Chuusotsu! 1st Graduation: Time After Time

STORY:
Chuusotsu depicts three girls who struggle to live and be recognized in a quasi-utopian and orvellian world.

It is a straightforward story, with a single predictable ending.

The mood is largely comical and lighthearted in nature, intermixed with more serious, sadder, and darker moments, particularly towards the end of the story.

There are some moments where it conveys either well, however, I find that the story and narrative tends to be on the bland and boring side often.

ARTWORK:
The characters sprites and drawings are ok, but no more than that. They feel monotone and on the unpolished side, no animations and there is relatively few variety of facial expressions.

There are a few CGs here and there but they are not drawn any differently/better than the characters in the general story at large.

SOUND:
There is a decent amount of music included in the game. It is of decent quality and accompanies the mood of the story well, though it is not particularly memorable by any means. Furthermore, there is no option to listen to the songs in the Extras.

Voice acting is decent and conveys the characters' emotions and backgrounds well.

SUMMARY:
Overall, rather expensive for the largely so-so quality of the work, and the rather short story. I do suggest getting it on sale if interested. 6/10

While Chuusotsu gets off to a slow start, it quickly escalates in a way that allows it to deliver an impactful story about coming of age and pursuing one's passions. The story brilliantly explores the psychology of its main character, although I did think a bit too much of it was done through sudden flashbacks that halted the pace of the ongoing narrative. The messages conveyed through this exploration of Arue were heartfelt and moving, but their impact was slightly dulled when unnecessarily stated explicitly in an out of character moment at the very end of the visual novel. However, I still enjoyed my time with Chuusotsu, and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a touching story about growing up.

7/10

✔️ Played on Steam Deck, it works fine (19/07/2023). Touchscreen for menu, 'A' button for advancing text.

Not what I expected at all, it was pretty solid mixing some philosophical topics with the right amount of humour to make them bearable.

Sorry but the writing style of boring over-explainative narration just isn't fun for me. I end up getting super bored or exhausted within the first 15 minutes.

A bright comedy that remains a serious take on transhumanism simultaneously.

To be honest, I expected a bit more after all the high praise. However, the game still managed to present an interesting dystopian setting, a loveable cast of characters, and quirky writing that differs from what you usually see.

I also liked how it depicted one of the conflicts between the main characters. They continued talking with each other without visible discomfort, but you still clearly could see how their attitude changed with their manner of speaking and addressing each other. Realistic approach.

And it's simply impressive seeing a doujin game written and drawn by a single person that also has pleasant voice acting and a theme song. The team put a lot of effort into the project.

From my Twitter. Take a look at it if you're interested in VN news, opinions, and more. I'll be happy to see you.

Chuusotsu is a slice of life/drama VN that is the perfect mix of shitpostery and legitimately great writing. The main 3 characters are very likable and really grew on me over the roughly 10 hour playtime. The main story is well constructed and has many positive themes such as hard work and being who you want to be. The setting/universe of the game is very over-the-top and has many really enjoyable parodies of typical anime tropes like chuunibyou and shounen power levels. It is not for everyone, as some may find parts of it annoying or just weird, but I had a blast and think others can too if you vibe with the humor and characters.

Sweet, adorable and a return to innocence.

Chuusotsu is a cute sci-fi slice of life medium length (by medium I mean between 8-18hs, anything above is already into the longer side) kinetic visual novel with a lot of layers behind the seemingly simplistic front.

You follow the misadventures of Marisugawa Arue as she tries to reform her life as a shut-in, reach her dreams and obviously make some friends along the way. However, things quickly take a turn into the weird and strange but thankfully with a satisfactory conclusion and lead up to the mini sequel.

What surprised me the most was the very dark, heavy and ominous tone going in the background, which I don't want to spoil much, but it contrasts heavily with the cheerful and carefree mood on the surface. The story is set in a near-future Japan after a massive global conflict has nearly destroyed the planet and reconstruction efforts led to a dystopian society not unlike the worst nightmares of sci-fi writers, including branding everyone with nanomachines that act as seals that determine what they'll do in life until they expire. The game does provide a very useful glossary of concepts and a short side story you can read to further understand the setting.

