Schwarzesmarken impression

I'd say, this is the best Muvluv after MLA.

Firstly, Schwarzesmarken is unlike most Muv-luvs that usually focus on survival and win against BETA, Schwarzesmarken took the focus into politics and characters. Fighting the BETA is merely used as background in the story. And oh boy, it did a really good job in that.

The plot is good, but it is certainly not epic. It, however, symphonize very well with the characters and settings in creating a great story. And speaking about the settings, it's the framework that make Schwarzesmarken being so good. It shape every characters in the story; A totalitarian country, in the worst time possible, surrounded by fear from both BETA and Stasi, and without any hope. All of that is enough to turn a cheerful girl into violent-murder-machine girl that have no hope in the humanity and always living in constant fear. And every characters in Schwarzesmarken are shaped by the tragedy that surround them. The settings however not only provide an excellent writing to the character, but also providing the story with an intense atmopshere.

The writing in muv-luv VNs has always been unique. The prose are always restricted to the thoughts or monolouge of the protagonist. As everything were already 'translated' into visual, the prose describing/depicting action, place, and situation/condition were largely non-exist. Some exposition and situation were still delivered through character's mind though, which still make the writing qualifed to be a first-person narrative as in novel narrative sense. It make feels more like a movie, but still managed to stay in the boundary of a novel game.

And now for the characters. The characters are amazing, the main cast particularly. They have excellent character writing. Theodore, Irisdina, Katia, Lise; all of them are deep, complex, and memorable characters. Their character's depth is largely shaped by the tragedy they went through, really make their characters interesting. The characters development for Theodore were also really impressive. And I really liked how the situation and the relationship with other characters really make Theodore grow throughout the story. Others character such as Irisdina, Gretel, Sylvia, and Beatrix were also going through a long process to shape or transform their character into what they are in the story, but unfortunately their story are told in the spin-off rather than in the main story.

For the arts. It's really good. I liked the character design. Additionally,The usage of CG, tachie, and even animation really make the story alive. The animation in particular, make some battle scene looks awesome. Like I said, playing Muv-luv is like watching a movie, but still make you reading a lot.

The music is impressive. As what you expected from Muv-luv series, the music is always impressive. From the OP to the soundtrack/BGM, everything is great.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's a great VN, and certainly a memorable one. It made my old Muv-luv spirit burning again.