TrymenT ~Ima wo Kaetai to Negau Anata e~ (TrymenT ～今を変えたいと願うあなたへ～) Review

Anyone who knows a thing or two about Japanese people knows they get “particular” when telling a story.

That particularity is baked in — the kind of small-mindedness that lacks any grand scale, constantly getting weepy over the most trivial shit. There’s actually a word for this in Japanese: mono no aware, which Chinese renders as 物哀. Basically, you see anything at all and get inexplicably sad.

For pretentious artsy kids that’s maybe OK, but if it’s the only register you ever play, you’ve run out of tricks.

Mono no aware isn’t just in the usual stories — it’s more in how Japanese people tell stories. Endlessly wistful and mournful, a hundred twists and turns, and after a hundred laps around the track you still haven’t gotten back to the starting point. The reader gets anxious, and all that circling still lands you on some utterly unremarkable ending, which easily leaves you feeling embarrassed and angry.

Yes, I’m embarrassed and angry again. Miss Wang, bring me my Italian cannon, I’m opening fire.

Almost 4 years ago, a company called RASK put out a game called Re：LieF ～親愛なるあなたへ～. That game had both strengths and flaws in spades. On the plus side, the visuals and direction were good, the music was solid, and the OP and ED were big-budget productions. On the minus side, the story was way too sentimental — the game opens with this “life, do-over” premise, and then the True End has nothing to do with it.

So what was that game about? The protagonist is brain-dead after a car accident. His mother, a scientist, builds an A.I. and a virtual reality world and keeps his consciousness alive inside it. To reactivate his brain and bring him back, she starts a company and advertises it as a “life redo project,” luring people in — except they’re really entering that virtual world to play house with the protagonist and the A.I.…

The main plot is exactly that: a mother who loves her son more than life itself tries to use VR and A.I. to resurrect her brain-dead boy. She just lied to the public and used the random strangers who joined her “life redo” project to do it. At the end of that game, the A.I. administrator heroine, “Ai,” goes out of control and shuts everyone inside the virtual world to protect the protagonist — and then, after a whole lot of sentimentality, gives up on the idea.

The premise was fine. The storytelling, though, was bloated as hell. It plays all positive and uplifting up front, then tells you none of it connects to what came before. The game wants you to realize the world is virtual but deliberately keeps hedging, which is agonizing to play. Add the sickly pale background palette and font and it’s torture for both eyes and soul. Personally I’m not a fan. But different strokes — the sentimentality junkies love it, especially the Japanese otaku, and that sent RASK rocketing up on the strength of a single game, with rave reviews…

And then they vanished.

RASK kept saying they’d make a sequel and a fan disc, but nearly 4 years passed and nothing.

Then early this year a team calling itself TrymenT popped up, announcing a game called TrymenT ～今を変えたいと願うあなたへ～. I looked at the premise and spat out my drink — isn’t this literally Re：LieF ～親愛なるあなたへ～? Is this the sequel?

RASK had been silent for ages, so a sequel 4 years later made sense. They’d promised one, and this time there was a Chinese release at launch!

Pretty baller～ but wait…

I read the story summary carefully and it doesn’t feel like a sequel at all — more like a prequel? No, not a prequel either. It’s still a bunch of people entering an island for the “life redo,” still the same cast from the previous game, the A.I. administrator is still there, the previous protagonist is still there — hold on, why the hell is that random Hinako from the last game still here too?

So I’m confused: what’s the difference between this and the previous game? Did you just rewrite the previous game?

Then it launched, and Steam went wild for it, everyone hyping it up. Of course — this is China, any visual novel with a Chinese launch gets hyped, no surprise. But then some of the CGs came out, and I spat out my drink again:

Same characters as the last game, so why does the art suddenly look way cheaper?

I also heard some unflattering things online about this so-called “new work,” which only made me more curious. But nobody had leaked this stupid game. I tried to coax a certain great Linux kernel developer into gifting it to me, but she only gifts me gay games, not this. I thought about buying it myself, but I’m not as loaded as Old Wu, and I couldn’t stomach the price — and I was even more worried I’d buy it and find a turd that makes me sick. The previous game was a 70 at best for me; if the sequel is even worse, wouldn’t that be an absolute joke? Barely a passing grade!

Luckily I had a buddy who got me the full version, and I could finally dig in.

This game is way, way, way, way, way, way, way～～～～～～～way～ longer than I expected.

