BL Game Review: Lamento -Beyond the Void-

Hallo, Dev here~ I'll be doing most of the BL game reviews, while Yami will be doing the Otome game reviews. In honor of Lamento's 5th Anniversary (and certainly because it's my fave BL game ever), I figured I'd make it my first review. I've never done reviews before, but I'm looking forward to it. I will try to discuss every aspect of the game including: story, art, characters, game play, music, voice acting, and whether or not I would recommend it (especially to those who do not understand Japanese well or at all). All right then, on to the review~




Story
Konoe, our main character, is an antinsocial kitty (Ribika) living on his own after both of his parents passed away. Due to a food shortage caused by a mysterious phenomenom called the "Void" his town, Karou, has set up a 'sacrifice' system in which cats are selected to be eaten by the rest of the villagers. One day, Konoe starts having ominous dreams about snakes, until after the 4th night he finds his ears and tail have turned black, and there are markings on his arms and legs.




Realizing his appearance could very well be the signs mentioned in an old legend fortelling the world's demise, Konoe escapes his village (the final straw being he had just been selected to become a sacrifice) in order to find answers about his 'curse'. On his journey he meets Asato, an awkward cat from the isolated village of Kira, Rai, a skilled and arrogant bounty hunter, and Bardo, the lazy innkeeper at Shisa's largest city, Ransen. Throw in some devils, an ominous bad guy in a mask with a shota-clown-lizard minion, and power that comes from 'singing' and you got......a really in depth game. XD Writing a summary for Lamento is actually pretty difficult, especially for someone like me who could take an hour trying to explain the story. This is because it's an insanely long game. I'm pretty sure it's the longest out of the Nitro+Chiral games so far. It's probably so long because they created a pretty elaborate world and go into the history of it, as well as explanations about the Ribika, the different tribes, customs, etc. Sometimes due to this, the story can get slow at times, but it's pretty much to get every bit of information they bothered to come up with out there. Personally, I think it's a really interesting story story full of all you could possibly want: drama, fantasy, angst, comedy, romance, tentacle rape.......er, yeah... I guess my one complaint might be the whole premise to the story, but I can't say what it is since that's the biggest OMG moment, but it does seem sort of...wait seriously, THAT'S what started all this!? Anyway, any BL game that can make me cry, rage and LOL is all right in my book~

Art
The art is done (as usual) by the very talented Tatana Kana~ Her art is perfect for the feel of the story, and the CGs are lovely. I'm still not a huge fan of the 3D modeled backgrounds, but since it's so very Nitro+Chiral, I'm not sure I could see it any other way. There's also a lot of really nice celtic-inspired designs all through out, which adds a nice touch~




I can tell she likes to draw Rai since most of the better looking CGs are of him < w<

Characters
I can't say there are any characters that I dislike. All of them are very well developed with very distinct personalities. Konoe is a refreshing break from Nitro+Chiral's angsty and/or reticent protangonists. He's got more of a personality, in my opinion, than Akira (Togainu no Chi) or Youji (Sweet Pool). He definitely shows a lot more different emotions than them. Of course, this might be due to the fact that he's literally uncontrolably empathetic because of his 'curse'. So much so he's even able to feel the emotions of objects. Either way, he's a likable main character. There are only 3 main pairings and then 3 bad end pairings with the devils (sorry, no love for the Devil of Grief, unless you enjoy tentacle rape :D) Asato, is admittedly my favorite. He's one of those awkward-little-kid-in-a-big-body type of characters, it's very endearing. Rai is my least favorite, but is probably the most popular since most girls seem to like the sarcastic-asshole types with long silver hair...oh, and an eyepatch which is like the icing on the badass cake. If there was a 'true end' in Lamento, it'd probably be Rai's by the way. Bardo is a great character, but if you want to end up with him, you won't actually get much interaction with him until half way through the game. Bardo is probably what you could call the 'comic relief' (or pervy old man) character. The devils are definitely the most entertaining characters. Even though they reign over certain emotions, it's not as cliche as you would think. Fraud, the Devil of Joy is actually pretty creepy, Verg, the Devil of Pleasure is kind of a pathetic comic relief character, Razel, the Devil of Wrath is the most level-headed, while Kaltz, the Devil of Grief is...well, that pretty much describes him...
The supporting characters in Lamento are also rather enjoyable. Even the limited amount of female characters (there's a decent reason for this: they've been mostly killed off by a disease that affects women and children first) aren't infuriating like most female characters are. And the bad guys are awesome, like they should be~




Sorry Bardo, y u no in picture!? Also, can you see what's wrong with this picture...?

Gameplay
It's a pretty basic visual novel style. You make decisions, and the path is decided from that. The answers aren't alwasy too obvious the first time playing through. Despite it being a basic visual novel style, it's anything but. There is an outrageous amount of movement in it. Almost to the point of ridiculous. There are alot of nice effects though. The programmers were apparently having waaay too much fun. They toned it down in Sweet Pool at least. Anyway, there are about 3 good endings, and 4 bad endings. (Personally, I'd call Razel's "bad ending" a good ending XD) Sadly, there's only 2 H scenes (with two CGs each) per good ending, an they're not until like the last 3/4th of the game. Honestly, the BL in this game seem to be more of an after thought, it's not really the main focus at all, but that's not really a bad thing either. And that's usually how Nitro+Chiral rolls anyway. There are plenty of save slots, and the back log (THANK GOD) does not go away when you exit the game, so if you haven't played for a while, you can go back as far as you like (which is so useful in a game as long as Lamento). If you're playing it on Vista there is a patch available to fix compatibility issues, but it may be a little glitchy still (mostly with the sound and sometimes it'll crash). Also, the support site says it probably won't work on Windows 7, but amazingly I finally got it to work, so it WILL play on Windows 7 (also with a few glitches).




Music
Pretty amazing~ I'm a big fan of ZIZZ though. They do music for all of Nitro+Chiral's games, so I'm never disappointed. However, of all the games, Lamento has the best soundtrack. Since the game is more fantasy-oriented, and old-worldy, the music definitey fits that sort of mood. The opening is in Latin, which is kinda awesome (even though...shouldn't it be Gaelic?? XD) and When the End is one of my fave songs ever (never fails to get me all misty eyed). Most of the vocals are done by Itou Kanako and Watanabe Kazuhiro (as usual~). I'd recommend downloading the OST~




Voice Acting
Such an amazing cast~ It's fully voiced, which is always awesome.
Voices wise though, I have to say the devils are my favorite. Each of them have a voice that's so suited to them, it's insane XD Konoe doesn't have an annoying uke voice which is pretty much all I ever ask for when it comes to voices. On another note, Inuno Chuusuke as Razel makes my knees go weak, he needs more lines! XD And Kijima Uta as Tokino makes me even more frustrated that there are no H scenes with him D:< All in all though, it's a great love fest for your ears~

Recommend?
Would I recommend this game? I mean, I obviously love it to NO END, but I will admit that certain people may not enjoy it as much as I did. It's probably a little less "heavy" than Togainu no Chi and Sweet Pool, so if you're more into those sort of stories, maybe Lamento won't suit your tastes. Also, it's long, like it'll take a couple of days to finish long. It's also very plot heavy, so people who don't understand Japanese very well (or at all) may find it too slow and not full of enough smut. However, if you enjoy cat boys, amazing art & music, and a little BL with your plot, I definitely recommend it. Especially if you're a fan of Nitro+Chiral games, but found Togainu no Chi too complicated and Sweet Pool too...horrifying...It's a nice happy medium~