My Impression on Bladeranger
The 2nd offering by Maika in heroine corruption game for the year 2014 with a third ( A Persona Driver sequel) being planned & hopefully announced soon, this review is probably very subjective in terms of goods & bad and hopefully will not deter anyone from trying the game if you are a fan of corruption game.
Overall, the game feels pretty formulaic, by the book & average to me even though it has the trapping of Justice Blade (another MaikaSentai heroine corruption game) .It’s a decent game though after playing it though I don’t think it’ll be as replayed by me as much as say the two Sailor Knight games or Tetrastar or the four Justice Blade games.
What I liked.
1.I do like it that unlike Justice Blade, we got some scenes of the team forming and what the girls are like prior to being Bladeranger and such if only briefly. Also the prequel story that focuses on the Bladeranger& set up the environment/ backstory is mercifully short & you can focus on Ichiro the protagonist right away, which unlike Justice Blade 3,Zero, you have to slog through one round of the story first before getting to enslave the girls.
2. That we get some fan input in creating scenario, I’m still half convinced that the clone-baby of the Blue Girl is from a fan since it hasn’t been a recycle like the scenario for the other girls, it feels quite fresh.
3. That there is SOME “vague” reference to the Great Leader from Justice Blade (The main character is told that there was once a legendary Great Leader who defeated /corrupted the Sentai girls opposing him though “Something” happened so that Earth Jade weren’t able to take over the world since then.
What I disliked or think could have been done another way.
1.A very jumbled overall story
To elaborate, the game gives us choices/routes and then try to tie it all together by having you gain something to advance the storyline of one route in another route and the explanation for why you can do that is only explained in one route which you will eventually play. This sort of stunt the game in that you have to replay the game on another route if the route you’re on says you can’t go further & the hints of where to go can seem pretty vague even if you know Japanese.
Also, by trying to tie all the routes together, it makes you wonder which route’s version of the protagonist is the main one, & what actually happened in it, did the mad scientist assistant die or is she alive & your lover or just a friend, how did you gain revenge on all the Bladeranger and the female great leader, etc. Also why can’t you corrupt the red in one route (other than the fact that you did in other routes and the ending in each route didn’t elaborate on what happened to the characters not focused on leaving it hanging a bit and this continues to the harlem epilogue where you don’t know which version you are and how you corrupt all the Bladeranger since it seems to be another world ,or another scenario. In short, whoever oversee the overall story structure made a jumbled mess out of it trying to tie everything together where he should have done as previous Maika game in making sure each route has a full ending showing which member you corrupt, which is humiliated/rape,etc.
It’s many great scenario put together through what I think is a jumble of a story, it needs a stronger structure or a main branch to organize the story and not make me confused.
2. Story concept (minor gripe)
This is more of a personal preference but due to the story being basically an erotic/H- revenge story, itsorts of colors the story in that the protagonist only sees the corrupted or brainwashed heroine as only a loaded gun. I don’t think there’s any scene that shows the corrupted/brainwashed girls acting aseager servants/ lieutenant to aiding the protagonist’s schemes. In past Maika game, the protagonist is motivated by lust, desire & ambition to get the heroic girls under his control, conquer them to be his personal play thing or his eager subordinates which helps the tone of the previous games which appeals to me. I’m pretty sure that there are those who likes revenge story with mind control or corruption but to me, it doesn’t mix well.
3.Maika reusing Corruption Scenario
Having played lots of Maika game, some corruption scenario for the heroine can be the same but some of them do have minute difference due to the character’s backstory but for Spear White (The commander) her corruption scenario is roughly 99% the same as the one from Patreisser game last year (the Mantis red one) if I remember right. They really should do something than reuse the scenario considering Spear White’s character have Survivor’s guilt from the death of her old team which is unique and something to corrupt her/ turn her into a slave could have been created from that.
Also perhaps they could have varied the “modify the girl physically & mentally brainwash/ corrupt her on a lab table via tentacles/ mechanical wiring” bit a little. I mean there are other methods that’s just as erotic such as maybe a cocoon (for organic transformation into monster girls) or maybe a womb/fetus with the girl in a fetus curl position. This ties into….
What I wish could have been done….
(This is not what I dislike but what I wish they would have done
1. I was hoping that the corruption scene would relate to the Blade Ranger’s personality or job shown but it was very generic in a sense that it could have been done to any heroine unlike say Sailor Knight 2’s Gold Heart (Orange Venus stand in) or the small Pink Sailor GarnetteChibiUsa’s stand in whose corruption are based on their story, relationship with others.
2. The clone-baby of the Blue girl : although the scenario IS fresh, I still didn’t like the clone-baby scenario that much, I hate diapers on grown girls and the baby talk (goo googahgah) from the clone outside from her saying Oniichan (big brother) is very annoying making the merge between the clone & original not so good in my opinion, this is just a personal gripe but I WOULD have like them to age the clone mentally to say an elementary school girl who acts as a nice obedient little sister having puppy love with her “big brother” so that the merge would feel more erotic as the blue girl switch personality in mid-sentence,etc Either that or give the yellow one the Oniichan scenario which they didn’t, they still haven’t done so for any short “loli”-esque character in any game (JB Zero, Tetrastar, even Sailor Knight 2, no Oniichan fetish that can really be satisfied.
3. An extremely minor annoyance: They have to call the evil version: BladeBlack (color)? That feels weird already with the main three but for the Spear White become Spear Black White, now that’s a very contradictory name that really doesn’t feel evil but instead feels stupid. Call them Dark Blade or Jade Blade or something.
Overall, like I said, it was a decent game but nothing memorable, personally I’m hoping for a better showing from the Persona Driver sequel. A 6.5/10 for me.
RELEASE