Norn9: Var Commons - PlayStation Vita

This is a great otome game, and I highly recommend it if you like the genre or if it looks interesting!Art: The art was absolutely beautiful! The characters and CGs were exceptional, and the backgrounds were much better than Amnesia’s. I loved the character designs and I thought that they fit well, but the design of Norn—the ship—stood out the most. It looks like the Death Star.Plot InformationMain plot: It’s different in every route, but the basic premise of the game is that the Norn (ship) is collecting espers (psychics/ESP) to bring to World, an organization that’s main mission is world peace. Once the espers reach their destination they will be scattered across the globe to aid nations at war. However, after an explosion on the Norn they discover that there may be a traitor on board. So, to keep an eye on everyone, the espers decide to pair up. They know that at least one of them is a traitor, so if they pair up they can keep an eye on one another at all times. In all of Mikoto’s routes, she tries to search for the traitor. Nanami varies, but she and Koharu mostly try to get along with their partners.Romantic Plot: When I refer to the romantic plot, I literally mean the romance factor. I don’t really want to refer to it as a subplot because the romance does play a huge role and it usually progresses well in each route. Obviously the person you choose to pair with will be the romantic interest. Remember, it’s a 3-to-1 ratio, meaning that there are three playable heroines and each heroine has three routes/romantic interests.Characters-HeroinesUnlike a lot of other otome games, Norn9 has 3 heroines you choose from, and each heroine has 3 guys/routes. I honestly like this so much better than the usual 10 guys to 1 girl ratio, because each heroine has her own personality. Usually, heroines in otome games are generic so the player can put him or herself in the MC's shoes. You can rename the characters, but if you leave the character's name on the default their name is always voiced.Kuga Mikoto: Mikoto has my favorite set of guys. I enjoyed all of her stories! Mikoto is a major tsundere, which is both funny and annoying. She's headstrong and has a need to protect everyone, but sometimes I feel like she tries to handle too much at once.Shiranui Nanami: I think my favorite female character is Nanami, but I only really liked one of her routes. Nanami has had a rough childhood and she hates her power. She's a female ninja, though, and she can kick butt! Sometimes... Her voice actress was amazing! Nanami sounded completely emotionless at first, which was actually pretty funny, but when one gets deeper into the route Nanami's voice changes.Koharu: I love Koharu...but I only like one of her routes. I didn't think that I would like her so much because she seems like a useless log, but in many ways she's the most powerful esper on the ship and she's so genuine. I just wanted to root for her.Characters/Routes:Here are the guys! There are nine playable routes. Apparently play order does matter, but I played: Sakuya-Heishi-Itsuki-Senri-Akito-Ron-Kakeru-Masamune-Natsuhiko. I highly recommend playing Sakuya first and Natsuhiko last. Also, a note about choices: I love the fact that the choices that led you to the happy endings aren't super compliant and conforming. Meaning, to get a happy ending, the characters can disagree with their romantic interests and really be themselves without being penalized.Mikoto's RoutesSakuya: I think Sakuya is an acquired taste. I absolutely loved him (and not just because his voice actor played Haruka from Inaba Cuticle Detective) but some bloggers felt differently. It's the childhood friend formula mixed with a tragic forbidden romance. Sakuya and Mikoto are childhood friends but they basically made an agreement that neither of them can fall in love...ever. Especially not with each other. Sakuya is only kind to/around Mikoto--otherwise he can be cold or just plain dangerous. I'm such a sucker for the childhood friend formula, so I loved his route. It also helps that I played his route before I played Itsuki's and Masamune's.Itsuki: I just feel bad for Itsuki in every route, but I feel like he's always in love with Mikoto. He's the older flirty character, which originally made me wary but no one takes him seriously. He's hilarious, and he reacts to Mikoto's extreme tsundere attitude with affection. I couldn't help but love him. However, in the last part of the route, I was a bit worried about his twisted logic. The ending was okay, but I felt like Mikoto lost so much and I felt bad for her. Itsuki's route was a fun ride, and all of the giggles and tears during the route made up for the mediocre ending.Natsuhiko: AKA the reason I bought the game. Natsuhiko is voiced