Version reviewed: Rewrite (pc)
Genre: Action, Romance, Fantasy
Novel Style: Branching
Opening Movie: Click Here
Rewrite represents key's 9th main novel since the company's founding. It also happens to be the most far removed from Key's usual style of story telling. Prior to its release there was much talk about how would Key handle an action based plot while still fitting in their typical drama and comedy. I plan to discuss the controversy in a fair amount of detail though out the review. I also hope to keep it fairly spoiler free. Please understand however that revealing a few details is necessary when discussing a story as long and complex as Rewrite. With that said, does Rewrite hold true to what makes Key novels as popular as they have been? In short the answer is "sort of", I'll explain what I mean by that in my summary, but first let me jump into a brief outline of the story before I breakdown the pluses and minuses of this colossal work.
Rewrite tells the story of Tennouji Kotarou, a high school student who has recently transferred into Kazamatsuri City's high school. The prologue tells of his regrets of never having close friends and his hopes to change things this time around. Shortly after transferring he starts to branch out and meet new people. After meeting the five main heroines of the story he manages to rope them into helping him form the occult research club. His time together with his friends is short lived as he soon finds himself in the middle of a centuries long battle for control over the very fate of humanity.
Truth be told, this probably sounds like fairly cliche setup for the plot, and to a point it is. In addition, a good chunk of the plot setup seems to have been ripped from Fate/Stay Night. It really isn't all bad though, Rewrite does a decent enough job of differentiating itself from other works that this is rarely a major issue. What Key fans are probably waiting to hear me say is "this is exactly what the fans have been waiting for", or something of the sort. Sadly if you were looking for something in the vein of past key works you won't find it here. The early parts of the game are very reminiscent of their past work, however I wouldn't let yourself get to attached to that because the mood shifts dramatically as the plot splits off into the individual routes. There are occasional glimpses at Key's past throughout Rewrite, but they are few and far between. Rewrite seems to have been aimed at both Key fans and new readers, but frankly the story might have come off better if Key had tried less to please two different groups simultaneously.
Common Route
Rewrite's common route serves as the introduction to the characters. It does a fairly good job of telling us about the characters and segues decently into each of the individual character routes. The common route also covers how Kotarou starts the Occult Research club. The common route is mostly comedy material with some foreshadowing scattered throughout. There does however seem to be some differences between how the characters behave in the common route versus the individual routes. This is likely the result of having multiple writers on staff. On the plus side, most of the comedy in this segment is quite hilarious. I'd list examples, but I feel it's best to read it for yourself. As far as Key novels go, this was an excellent common route. The downside of this relates to the plot in its entirety. I had worried about this before Rewrite was released and unfortunately Rewrite does suffer from so mood dissonance. It's almost impossible to flow gracefully from the wacky comedy scenes of the common route to the life or death drama found in the character routes. This might be a deal breaker for some people, and it never really caught on with me either.
Kotori's Route - 8.3
The common route ends after a rather important event occurs, one that begins what Rewrite's plot is actually about. Kotori's route was the first route I read through when starting Rewrite. It has been suggested that her route be read first and I have to wholeheartedly agree with this. Kotori's route does an excellent job of introducing you to all sides of the conflict while still leaving enough plot threads dangling to hook you into reading further. Kotori also happens to be my favorite character in Rewrite which helped to make her route a good deal more painful than necessary. Kotori's route can be a bit slow at times though, but it does provide quite an emotional punch. I just wish that the ending hadn't been so abrupt. |
| Kanbe Kotori |
Shizuru's Route - 8
Shizuru's route represents the closest Rewrite ever gets to the "classic Key" feel. Some of Kotarou's harem-hijinks are downright hilarious. There is also a major gut-punch delivered in her route along with what I found to be the most depressing ending of the character routes. Shizuru as a character makes a great match for Kotarou too, she manages to go with the flow of things no matter what Kotarou is planning. She also has a lot of cute character quirks that make her a very memorable character. |
| Nakatsu Shizuru |
Chihaya's Route - 9
Chihaya's route starts out a bit slow, but once it picks up it has some of the best actions scenes in the game. Chihaya's is notable for another reason as well - it focuses mostly on Chihaya's butler Sakuya. Sakuya is very likable character and is also one of the few notable male characters in Rewrite. It's a shame that he makes so few appearances outside of this route. Chihaya's character on the other hand is far less interesting as she demonstrates very little character growth throughout her route. Fortunately Sakuya's role in her route makes up for most if not all of this route's shortcomings. |
| Ohtori Chihaya |
Lucia's Route - 7
I'd like to say that Lucia's route was excellent, but that comes with some major caveats. For starters, her route is the only route in the Rewrite that was written by Ryuukishi from 07thExpansion. This and the fact that he has a very different way of present characters make Lucia's route stick out like a sore thumb amidst the other routes. On the upside, he manages to develop Lucia into a very likable character by then end. (I found her to very annoying during the common route.) The other problem with Lucia's route is one that could've been easily avoided. Her route adds a considerable number of unnecessary elements to the plot, elements that are not mentioned in other parts of the story. As I said though, her route isn't bad per se, but taken in the context of the story, it really doesn't fit in well at all. |
| Konohana Lucia |
Akane's Route - 8.7
If the common route is the lighthearted comedy section of Rewrite, then Akane's route represents the darkest parts of the story. Most of the character routes involve some sort of depressing end of the world drama, but never is it more bleak than here. I really was hoping that this route would set up the last two routes, but what I didn't anticipate was just how cruel this route would be. There is no happy ending waiting for the characters this time, only suffering. Also, Kotarou's desire to follow someone is pushed to the absolute limit, with him having to make some very difficult choices just to stay with Akane. So why then didn't I rate this higher? Well, first off the writers have made this route so dark that it's actually overbearing at times. Key character arcs having never been about seeing the characters be so thoroughly broken. By the end I was left feeling very melancholy and hoping for a happier end in Terra. |
| Senri Akane |
Moon Route - 9
The curiously named moon route picks up roughly after Akane's route, which makes it wise to leave her route for last. The moon route start out in a very bizarre fashion. I'd rather not expound on that, but there is some great philosophical questions raised in this section. It really made me think too, and that's the best feeling one can take away from a novel. The Moon route seems to highlight one important flaw in Rewrite: "Suspension of disbelief". If you we're having trouble accepting certain things about the plot during the character routes, then Moon will stretch you to the breaking point. I'm not saying that the Moon route isn't good, but it would best if you turn your brain off for some of the scenes or you might injure yourself by the end. I'd also like to avoid major spoilers, but last just say that certain plot reveals in here pack quite a wallop. Once you finished Moon, the last step before the end is Terra.
