Soul Link (Visual Novel)




 Soul Link
ソウルリンク

Developer : Interchannel & Navel
English Publisher : MangaGamer
Release Date : 17 December 2004 (Jp) 28 December 2009 (En)
Length : Medium (10 - 30 hours)
Genre : Visual Novel, Eroge
Rating : Ranked #60 (vndb.org)
                  Scored 74.0 (KirikoPoll)

.: Story
 
Fall, 2045C.E. Aizawa Shuuhei, a second year cadet enrolled in Central Military Academy’s main division, is dispatched to the orbital space station Aries on a training mission. There he reunites with his younger brother, Ryouta, and his childhood friend, Nao, both of whom resided there as cadets enrolled in the preparatory division.

Then suddenly, an unidentified space ship under the control of Jararacas, a radical terrorist organization, attacks the Aries and seizes control of the main control room. With all communication lines cut off, Shuuhei and the others have no way to escape; they’re trapped. Trapped in space, 250 miles above the Earth with nowhere to run. In the midst of this desperate situation, the cadets must gather their courage and rise up to take back the Aries. As they do, they draw ever closer to the fearsome truth lurking behind this incident...

.: Screen Shoots





.: Review

“What does it mean to be human?” “What does it mean to love?” The 2004 visual novel Soul Link by developer Navel, who also developed Shuffle!, asks these questions in their story about military cadets fighting to survive on a space station besieged by religious zealots.

Visual
The art style in this novel is easily recognisable as Navel's work. There's no doubt when you see the large distinctive characters with very clear vivid designs. The military uniforms show off the flair for design the artists had shown previously with schoolgirl outfits, with clothing that both looks interesting and part of what can easily be used for those purposes. Then there are the other options like Gale's rough outfit or Yuu's sexy appearance with a form fitting shirt and cut off jacket. The various characters have been drawn out well with varied wonderful designs, meaning characters like Aki stick in the mind long after the novel has come to an end. The background imagery used is great too, giving us a fantastic view of the interior of the space station with plenty of detail in them all and enough differences like checking out the control center, the laboratory or the hangar. (Score: 8/10)

Gameplay
Decision making has been improved to a degree since Shuffle. Effectively the novel is split into four segments. One and four are the prologue and epilogue respectively, and have no decision points. Two is from Shuhei's perspective and bears little resemblance to Navel's previous novel. Instead this segment has one proper ending, but making bad decision can lead to a variety of bad ends and prematurely end the story. The decisions needed consist of the usual pick a choice and a more involved map exploration, where you are given a map of th Sheraton and pick locations to visit. Segment three switches to Ryota and goes entirely with normal pick a choice options. While some bad ends exist here too the majority of the choices are focused on setting Ryota up with one of the three girls. For the most part there is a decent challenge in figuring out what to pick and a certain logic that will make you facepalm with an "of course" thought if you mess up. One map sequence early on, where Shuhei needs to figure out a countermeasure to the invasion, is a rare moment of being insanely difficult due to their being no clue on what order to visit what rooms.
One that will makes you frustrated is its Bad Ending System. Average gamers will gave up and decided to read the walktrough when they found out this problem. (Score: 7/10)

Story
The overall story starts off as some kind of slice of life with sci-fi themes, as Shuhei Aizawa is a military cadet assigned to the space station Aries as part of his training, but as his brother Ryota and childhood friend Nao are also training there he sees it as a good chance to see them again. The prologue pretty much carries this vibe and Navel's usual script-writing is made pretty clear, especially as it mixes in some great humour with its upbeat events. Once the character introductions are over and the prologue draws to a close the "big" event occurs. A terrorist group known as Jararacas invades the station without warning and attempts to take it over. Evacuation starts immediately while they are still docking, but circumstances result in several people being left stranded. With a few correct decisions Shuhei finds himself leading a little resistance as the good guys lock themselves into the Sheratan part of the station. It's a much stronger backstory than their previous novel Shuffle that really helps set the scene. (Score: 8/10)

Music
The music is probably a step down from Shuffle but it is still a worthwhile selection of tracks. The OP and ED songs Not Found and Accepted are nice musical numbers that do seem to compliment the scifi aspect well. Additionally some of the backing tracks such as Bitter Fighting and Foreboding really help to set the tone for the events that are playing out. That said, fewer tracks here are quite as memorable as those of other high class novels, including the previous Navel novel. (Score: 8/10)

Overall
All in all, a decent read that is at its best when not taken to heart. If you go in expecting too much, you will be disappointed, but if you are one of those that likes relaxing stories with interesting characters, by all means, try out Shuffle!

Overall Score: 8/10

.: Download

Mediafire Links: here


Hotfile Links (9 parts):
Hotfile 2 (6 parts):
Fixed here

.: “What does it mean to be human?” :.
 
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