Kago no Naka no Alicis Review

Game Information

Company: IcingCandy

Scenario Writer:  鷹村コージ(Takamura Kouji)

Artist:  睦月ムンク (Mutsuki Munku)

Story

The game is set in the fictional world of Luche, which was created by god. And to make sure, this world is peaceful, God placed the tree of Gemut in Luche and ever since, it has made Luche a very prosperous place to live. However, alfter many years, God deserted Luche and the tree of Gemut started to wither, causing violence and despair in Luche. This continued, until, one day a young girl who was very upset that the world was in turmoil, went up to the tree of Gemut and cried. Since the young girl’s tears were filled with love for the tree of Gemut, its powers were restored and peace was brought to the world. This girl was now called an Alicis since she managed to save the tree and she was then put into a cage so that she could continue to give her love to the tree. However, this girl soon falls in love with a man and he plans to take her out of her cage and to a different world. However, one she comes out of the cage and receives the sun’s light, she dies. The man, filled with hatred, creates “noir” in Luche and the tree of Gemut has started to wither again.

Now, in present day Japan, Sumeragi Runa is your average high school girl, although she has always had these dreams where she is in a field with a large tree. These dreams are very relaxing to Runa. However, one night in her dream, she notices that the tree is starting to wither and gets quite upset. When she wakes up that morning, she is quite upset but goes to school as normal. On her way to school, she hears some funny voices in her head and suddenly a bright light surrounds her. When she wakes up, she meets two kids called L and M who proclaim themselves to be the guardians of Luche and that she is the new Alicis candidate. What will happen to Runa now?

The premise of this game may sound a little silly, but it’s actually not that bad. The common route is very comedic and enjoyable – and the routes are more serious and slightly darker. I felt that some of the routes (Kaito and Darren in particular) really let the game down. Some routes were very good though which makes me think that there was actually another writer or something though.

My thoughts on the individual routes:

Harvey: Had some cute points but also a few annoying points, one of the better routes in the game

William: I can understand why he did what he did in his story but i still don’t like it.

Kaito: The start and endings were really adorable, but the middle bit annoyed me excessively.

Francis: Best route of the game, very well written and interesting.

Darren: I don’t want to talk about how much of a fail this route was – how can people even think of liking characters like him?

Maximilian: Probably considered the “true ending” – his route was pretty good overall but it was a little predictable.

Characters

Harvey

CV:前野智昭

Harvey is the leader of the Roachrist (a group of people who look after the Alicis) and he seems like a really tough guy but in reality, he’s very kind and really loves puppies too. Harvey is also a very friendly person and gets on well with everyone.

I personally thought that Harvey was a pretty nice character – he had a nice mix of playfulness and seriousness and cared about other people very much. His route made me rethink about him a little in the middle but overall, i still like him.

William

CV: 浪川大輔

William used to be a prince but then he had to come to Luche to be a Roachrist. Even though, he still acts very princely and cares a lot about other people. He enjoys drinking tea and eating cake, which his friend/servant called Alastair makes for him. He also has the tendency to sparkle when he talks.

William is usually the type of character that I like and I did like him quite a bit, although he was a bit out of character during his route. Overall, he may be a little generic but prince-type characters never get old.

Kaito

CV: 諏訪部順一

Kaito is the only character who lived in Japan before he became a Roachrist (hence why he has a japanese name). He is very playful yet pretty lazy and really hates doing work – he’d much prefer to go out and play with his friend Effy. He also really likes ice-cream.

At the start of the game, Kaito was my favourite since his fun character was pretty refreshing. However, he went completely emo in his route which was a complete letdown for me. Even though, the start of his route was so adorable! >w<

Francis

CV: 櫻井孝宏

Francis is probably the most quiet of the Roachrists and prefers spending time in the library reading. He’s very smart, a hard worker and he also gets bossed around by his older sister (Vivi). Francis and his sister are also the only two characters who originally come from Luche.

At the start, Francis bored me a bit but his route really changed my opinion of him! He’s actually a very interesting character, but saying much more would be a spoiler. All i will say is that don’t judge a book by its cover.

Darren

CV: 遊佐浩二

Darren is essentially a playboy character who likes to make inappropriate remarks to Runa and essentially perving on her. He is very soft-spoken and appears very nice but actually has a very jealous side to him too. He gets bossed around by Gerald quite a bit because he can never be bothered to work. He likes flowers.

Oh god. Darren will now be referred to as “pink slug” because that’s what he is. I really do not understand the mentality of people who like characters like this. I’m just so glad that this game is all-ages otherwise he’d be a rapist.

Maximilian

CV: 緑川光

Maximilian is considered the “baddie” of the game since he’s the character who created “noir”, he dislikes the whole concept of Alicis and so tries to save Runa from that fate, much to everyone else’s anger. He also lives in a different castle to everyone else and owns two big cats called Orthros and Kerberos.

Maximilain was also a very interesting character and i was curious about him from the start. He could be pretty cute at times too. You need to complete at least 1 other route before you play this route.

Artwork

Overall, i thought that the artwork in this game was of a very high standard and i really liked the gentle shading style of artwork too. However, there were one or two awkward positions. There was definitely enough cgs for each character. The background art was pretty nice although nothing too special.

Music

Song: Hikari no Arika by 前野智昭 (who plays Harvery in the game)

I feel that the opening song is pretty well done, although i liked the ending song a bit better. Regarding the BGM, there was definitely enough tracks and all of those tracks were of a very high standard too with most having a classical touch which i really liked.

Most of the voice actors are quite well-known and they did a really great job too – all of the characters had a fitting voice and their emotions were put across to the reader very clearly.

System

The system was very clean and professional looking and also very nice. The text box was easy to read and i liked how you could see Runa’s face at the bottom. Everything else was very nicely organised and i liked the color scheme too. No complaints here.

Scores

Story: 15
Characters: 16
Artwork: 17
Music: 19
System: 20

Total: 87

Conclusion

I think that Kago no Naka no Alicis is a pretty solid game and that anyone who likes fantasy stories should definitely try this out. Although, i will admit that some of the routes were a letdown. Definitely play Francis’ route though – it’s very good. I’ve heard that this game is a lot worse than Icing Candy’s first game (Bloody Call) though so i’ll have to try that out soon. I’ll definitely play any new games Icing Candy will make in the future. I’m hoping for a fandisk though so that the sub-characters can have routes since they were all really likeable (especially Alastair and Effy)!

If anyone is wondering how “all ages” this game is, then the below picture is about hom ecchi it gets 😉