You heard about it. Read about it. Anticipated it. You remembered Ren’ai Blogger, thinking of the possibility that it was not the first and last, but instead, the beginning of a revolution.
Or maybe you have no clue what I’m talking about. That’s fine too. What matters right now is that aniblogger lolikitsune has released a demo of his upcoming blogosphere-based visual novel, complete with art by Sixten and Choux, contributions from the rest of the community, and side-splitting parody dialogue that I haven’t seen in a doujin VN since The Best Eroge Ever. If this isn’t enough to pique your curiosity, read on.
What we have here, basically, is an intriguing concept combined with a fitting writer. Having been in the blogosphere for several years, lolikit is more than well-acquainted with a lot of the names you see around the sphere, both big and small, and his experience combined with his sense of humour is what will make this game succeed. Surprisingly, there’s a fair bit of ordinary dialogue in it, allowing you – sort of – to maintain your suspension of disbelief, assuming that you’re unfamiliar with the references. Minus the Horniness meter, the game works pretty normally, which is nice because it allows the reader to smirk every time Omo says something that reminds them of another VN girl, or every time you wonder which aniblogger – gender-swapped or not – you’ll encounter by wandering the school aimlessly like a good harem lead.
But when it comes down to it, the technical details don’t matter. I’ve got to admit, the details are looking like they’ll be pretty good in the end, with solid character designs (including the delicious trap of a namesake), soon-to-be original music by lelangir, and detailed backgrounds also drawn by Sixten, but at the end of the day, y0u’re not playing this for the art or music. You’re playing it for the lulz. And lulz will be had.
Context matters.
The thing that really gets me about this game is the premise. Having not read about it before, the concept of Gakuensuki – a Utopian, eternal high school comprised of anime bloggers – is simply brilliant, including the fact that it’s not entirely unrealistic. You’ll agree with me when you find out the two criteria for leaving the school. Having been dragged into this surreal high school reminiscent of his days on the internet during his real school life, Yoshi the Card Captor has only one mission to accomplish: get laid, and get out.
And if that doesn’t interest you, this is only the beginning. Don’t forget that not all bloggers are students, and not all are female: unless you want to be flamed (pun intended) by Owen or vaporized for disagreeing with BakaRaptor, you’ll have to watch your step. The girl of your dreams (lustful or otherwise) might be around to corner, but it’ll be a challenge to get to her…and return to Harvey Mudd in one piece.
With that, your journey in the mystical Gakuensuki begins. If you’re in any way affiliated with the blogosphere, or if you’re a frequent lurker and know a thing or two about the community, play it. If not, you can give it a shot since the demo should take less than an hour: though less comedy-centric, I enjoyed RenAi Blogger before joining the blogosphere, and the same thing could theoretically happen here. Either way, I encourage you to support lolikit and download the game! If you’re one of us, chances are you’ll think of it as comic genius, and in the worst case scenario, you wasted an hour of your life. Big deal. Spend an hour on Danbooru and you’re at more or less the same place.
And at that, I’ll deliver a few more screencaps for the skeptics…
Too much JLPT can be a bad thing.
You know, I’d like to taste moe-moe-jelly. I imagine it would go well with Sanae’s bread.
WORLDS HAVE COLLIDED
I see what you did there.
A big font is a good font.
Now, do yourself a favour and download it. It would be a good idea. Maybe even a Nice one.
~ ETERNAL
つづく
P.S. I still want Omo. <3