by Daisuke Ono, or the voice of Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji. Actually, Daisuke Ono plays a lot of roles that I love... Anyway, Natsuhiko is a ball of cuteness. I was worried that the romance in his route wouldn't be natural, but it was written really well. Natsuhiko is one of my favorite characters and certainly my favorite route because it balances romance with plot and Mikoto's character building. The main plot or action-based plot (as opposed to the romance) is the most well explained and well developed in this route, and the ending was just so satisfying.Nanami's RoutesOtomaru Heishi: I love Heishi! He's friendly and well meaning, and he's not a psycho! (Well, not in his Happy ending.) I'm really suspicious of flirty characters and super nice characters, but Heishi was just a puppy. He and Nanami are actually perfect together! I cried a lot during this route though, but I honestly think that Heishi and Nanami bring out the best in each other. In terms of action/main plot, the ending was awful and only the romantic plot was "satisfied." Overall, Heishi's route was one of my favorites and he's just a great character in every single route. If you play Heishi's route and you like him, don't play his bad ending. I skipped through it to get the completion, but it's honestly awful and ruins his characterization...Akito: I don't understand why a lot of bloggers like Akito; I was really disappointed. Sure, he's a great character, but I was left very unsatisfied with his main plot and his romantic plot. Yes, he's a great cook and he's scared of the hiyoko/chicks, but other than that he falls flat for me and his constant verbal abuse of Nanami makes me wonder why and how he even fell in love with her.Muroboshi Ron: Ron is…interesting. I love his route because it gives you more insight on what he’s thinking; in every other route he’s scarce because he’s so flipping lazy! I felt bad for him after I learned about his background and why he can’t even remember Nanami’s name. His romance plot and main plot mixed a lot, and neither had a very satisfying ending. I love Ron’s character, and I liked learning about him more in his route, but the ending just ruined it.Koharu’s RoutesYuiga Kakeru: I don’t like Kakeru. He’s a jerk in almost every route, and his own route was lackluster. I felt absolutely nothing while playing his route, his character didn’t appeal to me, and the main plot was just meh. I would rather ship him with Senri than Koharu…Senri: Senri is my baby. He’s a cowardly loner who stays in his room, and when he’s not in there he’s usually gloomy or complaining…it’s hilarious. He’s such a wonderfully written character and his voice actor did a great job. Senri doesn’t like Kakeru at all and tries to put hexes and curses on him! But when Senri is with Koharu, it’s cuteness overload. Senri is my favorite guy for Koharu and the plots were done so well, it’s no question why Senri fell for Koharu. The main plot was similar to Kakeru’s except it’s done so much better. The ending, too, was just wholly satisfying.Toya Masamune: Masamune is so boring! He’s the older brother type, which I’m not a fan of so that’s probably why I didn’t like his route. There was a great romantic plot in his route, though…between Sakuya and Mikoto. I sobbed during his route because of Mikoto and Sakuya…I couldn’t feel the romance between Masamune and Koharu. It was boring and it just dragged on. It didn’t help that I was anticipating Natsuhiko’s route next, so I wanted to finish Masamune’s route as soon as possible. Masamune is a good guy, but I can’t see him as a leading character.OverallI really loved this game, even better than Amnesia and Code Realize. It was just so well done in every way, and I liked most of the guys. Even with duds like Masamune and Kakeru, there were some memorable or funny moments in their routes as well. My favorite guys were Senri, Heishi, and Natsuhiko, but I liked all of the routes for Mikoto. I love the fact that each heroine is unique and special, and I can truly understand why the guys love her. The game’s interface was easy to navigate and I got a completion trophy in PSN so yay—I got all of the CGs! The game itself is supposed to be pieced together; you’re supposed to learn something new from each route that makes a bigger picture. The only thing is, the endings don’t really match up. For this game, it’s the journey and not really the end result that matters. I thoroughly enjoyed playing, and I like that it has replay value. I don’t have to re-read the prologue over and over again, and I used save files and the hand “skip all” button to fast-forward through the beginning, which I’d already read. Like a good book, I think I’m going to replay/reread my favorite scenes in the near future.

