Re:Kuroi is admittedly unique in its presentation, it makes me question whether the areas of this game I didn’t enjoy are merely personal preference. A visual novel / jrpg hybrid written in RPGMaker sounds great, but my opinion is that the jrpg mechanics are too light and uninspired. The vn portion of the game is well written however, and I found it to be quite enjoyable.
The story is cute and entertaining, so my review won’t focus on it. If you’re looking for a well written and lighthearted story, you’ll find it here. The characters are partially voiced, and the live2d animations enhance the art.
What I didn’t care for was the combat and dungeon exploring. Outside of the story, this is a dungeon crawler. But to my surprise, the dungeons aren’t animated. Like, at all. You are presented with a backdrop and a corner map which you use to navigate. You move the arrow around the map, but nothing else changes. It feels so odd and incomplete. When you enter combat areas, you simply move forward and a progress meter tells you how far you have left to travel.
Aside from that, you don’t collect gear and similar upgrades. Everything you face needs to be vanquished with magic. But when that’s all there is… when there’s nothing else to do but cast from a limited spell book… I feeel a bit robbed. There’s also an active block mechanic, but its just not enough and the whole thing feels first generation RPGMaker.
My time in Re:Kuroi consisted of an enjoyable story interrupted by intermissions filled with chores. I personally didn’t care for it, but the redeeming plot line keeps me from withholding a recommendation. Combat here is a small step above text adventuring, and slimming this down to a regular visual novel would have done itself a great service.
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