Title: 9-nine-そらいろそらうたそらのおと
Developer: Palette
Release Date: 27th April 2018
Age Rating: 18+
Length: ~5 Hours
Links: Official Site, VNDB
Note: I have reviewed the previous game, and will occasionally be referring to it so if you haven’t yet played it then I suggest that you do. This is definitely one of those series where you need to play all of the games in order!
This is the second game in the 9-nine- series, focusing on Kakeru’s younger sister Sora. She’s super energetic and is probably the most talkative character in the games, often cracking jokes and just generally being stupid. She and Kakeru used to share a room but she’s been lonely since he moved out so sometimes invites herself over. The pair generally argue a lot but love each other really. Sora’s ability allows her to make herself “invisible” by erasing her presence, however, this doesn’t appear to work on Kakeru.
At first, I was really worried that the game would be really repetitive and would take a while to actually take a while to get into the new content in this volume. However, the game starts a little while after the start of Miyako’s game (so essentially the first half of her game was the common route?). It does better than Miyako’s game at actually finding out whom could be behind the petrification incidents and the ending is another cliffhanger.
Unlike the first game, this installment also introduces another group of artifact users called Rig Veda. There are a couple of short battle scenes but not as many as you would want to see in an action game – it is a step in the right direction though!
As I mentioned in my review of the first game, Sora was the heroine who stood out the most to me with her silly antics and fun personality. I’m also a fan of imouto characters so was looking forward to her route. However, like the first game, I definitely have mixed feelings…
The game’s story was generally an enjoyable read with yet more revealed about the overall story of the series, especially the ending. I also appreciated that this entry didn’t feel as inconclusive as Miyako’s route. The addition of the “battle scenes” was welcomed but could be improved. I suppose it doesn’t really help that most of the main character’s abilities aren’t really offense-based?
Character interactions continue to be well-written with lot of jokes. I also found that the game was well-paced and didn’t feel as though it was dragging at any points (it is short though).
Unfortunately, the thing that really stops me from loving this game was how terrible the romantic progression was. It was just downright terrible. I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t go into detail but let’s just say that you’re bound to be disappointed in this regard when finishing. I find it weird that this happened since it wasn’t a problem in the two other released games.
Production values continue to be incredibly high, with gorgeous artwork by Izumi Tsubasu & cute SD art by Pero being the main attraction to this series. Both vocal songs were also great and I’m still having too much fun with the “Stand Gallery”.
As with Miyako’s game, there were 3 H scenes in the game which is a decent number for how long the game is. They still have that Live 2D type animation & the scens were pretty vanilla in nature. I don’t normally really pay much attention to these but omg the first H scene in Sora’s true ending was hilarious!
Final Thoughts
My Score: 7/10
So, essentially, any improvements made by the story in regards to world-building and not having a super unsatisfying ending are erased by the fact that this game has some of the worst romantic progression of any visual novel I’ve ever read. If it weren’t for my love of Sora, this would be getting a lower score.
Overall, I would still recommend the 9-Nine- series to people looking for a short read, with a more plot-centric story than most single heroine games. However, you do really need to play all of the games in order to understand everything.
Thanks for reading!
Zettai Renai! 