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lunas-otome-blog · 28 days ago

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Luna's Review: Norn 9 Var Commons

Official Summary:

Explore a History that Never Existed!

Sorata, a child prodigy, wanders away from his class field trip and awakens in a new but oddly familiar setting.

He is taken to the Norn, a massive floating airship. Aboard he meets others – young people known as Espers, each with unique powers to control elements ... or human minds.

The land below them resembles the past, but everything is changed and under the control of a massive organization known as The World. Unravel the mysteries surrounding Sorata’s journey and his companions.

Luna's Rating

Plot: 8/10

Gameplay: 7/10

Characters: 8/10

Art: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

Luna's Fave Character: Nijo Sakuya

Luna's Thoughts (Spoiler Free)

With an ambitious plot and nine character routes to explore, Norn 9 has a lot to offer. While it suffers from weird pacing at the beginning, it didn't take too long for me to invest in this enjoyable sci-fi tale.

The game starts off introducing Sorata, a 12-year-old boy, as the protagonist, but before you learn anything, the POV switches over to one of the three girl characters. Each girl has three love options, which are manually chosen rather than "earned" through choices in the common route. You don't see much of Sorata again until the true ending.

On the one hand, it's kind of fun to have the nine routes broken up between three girls, because you get vastly different dynamics each time. On the other hand, it made the pacing very weird. And it denied me the pleasure of qualifying for a route the traditional way, which I like to do. But it didn't take long to get into the swing from that point on.

Some choices in this game are timed. There is no explanation for why this is, or which choices are chosen to be timed. What is the point? I like visual novels because they're relaxing and don't require quick thinking. Timed choices just make me nervous lol.

Aside from some of the clunkier game mechanics, I really liked the story of Norn 9. While the essential function of the espers is revealed in nearly every route, I actually enjoyed getting a recap because it was explained slightly differently each time, in different contexts. You don't always get the same information in each route, making each playthrough feel fresh and fun. Some of the more advanced routes suffer from oversimplification in a way that feels inorganic for the characters, but I get that they're trying not to bore the players.

I didn't think I'd like this game as much as I did, but despite the rough start, I enjoyed the characters and the mystery overall.

Please find below my thoughts on the character routes in the order I played them. Spoilers abound.

Koharu x Ichinose Senri Route (Spoilers)

Senri is your typical shut-in character archetype, which is not super common in otoges. I found it odd that Koharu didn't question his face tattoo or the ring around his neck. And no, we don't ever get a reason for those lol.

Senri's attraction to Koharu makes sense, as she steamrolls past his dislike of people and slays him with kindness while accommodating his introverted nature. She doesn't make him go outside his comfort zone, but also doesn't want to give up on him. I definitely thought the attraction happened too fast, though, but they both feel very young in this route, so I'm willing to forgive it.

There's a dream sequence that happens in most routes, and while in some routes it serves a purpose, Senri's route was not one of them lol. It was basically a filler episode and felt like a waste of time other than for earning a nice CG of Senri with wings.

This route suffers from bad pacing, as the first 70% of the route is just Koharu and Senri flirting. It picks up abruptly after Koharu meets Mr. Traveler, her old companion who basically raised her, and she goes off with him to ... literally destroy an entire country with fire because he tells her to??

It's hard not to like Koharu, because she's sweet and tries her best, but she's also trusting to the point of being naive. The whole route is just people telling her to do things and her agreeing. Mr. Traveler tells her to board the Norn, so she does. The other espers tell her to go along with them, so she does. Then Mr. Traveler tells her to destroy things and she does. And the route ends with Senri telling her not to do that and, big shock, she does.

I think part of the reason this route isn't super successful is that we don't see any fighting going on. All the victims are spriteless. There's only one sprite of cybersoldiers and we only see one at a time. Even when Koharu goes to toast that country, it's unnamed and the background is just a blank desert. It took me out of the story. And yes, you can do fighting in otoges well — see my review for Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei.

Senri was a super cute character, and I liked him a lot, but his route felt like two different stories with little to connect them.

