WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC – PC Review

Genre: Adventure, Casual
Developer: madosoft
Publisher: Sekai Project
Release Date: Jul 27, 2017
Edited by KnightAvenger

When it comes to slice-of-life visual novels, not many take it from the perspective of an artist, either in the form of a physical artist, a painter, or a writer, as an artist of words. Thus, when a novel about a less-than-safe content writer being put into a prickly situation was announced, I was curious to see what kind of trouble were in bound for them: WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC. WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC is an adventure, slice-of-life visual novel developed by madosoft, later released by Sekai Project, that puts the focus on an unlikely protagonist and his life, once it turns upside down, with some creative writing and excellent character art but falls flat on some key areas.

Like the typing of keys on a keyboard, the story of WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC is slow at first to build up but draws out a solid conclusion in the end. We, the reader, play through the eyes of Kouki Narumi as he is sending an email of his latest manuscript to his editor when, all of the sudden, the computer blacks out. Fretting and now more anxious than ever, as this is the deadline for it, he goes to see his sister Toa, a programmer who knows more about computers than I do, as she is playing some rounds of a co-op game with her friend Mihiro. After some discussion, Toa finally agrees to look at it, but her efforts yield little positive results. Thus, the race begins for Kouki to write up his manuscript, this time in a notebook at school, but, when he realizes that he is late getting back from lunch to his class, he accidentally drops it in a hallway and, in a twist of fate, the student council president finds it. After realizing it is missing once class ends and there is the announcement of a mysteriously sounding notebook over the intercom, Kouki rushes as fast as he can to see if it is his and to get it back before someone reads the contents. This, however, does not work, as the student council president, known as Kaoruko, has already read the notebook and thinks she knows who he is, but, to confirm it, she asks him to come back the next day. I will end my synopsis here to avoid spoilers, but the story was one of my favorite elements, as it was quirky, funny, and serious, when the characters showed it.

As good of an element as the story was, it was not perfect and has a few valid issues that may hold it back for some readers. The first issue I found was that the story seemed a tad too randomized from time to time. Slice-of-life novels use randomness to keep the story fresh and it does do that here, but, on occasion, I found the randomness to be all over the place. One key example of this is that a portion of the story has you looking for a dog on your school’s campus but the first animal-related thing you find is a character surrounded by various animals for no reason. This may be too much randomness in some instances, even if it is funny to see these types of scenes roll out. The other issue I found was more of a situational issue, but the pacing of the story does not always align right. Pacing is one of those elements as a reader I find very easily, and, while it doesn’t bother me when a story has a few pacing situations where the sync does not match up properly, it does make me lose some of the immersion I had with the story and I had to build back into it.

Like a storyboard being filled with pictures, the presentation of WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC is direct and well put together with a clean art style and music that fits the mood as it is presented although not perfect. Visually, I found WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC to be one of those novels with a clear story and visual design, as the characters and backgrounds each try to be unique to themselves. The backgrounds are clean, colorful, and very fleshed out with detail, something I appreciated as a reader because it felt like the artist put a lot of time and care into the final design of the product. The characters, as well, share this type of detail, with one of my favorite elements being that, as the characters talked to each other, their body movements and facial expressions would change with the lines being spoken. This one element made the story come alive even more because it felt like the voice actors’ lines had weight to them. The only real negative I have about the visuals is that, as the game has four endings or chapters, the visuals may lose their face value around that second or third playthrough.

Listening to a classic melody, the soundtrack in WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC is one where it feels like much of the same styling with a different flavor. The soundtrack for WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC is honestly good, where it stands out from other novels with some different choices in the instruments. These choices still use a mostly classical-themed base so instruments like the piano are highly resonant, but I enjoyed the twist with the horn in some songs. The sound effects are present but not as put forward, if at all seen. This made sense for a novel like WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC, as there was not a lot of sound effects really needed to support the soundtrack but some more presence would have been appreciated.

Overall, I found WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC to be a good experience with a creative story, some excellent writing to back it up, nicely developed characters and an art style that freshened up how a slice-of-life novel can look, but it does have its faults. The creative story, excellent writing, clean and interactive characters, four routes to explore, clean visual presentation with very detailed backgrounds, and solid soundtrack set up for a novel that can be successful in a tight market.

Pros:

• A creatively told story
• The excellent writing that backs up the creative story
• Characters are highly interactive with body and facial movements as the lines go on
• Four routes for readers to discover
• A clean visual presentation all around with some of the most detailed backgrounds yet
• A solid soundtrack to back up the story
• Some pretty funny comedy scenes scattered throughout the novel

Cons:

• Story becomes too random at times
• Some minor pacing issues from time to time
• Visual presentation may lose face value around the second or third route
• More presence of sound effects

DarkLunarDude gives WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC a Drastik Measure 8.0 out of 10.0 (80)

For the price of $39.99 on Steam, I can highly advise WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC to those who like slice-of-life stories with an interesting twist, as this one has some solid comedy scenes and great character dialog to go with it. I will advise that there is an 18+ version available through Denpasoft if one is looking for more adult content.