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LJ3

Tsukihime review

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by
LJ3
, December 14th, 2013 at 10:13 PM (7631 Views)
Well, I finished reading it. And it's been so good.

I remember saying how beautiful I found the prologue with how Aoko helped Shiki. I love how the goal of serenity is present in each route, an appreciation of life I envy. This and Fate/Stay Night are the only VNs I have read, so I felt really absorbed in how our protags dealt with surviving what should have been death, and how they viewed life afterwards. So I think that saying Shiki has no personality is inaccurate, he clearly has a way of living that he wants and knows how to achieve.

I was surprised at how averse Shiki was to killing. Of course it all made sense later, but the amount of reluctance he felt was more than I saw for Shirou. And after seeing Kohaku's route, I guess I've been reminded of why it and HF are considered the resolution of their stories overall: by exposing and diving in every loose end, every unrevealed horror and grief. Considering the actions of Kohaku, I feel surprised that so many people like her despite what she has done compared to Sakura. Which made me think about how much sin as a concept was brought up here. I don't want to accuse easy forgiveness. I guess I wasn't in sync with the act of unconditional acceptance that was offered as salvation. And I can't feel too bitter about it. Something about how there are people you love that much to disregard the wrong.

I think it would be correct to say that self deception is a core theme of Tsukihime like how Akiha, Sacchin, and Ciel struggle with expressing their honest desires, some worse off or subtler than others. Actually I think that deceiving or resigning yourself to a role is more accurate, given how much troubled examples there are with that; thinking about Kohaku, Ciel, and I guess SHIKI (I felt incredibly bad for this guy).

Despite its aged design, there wasn't anything that made me feel like quitting, let alone the story. I feel really optimistic about how the remake will turn out; with all Type Moon has already accomplished, I can only see the quality going up. Hope I did an adequate job of expressing my thoughts.
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Comments

  1. RacingeR's Avatar
    I think that what makes a lot people like Kohaku over Sakura has to do with a lot of factors. Kohaku is way easy to relate to, and to pity due to how overt her damage is. Furthermore, her situation is way less over the top, and it is presented in a much better way than Sakura's was. Then there are those who find her a more entertaining character, and what she did in revenge actually makes her more interesting.

    There seems to be a somewhat generalized opinion of Sakura's own side-plot in HF being basically an altered version of Kohaku's, with many changes being for the worse, which I guess is the simpler way to explain this.
  2. GG_Abrams's Avatar
    Play Kagetsu Tohya next. I almost prefer it over Tsukihime
  3. hero's Avatar
    I think part of what makes Kohaku route great is the Hitsui route you played beforehand. You want to help that quiet maid find some love and then you get to the end and the twist destroys your heart (maybe), and then makes you immediately go for Kohaku next run. In Fate there is no prelude to the Sakura route and the route order forces you to play Fate and UBW first (unless you have a save), and Sakura's situation is only explored on her own route. Nobody cared about her when they were Caliburning Berserker in the Einzbern Woods, and nobody cared about her when they UBWing the King of Heroes. By the time you get to HF, Sakura's situation is underwhelming. It's also presented in a rather over the top way, and it makes you want to focus on the battles that take place more than anything else. It has some pretty good dramatic scenes, but in the end it falls short.

    Also Sakura is often moved by external forces to act, be it jealousy or power or both. Without AM, she's completely powerless to do anything (even though she's a magus). It seems like she does most of what she does on a whim, or because AM needs her to do it. On the other hand, Kohaku knows what she's doing. She's batman. And who likes superman over batman?
  4. Dark Pulse's Avatar
    So, was I right? Did you regret your unorthodox order?
  5. LJ3's Avatar
    That's a really well put response on the difference between the two. I do agree with it, hero and Jormungandr.

    I actually finished with Kohaku with Ciel's before it. The order I felt didn't detract from the story; I was willing to wait a route before ending with Kohaku and Eclipse. I wasn't disappointed at all with Ciel's route; I now include it and Shiki's character with the complaint of Fate route as untrue.

    And now, I plan on going through what's left of Tsukihime. Plus Period, then Melty Blood story and Kagetsu Tohya.
  6. Dark Pulse's Avatar
    Melty occurs after Kagetsu Tohya, so you may want to play KT first.
  7. SeiKeo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by hero
    And who likes superman over batman?
    Henry Cavil is way hotter than Christian Bale so me.
  8. GG_Abrams's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by LeopardBear
    Henry Cavil is way hotter than Christian Bale so me.
    Nah man. It's all about that Clooney.