Tsukihime -A Piece of Blue Glass Moon-

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Tsukihime is a Visual Novel originally released on PC in Japan in 2000, which has gone on to create a franchise, with anime, manga, and the spin-off Fighting Game series Melty Blood. This game tells the story of a young man named Shiki who has an accident that leaves him with an odd “disability” that not only causes him to deal with frequent nausea and anemia, but it also leaves him with the ability to see “Lines of Death” on everything and everyone around him, weak points he discovers he can easily use to disassemble objects… or people.

After being ejected from his wealthy home for his weakness, Shiki is invited back seven years later after his father dies, compelled by his demanding younger sister to stay in his family’s estate, abide by her strict schedule, and learn how to act like a proper aristocrat befitting his lineage. Meanwhile, the town is shaken by spreading reports of a gruesome serial killer in the area. And as Shiki is trying to adjust to all of these new changes and events in his life, an unexpected encounter with a beautiful young woman in white completely upends any semblance of stability and sanity left in his world.

As with developer Type-Moon’s other well-known Visual Novel franchise, Fate/Stay Night, Tsukihime started out as an “eroge” game with scenes that depicted nudity and sex, but later distanced itself from that content. Reflecting this evolution of the franchise, with Tsukihime’s first release in the West in 2024 on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, these scenes are no longer present, though this game is still far from family-friendly, with violence, gore, and a fair amount of lewd innuendo, including one scene where an adult woman seemingly very strongly tries to seduce Shiki. There’s more going on in this scene than there may seem, but still… kinda’ gross.

Before going on, I should make it clear that this modern release of Tsukihime -A Piece of Blue Glass Moon- is not a port of the original Tsukihime, but a full remake, not only removing the eroge content but reworking the story, with this game including only a few of the original game’s “story routes”. The remainder are due to be released in a sequel/companion game, Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden. However, don’t think that means you’re only getting a fraction of a game here – just completing story route in this game will take an estimated 30 or so hours, and completing every story path will take 50-60.

This is partly because Tsukihime takes its time with its storytelling, and this may frustrate less-patient players. It takes multiple hours of play time before you reach the fateful encounter with the woman in white that really sets the plot in motion, and a lot of time is spent on minutiae, on Shiki’s whining, and on abstract musings that don’t make a whole lot of sense to the early narrative.

This game may also take some getting into due to how weak a protagonist Shiki is, and how infrequent it is that players get the chance to make choices. There are choices in this game, including at least one major story-branching point, but many of these choices don’t bring any meaningful change, and you’ll often find yourself strongly wanting Shiki to take a particular action only to be disappointed that he once again passively just whimpers and done what he’s been told.

I’m also a little irritated that this game seems to split its attention between multiple major plot elements that could have supported their own story – Shiki’s strange condition, Shiki’s estrangement from his wealthy family, and the greater conflict you discover later in the story are all interesting plots in and of themselves, so it’s frustrating when you get drawn into one but then the game shifts to focus on another.

Having said all of that, once the story starts to pick up, things do get interesting, even if this involves some truly bizarre events that seem to come out of nowhere. And the characters are well-written and have some good depth to them, even if on the surface some of them are pretty unlikeable. I know this seems like pretty faint praise, but over time this story does get interesting, and it’s compelling to try to find out what exactly is going on here.

It helps that this game’s 2D anime-style character art is absolutely gorgeous, with some really excellent character designs. And the detailed backgrounds look wonderful too, with some scenes having some interesting-looking abstract art too. This is joined by full Japanese-language voice acting that seems pretty good, and an instrumental and synthesized soundtrack that works well enough to highlight each scene’s emotions.

Overall, I think Tsukihime is a good Visual Novel game with a solid presentation and writing, though its slow pacing, lack of meaningful choice, and at times unlikeable characters can drag it down. Even so, if you’re looking for a good addition to your Visual Novel collection, this is worth a look.

tl;dr – Tsukihime -A Piece of Blue Glass Moon- is a remake of a 2000 Visual Novel about a teenage boy with a health condition and an unusual ability to see “Lines of Death” in the world around him… and about his distant relationship with his wealthy family… and about strange events in his town that come to a head when he encounters a beautiful woman dressed in white. There’s a lot going on here, and the game is bogged down by pacing issues, a lack of meaningful choices, and at times unlikeable characters. Still, the mysteries this story presents, the quality writing, and the exceptional artwork all make this worth sticking with, even though it takes quite a while to really get going.

Grade: B

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