Edit: This review ended up being much longer than I thought haha.
Wow. I was completely blown away by this game. Absolutely amazing! I love all the characters and how they were written. This is a school/magic VN done right.
The main character is the type I like best. One who is disadvantaged compared to the other characters but is by no means weak. He's a human so compared to demi-humans, his magic reserves are low, but he's a smart cookie so he makes up for it. I like how the author has balanced his personality with being realistic and heroic (obviously depending on your choices) and he has some great sarcastic lines. I guess as a fellow shut-in, I just relate to him?
The novel starts off very light-hearted and comedy-centric but as the plot thickens, there is a very serious tone being followed about relationships and how they can be broken due to misconceptions or prejudice. Sometimes you take a break from this due to comedy but it is very well paced in my opinion.
The length of the story and the routes are very good for its price and is actually superior to some other VNs I've read. The art quality is amazing. Absolutely LOVE all 44 of the CGs. My favourite one is not only the last one I unlocked, but also the funniest one in my opinion. It's CG #10 - What You Wish For. If you're still on the fence about getting this game. Just do it for this one particular CG - you'll laugh your butt off.
All of the routes were well written and there some very thought provoking statements being said here that caught me off guard sometimes. My favourite for romance would be Drakan's with Lisha's coming in close second. As for comedy, it's definitely the Eth/Rei route. Can't tell much coz spoilers but wow. There are 3 people that I was expecting to get a route (Tix, Hel and Eris) but I am soooo glad Zetsubou did not give in and twist events to give them routes because it would have been very awkward given the situations in the game. That said, I would have also liked to see where he could have taken them if they became romantic interests but oh well. You can't have everything.
I'm just gonna have this paragraph here solely ranting about Jorou's route. Jorou's the one that really shocked me, I DID NOT expect anything like this. It was amazing in a dark way and that just makes it more memorable. *Minor spoiler* I am still not sure which one of her endings is meant to be the happy/good one and which one is the bad one. It is that complicated.
There are still a few minor issues with the novel but nothing game-breaking. For example, there are times when a character's portrait briefly flashes in the dialogue box when it's transitioning.
Zetsubou, if you're reading this, I really hope you make a Part 2 with these characters. There's still so much you could write about! I know I already typed about how the length of this is good, but I need MOAR.
In short, I love this game to bits and whoever's reading this should either have already bought the game or is now on their way to the Buy Now button above.
Thanks for reading!