I’ve always thought of Lucle as something of an outlier among scenario writers in the visual novel market. While other works were still stuck on surface-level romance full of anime stereotypes, Lucle used theatrical prose and direction to deliver something genuinely different — a dimensional strike against a VN scene already frozen into “chuuni philosophy,” “dark and edgy,” and “cookie-cutter school confessions.” After Mahou Tsukai no Hako (紙の上の魔法使い), Suisou Ginka no Istoria (水葬銀貨のイストリア), Sora ni Kizanda Parallelogram (空に刻んだパラレログラム), and Meikai no Rupekaria (冥契のルペルカリア), Lucle went quiet for a long stretch with no new work. Some say he got lazy, but I doubt it. If you’ve followed his narratives, or really sat down and experienced them, it’s easy to spot Lucle’s three favorite tricks: a miserable fate built on contradictions, a weak-willed protagonist, and a villain who whispers demonic temptations at him for the long haul — plus a genius character whose presence he uses to show ordinary people their own inferiority. Meikai no Rupekaria was already the culmination, a distillation of everything Lucle could bring. You can see echoes of his earlier works all over it. Sometimes I think Lucle burned himself out finishing Meikai no Rupekaria. Or, to put it more bluntly: he ran out of material.

Rukuru’s first new game in two years, and honestly, from the moment 冥契のルペルカリア’s setting was announced, I felt very… uncomfortable. First off, the title alone looks like people are going to die. Then the character designs straight-up contain elements from 紙の上の魔法使い, which had me suspecting the game was trying to coast on past glories. That said, neither the synopsis nor anything else explicitly states what 冥契のルペルカリア has to do with 紙の上の魔法使い — just a bunch of plausible-sounding edge-balling. Even the CVs don’t line up; I remember the witch being voiced by 小倉結衣, not メイ大姐. I took a look at the plot summary and it turned out to be stage-play focused, which killed my interest even more. But the scenario writer’s skill is still there, and last year had basically nothing with a decent story, so I went ahead and played it on faith in Rukuru. The whole playthrough was a mess — at one point I lost my eroge machine, then it broke down again, and I finally stumbled my way to the end. Hmm… how should I put it. The quality was about what I expected, but there were some disappointing parts too. So let me just run through it briefly.

When you talk about galge, you can’t not bring up eroge, and when you talk about eroge, you can’t not think of the ones that left a real impression, and when you talk about leaving an impression, you can’t not think of Kami no Ue no Mahou Tsukai, and then you can’t not bring up the writer behind it: Rukuru. And when you talk about Rukuru, you have to talk about his new game with Kiriha at the end of 2018, Sora ni Kizanda Parallelogram. Going from literary subject matter to a sports backdrop—truly a double bloom, literature and sport both, worth keeping an eye on. I’ve brought up Rukuru more than once, and I’ve recommended the stuff he wrote more than once too. The biggest factor is just how good his stories are. Rukuru can tell a story, and his prose isn’t childish either—it reads comfortably, and that’s his biggest charm and personality. Sure, some people rag on him for all the typos, but who among us who writes every day doesn’t have a few typos (I’m not talking about myself here). So the release of Sora ni Kizanda Parallelogram put me in a bind. The dilemma is pretty obvious. On one hand I was looking forward to a new Rukuru game and that familiar sour-sweet script of his. On the other hand… this new game… Sora ni Kizanda Parallelogram… doesn’t it feel a little too bootleg? You don’t need me to say it—anyone with eyes can see it. This so-called Sora ni Kizanda Parallelogram, whether you look at the setting or the character designs, looks extremely similar to a certain work from a certain studio that’s already dead. Yeah, that’s right—Sprite’s Aokana: Four Rhythms Across the Blue, aka Aokana. Same airborne sport, same male lead as coach, same four hair colors for the heroines. Opinions on the game were all over the place at the time; most people figured it was Aokana’s “spiritual successor,” since the setup is just too similar. At the same time, people were guessing based on Rukuru’s previous style—would Sora ni Kizanda Parallelogram have people dying left and right, getting crippled, all that mess…? After all, his previous games were all gloom-and-doom. So I was worried. So I was torn. But whatever the game turned out to be, you only know once you’ve cleared it. As 2018 came to a close, before the Sino-American co-produced Journey to the West started filming, I finally finished this one. And I ended up even more confused. “Compared to his previous work, is this game a step forward or a step back?” Maybe going back over the whole game will make the answer easier to reach.

I’ve made no secret of how much I love Hihou no Mahoutsukai (紙の上の魔法使い), or of how much I praise its writer, Rukuru. Same goes for Unmei Yohou wo Oshirase Shimasu, the game Rukuru put out before it. What makes this writer so strong is that he genuinely knows how to tell a story — the pacing, the dialogue, the word choice and the overall style all give off this elegant, gripping feel. Other visual novel writers, by comparison, read like high schoolers in the middle of a chuuni phase. That gap hits you hard: play a Rukuru game, then go pick up some mainstream VN, and the latter’s dialogue feels stupid and half-witted next to it, while the former actually reads like a story, one with images in it. I guess that’s what you’d call raw skill in a scenario writer. After Hihou no Mahoutsukai, the studio Ugui Sugura went quiet for way too long. A little over a year before, they tweeted that yes, they were properly working on a new game; then at the end of 2016 Suisou Ginkka no Istoria got announced, an early 2017 trial came out, and in March it launched with zero delays. Happiness arrived too fast, and I started playing the moment I got it. (I’d love to buy a legit copy, but I have no idea if standard forwarding will get me a friendly invitation from customs — any veterans with a reliable route, please enlighten me.)