Unrestrained Igra Fun: let's talk about Togainu no Chi

When I had laser eye surgery to correct my vision, I had to spend a lot of time laying in complete darkness. During this time, I mostly worried about something going wrong and never being able to see again. My most pressing thought was, what if I go blind and die without having played Togainu no Chi?!

Of course, my worries of dying regretting that I hadn't read more gay porn on the computer when I had the chance were groundless, and as soon as I could stand to look at a screen for a prolonged period of time, I dug out the files that had been in my computer since the year prior and finally started up Togainu no Chi. It kind of became a symbol of my recovery in that way, which is kind of funny to think about.

The art and character designs all had a really cool vibe. The BGMs weren’t bad, and the two ending songs were incredibly good. I was also startled by how many voice actors I recognized in the cast. I kept looking them up one after the other, thinking, “no, this cannot possibly be him”, but it always was. This wasn't the case in the other chiral VNs I played, so it was pretty surprising.

Anyway. We have a post-WW3 setting, with Japan divided into two opposing countries. Our protagonist, Akira, is a sort of jaded guy that's really good at street fights, which seems like some sort of recurring theme in these VNs. One day, after he’s suddenly arrested for a murder he didn't commit, some government agents come and give him a proposal: they'll lift his charges if he joins a criminal organization’s death game called “Igra” and defeat their leader, known only as “Il Re”.

The concept of Igra as a game (you get 5 dog tags which correspond to a playing card, and if you manage to get a straight or a royal flush through fighting other people for their tags, you get to challenge Il Re) is really fun, and I wish it had been explored more—when it’s not totally irrelevant, it just basically solves itself, which kind of feels like a waste.

It's obviously a very violent setting, and there's plenty of bad endings for poor Akira to fall into before you even get into any of the routes—pretty awesome, if you were to ask me (probably much less so if you were to ask Akira—)

At first I didn't even think Keisuke would have a route, so his depth as a character and his feelings for Akira caught me by surprise. There's some pretty brutal bits along the way (not that I'm complaining, I know well what I signed up for), but their relationship ends up being so cute.

I don't care that much about ossan—I mean Motomi, but his dynamic with Akira was kind of cute, somehow. His route didn’t make much of an impression on me, so I really have nothing else to say about it.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Rin, but he was a great character. I liked his route a lot. Same as Motomi, I was expecting Il Re to not exist at all, so seeing that it was Shiki (and that he was Rin’s brother!) was such a huge shock (almost as much as seeing Akira top). What a good ending.

So, the reason I wanted to play this game in the first place was because I saw a magazine scan with a picture of Shiki. Since my pace was about a route per night, I was counting down the days to be able to meet him. I hadn't felt like that since I played FMDM (in that case, I was looking forward to the famous Muramasa h-scenes)—sweeping the house, thinking “4 days until I meet Shiki”, cutting the vegetables for lunch thinking, “3 days until I meet Shiki”, and so on—

Now, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I thought Shiki was going to be some sort of prince-like character. Like someone who's some kind of hero of justice despite his looks. Probably because he looks like Luka from The Betrayal Knows My Name? Well, getting to his route and finding out what type of person he actually was was a real shock—in a good way, though! It was so worth the wait. I had so much fun that I opened a bottle of red wine to drink while I read it. Those insane h-scenes. A pair of knives thrown in a corner. The strange sort of intimacy those two shared. Shiki’s obsession with Nano. I still can't stop thinking about them. Those bad endings were absolutely crazy, and GOOD BYE ALIENS playing from my headphones made it all unforgettable. Of course, this was not how the night ended. That “good” ending was also crazy, in its own way. I felt like my heart was being crushed. I couldn't stop thinking about how it could've been different, and about how it couldn't have been any other way.

You know, when they mentioned Rein being a white liquid, and coming from Nano’s body, I was thinking “this cannot possibly be what I think it is right there's no way”—and when it turned out to be his blood, I really wondered if there was something wrong with me after all—ahem! What were we talking about, again? Oh, right, Nano. A stray cat, a sword thrown in a corner...this felt like a quieter route than the others. I feel like Nano brought out a different side of Akira, and I enjoyed it a lot. I was already used to most of the sci-fi plot exposition happening in the final confrontations, but I still couldn't help finding that climax when nearly everyone showed up kind of funny. Things happened so fast and it was a bit of a mess(#RIP Keisuke), but it eventually led into a simply perfect credits roll.

One of the best parts of reading a nitroplus VN (at least to me) is reading the liner notes after you’re done, and these were just the best. All those names I’ve gotten familiar with over the years saying stuff like “I can’t believe I worked on a Boy’s Love title” was pretty funny(I'm sure they got used to it), and I loved how almost everyone was obsessed with Shiki (I can relate).

Anyways, I know that it's not a VN for everyone, but it definitely was it for me. It's the type of thing where all the flaws just make me love it even more.