Kuga Mikoto x Nijo Sakuya (Spoilers)

This route was nearly perfect for me. The pacing was good, the plot flowed well, and it features the princely Sakuya, who is not only a white-haired tragedy boy but also a childhood friend of Mikoto's. It's everything I want wrapped into one route.

Mikoto and Sakuya are starcrossed lovers. To avoid Sakuya's tragic fate, Mikoto keeps him at arm's length and treats him coldly. Meanwhile, Sakuya is only kind to Mikoto, but isn't allowed to tell her how he feels. The angst flows heavily in this route. I loved it.

Even the dream sequence, which I strongly felt was a waste of time in Senri's route, serves a purpose here, revealing more about Itsuki (namely that his feelings for Mikoto are genuine) and forcing Sakuya into action.

I did think the ending was too abrupt, with some of the more shocking information glossed over. For example, we find out who the traitor is (sort of) but we don't get any sort of explanation or resolution, and the characters don't really bother asking questions. That was a little annoying, but I knew we'd get to it in the other routes.

My biggest issue with this route is that once you know Sakuya's backstory, you're sad for him when Mikoto gets together with other characters. I wish he'd been her true ending, because I love them together so much. Sakuya best boy!!!

Shiranui Nanami x Otomaru Heishi (Spoilers)

Heishi is the genki boy of the game, and one of those characters who is hard not to like. I love that he gave Nanami his tie and she actually wears it throughout the game, whether you're on his route or not.

Nanami is a deadpan loli, so she doesn't often express a lot of emotion and doesn't quite understand other people's motivations. Meanwhile, Heishi is energetic and forgetful, and has to conceal his emotions so he doesn't project them with his powers and embarrass himself. Nanami and Heishi have a sort of autism x adhd dynamic that I found really adorable.

I really liked the first part of the route, but after the traitor is revealed, it gets kind of wonky, with Heishi and Nanami deciding to run away instead of fulfill their duties. I got the bad ending first and it is ...uhm, bad. Very bad.

But even in the good ending, it felt truncated and naive. They refuse to listen to the one dude who knows what's going on (Toya) and just hop on a train to nowhere. Nanami even erases Toya's memory in the heat of the moment, something she showed so much restraint in doing throughout the entire route. Suddenly it's okay if she uses it for her own gain instead of her father's?

While I liked these characters and agree they're a good couple, I didn't think the route was fair to them. It made them seem like idiot teenagers. Which, I mean, they are, but none of the other characters got that sort of treatment lol.

We also learned nothing about Heishi other than that his parents disowned him, and we get zero specifics about Nanami's past other than that she was used by her father. She's supposed to be a ninja and we get absolutely no more info about this other than that she carries a kunai, which we never actually see in Heishi's route. I think this route could have done with some fleshing out. I wish I'd played it first because you learn very little about the true premise of the game.

Koharu x Yuiga Kakeru (Spoilers)

Yuiga seems at first to be the standard nice guy character, but after playing a bit, you realize he's kind of an asshole lol. He likes messing with people, figuring out what bothers them and then getting their goat.

But Koharu is so innocent that she doesn't see any of his inner darkness. She doesn't understand his teasing and just appreciates the attention. At the start of the route, this makes Yuiga uneasy, but eventually he starts seeing her as cute. I really liked their dynamic at the beginning.

Unfortunately the more complex this route tried to get, the less I was into it. Kakeru is supposedly under mind control, but we literally do not see a single instance of this. Or if we do, it's mixed in so well with his normal personality that it's impossible to tell. Was he acting on his father's orders in the night? Did he know he was being controlled? This whole section was poorly handled.

Aside from the usual glossing over of details that's present at the end of every route, I thought Kakeru's route ended fine. I just wish the details of his predicament had been fleshed out during the route. You can't just say someone is brainwashed and then not show it.

Kuga Mikoto x Kagami Itsuki (Spoilers)

Ugh, another flirty character whose entire personality is just sexual harassment. He straight up says Mikoto isn't his type but that it'll be fun to mold her into his ideal girl. Gross.

