Title: 白と黒のアリス -Twilight Line-
Developers: Otomate & Kogado Girls Project
Release Date: 15th November 2018
Length: ~20 Hours
Links: Official Site, VNDB
This is the fandisc/sequel to the original Shiro to Kuro no Alice consisting of two parts:
- Lover’s Day – this section is after stories for each character’s black & white world endings in the original game.
- Another Line – this is an alternate story taking place after the original game in a world where Luna & Airi have both become Queens in the black world. However, a bunch of weird incidents surrounding the mysterious “hollow world” end up causing them a lot of problems.
My Thoughts
Now, given that I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original game, I probably shouldn’t have been so excited for the fandisc but I was. Sadly, it really disappointed…
I have a lot of problems with this game so I’ll start with the most major – this game is confused. It really doesn’t know if it wants to be a sequel or a fandisc and it really shows. The fact that the Another Line part of the game (which is essentially a sequel) is more than double the length of the afterstories shows that the creators wanted this to be the most important part of the game. That’s fine but Another Line basically overwrites/changes/negates most of the black world endings in the original game.
With that in mind, I don’t understand why they felt the need to include stupidly short afterstories for routes that they pretty much straight-up admit are reduntant. I obviously can’t speak for everyone who played the original but I personally didn’t even like the white world endings of the original game so if they’d just cut out the afterstories, added a little more fluff/romance into the Another Line routes and labelled the game as a sequel then I would’ve been pretty satisfied with it.
My next problem with the game was with the quality of the afterstories themselves. I’ve played a few fandiscs in my time and I have to say that this game had some of the worst afterstories that I’ve ever encountered. Most of them are too short (like 30 mins each) and don’t really add anything to the original endings. The white world afterstories in particular were a particularly bad, with Rain & Nello honestly having horrendously pointless routes. The black world endings were generally a little better but definitely could’ve been integrated into the main game pretty easily (with exception of Kanon I guess).
A huge problem with the game was Airi and her routes (yet again). I’d forgotten just how annoying she was in the original but the fact that she just mopes around and won’t tell anyone what she’s feeling/thinking was just so frustrating to me when honestly most “problems” in her routes could’ve been solved in two minutes (*cough* Rain’s white world afterstory *cough ).
Another problem was that since both heroines exist in the same world in the Another Line section of the game they both interact and speak with each other but neither of them are voiced so it’s a bit awkward.
Unfortunately, the game also tends to get a bit repetitive during the Another Line section since the game only really splits the story into two parts depending on which heroine’s perspective you’re reading from. This means that you basically know all of the “plot twists” after playing two of the routes which does make the rest of the game a bit of a drag since there’s not enough fluff to enjoy instead of the repetitive main story. The bad endings in this section of the game were also a tad unnecessary, especially since some are quite dark & had gory CG accompaniments (Jack’s immediately springs to mind).
Speaking of Another Line, I was also quite disappointed that the game introduced three new and interesting characters to the game (who basically take a starting role in Another Line) but didn’t give us a route for any. Surely I wasn’t the only one who kinda wanted a route for Rui after playing Snow’s route?
Okay, okay that’s enough whining, I suppose I should talk about what I actually loved about this game – Luna & her half of the game. Luna is a heroine that I’ve loved since playing the original, with her sassy and frank nature making a welcome return in this game. Despite moaning, I did actually enjoy most of her after stories, with Snow’s white world ending being particularly good.
It also felt that all of Luna’s routes were more romantic in general with some spicy CGs & scenes compared with Airi. There was also quite a bit of comedy in her routes & just generally better character interactions overall.
I also really liked the opening & ending theme songs, with the BGM also being fitting. The system design was also nice with the menus and stuff being pretty cute.
The artwork by Momochita is still pretty good too (is of comparable quality to the original game) with there being enough CGs.
Most importantly, I still really like a lot of the main love interests from this game and it was nice being able to see them again since the six of them seem to interact more in this game than in the original. Am I still salty about the lack of a Nine or Ratte route? Yes.
Final Thoughts
My Scores
Airi’s Half of the Game: 3/10
Luna’s Half of the Game: 8/10
Overall: 5/10
I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever played a game with such a clear divide in quality/enjoyment before but I guess it just shows the danger of having multiple heroines. Overall, I don’t *hate* this game but am very disappointed by what feels like a very muddled experience – the developers should’ve either gone with this game being a fandisc or a sequel, not some mishmash with neither side feeling particularly satisfying for players of the original game.
Despite really enjoying Luna’s sections, I honestly don’t think I would recommend this game since the bad parts truly aren’t worth reading through. Maybe if this game was heavily discounted and you’re happy to skip Airi’s parts then it might be worth it?
I’m glad to get this rant review finished – I hope I haven’t rambled too much! My next review should be of the galge Hatsuyuki Sakura. I’m glad that I’ll finally be reviewing games that I actually finished in 2019, haha.
Thanks for reading!
Zettai Renai! 