About The Border:
This is the first visual novel I’ve read from Unison Shift: Blossom. I’m happy to say that they impressed. For what is essentially a Visual Novel starting a trilogy, they did an exceptional job of wrapping everything up nicely, while still leaving more than enough to make you want more. The Borderline of Dusk first released in Japan in 2012, and was followed by the other two games, “A Clockwork Ley-Line: Daybreak of Remnants Shadow” in 2013, and “A Clockwork Ley-Line: Flowers Falling in the Morning Mist” in 2015. Now they’re localising the entire trilogy into English. I knew nothing about A Clockwork Ley-Line before entering this game. All I knew is that it was a new release, meant to start a trilogy. Even after I completed the game, I haven’t looked into what the other games contain. But if they’re even half as enjoyable as this one, then it will be one incredible series. First off, I’m going to deal with the cons. One of the biggest problems with this game is the incredibly poor translation(?) they’ve done. For starters, on four different occassions, the text was still japanese. The main characters name swaps to being japanese for half the Ushio route end. Every textbox that has over three sentences is broken, and the percentage symbol wasn’t a proper unicode character according to my version. I don’t know if I broke something in my directory, or if the game really is that bugged normally, but the state of the game isn’t great on a technical level. I had three crashes on the same scene because the backlog was broken too. Anyway, all of these are definitely problems, but the game is perfectly readable and understandable as is. Maybe in a future update the game will be in a better state. Don’t let the technical problems make this a miss for you though. It’s arguably one of the best visual novels out there, and I don’t understand why it isn’t as revered as it should be. It does everything right. The story, characters, art, music… all of it is stellar. Let’s start with the story. Typical from the start. A new student goes to a school which they find out isn’t normal. Cliche, yes, but it isn’t badly done. The world remains interesting throughout the visual novel and every chapter highlights new and interesting parts of the story’s universe. The truly well crafted part comes in Chapter 5. Every part of the story up until that point felt seperated, but just like classic plays of old, Act 5 brings it all to a satisfying conclusion. My only problems were with pacing problems at times, and the lack of presence with a few characters throughout the chapters (You’ll know what I mean when you see it). The characters are one of the strongest parts of this VN, and it has to be. To start a trilogy, you need a cast that will last three games and have a strong enough arc in all of them. And based off this game, they’ve hit it on the head. Every character is unique and interesting, though I felt that a few needed more presence throughout (namely Rito and Fuhito). My biggest problem comes with the routes. Only Ushio’s felt like a proper conclusion to the story. Both Tsubaki and Neko’s routes were just… empty. Art is sensational. Great use of style, animation, and motion with the sprites. Some of those scenes were incredibly immersive. Though there were times when I felt the sprite didn’t quite represent what they wanted the character to look like, and a few parts where the uniform wasn’t what the character was wearing: but all in all, solid. Anyways, a visual novel well worth your time if you’re willing to start a unique, magic filled, Japanese Harry Potter-esque, VN trilogy. My breakdown: PROS: + Story. Solid, but riddled with cliches. Finishes really strongly, but has some problems overall. + Art. Amazing, but needed more variety. + Characters. Outstanding, though all but the true route were weak. + Soundtrack. Atmospheric and added to every scene it was in. Whilst the OP needed work in my opinion, the actually game music was really good, and the ending credits are some of the best I’ve ever seen (probably only surpassed by Angel Beats! to be honest). + Trilogy. More games with a great cast, and an awesome world. What’s not to love? CONS: – Bugs and Issues. Ranted about this already. Several crashes, and weird text galore. – Steam Problems. One of the weirdest parts of this entire VN is that steam didn’t recognise it. It’s a known issue, but it never registered that I was playing the game at all. In order to get the playtime I have on my account (for the trading cards), I had to freeze the launcher on my computer so that it would register the game existing. It’s ridiculous. So my playtime is around 15-18 hours, not the 5 or so hours steam says I have. – Paid Patch. Not the first game to do this, but the Steam Restoration Patch is not free. Whilst it is not necessary to play the game, and the steam price + patch = full price of the game, it’s still a move I do not agree with. – Weak Alternate Routes. Tsubaki and Neko’s routes were underwhelming, leading to only one good route in the game. -Scores- Story: 8 Characters: 8 Art: 8 Music: 8 Enjoyment: 8 Overall: 8/10 tl;dr, Great stand alone game, made better by coming in a trilogy. _____ Frost | Steam Profile Follow our Curator Page Join our Curator Discord