I'm not sure why this wasn't a "recommended" first route because basically nothing happens on it. Itsuki isn't nice to Mikoto. He just keeps relentlessly flirting, including touching her without warning, even though she doesn't like it. We know from the other routes (and from a letter he writes to her in this one) that he does truly love her for good reasons, which is all well and good, but he doesn't actually say anything in person or let his guard down. Why Mikoto likes him is a mystery to me.

There's almost no lore revealed in this route. Itsuki is inexplicably able to take away and transfer Mikoto's power — which is a thing people can do apparently, but the process is never explained — but Mikoto doesn't question how he does this. Isn't that like, a big deal? Why don't people just steal each other's powers in other routes if this is possible?

Itsuki spends most of this route trying to be the tragic hero and get Mikoto together with Sakuya. Once Mikoto and Itsuki are finally together, the ship gets attacked and he traps Mikoto in a dream. For what purpose? We know from other routes that someone in one of Itsuki's dreams will stay there, even if Itsuki dies, so what was his plan? To just let Mikoto rot?

In the end, you get very little info, and Mikoto and Itsuki get to run off and ignore everyone else. This was not my favorite route, and certainly not my favorite suitor for Mikoto.

Shiranui Nanami x Shukuri Akito (Spoilers)

Akito is an asshole, but he's the type of asshole I like. He's not good at dealing with people, but he has plenty of skills — namely cooking — and it's fun to see him learn to communicate better over the course of his route.

His dynamic with Nanami is really interesting, and much darker than that of Nanami and Heishi. Akito initially hates her for what she did in the past, and is openly hostile toward her. Meanwhile Nanami also hates herself and her power, and doesn't really care if she lives or dies. Basically, Akito is looking for a place to direct his rage, and Nanami is willing to be that lightning rod to absolve herself.

There's a part where Kakeru handcuffs them together, which I thought would be used to inject unnecessary silliness and anime-style pervy scenes into this route. But the writers take the high road here and it's actually just used to inject more angst. Sorata in a Hiyoko onesie asking Akito "Did you come here to die?" is absolutely the funniest line in the game.

While spending time with Nanami, Akito is forced to acknowledge that she's actually not a bad person, and Nanami begins to fall for Akito and fears him leaving her. It takes them forever to understand each other but when they do it's very sweet.

MVP awards in this route go to Sakuya and Heishi for trashing Akito when he's rude to Nanami for no reason lol.

We don't get to learn the complete story about what happened in Nanami and Akito's past for a long time, and when it does happen, it feels a little contrived and designed specifically for the player, not for Akito. But overall, I thought Nanami and Akito were a better couple than her and Heishi.

Koharu x Toya Masamune (Spoilers)

Masamune is the "nice guy" of the group, and his route is similarly vanilla for the most part. A lot of it was him struggling with his attraction to Koharu and Koharu being oblivious. I like that sort of thing if there's angst, but the whole thing felt very low stakes so I found myself kinda bored for most of this route.

Probably the most unique thing about Masamune is that he gets "drunk" on sugar, but it only comes up once and they didn't do much with it.

The ending of the route was a lot more interesting, with Koharu being used as a weapon more effectively than in Senri's route, and it resolves in a bittersweet way.

For no specific reason, Masamune is (to my knowledge) the only character who gets weird comedic dead ends. This is also the only route to kill a character on screen, even in the good ending.

I wished we got more direct Masamune lore, but this route trusts the audience enough to figure out his backstory even without an infodump, which I can't argue with.

I don't have much to say about this route. Overall, it was solid, made sense and flowed well. I just wasn't that into Masamune, I guess. It felt weird to make a character this bland one of the more important routes.

Shiranui Nanami x Moroboshi Ron (Spoilers)

Ron's character is so funny to me. What do you mean the guy who wears sunglasses indoors and doesn't do any of his assigned tasks is the traitor? He was suspicious from literally the moment he appeared on screen.

