand. At least it’s with a character I dislike)

At this point, I don’t even remember how the route played out, that’s how uninteresting it was. But yeah, Dick wants of course to help Ioan but Guillered asks him if he is ready to accept the truth Ioan is hiding, which Dick says he does. The truth is that his Master Northbrook is actually he himself (I don’t know why it’s even such a big deal? Probably the lying part but still) so yeah Northbrook, who is said to be the only adult in Laughter Land isn’t actually an adult, but adults don’t actually exist in Laughter Land, and that’s how Dick found out that something was must be wrong.

So Dick accepts Ioan and Ioan is like yay let’s get close which Dicks, for some reason sees as an invitation for sex (yeah I don’t know either) so they do it, which probably has to be the most illegal and uncomfortable H-scene I have ever seen and I ended up skipping most of it *shudders*. And they live happy ever after. Coming fresh from Roddy’s route I was pissed why this shitty shota gets a happy end and Roddy not????? Fuck him.

Also, I need to talk about Ioan’s fucking broom, so like mentioned his Master aka he himself made him some friends by giving life to a fucking broom and a dog stuff animal but this beside. The fucking broom is not only an onee san (aka a feminine gay man) but also in love with basically every boy who gives him attention, with his favourite being Ioan of course…I just couldn’t deal with this broom.

Sergi

For Sergi you have to finish the normal end because this route starts in the Forbidden Zone, which is interesting because according to the others Dick came to the forbidden Zone 10 years ago, so when he was a small child, but Dick remembers all what happened in the route before (the normal one when everyone died, and he returned to the real world).

Like before Dick is living with Greg and Aby and working for Dag. So, one time they decide to visit the casino because Greg wants to spend (Dick’s) money (lmao) which they end up doing, they also take Sergi and Aby with them. Dick tried poker for the first time while Greg cheats on some games, with Aby getting some drinks for him. At the end of the day, they can’t find Aby anymore and decide to return home. Few days later Aby is still missing because as it turns out fucking Zachariah took him (again) and his bitch of a helper (the only girl you ever see in the game) and made him their play toy to sell to customers (and I warn here if you don’t want to see 5-7 year old be raped on screen better not play this, even I had to skip it)

After few weeks they throw Aby out on the street like trash after he got addicted to drugs (AGAIN, oh yeah this is the same drug Ioan is taking, which is apparently popular). The others luckily find Aby and take him home. Greg the good mother he is angry and wants to take revenge. Sergi say he is crazy, and they have a small fight with Greg running out of the house. Sergi tells Dick that he will probably leave the city to go over to Laughter Land to find the family he has been looking for, which is still living there, or so he has heard and if Dick wants, he can come with him.

This is where the routes start to separate. If you decided to go with Sergi you can play either his or Cornel’s route, if you stay, you’ll be playing Greg or Dag. But since this is about Sergi we’re going with him.

Dick meets with Sergi at night where the latter had gotten them a carriage to pass the border. After being chased by enemies and some shooting, they reach it, but unfortunate for them as they’re about to pass the bother they met Cornel and his big bro. Cornel says he wants to see if their gems are red, which of course they aren’t but at he is about to check, their gems suddenly shine in red so they are allowed to pass. Dick’s gem turned red again and we learn later that Sergi can actually change the colour of his gem himself.

The first day they just wander around Laughter Land trying to find some clues. They go meet Ioan, where Sergi gets sexually harassed by the gaze of the onee san broom, but they don’t find anything. Later they meet Cornel (and his bro) again, who lets them stay at his super fancy mansion.  Cornel says they can stay there while looking for Sergi’s mother (is who Sergi is actually looking for). Dick asks Guillered for help, who tells him that Laughter Land doesn’t have many girls so it should be easy to find her. They manage to steal a book from Ioan with the help of their gem, that has notes about a girl and take turns reading it over the following days. In short, the notebook is about a girl and her friend who live in laughter land and are told by Guillered to get along with a newbie named Zach. The girl starts taking an interest in the new guy, who seems to be a little weird and apparently it leads to a romantic relationship because she later gets pregnant from him and gives birth a child which throws the world into a chaos. The Zach guy gets than banned to the Forbidden Zone as well as the friend who also like the girl. But since they took the baby away from the girl, she gets depressed and tries to commit suicide, so Guillered erases her memory and put her into a room, that she can’t leave. And that girl is name Leesha, who was actually shown before in the route because Dick visited her before with Roddy. And the child is actually Sergi himself but not only that, it’s also the child Ioan supposedly killed. The friend is Greg and Zach is the fucking Zachariah (but this part is never really explained because he is such a douche suddenly?) So, after they find out who Segi’s mother is they visit her and spent some time with her (of couse she doesn’t recognise Sergi) before Sergi decided to go back to the Forbidden Zone where he lived all his life. Dick goes with him. After return they start dating basically and also Sergi is the bottom (nice). They also learn that Greg, Dag and Aby are missing but in the very end its hinted on that they are still alive. The lore reveal was really good here and how it connected to the previous routes. You can tell the writer put a lot of thoughts in this.

