KALEIDO STELLA

Play this game only after you've finished The Cradle of Ruin and Tsukimi Planet by Charon. The story comes full circle, featuring several characters from their previous works with a lot of references which may fly over your head if you're not familiar with the developer. I won't get into details of how good this game is, because I'm a fan of this circle and I'm biased AF, but it's safe to say it's on par with Vanilla Garden of Judgement in terms of quality of the story, art and music. Compared to earlier Charon games it might seem a bit more lighthearted and hopeful, but as I see it, it's the sign of author growing up. This game doesn't have much gore or "yandere for the sake of yandere", so some of the fans might not like it. I, on the other hand, highly recommend it, but only after reading previous works, so you can get this feeling of Charon universe coming full circle. The translation is very well done (compared to Engrish in The Cradle of Ruin), considering it's made by a single p...

Kaleido Stella is the latest English translated game from Charon, an (in my opinion) extremely underappreciated developer of dialogue-heavy RPG Maker games and recently full-blown visual novels. Most commonly associated with their focus on popular yandere tropes, Charon games are known to feature emotional stories coupled with thought-provoking, not to mention cruel or even straight-up brutal choices inside of them. This one is no different. In this game, we play as Manako (to my surprise, there's not a -rou in the name), your average high school student spending his precious summer break cooped up inside his air conditioned house along with his little sister, Meme. Apparently, a UFO crashed into his quiet little town, causing a huge uproar in the small community, which prompted his younger sibling to drag him along in order to see spacecraft in its full glory. Although they ended up not being able to see it, they met 2 particular people on their way back. The tomboy Mira, who's appar...

It's good, but REALLY weird. I'm not really the type of person that likes abstract and weird stories, but I can pretty much say I thought I'd seen everything of that genre from Charon (after god damn Cradle of Ruin). Even so, I personally think KaleidoStella is by far the most abstract game of the company. I world personally recomend if you really like Charon's works or weird and philosophical visual novels in general. SPOILER PART Tsukimi being in the game was a little weird at first, but turned out to be my favorite aspect of the entire game. Tsukimi's route's bad end was absolutely incredible, just the perfect level of fan service. My reaction after seeing the game's intro: "What the actual freak Demonica and Angelica are doing there?" My reaction after playing Mahori's route: "What THE ACTUAL FREAK Demonica and Angelica are doing there? Not complaining, pretty freaking cool route." I'm not personally fond of the ending. The amount of plot holes (in both abstract and meaningful p...

Before I get into why I love this VN I highly suggest anyone who is interested to play Cradle of Ruin and Tsukimi Planet by Charon first. While it isn't required to enjoy the story of this visual novel it will definitely provide some background information behind some of the characters that appear in this. First off, the story in this really caught my attention. Yes- The whole alien from space thing has been done many times before but you don't learn until the very end why this one is a unique experience. Without going into spoiler territory all I can say is while I usually can guess plot twists or unexpected events, this VN caught me completely off guard. Although, fair warning most endings are like previous Charon games. You got your dark bad ends, and your bittersweet good/true ends. The characters, music and overall design is enjoyable, I plan on dropping the cash to buy the soundtrack because I fell in love with the opening theme. My only issue is there are quite a few punct...

If their was a neutral option Id put it down for this game, however since the game has great artwork and a lot of effort put into it Ill leave it as a positive. spoilers ahead. Really Kaleido Stella feels like a worse Vanilla Garden of Judgement for me in several ways as the games are very similar in themes. Both games feature a dominantly female cast in which everything isnt what it seems at an eyes glance. The protag has to interact with several people while growing themself in order to complete an objective often personal growth. In the process losing everything in their starting situation. While Vanilla focused on atonement and acceptance from a spirtual pov which was captivating, the message of Stella seems to mirror that but falters. It does this thing where "space" has to be forcefully injected into most conversations making it sound deep but in reality sounds completely nonsensical by the end of it. To make it easier let me bullet point some points of contention/pros I had wi...

Coming from a diehard CHARON fan, this is one of my favs. the music is one of the, if not best things about the vn. the story could be boring for some, due to alot of flashbacks/backstories, but if u cant get around that or are into that, then this is just for you. nonetheless, its another great piece from the almighty CHARON them self.

neutral for charon fan. nah for non fan. this feels really similar to "The cradle of ruin true ending" which I don't found of. I would describe this kind of story as if you take literary, it's not a satisfied explanation, which is not necessary a bad thing, but there is a little room for doubt here. the writing sounds very straight-forward. obviously if you know Charon, you know what are you getting yourself into. Kaleido Stella is weird but charming like most of the Charon game, but it's not the same psycho fuck uped characters weird. This is The cradle of ruin true ending weird. This is philosopher gone to far like [spoiler] the fetus ending [/spoiler] (spoiler for The cradle of ruin true ending). the different is that The cradle of ruin true ending has a clear message delivered in very meh way but Kaleido Stella's message is confusing. also, some of the writing is repeating itself way too much, it can be tiring for some. there is also really nice moments here and there. the charact...