In the last couple of years, I've gotten lost down in the VN rabbit hole, especially sci-fi or fantasy themed titles. So it comes as no surprise that I would attempt reading this one day. Full disclosure - I added the Director's Cut patch to get the full experience since I don't like censorship (more on this later).

Here's what I have to say overall -- historically, this VN is important and was a huge bestseller. Its twist probably thrilled the original VN readers quite a lot (especially considering "Unlimited" was hidden away until they finished some of the Extra routes). The mech stuff, although not uncommon in other types of media like TV shows or anime, would have been really fun to see so up and center in a visual novel. For those reasons alone, it probably deserves its success.

But I think it's one of those issues that comes with success -- sometimes you get copied so much that the original sources become a bit less interesting. In fact, a lot of Extra's appeal was the subversion of dating sim tropes at the time and how this was rug pulled into an entirely different direction with Unlimited. But, actually, Extra's content itself isn't that great (generally I just don't like dating sims to begin with). For me, the only routes with any really solid story writing were Meiya's and Chizuru's (and Meiya's Extra ending was so bizarre that it almost ruined the route for me). Unlimited had a much better common route, but the side routes suffer from extreme repetition.

I'm generally a completionist when it comes to VNs, but this one might be a case when skipping over some of the side routes (especially in "Unlimited") might be advised. Of course, this is only half of the VN and I haven't yet started "Alternative", so I might be able to overlook some of this if the payoff in that one is as great as people have made it out to be.

A few random thoughts. The director's cut merely added some bad h-scenes, so make of that what you will. Also, I love "Baldr Sky" and see where it got a lot of its DNA from, so it's also worth reading for that reason! Overall, I'd cautiously recommend it if you're interested in dipping your toes into classic VNs or to see what inspired later VNs, but I think you could pass on this one if that's not your thing.

I love Meiya

i love miki tamase