Inspired by LundB's astute analysis of the superior craftsmanship of Japanese wordsmiths -
DAI-NIPPON BANZAI! OPPAI SUGOI! CHINKO ONDO! PANTSU OWARI NO NAI! -I've decided to provide a short review of Ayakashibito. Why? Because someone liked something very much. And because this is RPG Codex.
P.S.
spoilers like hell.
Ayakashibito, as the clever wordplay in the name implies (superior Japanese wordplays at… play!) is all about Ayakashi, which is the general definition of Japanese folklore monsters and gods (yokai), that live above water. Good think it limits itself to that so potential buyers know that there will be no tentacles in this tale… Anyway, so it is a tale about Ayakashi and humans. Or human-hearted yokai.
The backstory explains that in post-WW2 Japan and Germany (axis bros forever!) various humans with supernatural powers started to emerge. Superior strength, ability breathe fire, chicks that really really like dicks. That sort of stuff. Anyways, because of TERRORISM they are discriminated against and forced to live in a single walled city. Or on a secret hospital island where they are embedded with bombs in their bodies, if they’re nasty.
Then we meet our protagonist, Soushichi Kisaragi, who is also one of those superhuman dicks. In his childhood he almost killed a pedophile and inherited his pedo tendencies. His superpower crying. He is also really really, stupidly nice guy. ‘cept when he is being an asshole, but we’ll talk more about this later. Oh and he can attract metal objects, manipulate and reshape them. He can also talk to them, which makes him ever creepier than usual.
The game starts with the protagonist escaping from this hospital/prison island with a mysterious girl who can fight the good fight with the power of her words. Basically she can command humans to do whatever, but the protag forbids her of doing that so most of this 50h VN she will do jack shit. The girl’s name is Suzu, she has the physique and personality of a board. Also 200 years old so playing ball is totally OK and not illegal!
Anyway, our protagonists escape the island and we learn more about them. The girl has been in a human shape for merely a few days, before that she’s been a fox. She’s spent ten years with Soushichi, so they are practically like brother and sister. This deep bond is demonstrated in a heartwarming scene where the protagonist teaches her how to use toilet and pee! Maybe touching her peephole a bit in a totally innocent manner, cuz they totally have no romantic connection or anything.
After stronk character building, they decide to hide in the only city in Japan where superhumans are allowed to live, cuz that’d not be obvious place for their pursuers to look them for. And naturally they start going to highschool, because VN writers obviously need to have stock material. Buying bread! Eating lunchboxes made by GIRLS! Going on the rooftop! Boring classes!
Anyway, things happen and more of the cast is introduced. The protagonists are made to join student council of the school, which also acts as the main cast of the game.
There are four routes in the game, two of them having three different endings. One route for one heroine, as usual.
The best of them is about a student council president who is a man sharing a woman’s soul. Or er two persons sharing one body. Well, fuck if it makes sense, this is Japan! Basically they switch consciousness and also transform between male/female depending on who is in charge. Really heart-warming and sweet, though I was a bit disappointment that there was no gender switch in middle of a sex scene.
The president/president’s sister (Touko) route is the best because the protagonists gets possessed by ancient evil and proceeds to kill all the annoying side characters while contemplating raping all the women he meets. Unfortunately the happy ending comes eventually, but still, a nice demonstration how weak traditional VN/anime/manga/JRPG protagonists are. Switch the protag with the bad guy and it is 200% better.
Then we have a Russian exchange student route, which is kinda amusing. Mainly because it breaks the logic of the game so bad. The protagonist and most of the other characters are absolutely opposed to killing. But in this route’s climax, they kill about forty people. Maybe they’ve been listening to
Vaarna_Aarne and don’t consider them humans since they are Russian. Also it is easy to forgive this routes weaknesses since it has a threesome that is followed by this scene:
Thirdly we have the mature woman route, featuring Kaoru, the protagonist’s former childhood friend from the island, currently working as antagonist who leads superhuman hunting/killing superhumans. Kaoru also is made highly likeable by showing that she shot the protag in the back and trampled him a bit when he was five years old. But since the protagonist is a dumbfuck, he totally forgives her and falls in love, even despite the fact that she was tasked at killing her and stealing her magic sister for the evil guys.
In Japan it was the least popular route, mainly because Kaoru wasn’t a virgin anymore. Personally have to admit that the fact that she was gangraped for a few years while in the hospital island was a bit of a turn-off for me too.
Kaoru route isn’t all bad, it has the most hilariously placed sex scene in the game. Basically the protagonist has been taken as a hostage and brainwashed, after intense fighting, Kaoru rescues her from the enemy… and they proceed to have sex right then. Only to be joined by one of the antagonists-turned-good-by-power-of-love. Yes, they have a threesome with the former evil girl who switched sides since she fell in love with a good guy. Doesn’t stop her from having wild sex with other people tho. And yes, all this while others are still fighting for their lives in the same building.
Lastly we have the obvious pedo route. It would be the worst, if not for the hilarious final fight. Seriously, worth seeing, here is a small segment:
It may be a bit hard to understand the hilariousness of the above without playing the game, but imagine seeing this as most of the game has focused on normal martial arts battles. There is ultimate final fight, where you’re given the choice of abandoning your humanity for awesome powers. Then ponder for a moment that the alternative route solves the same battle by poking the guy in the eye with a glorified ballpoint pen. Seriously, no transformation, a few lines of text. And happier ending, to boot.
Oh, and in this Suzu route the protagonist shows his true love for the lovely board-girl by having sex with another girl before going off to rescue her for the final time. The sad thing is that the side character he bangs is more likeable and has more personality than then female protagonist…
So that’s Ayakashibito in a nutshell. A protagonist who cries a lot and is absurdly naïve, heroines who all fall for the protagonist because he is so nice, bad guys who like gangbangs, bad guys who like killing, side characters who barely exist in the story. All of this packed into 50+ hours of fully voiced glory.
Still better than 90% of VNs!
