Mirai no Kimi to, Subete no Uta ni Review

Circle: Supplement Time (Doujin)
Game site: 未来のキミと、すべての歌に―
Release date: December 31, 2007 (Comiket 73); April 4, 2008 (DL ver.)
Links: DLsite, DiGiket.com

Mikukisu is an all-ages kinetic novel by doujin maker Supplement Time. It is a short and sweet tale of an unexpected Christmas encounter and the making of happy memories. Recommended for Miku fans.

I had first seen some of the CGs on Niconico a year or so ago, but I didn’t know it was part of a game until recently. After reading Hinano’s review (includes story spoilers), I decided to spend a few hours playing this short game. I probably spent more time writing this review than playing it.

Scenario

It’s Christmas time and the streets are full of people and androids. Androids have now become a commonplace in society, doing everything from greeting customers to posing as Santa. On the way home after a night drinking with friends, you stumbled upon a girl… or so you thought. Labeled on her arm are ‘01′ and ‘Hatsune Miku’. She’s actually just a singing android. You planned to leave her there, but then felt sorry for her being thrown away like that and decided to take her home.

Luckily, she comes with a manual and a CD-R, so installation her program was pretty easy. Miku wakes up and promptly glomps you. However, she can only say one word: ‘mi’. After helping her into some clothes you had lying around since she took off all her bandages, you finish configuring her settings and she can talk normally. She introduces herself as Miku and your life with her begins.

「初めまして！あたしはミクです！」

There’s only one route and there are no choices. Just sit back and read the story. Most of you probably recognized an obvious similarity to Chobits. However, aside from the opening and the fact that you’re with a persocon android, the storylines are different. It’s basically a lighthearted and slightly comedic story about living with a persocon Miku.

Due to the length of the game, the relationship progresses quickly and problems arise and are resolved very quickly. I wish that the game was longer and there was more build-up during dramatic parts. However, it sure does its job in depicting a happy life with Miku that I’m sure many Vocaloid fans have dreamt of at some point (You know who you are).

The game seems to borrow from themes mentioned in early Miku songs. I can’t really go into more detail without spoiling the plot. Music is mentioned a lot, as well as the purpose of music bringing happiness to people. I wish they expanded more on this theme aside from delving into the guy’s past and hobbies. Overall, I’m content with the story even if it was short. It was fun to read and brought a smile to my face.

Oh, and the key and time signatures in the title are totally screwed up.

Characters

Hatsune Miku

Miku is an android that specializes in singing and can’t really do much else. She really likes singing and hums to herself often. Music to her is something that brings happiness to people. Slightly tsun and very cheerful. Tries to do things by herself, even though she sometimes fails. Conscious of her small chest size. Acts a bit spoiled princess sometimes, but overall she’s just like a normal girl.

Twintail = tsundere? Well, since she’s only a little tsun, it’s ok. I really liked her character. I don’t know if it was intentional, but I kept on thinking of “World is Mine” whenever he referred to as ohime-sama.

Graphics

The best part of the game are the CGs. They’re done quite well in general, with a bunch of fanservice thrown in for Miku lovers. Miku’s smile makes me melt >_<

Other than the CGs, there’s not much variety in terms of backgrounds or tachi-e. I actually thought the tachi-e looked a little off sometimes. There are no SD drawings in the game, although I don’t really see a need for them either.

System

The interface is very simple with a quick save and quick load, along with autoplay and skipping. However, a problem is it’s hard to know when you have pressed the button at all since there’s no sound effect. The quick loading doesn’t have a visual effect either; it just shows up. Options are located on the window bar. It’s ok, but I’m used to having the save/load buttons on the main interface (or Esc menu).

The backlog is a bit hard to read. I wish they would use a table format or put half a space between sentences. Another thing that bothered me was the awkward BGM transitions since there is no fading out used sometimes. The transitions between scenes had nice cutscenes, although I wish they were also used for date changes too.

There are 10 save slots for the game, which is way more than enough. I like how it includes a small screenshot. Finishing the game opens up the gallery mode which allows you to view the CGs in the game. It’s a little buggy though since I get errors from it, after which the screen goes blank (or maybe that’s my problem…)

I really liked the ED since it consisted of a bunch of pan shots of the CGs and a speed painting of one of the CGs. The artist also posted up the drawing videos on Niconico.

Sound

First of all, there’s no voices for the game. So if you rely on that to understand what they’re saying, you’re in tough luck (although the game is quite easy to understand with a simple linear plot). There’s a few BGMs used in game borrowed from other doujin artists, but they’re mostly forgettable. Full length songs (with Miku singing) include baker’s “Sound”, North-T’s “Time Limit” and GonGoss’s “White Letter”, all of which were popular Miku songs. “Time Limit” is still one of my favorites. It sure brings back good memories. >w<b

Note that there is no music mode unlocked after finishing the game, so if you want to listen to the BGMs or songs, you should visit the artists’ pages off the game site.

Overall

All of Micchi’s reviews will be rated by assigning scores out of 10 to each of the following categories: Scenario, characters, graphics, system, sound, and H scenes. Half marks may be given. The scoring is as follows:

• 10 – Absolutely satisfied
• 9 – Among the best, only minor improvements
• 8 – Good overall
• 7 – Average, a mix of good and bad
• 6 – Below average, slightly disappointing
• <5 – Very disappointed

Since this is an all-ages game, there is no score for H scenes. Instead, the score for characters will have a higher weight. The overall score is a weighted sum (3x Scenario + 3x Characters + 2x Graphics + 1x System + 1x Sound) for a total out of 100.

• Scenario: 7
• Characters: 7
• Graphics: 8
• System: 6
• Sound: 7
• Overall: 71

Overall, Mikukisu is sweet story that will appease Miku fans and probably will make you wish you had a girl singing android. The graphics are pretty and it is easy to follow even for novice visual novel players. Be sure to check out the sequel with Rin too!

「あは、あたしもあなたじゃなきゃ、ダメ、みたいです」