Cornel

Cornel’s route basically starts the same as Sergi’s and separates after Sergi and Dick start chilling at his mention. One night at the mansion Dick hears some weird sounds and it turns out its coming from Cornel because HE IS FUCKING HIS OWN BROTHER WHAT. So, brother-fucker Cornel has some kind of onii-san kink (should have seen this coming) and it all goes back to his life in the real world where he apparently really loved his brother and always wanted to spend time with him. But with Dicks magic hand (why does that sounds so weird?) abilities Cornel remembers at some point that his real brother was actual an asshole who abused him and the “perfect” brother of his was only living in his fantasies. (forget daddy issues, here we have onii-san issues) and his brother in laughter land is basically a personification of that fantasy, also the brother is actually one of the iron soldiers. The route ends with the brother gets destroyed in the end and cornel can live happy together with Dick after they start their relationship and Sergi returns back home. Yeah…. The brother thing was weird.

Normal route 2.0

Same as with Cornel and Sergi it follows the same start and basically almost goes up to the end of Cornels route, only difference is that Guillered shows up and STABS dick before Dick can help Cornel, saying that he fucked up, so yeah Guillered is responsible for these time travel things. Honestly, I recommend playing Cornel first before doing this route because it basically almost spoils everything of his route and I was just skipping most of it when I finally reached it.

Greg

Gregs route has the same start as Sergi’s, so everything with the Casino and the abuse of Aby happens and it goes until the part Greg wants to take revenge and runs away, with Dick following and talking to him, this time. Dick also talks with Dag who gives him a special weapon to kill the iron soldiers. Before Dick and Greg set their plan into action they have a last talk, which end up with Greg almost sneaking out at night and Dick is (of course) not happy with that, so Dick gets Greg to  take him with him, but before they leave Greg kisses him as vow of this promise (he also says that this kind of kiss you can only give a true man xD). They sneak into the organisation, take out a bunch of enemies and reach the room where fucking Zachariah is. Once they enter it and Greg confronts him, his bitch of a helper girl (who btw is Leesha or should I rather say looks like her) is all like “wah don’t kill him” but of course it’s only to trick Greg, which she manages, steals the gun from him and uses against him. Greg is confused why she would do that because, as said before, they were friends once. Then Dick goes all hero mode on him and first shoots the girl who turns out to be an iron soldier and then fucking Zachariah. Oh yeah Greg also gets shot and then died dramatically on the floor- as if lol he is just a drama queen, he survives of course. A while later when we actually get confirmed that Greg is really just dramatic and still alive, Dick asks him why he is not playing around with woman anymore and Greg says that he has someone he like and lets Dick guess. Dick then asks him if he likes him which Greg confirms. Then he says that he fell in love with Dick because Dick had been so cool during their attack on fucking Zachariah that he couldn’t help himself not to fall in love (awww that’s so sweets), then he asks if Dicks feels the same and Dick says he doesn’t mind, which Gregs basically takes as mutual feeling and happily screams how Dick likes him too, after he kisses Dick and they have happy sexy times (with Dick being bottom for the first time, how exiting). But that’s not all, once they start dating the apparently fuck every night and Dick is sick of it and decides to take revenge while Greg is asleep and gives him a blowjob first and then decides he is daddy now and goes top mode on him AHAHAHAHAHA. The CGs looks so stupid, because despite Greg’s face looking young, his body is clearly one of an adult, while Dick is still baby, and it just looks ridiculous. I had some serious fangirl moments in this route, Greg is such a good boy and a very caring mother, him falling for Dick because of how cool he was, is so funny but also so cute. I really enjoyed this route.

.... Part 2