[Review] Aiyoku no Eustia

JP title: 穢翼のユースティア

http://vndb.org/v3770

Well, after a solid 2-3 weeks of reading, I’ve successfully reached the true end of Aiyoku no Eustia, August’s highly-praised fantasy VN. Despite coming from a developer that seems to specialize in moege, Eustia actually tells a serious story with several dark twists and turns, as well as a decent amount of food for thought that you might not come to expect judging only by the art style itself. I really wish they’d do stuff like this more often, though, we have more than enough moege on the market as it is. But I digress – here are my thoughts on Aiyoku no Eustia.

Dedicated fans change the ending of Hate Plus — Full mod released

Spoiler warning.

What draws people to visual novels? — The appeal of a niche medium

This idea has been in my head for a while now, but I never really got around to actually putting it into words. Until now, that is. So let’s speculate a bit about a very basic question: what is it that draws people to visual novels, as opposed to various other forms of media including anime, manga, light novels, and so on? What characteristics do VNs share with the above mentioned media, and which ones are unique to their genre only? I’m going to attempt to reflect a bit on that.