KARAKARA2 Review

Player(s): 1
Platform(s): PC (Via Steam)

"KARAKARA. It is the sound of aridity. It is the sound of dry asphalt and sandy winds. It is the sound of relentless sunshine, as well as the sound of a withering race."

Calme and Sekai Project bring us the sequel to the original KARAKARA. In it they expand a little on the previous installment, adding some more lovable characters that turn the life of our protagonist upside down.

We take the role of Leo, a chef who owns a restaurant living with Lucia and Aisia. They are two of the female characters from the original game. He lives life in his restaurant filling customer orders and living day to day not doing much else. One day a character named Cullen, comes with envelopes for Leo. She hands them to Leo who says that they are the same letters he gets often. Leo is the only young male in the area and those letters contain the pleas of different eligible women wanting to marry him.

For those who played the first game you know that Leo already has Lucia and Aisia as love interests. For this adventure it adds two more characters to the mix. One is Rebecca, a girl who works up her own courage to deliver a letter to Leo in person, and second, we have Mari, a mysterious girl who was orphaned and grew up alone. All the girls have their own unique charm and add a lot of stress to Leo. Lucia is Leo’s childhood friend and they grew up together. Aisia is a girl who showed up one day with a mysterious past and also happens to be a vampire. Rebecca is a girl who was brought up to be a wife and knows a lot about cooking, cleaning, and household duties who also happens to be a zombie. Mari is again an orphan girl who ran away from the orphanage and grew up in an abandoned building full of ninja movies so she herself learned the ways of the ninja.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic future where something called “The Disaster” happening before our story begins. The world lies in ruins and the inhabitants survive any way they can. To be honest this setting has a lot of promise, but mostly only serves only as a backdrop and not a lot of explanation happens as to how the world came to be this way. There is even a neat little Easter egg where Mari explains she found a "relic" that she calls the “Tentendo Twitch”. (The reference I hope being obvious.) Since most everything is buried in desert, she apparently digs a working one out of the ground. Other than references, the barren environment doesn’t really have any other importance to the story.

Overall the game is pretty much predictable. Each of the new girls get to shine in their own segments and we learn more about their backstories. The game does a good job in focusing on a single girl at a time giving Leo a chance to learn and develop his own feelings towards each of them. Like most visual novels all the girls fawn over the player character creating a harem, but who doesn’t love a good harem?? I also found myself liking Mari more and wanted more scenes with her. Not a lot happens other than that and I found myself wanting to learn more about the other characters and more in general about the world.

The game doesn’t really add anything new to the Visual Novel category but it is an enjoyable experience. I recommend people who haven't played the first one to wait and play that one first since this does directly continue that story and you learn more about the first two girls in that game. If you want a light-heart, fun adventure I definitely recommend you pick up this series. KARAKARA2 isn't long by any means and is something you could mostly enjoy in a weekend. The art style is fantastic with each girl having a different cute look and the music wasn’t so bad either. The game overall is charming and entertaining and if the developers continue to focus a little more on world building this series will be one to look forward to! I really enjoyed myself for the majority of my playthrough. There were some small things here and there but the game was solid and for $9.99 USD could help support a fun series.

-Nestor

KARAKARA2 Is Available NOW On Steam!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/745850

​Note: There is an 18+ patch for this game that adds a lot of, well, lewd scenes into the game and I would have loved to play that version as well. You can buy it through Denpasoft’s website for $8.99 USD which can be found HERE.

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Story: B
Graphics: A
Sound: C
Value: B

Overall: B+

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