It was the summer of 1966
When it comes to the genre of Visual Novels, the developers at “Mages. Inc” stands as one of the most celebrated, having created classic titles such as “Steins;Gate” and “Never/Ever 17”. The former of which is one of my favorite stories, not just in video games but in all of fiction. As such, when I was offered the opportunity to review their latest release, I went in without knowing anything about the game, trusting in the pedigree of Mages to come through with another exceptional story.
The use of gorgeous illustrations in key moments helped engross me into its atmosphere.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: PC, NSW
Length: 18~ hours
In the summer of 1966, Ichiko has a chance encounter with a wealthy man who offers to hire her as a live-in maid in his mansion. Having lived a hard life in a foster home, Ichiko’s life is turned upside-down as she begins her duties as a housekeeper in a place she could only dream of before. Living with Amane, the gentlemanly head of the household who hired her and his daughter Aria, whose ephemeral beauty is otherworldly, Ichiko quickly begins to learn that this is not just a home for the extremely wealthy, but one of deep, dark secrets.
Aria initially comes off as cold and distant but learning more about who she is was one of the highlights of the experience.
As the story of a VN is of the utmost importance, I won’t go into any specifics or notable spoilers. With that in mind, as I went into this title completely blind, I was pleasantly surprised by its sense of atmosphere and suspense. While it isn’t exactly horror, it certainly had some horror elements and the way it was able to consistently build suspense throughout the game with an eerie sense of foreboding kept me reading well past the times I planned to stop.
The relationship between Ichiko and Aria requires a special mention as Ichiko is understandably disillusioned by the world after being in the foster care system for most of her life, being constantly told that she’s worthless. Her desperate hunger for positive affirmation is precariously balanced with her untrusting nature that makes her constantly second guess if others are only being nice to her so they could use her and abandon her. Aria on the other hand is special in every sense of the word that reaches far beyond just her beauty and discovering just how special she really was is one of most intriguing mysteries to uncover.
There are many different themes that are explored throughout the course of the game and while there are some highlights, when the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed as some of the themes and ideas felt a little underdeveloped. While there are many different endings to uncover, most of them were short little endings both good and bad that were slight deviations from the main story. Also, it’s worth noting that Iwakura Aria is predominantly a yuri (girl’s love) story so if you have any aversions to that, it might be better to stay away. For myself, as I don’t read much yuri, it felt like a fresh experience.
While many themes are explored, the different types of love was its main focus.
As a typical VN without any additional gameplay elements, I definitely wasn’t looking for an elaborate set of configurations and such for the PC release. However, I think only offering up to 1080p resolution is downright lazy and the fact that using a controller, there was no way to close the game and I had to reach over to the keyboard to use the ESC key in title or ALT+F4 to exit showed just how little care they put into the PC port. The game also didn’t include a ENG VA option which is sadly expected to cut costs nor even a way to increase the small font size in any way really soured the experience. Even though the game played perfectly fine on the Steamdeck(my preferred platform for VNs since I can read it in bed), due to the miniscule font size, it was taxing to my eyes to read for an extended period, and I simply continued the playthrough on PC.
The poor PC port ended up souring my overall experience, I really wish more Japanese developers would put more care in porting games to PC.
While Iwakura Aria isn’t Mages Inc’s best work, the mystery of the Iwakura family was one well worth uncovering, featuring a great sense of suspense and foreboding dread that kept me reading well past my bedtime.
Fun Tidbit: I tried all manner of modifications on the games files during the review to see if I could bump up the resolution through other means but was unsuccessful, surely these gorgeous assets deserve to be seen in their highest quality form!
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