After I endured it, I found out this was only the “first volume” — there’s a “second volume” too. Oh fuck. Shit like this should just die. Now I finally understand why RASK renamed itself TrymenT and why they made this game. I can’t even be bothered to critique the plot, so I’ll just lay out my thoughts in little subheadings.

What’s the relationship between RASK and TrymenT?

Same core staff, I think — a studio that split off after some artists left. According to their official site, they want to produce “visual novels,” not traditional “romance porn games,” which sounds classy. But I figure once they finish TrymenT they won’t have anything new to say.

What’s the relationship between TrymenT and Re:LieF?

They’re the same game. TrymenT just retells the Re:LieF story from a third-person perspective, plus a few extra nobodies who have zero effect on the core content. There’s a girl who plays piano, “Ayame,” who supposedly lost everything to a suicide attempt and joined this “virtual world” seeking redemption. Sounds similar to the protagonist’s setup, but she’s only there to give old RASK players something fresh. As the plot moves on, Ayame gets tossed aside fast, the game snaps right back to dialogue between our protagonist and “Ai,” and it’s back to asking whether this world is virtual. Ayame’s story ends up feeling like fan fiction bolted onto the original.

And at the end the game says it’s not over — look forward to the second volume.

Since it’s a remake of the content, is TrymenT much better than Re:LieF?

Better my ass. Every aspect reeks of being broke. The two games share some CGs with the same composition, but beyond that, the coloring and rendering on the character sprites is an outright disaster. Ugly as sin. Our protagonist has exactly two expressions the whole game, like a goddamn idiot. And for the final reveal it upholds the original’s proud tradition: frantically hinting while saying nothing. The plot crawls, puts you to sleep. The music cuts every corner it can — the piano sounds classy but it’s the same “Salut d’Amour” remixed over and over, probably because classical pieces are royalty-free.

Also, a lot of the foreshadowing I found interesting in the original is gone. In the original, when you’re in the virtual world you see a green border around the window; in reality there’s no border. The game used that border to distinguish virtual from real. In this so-called “new work” — maybe because it’s third-person now — that little detail is gone too, making the game even more mediocre.

And while Re:LieF is sentimental, its plot progression is still far better than TrymenT’s. The former is water in the first half, a rollercoaster at the end. The latter is 90% water, 10% rollercoaster, and then it tells you “see you next episode.” I’m thinking, are you fucking screwing with people who never played your RASK game?

So if I haven’t played Re:LieF, can I just play TrymenT?

If you’re really into this premise, I’d tell you to play Re:LieF directly — complete story, art and music and sprites a tier above, and it’s not split into volumes. It’s also 18+ with porn. I genuinely can’t think of a reason to play TrymenT, unless you don’t know Japanese. And if you insist on playing a translation, don’t bother with TrymenT either — even translated it’s boring.

TrymenT got a Chinese release at launch, right? Isn’t the quality good?

I started TrymenT in Japanese, but the story was so dull I switched to Chinese, and found the Chinese just as dull, with even more nonsensical content. I skimmed it and found the Chinese translation even has lines skipped. Also, the Japanese prose is all pretentious and flowery, but the Chinese is blunt — none of that last bit of flavor survives. Which brings me back to the same point: learning a foreign language is genuinely necessary.

What if I played Re:LieF — is TrymenT still worth playing?

Not worth it! I’m one of those people. From the very start I knew the protagonists were in a virtual reality world. I knew a certain white-haired heroine was the A.I. administrator. I knew the previous protagonist was brain-dead from a car accident. But this fucking game acts like I don’t know, playing coy the whole time — it drove me up the wall. I had a little hope it would bring some settings and foreshadowing that differed from the original.

None of that! TrymenT is a “degraded, split version” of Re:LieF, and I genuinely can’t think of a reason to recommend it.

So what do you think of TrymenT?

Simply put, TrymenT is RASK taking their earlier Re:LieF, splitting it into two, padding the length, tossing in a bunch of pointless filler to stretch the story to fit what two volumes should hold, cutting costs on art and music and sprites, then finding a translation team for a Chinese launch and putting it on Steam to scam money.

Sure, plenty of newbies who’ve barely touched a visual novel will think it’s “gorgeous,” “substantial,” “touches on reality,” and so on. But if you’ve played RASK’s original, all you’ll be left with is anger.

And honestly I don’t think the original was that great either.

The icing on the cake: the game is titled ～今を変えたいと願うあなたへ～, “To You Who Wish to Change the Present.” Coming from this leftover-reheating team it’s just ironic. They should’ve called it Remake: To You Who Never Want to Change.