[OH&S]

A very in-depth retrospective/review of the entire Virtual-on series, game by game:

https://aaltomies.wordpress.com/robo...ted-materials/

But more importantly, for A Certain Magical Virtual-On:

https://aaltomies.wordpress.com/2018...al-virtual-on/

Key quotes:

You could say that the game is spartan in content, but the emphasize has been on quality over quantity, as A Certain Magical Virtual-On is probably the best entry in the series.

Prior to the game’s release, both A Certain Magical Index and Virtual-On fans seemed to have a negative reaction to the game overall, especially in the Western fandom. It wasn’t all too uncommon to accuse Sega to turn Virtual-On into a waifugame (which they already had done with Oratorio Tangram, but clang clang is something people usually don’t think about) and lamenting that such an awful IP had to sully a legendary game series.

Some Index fans lamented similar fate, as none of the previous games based on the series are particularly high quality. However, it would seem the game has won the Japanese fans over with its high-quality production.

The most common complaint in both East and West has been how it plays differently from Oratorio Tangram, but as usual, you can’t simply repackage the same game over and over again. Oratorio Tangram has been deified by Virtual-On fans to the point that they’ll settle nothing else but Oratorio Tangram 2.0, which would have very little point to it. With the changes and addition A Certain Magical Virtual-On has done to the systems, we’ve gained something different that is in many places superior to Oratorio Tangram.

I have hopes that this title will revive the interest on Virtual-On for the time being, and that the game will ensure future entries in the franchise to keep it relevant, be it tied to A Certain Magical Index or not.