#8 Ourai no Gahkthun ~What a Shining Braves~
one cannot truly talk about gahkthun without talking about the rest of liar-softs steampunk series, and its incredibly fragmented and flawed release in english is probably the reason why its been consistently underlooked by potential fans for years now. ourai no gahkthun, gahkthun of the golden lightning, was the first game in the series officially translated into english by a real publisher, despite being the fifth entry in a series that had existed for almost a decade at that point, and which consists of not only visual novels, but webnovels which function as afterstories and build on the ever-growing world of the series. lets not forget the extra one-shot vignettes published in liar-softs now defunct monthly magazine which sometimes introduces brand new characters and concepts. and the novel which practically counts as a new entry in the series published by nitroplus. and the fandisc for the entire series as a whole. and the crossover fandisc with other games from the publisher. and the in-character blog posts. and th
despite all of this the series is constantly feeling like it struggles to keep its head above the water and stay alive, with production cycles for each game taking about a year and the time pressure can be physically felt in some of them (sharnoth particularly, even in the rereleased full voice version the ending feels quite rushed and unclear, and yet its still one of my favorite visual novels of all time). gahtkun is another example of this, the game feels like it told half the story, leaving many questions unanswered. of course, this is only true if youre an english-only fan. the game has a novel sequel, several drama cds of varying plot-to-fanservice ratios, and a full fandisc sequel with fate/hollow ataraxia style map mechanics.
to someone introduced to the series with this entry it is a game with an unclear beginning, unclear events, and an abrupt and unclear ending. that is not to say the game isnt full of mysteries for a 'fan' of the franchise as well, but the writer loves referencing literature of various levels of obscurity, occultism, lovecraftian mythology (and actual stories written by him) and real historical figures and obscure facts about them. many aspects of the world itself are also left purposefully obscure, or might only be explained properly in one of the games in the series. gahkthun and sona-nyl both have an encyclopedia included with the game, but i have to admit to avoiding it because it spoils events of previous games (and sometimes the game youre reading at that exact moment) as often as it clarifies an aspect of the worldbuilding. to me decoding the greater implications of the story and the meaning of various supernatural things going on is a huge part of what makes it fun to read in the first place.
who the fuck is the ticktockman? read sona-nyl or inganock to find out
gahkthun itself feels like it focuses more on shounen-type interests than the other games, with a significant focus on cool robots and physical combat, but most fights still end with an emotional resolution rather than the victory of the stronger participant. there is a running thread of the 'masculine' desire for revenge and the need to be a savior of humanity, textbook themes of the works inspired by kamen rider, gundam and fate/stay night, which have practically become the central theme of visual novels/galge/eroge as a whole, but unlike most other works, the hero of justice(正義の味方) is the secondary protagonist, and the primary protagonist is the barely-considered voice of the savior of the savior of humanity, who is usually relegated to the final-route heroine who states a question such as, "im not sure how well you can help others if youre constantly trying to get yourself killed in the name of a greater goal" or something. this serves to fully destabilize the entire premise and view it from a flipped perspective, as an internal struggle of being understood, rather than an external fight against the unfixable evils of the world.
that is to say, despite its boyish presentation, its very much a story following in the storytelling tradition of shoujo and josei, and manages to perfectly combine both of its sources of inspiration into a logical whole. its a story for everyone who has realized that fundamentally mahou shoujo and kamen rider are the same thing, and one which would have a hard time existing outside of its publishing context from a company dedicated to publish weird things that are impossible to define as any one genre. unfortunately, this is also the reason why it struggles so much to find an audience, especially in english-speaking circles. mangagamer has chose to market itself as a publisher for men who love galge, despite the fact their best selling series are, like, higurashi and fata morgana, so they keep trying to pretend games like gahkthun are made for the audience that gave muramasa 10/10 on vndb rather than admitting to themselves that theres a considerable percentage of their fans that would play gahkthun on its own merits and will never know it exists now.
tesla and neon are a 10/10 straight couple, neon has launched herself shockingly high on my wab girlies favorites list for a tsundere housewife, gahkthun is heavens feel for people who wish shirou was more emotionally constipated and sakura made some menhera school friends. the art is wonderful apart from when kome decides to draw boobs like theyre water balloons about to blow which is approximately 40% of the time. the writing is great like always and i think everyone who doesnt like sakurais writing needs to go read something that isnt proseless young adult fiction for once in their life, repetition owns, go fuck yourself, etc. berta transgender real, miss annabeth please marry me, i cant wait to read the novel and fd to see neon kick some guys in the face. i LOVE that the catgirl straight up never came out as a real catgirl pretending to be a fake catgirl.
"if you want to read a wab game sonanyl is better and 10/10 but gahkthun is straight up good time so if it sounds like itd be a good time to you then please read it dude ill buy it for anyone on steam if you promise to play it i dont even care" - official review