Sorata Suzuhara was on a school field trip when he was suddenly transported to the past! By happenstance, he bumped into a girl name Koharu. She told him she was going to meet a ship and that the people there might be able help him return back home. But he did not realize it was going to be an airship! This was the past, right? But as they progressed to their destination, things weren’t as they seem. With a traitor on board the ship and the hidden truth about the World, can Sorata really find his way home?At the start, the plot was kind of confusing by how everything fit together. It felt a little convoluted, slow and vague. Of course, I found that after going through one route, things start to make sense. The plot was really interesting when you finally get the whole picture. I like the fact that I can honestly imagine this kind of event happening in our distant future. And each character’s personality and story line was different enough that you were not replaying the same scenario over and over again. Now what was unique was that instead of one heroine, there were three you can be – Mikoto, Koharu and Nanami. Each girl has three heroes. Altogether, there are 9 routes. And you can unlock Sorata’s route after finishing these routes. Each route (if you read everything and not skipping dialogue) takes about 5-6 hours to finish. And if you are like me, trying to get 100% in the game, you will do the same route another 2 more times. So that’s another 1-2 hours. So expect at least 60+ hours to finish the game. My favorite ‘ship was Mikoto/Natsuhiko – their story was so sweet and hilarious. I replayed this route at least 10 times. I can’t get enough of these two. Least favorite was Nanami/Ron – their relationship did not really make sense to me. It felt too force.Who is this game for? Make no mistake, this is visual novel. This is in NO WAY an adventure, action or RPG video game. So, don’t buy this game if you are not into visual novels. It is reading and making crucial decisions when prompted. Personally, I love otome games and I was super stoke to finally play this one. However, I did find that it took me an hour of playing to really get into the game. So, don’t give up if you don’t like it right away. I started with Koharu and she kind of annoyed me.Now, for the technical stuff. Japanese audio only. All characters had voice acting except during inner dialogues. The voice acting was spot on. English subtitles. My only critique would be that there are a lot of spelling errors. I do know Japanese and the translation was good. Some wording was not exact but close enough. There was no lag time. Things ran pretty seamlessly. My game did get stuck once when I was exiting from the Norn9 Quest Mini-game. The style art is gorgeous. Especially the guys. Totally fell in love with them all. Graphics is your usual standard. The characters are 2D and their expressions changed to fit the scene and line. I like that their mouths move when they talk. There were some extras to unlock. There was a retro style mini-game to earn more points to spend at the Norn Store. You can spend points on getting the lovely BGM (not the vocals though), stills, funny comics and extra funny scenes.I fell in love with this game. It will make you smile. It will make you sad. It will definitely make you laugh. If you are a fan of visual novels, get it now. It will be a good investment of your time.

On the surface this is a simple story, yet the underlying messages are incredible. Otomate never seems to stop amazing me with the stories they produce. While the story is a little shorter than usual per character, having 9 of them makes up for this. It is also refreshing being able to choose who you play as a character. Definitely a must-play.

Brilliant game can't get enough want more games to come out x

Let's be real, everyone who purchase this game was really for the Otome story-line and not so much the game-play. The graphics were decent during its time, but there were some audio issues when playing on the PS Vita. The story-line was "meh", but that is really dependent on how you approach this game. Anyway, I recommend this game for Otome-addicted players and not so much for regular PS Vita players!

Rushed localization, but good otome game overall. Considering otome games aren't very accessible in the West it'll satisfy anyone (normally straight girl or gay man) who can overlook some cringeworthy mistakes in the localization. My gf loves it, but it's a lower quality than Amnesia or Code:Realize.

One of my favourite games! If you are a fan of otome/visual novel games, this should definitely be on your list! There are nine different routes to choose from if you are looking for longer gameplay.