G-Senjou No Maou (Devil on G String)
This is a small personal review of the visual novel. I first came across it after searching on VNDB for something to read, and from glancing at its tags, It looked interesting.
Note, there will be lots of spoilers here so if you feel like ever playing it (hint: Its really good), Please go that and come back or dont.
The game has a really good story, I'm just saying this generally not in comparison to any other VNs cause I havent read that many.
The major story telling is done from the first person so often you'll find yourself thinking with only the information the protagonist has on hand.
It really pulls the rug under you quite often, and although I will admit sometimes It gets a little slow and you want it to move on the important major plot points, Those little slow parts help to really build the charachters you meet as real people,
and kind of empathize with them on some level, even though many of them may fall into certain stereotypes or tropes that are common, By the end of each route, You can kind of feel like that they are their own person with their own thoughts and feelings.
Going forward I'm going to assume you've already played it since this is a review and not an introduction to the game.
Choices can tend to be few and far between and sometimes they seem inconsequential but its okay, the narrative that is spun is really good and its a "visual novel" not a multiple choice quiz.
The game splits into 4 different routes, Each one further along in the story than the previous, This does cause the plot to fracture at the end especially in time skips but really its not too bad, and you can live with it.
Overall I give the game a solid 9/10
Tsubaki's Route
This is in a sense the most wholesome route I guess? None of the routes are particularly wholesome or where everyone gets a good ending but this one is really close.
Tsubaki's your classmate and initially perfectly fits the "innocent girl" charachter, But due to the protagonists Yakuza relations, Their relationship changes quite a bit.
The protag wants Tsubaki's family to abandon their ancestral home and relocate.
Especially during and after the kidnapping arc, You can really see how Tsubaki's charachter is forced to change in response, Which is something particularly human and not something you see often I think.
You can see her new feelings of distrust and that not everyone you meet is good.
Once the protag opens his heart to Tsubaki, You can even feel changes in him too, Like when he finally decides to protect the ones he loves and pulls an all or nothing gamble to save the Tsubaki residence, This part especially when the protag is willing to give up his relation to her to avoid hurting her any further out of duty, and her desperate attempt to change him is particularly powerful.
I overall liked this ending a lot, It closed up just enough holes and gave enough of a conclusion to leave you satisfied.
Azai Kanon's Route
There's a lot of touchy feely bits with this route so its a little hard to properly describe.
Azai Kanon is the protagonists sister but not related by blood (a true classic). This one hits on a lot of deep feelings too. The story kinda pivots to Kanon's point of view.
The route majorly follows Kanon's feelings for her mother and in part her brother, How she finally decides to come to terms with her mother's treatment of her and how she feels used and her, I guess immature feelings towards the other competitors.
Even from the initial interactions, It feels like Kanon is kind of aloof of how other people feel.
But when she becomes vunerable, You can kind of really see what kind of person she is and you can really empathize with maybe not her situation but at least her feelings.
This one also kind of leaves you wanting more at the end, cause it just ends with Kanon leaving for America while still being in a relationship with Kyousuke.
Mizuhara's Ending
Once you start this route, You find the usually icy Mizuhara is actually a Tsundere or is it Kuudere? I don't really know.
This one was just okay, There is a pretty abrupt time skip in the middle and most of it focuses on the relationship between Mizuhara and Tsuki, So the romance is there at the start anyway but its not entirely prevalent.
You sort of explore what Mizuhara feels when her beloved sister disappears entirely once more and how she feels forced to change and become a different person.
You really notice this with the time skip so I guess that works if thats what they were going for..
But hey, this is the only one with a wedding screen so that's nice.
Feels like it was written as a kind of after thought, not entirely ignored just not focused on.
True Ending (Haru's Route)
This is the one with the credits, Its also by far the saddest or most melancholic ending at least, Its really hard to contain in words so if you really wanna see what I mean go play it.
Okay so in the 3-4th part, It's revealed that Haru is a childhood friend of the protag, and was in love, I'll admit this completley caught me by surprise, cause initially it didnt feel like Haru was a romance target at all.
??? It kind of feels like a bit of bad writing that it was revealed that late and so abruptly but I guess I cant hate them for it and there were hints dropped but you tend to dismiss them (like the protag does).
The twist is also kind of a ??? moment, though when it's told the Kyousuke had a super intelligent brother in the first place, You already sort of know what's gonna happen.
This kind of sucks cuz they build up Kyousuke being Maou so much that even he in game thinks he is Maou but no he isn't instead his brother is convieniently brought back from the dead.
I don't really like it but it's okay I feel like.
During the chaos insued by Maou, The protag finally realizes his feelings in their entirety and risks life and limb to save Haru from falling off a skyscraper (cliche huh?).
After that Maou is supposedly dead and blah blah blah, You think theyll have their happy ending
Except NO, they won't.
If you wait for after the credits (if you wanted it to end happily, stop it there), In the epilouge, Its revealed that Maou is actually still alive and he confronts Haru.
The protag in that moment decides to sacrifice himself for her and even though you may not relate with him at that moment of self sacrifice, When you see his interactions with the other charachters from behind bars and how he is forced to push them away & to refuse his own feelings to protect Haru, You really start feeling sad for the guy.
You start feeling kind of both angry and sad at the reason the protag was forced to do the things he did, but there never is some kind of magic trick that makes everyone happy and often people have to sacrifice a lot of things maybe even themselves entirely for the ones they care about.
It's revealed in the end that he has a ... Not telling. But you kind of feel like maybe he will have a chance for happiness at the end, Even after going through a lot.
This one really left me feeling a lot of things, The other routes (especially Tsubaki's) did too, but the feeling you get at the very end when everything is concluded is quite profound.
It was the most I felt throughout reading the whole thing, The epiloque hits hard.
If you just read the main route, without ever touching the others, This is quite an amazing sort of mystery thriller read.
The H scenes are present and can feel a little bit unecessary at times but 🤷
