Mayoeru Futari to Sekai no Subete (迷える2人とセカイのすべて) Review

Mayoi no Futari to Sekai no Subete (迷える2人とセカイのすべて) is LASS’s 2014 release. From the moment the July release date was announced, it slipped, slipped, slipped, slipped, and slipped again, until it finally landed at the end of October.

Why was I paying attention? Because I’m a total LASS fanboy. Not because of Kiritani Hana.

The game’s length isn’t long, and it isn’t short either. After finishing it, my feelings about LASS got a whole lot more complicated.

Honestly, I’ve eaten my share of shit playing visual novels, but this time it was LASS’s shit, and to show off my fanboy credentials I went and actively sought out shit to stuff in my mouth…

So damn depressing!!

After the last game got panned, LASS played it safe with this year’s new title — safe to the point of obvious regression. First, the art. The people who worked on the original art had handled designs for Akano Mio, Azuma Shione, and Kuroshiba Kanae in 11eyes Crossover, so their skill shouldn’t be in question. But LASS was probably genuinely short on cash and wanted to recoup, because like Kyonyuu Mura they inflated everyone’s busts at least tenfold. I actually felt like crying when I saw the flat-chested loli in the café — that’s the only flat chest in the entire game world. Even the loli heroine eventually grows into huge tits, and saggy ones at that. Did anyone on the planning side of this game have a brain? Do they think otaku are idiots who only care about bust size and not quality? Character design this lewd is hard enough just to look at, let alone get invested in.

Another thing worth roasting is the male character design. It looked familiar at first glance, like I’d seen it somewhere, and after a quick mental search I figured it out:

“Isn’t this literally the art style of Fantasy Westward Journey?”

So the story unfolds somewhere between Fantasy Westward Journey men and lewd-bust women.

I’ve always told myself I’m all about the story — as long as the story’s good, nothing else matters. But Sakura Fubuki directly violated my worldview, and I had to drop the tsundere act and admit I do have at least some standards for character design. So how’s the story in Mayoi no Futari to Sekai no Subete?

Played 3Days? It’s about that level.

Yeah yeah, I know, I know, you’re going to tell me 3Days is a masterpiece. The thing is, that game isn’t a masterpiece for the game itself — it’s a masterpiece for the setup where you have to traverse every branch before the story continues. Set that aside and it’s mind-numbingly boring slice-of-life, stiff chuuni developments, weak late-game battle writing, and classic copy-paste individual routes. 3Days isn’t that great a game; it’s just got a clever idea.

Unfortunately, Mayoi no Futari to Sekai no Subete’s script was handled entirely by Kenki Mana, the writer of 3Days — not by Shishi Funki, the one who saved LASS with 11eyes.

So the mind-numbingly boring slice-of-life Returns!

The story, simply put: the protagonist finds a little girl nobody but him can see, and this girl is sealed inside the school by barriers, which seem connected to the seven mysteries rumored around campus.

They are: the door that won’t open, the girl nobody can see, the moving goddess statue, the big mirror at 4:44, the skeleton specimen, Napoleon in the prep room, the thirteen steps to heaven.

The protagonist and friends start breaking these mysteries one by one. Each time one is solved, the loli ages up a bit and her range of movement expands, until finally the barrier is fully broken and all kinds of natural disasters start hitting the protagonist’s world. Then a boss shows up claiming he’s going to kill the girl. From the boss’s mouth we learn the loli is actually a high elf from another world; ages ago a magician abducted her into this world and imprisoned her. The reason: there’s no World Tree in the human realm, and high elves need the World Tree’s power just to use their abilities and survive. Without one, she drains the earth’s power instead — which is why the natural disasters are happening.

In short, letting this loli live in the human world will destroy it, so this high elf loli must die.

So the protagonist starts trading barbs with the boss, and eventually the high elf says she has a way back to the elf world. A portal opens, the protagonist takes the loli back to the elf world, and finds the World Tree has withered. They need the World Seed, but the seed is gone, so the loli sacrifices herself to become the World Tree, and the protagonist returns to reality to live an ordinary life.

After clearing all routes, the protagonist does a Time Leap and gets to choose to save the loli again. The group defeats the Deathwing of the elf world… oh, sorry, the giant dragon, and learns how to regenerate the World Seed. The loli creates the World Tree without sacrificing herself, and it’s a Happy End.

And that’s the story… no real highlights, but passable enough on paper. In the details, though, it’s relentlessly boring. First the slice-of-life — I won’t even bother. Then the battles: the combat writing is nowhere near 11eyes, not even Shoujo Shin’iki, not even Shiroi Eien. The protagonist draws his sword and the enemy is instantly an idiot, then one slash and it’s over… more brainless than Guilty Crown, seriously. Then the seven mysteries, which are hyped like actual chapters — totally nonsensical stuff. Looks like it’s building to a fight, the atmosphere is creepy, and then two lines later it’s done…

The skeleton specimen especially. The skeleton pops out, everyone nearly pisses themselves, and no matter how they hit it, it won’t die. Turns out the skeleton just can’t see clearly, and putting on glasses calms it down…

What kind of IQ does it take to write a script like this?

And Napoleon in the prep room is even more baffling. First they say you have to beat Napoleon at chess, but when they’re finally about to win, the guy cheats, and the protagonist obediently loses. Then losing makes Napoleon happy, so he breaks the barrier.

……………………

All in all, the late-game developments look decent, but the story overall is bland as water. The slice-of-life puts you to sleep, the confrontations are dumb, and combined with the weak-as-hell sprites and character designs and the lewd bust sizes, it’s hard to give this one a high score. That said, the game doesn’t exactly dig its own grave — it’s just not very good.

Put it this way: this game’s level of story depth is common in Yuzusoft games, but Yuzusoft’s character designs are ten million times better than yours… they’ve got a selling point, LASS doesn’t. Even the connections to previous games amount to little more than a new member of the Hirohara family, Hirohara Nayuta, and Nayuta is the weakest member of the family. She’s got no stamina and so-so brains; at best she’s a bit like a delinquent girl poser, vaguely resembling Hirohara Yukiko. Being able to read magic at the end barely redeems her — but only barely.

Evaluating Mayoi no Futari to Sekai no Subete is like a student writing an essay. They look like they’re trying really hard, but the sentences are awkward, the paragraphs are unclear, and the handwriting’s ugly. They didn’t try to be clever with an acrostic telling the teacher they’re an idiot or slip in politically sensitive content to piss people off — but you still can’t give that essay a good grade, because it’s just not good.

One last thing worth mentioning: LASS did make a breakthrough. The individual routes are no longer copy-pasted — no wait, they achieved longer copy-pasted content. Specifically, whichever heroine’s route you’re on, you go to the elf world with her to solve the loli problem. The process differs slightly, but all roads lead to the same ending.

LASS’s chances of recovering with this one are probably gone. The whole game is even more budget-conscious than Shoujo Shin’iki — they couldn’t even be bothered with battle effects. The only thing worth praising is the OP, and even that OP is fraudulent…

Even so, I’m still a LASS fanboy. I hope Kenki-sensei doesn’t kick the bucket from uremia… Next time, get an honest artist and make a proper moe-ge for Chigami Nanako.