Game Review : Muv Luv Unlimited and Alternative

Dear All, 

It has been some times since I make my last review. Now I would like to share my review about Muv Luv. Maybe some of you have already heard it. From what I know it was very famous in Japan and world wide, hence many side stories encompassing anime, manga, and light novel. For this review I will combine both Muv Luv unlimited and Alternative since it was direct sequel. Besides, I think it was not fair to review Muv Luv Unlimited alone because I don't see any story in it. It was like an opening for Muv Luv Alternative. Anyway, here we go. 

Muv Luv is game about humanity survival. There's fight between human and BETA (alien). You don't have to play Unlimited first but I suggest you play it because you will appreciate what happen in Alternative more than if you directly play Alternative. Anyway, there are 2 parts in Muv Luv Unlimited (Extra and Unlimited). Extra is the original world for our main char Shirogane Takeru. For unknown reason, he was transported into parallel world in which human fight with BETA. To avoid confusion between the two, I will called the world in Unlimited and Alternative (BETA world). In Muv Luv Unlimited, Takeru try to do his best to fight the alien. Unfortunately, he fail to fulfill his duty because of Alternative V. You can say that it was very tragic. Anyway, in Muv Luv Alternative, Takeru came back to the past and now with memories from the past, he will once again try to save the humanity and make Alternative IV become reality. 

Anyway, it was quite long game. But I have no complain about it since it was very great. I mean there's mecha, fighting, military, aliens, science fiction, sad theme, beautiful art, great characters, great music, great animation, and the most important amazing story. The world is vast. There are many characters if you include side stories. I can say it has the potential to become the next Gundam. Even the ending itself is quite open. I mean I can imagine that there's no lack of story to continue it. The characters are solid and developed. You can see our main protagonist character development from boy become grown up man. Even the heroines have back bone to create their own existence. Anyway, the song are amazing especially the battle song. I really like it. And the story itself is top notch. You can feel the emotion in every fight. My suggestion prepare a lot of tissues, especially when you approach 75% of the game (joining A-01 team). The story really move on with full thrusters here. Of course, it could have been better because I feel the last battle is quite rushed. There are many unanswered question. Still it was one of the best visual novel that I ever known. 

I think what makes Muv Luv especially Muv Luv Alternative great is there are many ideas and opinions that is not right and wrong. Even though the main character is Takeru Shirogane, we don't really feel that he has strong influence toward others. Takeru is like blank canvass that become painted beautifully at the end. Like Takeru, we learned many things about humanity. We learned that we cannot always get what we want. But if we can be true to ourselves and overcome the pain, then there are happiness at the end of our journey. The key to our happiness could be lie in our sufferings. I think Takeru learn about this first hand when he know the truth about his journey. 

I really recommend this game for people who like Gundam or casual visual novel fans or science fiction theorist (believe it or not, there are a lot of science fiction theories in this game). Cannot wait for the sequel. 

Rating : 10 of 10 stars

Regards, 

Angela