At the risk of sounding like a dum-dum, this route was too subtle for me. I don't necessarily enjoy when the writers treat me like an idiot and spoon-feed me information, but Ron's character leaves a lot for you to puzzle out on your own.

Ron is a true sociopath. We know from telepath Heishi that Ron has no ill will toward anyone on the ship, yet we find out on his route that he's actually been sent to kill everyone, indicating he feels nothing about his targets. He feels neither sadness nor regret for what he must do.

The reason I don't say "psychopath" is because psychopaths tend to have a fake persona an a complex web of lies, whereas sociopaths don't usually bother with those. Ron has little personality of his own, and while he does lie by omission, he never actually lies. You get the sense that he can't be bothered.

Ron is an empty shell, and you have to piece together through really tiny hints that he probably has a similar background to Nanami. He has no qualms killing a random guy just to use his house. He's a genuinely broken person, and once he figures out Nanami can wipe his memories, he realizes this is his only hope to feel...anything.

While I can appreciate several aspects of this route, I didn't like it for a couple reasons. One is that Ron's personality is inconsistent. Ron wants Nanami to erase his memories for a fresh start, which implies that he either 1) hates himself, 2) is constantly suffering from what he's been forced to do, or both. But Heishi said he feels nothing about what he's doing on the ship.

I could understand him being casually suicidal, the way Nanami is, in order to allow himself to suffer for his past actions, but the difference is that Nanami is concealing her true personality. Ron doesn't seem to be. He's either genuinely cool with doing what he has to do, or so good at pretending to be numb that he's actually become that way. Why then would he care so much about having a fresh start? His actions would have made a lot more sense if he was concealing his true self, and Nanami got a peak at it during her route. Instead, he comes across as having no personality at all, making it contradictory that he would desire something like happiness so much.

The other reason I wasn't into this route was that I didn't think the romance added up. I understand Nanami being kinda into him, because they are heavily paralleled, but he does nothing to warrant falling in love other than tell her that her powers don't define her. Other than that, he murders casually (which she acknowledges), sexually assaults her and betrays her and her friends. Ron's side made a little more sense to me, because it didn't really seem like love on his part, just obsession with someone who could fix him.

I think this route overall could have been darker and more warped. I still wouldn't have liked it lol, but it would have made more sense.

Side note: this blog has a really good breakdown of Ron's character if you're interested.

Kuga Mikoto x Azuma Natsuhiko (Spoilers)

Despite my love for Sakuya, I really did like Natsuhiko for Mikoto. He's one of those characters that initially doesn't care for anything but the mission, but after he kidnaps Mikoto and spends time with her, his affection for her grows.

Realizing Mikoto is actually weak and just puts up a strong front around him, Natsuhiko makes him a robot that allegedly runs on "AI" as a conversation partner, allowing her to have some time to feel vulnerable and open up. What she doesn't know is that the robot is just Natsuhiko talking to her. He falls in love with her off screen based on these candid conversations and decides to open up to her as well, introducing her to his hobbies.

The main flaw in this route is a completely unnecessary memory loss plotline, which isn't even a significant enough part of the route to accomplish anything. I feel like it just happened to give Mikoto and Natsuhiko time to sleep together lol.

Everything after that point is kind of weirdly paced, and the ending seemed a little lackluster compared to the beginning of the route. But ultimately, they make a nice couple, and Sakuya isn't that overbearing on this route. I liked it.

Truth Route (Spoilers)

The true ending focuses (FINALLY) on Sorata, who is obviously integral to the plot but who features very little in any other route. It ends the same as all the other routes, but we finally get to figure out why Sorata chooses to do what he does.

While it goes about as well as it could have, there wasn't a ton of new info to uncover here, because nearly everything else has already been revealed in the other routes.

I did like that none of the girls' romantic partners are mentioned, allowing the player to imagine them with whomever they found most suitable. (IMHO it should be Kakeru, Sakuya and Akito.)

It was a good, solid end to the game, but I do wish there were a few more secrets left over.

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