On May 28th, 2013, Charon would release their first ever game: Mikoto Nikki. Mikoto Nikki, while not anything notable itself, would mark the start of a long line of visual novels going forward - a line that's, impressively, still being pushed out to this day. Almost a decade later, on November 26, 2022, Charon would then decide to release a remaster of their first piece that promised improved graphics, a new UI, and an overall improved experience. Does it live up to those expectations?
Absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ not. This remaster is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ atrocious. Let's just get this review out of the way so we can all just keep our $2 and move on with our lives.
First of all, I think it's appropriate if we take a look at the first red flag: the new UI. The problem with it stems not necessarily from the fact itself that it's point-and-click, but rather the fact that the original was made in RPGMaker 2000 and was exclusively keyboard controlled. Now try to imagine if you took the standard RPGMaker game - exclusively make movement a line and have the interact button pop up whenever you needed, make every little movement you make a button on-screen you have to click and hold, and have distance determined solely based on how long you held the button - and that's the UI of Mikoto Nikki. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous when the original was just the standard RPGMaker 2000 UI and works a billion times superior. Matarou wasn't exactly as quick as a rabbit in the original, but at the bloody bare minimum it didn't feel like I was wrestling with the game just to get him to move. Did I forget to mention that the "map" is practically a png of the original game's layout? You don't even have to play it to know it; just look at the store page screenshots and then back at the original game on YouTube or something. That surely that screams effort, doesn't it?
Still not convinced to not blow your money on this piece of ♥♥♥♥? Silly me, I forgot to mention that there's another issue that's completely fixable by just experiencing the original. If you exit the game at any point - at ANY point - your progress is completely erased. There's no option to manually save, and the only compensation you get is an autosave feature that doesn't even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work. Believe me, I tried it multiple times. It just locks you onto what might as well be a PNG of the living room with your own character Matarou to be nowhere in sight. Interesting how they could have avoided needing to poorly code into Unity by just importing what they already had into a newer version of RPGMaker, huh? Or maybe they could've avoided my hatred towards the Mikoto Nikki remaster if they had JUST FREAKING CODED BETTER.
Well, I don't need to rant anymore for you to get a general idea of my thoughts on this really niche remaster of its slightly less niche original from currently 13 years ago. Part of the reason I'm so frustrated with it is because it clearly has artistic effort put in from Charon from 9 years of experience with game-making; it's effort that only shows in the new character models and cutscenes, and nowhere else. If more was put into actually making the game ♥♥♥♥♥♥' playable, maybe I'd even recommend it. You know what I can recommend, though? Playing the original. Unlike this steaming pile of ♥♥♥♥, it's completely free and devoid of problems you'd encounter here.
0/10