It's in that brave new world where Arue's struggles become more remarkable and where I feel the work shines as she quotes the infamous "human debris" concept and suffers through a society that rejects and even wants to make people like her disappear. It also makes the interactions between the main cast all the more entertaining as they acknowledge their outcast status and try to work together to stand up proud in spite of it.

Alright, enough rambling!

I usually take a moment to describe some of the technical aspects but, well, the game runs pretty well on pretty much low spec hardware so that shouldn't be a worry. It supports controllers and the Steam overlay also works so you can go wild with the screenshots. It is fully voice acted as well, which is a rarity for doujin visual novels and the quality of the voices was pretty good as well, with Arue kind of reminding me of Neptune's energy at times. The soundtrack is excellent as well and worth warranting a full package/bundle purchase for it. Most of the music is fairly chill out and energetic and the opening song is great as well.

All in all, quite recommended and thankfully not overly long so ideal for those looking for shorter experiences!

this vn is funny to the very core. Very recommended if you want to buy it and reading a nice story

Well! I wont spoil anything. The art has a little room to grow, but the story struck right thru the heart, for me at least, and the characters are so compelling and human; relatable but still original. There is plenty of depth but it's not pretentious. Wonderful psychological tension and movement, but no moralizing. I'm impressed and humbled, to be honest. That one artist with a small team can create such a bright, meaningful, sincere story that easily makes anything from AAA studios feel about as immersive as a DMV application: low-effort filler created by a diletante just to call it done before the free tacos are served. I would definitely play anything this creator makes from here out.

Freedom Fighters

Cool VN, feet BG, very nice.

Stacey chuuostsu VS virgin wageslave, the VN.

I'll open with that I don't like visual novels as a whole - they're just not my jam

I had this thing auto-scrolling while I was playing Chrono Trigger in windowed mode

...

It's a VERY LONG Visual Novel... with a very interesting and powerful message. I highly recommend.

Despite how it may look, it is a solid VN.

I rather enjoyed my time with Chuusotsu, which really helped because of the wonderful humor. While not for everyone, Its one of the few "comedy" vn's that got quite a few real chuckles out of me. The story itself was done in a rather interesting world, but the message and story themselfs were rather normal and I have seen essentally the same thing quite a few times. First time a rooftop was so interestingly linked to the theme however. I give the vn an 8/10, and if you like the comedy shown in the demo, i'd recommend picking it up.

A cute and thought-provoking visual novel on friendship and happiness. Thanks for not letting me sleep enough for a few days. 10/10 would play the sequel when it comes out.

I wish I was as smug as Arara.

200 years in the future (the world history tip seems to reference modern day issues), the world is under the control of a government that assigns you a job based on your abilities and genetics, a job which will be yours until death. As such, a lot of concepts have been lost. Including dreams.

Into this situation a young woman who does dream must find her way to acceptance... and gainful employment.

In this kinetic novel, will she find her way? Or lose it?

Would recommend, though it is somewhat pricey for a kinetic novel...

If there's anything I have to say about this game, it's that Arue's shut-in backstory hits so close to reality. It's scary how alike I used to be with Arue the entire time I was playing this.

The game itself is basically a story of redemption over your past mistakes, will you keep running from your past mistakes or will you try to come to terms with them?

Short but good VN. Feels pretty slice-of-life near the beginning, but manages to shift away from that near the end in unexpected but meaningful ways. The very end feels kind of common for Japanese stuff, but how it gets there feels more natural and makes it feel more deserved. Looks like it's the first part of a series, but it wraps things up rather nicely while leaving plenty of threads to work with for the future.

If you enjoy slice-of-life-ish stories that are willing to get somewhat serious and ask intriguing questions (even if they don't 100% commit to resolving in nuanced or uncommon ways), it's definitely worth a shot.