Terra Route - 7
Terra tells a slightly different story from all of the previous routes. It is also the culmination of all the various plot threads. I was also hoping that Kotarou would overcome the trauma from the previous events. What happens here feels a lot like a retread of Akane's route. While it does tie up the story to a reasonable degree, it feels a bit disconnected from the story overall, and the final solution to the main conflict felt very forced. The theme of "rewriting" is heavily reinforced throughout Terra. There is also a cool tie-in to the Moon Route in here in the form of what "choice" means to the plot. It was also nice to see that Kotarou was voiced for the entirety of Terra. That aside, the plot never manages to escape from the bleak atmosphere of the earlier routes. Even after the credits rolled I was left with a very unsatisfied and melancholy feeling about the end. Terra really could have done a lot more for Rewrite, but in the end the journey mattered more than the destination.
Now that I've covered all the story arcs in some detail, let me talk about the less essential parts of Rewrite.
Art - 6.9
Rewrite's art may be the best of any Key novel to date. The unfortunate truth of this statement, is that that means very little since Key novels have never really pushed the "visual" element of visual novels. It hurt less in previous works, but it stands out a lot here in light of the amount of action scenes in the story. Even more disappointing is the large number of reused sprites and backgrounds. I can understand doing some of the time, but the number of times the is done during the story was appalling. To top that off, very little is done to disguise the blatant asset reuse. They could have at least made some minor tweaks to make it less obvious. The only good thing I can say about the art, is the fact that it's all been drawn at 1280x720. This is pretty rare for a Visual Novel and it was a nice touch, All in all though, the art effort here was a major disappointment.
Music - 8.4
The music in Rewrite was actually a high point for me. The music almost always fit the mood and there were quite a few memorable tracks. I personally liked the sad music the best ("scattered flowers" still breaks my heart), but some of the more fast paced tracks were good too. It's kind of shame to see that Jun Maeda -- the man responsible for most of Key's memorable soundtracks -- only composed a single track for Rewrite, but here's to hoping that he returns to his songwriting days.
Sound - 6.8
I'd like to come out and say that the sound here was great, but that would be a lie. Suffice it to say, this is another area that seriously could have used some work. The quality of the voice work for the characters varies widely excellent to atrocious. There also seems to be no hard rule as to which characters got voiced and which didn't. There is a maddening randomness to this decision, with some very important characters going unvoiced while some side characters being both voiced and having a character sprite. The main problem with the voice work isn't even the actors' faults. They were probably given poor direction during certain scenes as it often felt like the emotion they put into a line (or didn't), didn't match what was happening in the story. This problem mostly affects the action scenes, but since a good portion on the story is action, it becomes increasingly obvious as you approach the end. On the flip side, the voices chosen for each character match up perfectly, I especially enjoyed Kotori and Shizuru's voice work, they always managed to crack me up.
Story - 7.9
Final score - 8.4
I'd like to describe Rewrite as being like Clannad and Fate/Stay Night put in a blender. Some of it works while some of it clearly doesn't. It's certainly not the most ill-conceived idea ever, and it does bring enough new ideas to the table to stay unique. If you are a Key-purist though, you should probably avoid reading Rewrite, this is not the stuff that you're used to. However if you're just looking for a decent read and have enough free time, give Rewrite a try. Despite its flaws, it's still an okay novel, and who knows, it might surprise you!
A huge shout-out to the guys at Amaterasu Translations! Rewrite was one of the fastest translations I've ever seen done, and I've been in the VN scene for a while. It's been a very long wait for Rewrite, and I appreciate the opportunity that they've given us to read it! As always, show your support buy buying legal copies of your novels. No piracy occurred in the reading of this novel.
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