REVIEW : Hatsumira -from the future undying (PC)
Hatsumira -from the Undying Future- is a visual novel developed and published by Frontwing. “Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori” is the original Japanese name.
This visual novel is intended for fans of long visual novels about heroes from another world, also known as isekai stories. Fans of unlocking options, branching narratives, and beast girls will like Hatsumira -from the future undying- as well.
There are four distinct girls to pick from, as well as several different endings and unlockable girls. Completing all pathways will result in a full CG gallery.
The bonus menu includes sequences that can be replayed, a music gallery, and, of course, stills from each route. All of the sequences and images have been redacted.
Story
Hatsuru Koto Naki Mirai Yori is a fantasy game about a protagonist who finds himself in this universe while performing a kamikaze attack on an enemy ship. There are various tribes in this realm, including a dragon tribe, a dog tribe, a mermaid tribe, undead, and dwarves. After crashing and landing in the desert of this unknown world, the protagonist is saved by a female from the dragon tribe.
Ichiro Mimori, a petty officer second class in the Japanese Imperial Naval Air Force, is our protagonist in this journey. After being shot during a dogfight, Ichiro decided to use his crash landing to launch a kamikaze assault against an opposing cruiser. It did not go as planned.
Ichiro finds himself embroiled in a series of adventures as an ambassador of Barauhl, a militia offshoot aiming to bolster their military strength to combat Wisla’s increasing evil dominion.
Oh, and nearly every female character in this universe is a kemonomimi, while nearly every male character is an anthro furry figure. Because they are, of course. Sexual dimorphism exists.
Ichiro, on the other hand, has a surprise up his sleeve because he is a protagonist with a face. He doesn’t have a voice, but he appears in a lot of well-drawn CGs and has one of the most distinct personalities I’ve read in a long time for this type of visual novel.
Our protagonist, who is intended to be a middle-aged Japanese military officer but instead speaks like a rural Brit, based on the sheer richness of terms like blimey, bugger, pongo, and bollocks, as well as being a protagonist who leans heavily on the ‘Dudes Rock’ credo. A unique protagonist style, combining seriousness and sincerity, lends itself very well to this Isekai narrative.
In some ways, the plot is formulaic, since each chapter introduces a new character to the core cast. Before the final chapter, the introduction introduces the dragon waifu, chapter 1 adds the dog girl, chapter 2 adds the mermaid, and chapter 3 adds the zombie girl to the main group.
However, each of these chapters is quite significant, and their adventures are huge enough to constitute standalone graphic novels. They’re never particularly deep, but they’re big romps with lots of fun and interesting interactions, occasionally marred by an odd eroge game stereotype.
The density of the chapters, on the other hand, allows the romance pathways to feel fairly natural. Except for the undead girl, that way is terrible, and she may simply be removed from the game with no ill consequences.
Replace her with any of the other excellent supporting characters; they’re insanely good, making for stronger individual chapters and recurrent cast members for the protagonists to bounce ideas off of.
Given the UI and options offered in Frontwing’s Loca-Love titles, it’s difficult to remember a time when Frontwing didn’t have the best options menus known to man (no comic sans text option though). However, you’ll find all of the standard things here, as well as transitions, special effects, and positional changes.
There’s also a progress menu, which I believe exists solely to impress upon you how large the game is, so you can read for several hours only to discover you’re only 14 per cent of the way through a chapter, with the game laughing at you in the background.
When you complete the game, you gain access to the extras menu, which includes a scene gallery. This divides the game into 53 bite-sized parts, not including the character pathways.
Hatsumira: From The Future Undying is a massive visual novel, in case you didn’t notice. And in that mammoth, you’ll find a slew of entertaining stories, a vast cast of wonderful and entertaining characters, and one of the best eroge protagonists I’ve seen in aeons.
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