Eroge preview: AliveZ
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AliveZ should be released by now in Japan. As usually, it’ll take about a week or so before I can get my copy and play it. In any case, here is a preview of the game based on what little info I have:
AliveZ is based in the same world as AmbivalenZ, set 15 years from the events of AmbivalenZ (placing the events of AliveZ in 2009), but not strictly a sequal, because the main cast and the conflicts involved are very different.
Due to the appearance of the Crystal Palace 15 years ago, jaki (”evil air”) has been seeping out, inflicting changes in people. Those afflicted with jaki are known as “In” (the kanji literally means “Black”, while the pronunciation is the Japanese way to say “Ying” as in “Ying Yang”. Most of their appearances also change due to the corruption, though powerful ones look normal. The “In” enjoy killing and fighting. While they are capable of harming each other, normal people/weapons cannot damage them, which makes them quite a menace.
Created out of the balance against the “In” is the “Yoh” (kanji literally means “White”, while pronouncation is the Japanese way to say “Yang”). The Yoh have the complete opposite characteristics as In, and are also capable of killing In.
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The story premise at this point seems like a rather traditional conflict between the Good and Evil, and unfortunately that doesn’t really excite me much. Let’s take a look at some of the characters:
The main antagonist of the story, Takekawa Fuyoh, is the king of “In”. He is a past acquantance of the main protagonist, Shinza Kai, having tought Kai martial arts in the past. However, it’s not clear before playing the game if Kai is a Yoh.
Most of the main cast on the good and bad sides seem to be connected somehow. For example, the main heroine, Takekawa Ibara, is the younger sister of Fuyoh (the bad guy). The main character Kai’s sidekick has a crush on the maid of one of the bad guys.
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The one character that draws most of my interest would be Katsuragi Kira, the only person that seems to have any actual connection to AmbivalenZ. She has the same family name as the heroine of AmbivalenZ, Karin. Additionally, her given name ends in “ra”, much like how the last part of Yura’s name was in honor of Shura (the main character of AmbivalenZ). Thus, Kira might be the daughter of Shura and Karin. It would, at the minimum, explain how she came by the Kusanagi Sword of Negative.
One important implication of this hypothesis is that: Kira is at most 14 years old!!! That’s right. If the events of AmbivalenZ happened 15 years ago, then Shura and Karin’s child cannot be older than 14 years old! A consequence of that is that there might not be any H-scenes for little Kira here. Of course, there’s another explaination: Kira might be the adopted daughter of Karin and Shura, in which case it would be very possible for her to be 18 now.
Anyways, from the info available before release, the main interest I have in this game is mostly the connections back to AmbivalenZ. It would be interesting to see if any of the old characters makes a cameo appearance or not.
