So, cleared Grisaia. Not writing a review here, just some thoughts. No spoilers either if you worry about that sort of thing.
Now, when I think Front Wing I think Djibril which is really not my kind of thing, and so I never played any of their games before, but I heard good things about Grisaia, and tried and enjoyed the demo, so got it.
To sum it up shortly- It was good. Very good.
I've seen Grisaia compared to Akatsuki no Goei, and have to admit that that's pretty unavoidable; The protagonist Yuuji immediately comes off as a cross between Kaito from Akatsuki and Sousuke from Full Metal Panic (I personally felt him to be closer to the latter than the former, and some people disagree but whatever). But that's only on the surface, and you pretty soon find that he's quite different from both of them. But anyway, yeah, he's kind of Sousuke with common sense and bits of Kaito's personality (a tendency to fuck with people once in a while).
This is a good thing.
Another comparison with Akatsuki I've seen is the loose ends and subsequent fandiscs. That I feel is totally unfair- Akatsuki's
endings, all of them, were abrupt, for lack of a better word. It wasn't leaving loose ends around, it was still
entirely unravelled at the end. Grisaia, on the other hand, does leave questions unanswered and mysteries unsolved, but all the routes a sense of closure. Hell, surprisingly enough, Amane's route, which provides you with the biggest dangling thread of all, provides the greatest sense of closure in the entire game. There's plenty of stuff left hanging around to be picked up in sequels (or prequels), yes, but left to stand alone it stands straight and solid as it is.
One last thing- I've seen people complaining about the depressing stuff (in the flashbacks) and gore (in
text). To you guys, I have just this to say:
Pussies.
