Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode Review

Player(s): 1
Platforms: PC

Same song, Different melody.

A game that has good ambiance has the means of being amazing regardless of its genre. Innocent Gray has continued to awe me with their horror thriller visual novels and I needed this sequel to satisfy my lust for answers and art.

Warning: This game contains eroge, blood, gore, and spoilers from the first game.

The beautiful visual novel, Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode, is the sequel to Innocent Gray’s original Kara no Shoujo. The sequel takes place in Tokyo 1957, two years after the first game and follows Tokisaka Reiji, a private detective still searching for the missing girl, Kuchiki Touko. The game also follows Masaki Tomouyuki a mysterious young man that attempted suicide but was saved by Tokisaka Reiji’s younger sister, Yukari. After these two meet, mysterious events begin to unravel revealing a religious cult that was thought to be dead six years ago and evidence to the whereabouts of Kuchiki Touko. 

Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode follows the same guidelines like many other visual novels and uses the same mechanics as the first game. Numerous decisions can lead to different paths throughout the game and I’ve always been an advocate to being able to make my own decisions. Innocent Gray wants you to follow the story as it should be, discover evidence, look for suspects, and solve the mystery. But every now and then, I stray that path and enjoy a nice talk with Kyouko at Moon Café. But Innocent Gray only allows you to rest when you’re dead.

The voice acting, backgrounds, and character art are god-sends in this visual novel. With some updates to the drawings compared to the first game, I’d say it was a big improvement no matter how slight it may be. The voice acting was spot on but I would say the biggest downfall was giving the protagonist a voice. I was fine with having a character model to base the voice in my head on, but giving Tokisaka Reiji a voice to interact with each character for made me feel like I wasn’t part of the story as a player. I didn’t feel as invested with each character as I was in the first game. I wanted to express my emotions through the protagonists. All of my happiness, my frustration, but most of all, heart-wrenching sadness. 

This visual novel was incredibly slow-paced. At one point, I forgot I was playing a murder-mystery game because of the slice-of-life aspect of the game. Compared to the first game, the length of gameplay took almost 20 hours and that doesn’t include the second round of gameplay that you need to do to achieve the true ending. I understand that I do not have to listen to every bit of the dialogue in a second run-through, certain parts of the game I felt unnecessary. But even with such a slow pace, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. This visual novel has less blood and gore compared to its predecessor and for a game to be a horror mystery without that being the main point of terror, I’d say they killed it. 

Overall, Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode felt the same as the first game with a great story but more time investment. I went through a second run-through for the true ending and almost felt unsatisfied with the end to this series. But I thought it had a strong story and good character backgrounds that made it worth playing again. This was a game that required a big time investment and if you give it just that, you will be rewarded greatly. Just don’t let Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode get inside your head.

-Jordan

You can pick up Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode from MangaGamer HERE!!!

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Story: A +
Art: A
Sound: B
Value: B

Overall: B +
  
Pros:
+ Amazing Story
+ Top Notch Voice Acting
+ Beautiful Art
 
Cons
-Very slow paced.
-Too many slice-of-life scenes.

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Disclaimer: This game was provided to us by the publisher for the purpose of this review.