Yuri Visual Novel Review: Ne No Kami Part 2

Written by Otaku Apologist

“Ne No Kami: The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto Part 2”, developed by Kuro Irodoru Yomiji, published by Denpasoft. A lesbian fantasy kinetic novel about two childhood friends rekindling their friendship while sinking knee-deep into a world of corrupt politics. Released on November 24th, 2017. Available on Nutaku for $15.00. Uncensored genitals. Available for PC Windows operating systems. Check out our review of Ne No Kami part 1.

The second part of the Ne No Kami visual novel is here. All the characters you cared about, will be all-in with their ambitions in this explosive finale. The chips are down, the debate is over, and not everyone is gonna make it.

STORY

Len was a normal high school girl. Now, she’s the Chosen One destined to end the war between humans and spirits.

The humans have one trump card against the spirits (called ayakashi in Japanese). The cute lesbian Uzume has a super power that lets her nuke all spirits back into the afterlife. The drama is that she’s certain to die in the ritual. Learning this, her lesbian lover Len hatches a plan to selfishly save her girlfriend’s life in exchange for dooming the world.

The story builds up the characters and their relationships before all-out war. There’s tons of complicated backstory and behind-the-scenes mischief, all explained in exhausting detail so exciting to the senses, you want to roll your face on the keyboard. Characters on both sides are humanized to the extreme, to the point where enemies are exchanging hugs before stabbing them in the back. The girls have pool parties, they eat junk food, they discuss the weather while rubbing their clitorises. Next moment, they swim in blood.

The ayakashi are intelligent, and never cruel. Even as they pose an existential threat to humanity, they’re not pursuing the extinction of civilization. It’s simply a side-effect of their open-borders immigration agenda. The ayakashi want to bring their God to the world, and make it habitable for themselves. The Kunai Organization, under the command of the Japanese government, is the border security. I’m summarizing, because the story utterly fails at keeping things simple. Down the line, you learn that there are factions within factions with traitors and infiltrators among them, these groups and individuals bearing their own shady agendas.

All the girls from the first Ne No Kami are present. Len, Shino, Ruka, and Suzume remain the central figures of the drama. The story frequently switches perspectives between the four main girls, but also the perspectives of the side cast. You can just barely keep up with the madness, thanks to the game showing a transitional image of the girls’ portraits.

Ne No Kami has a backstory that encompasses hundreds of years of alternate history. It’s a very deep and emotional story, but clumsily told. As the finale kicks in, reality-breaking revelations are leveled at the reader, no hints prior to the revelations that these bombs were dropping. I was laughing my ass off throughout the final 30 minutes of the game. Absolutely everything was turned upside down. By some unfathomable miracle, the story still managed to make enough sense to conclude most character arcs in a satisfying manner.

GOOD THINGS ABOUT THE STORY

Despite the fantastical nature of the scenario, the world feels real. The characters use modern cars, cellphones, televisions, they reference things like Twitter. You can comfortably suspend your disbelief. The characters are well designed. The white-haired Uzume acts princess-like, all with her clumsiness and ditziness. She’s always been kept away from the real world. Meanwhile, Len is the average high school girl with tons of energy, street smarts, and naive aspirations – very believable. Everyone has a sense of wholeness about them. I also enjoyed the fast-paced battles with the added super powers.

BAD THINGS ABOUT THE STORY

The pacing is bad. The backstory is so heavy, the writer couldn’t think of a better way to convey the information than dumping massive logs of text in supposedly casual conversations. I imagine many readers fast-reading these scenes, wishing the writer had trimmed their work. Also, the most game-breaking plot twists at the end make no sense unless they produce a sequel.

When the tradeoff is a smoother story, you can have loose ends and plot holes, despite what idiot critics who never wrote a novel will say. The most important aspect of your story are the characters’ emotions. That’s what readers connect with.

I have a theory. As the first installment of Ne No Kami came in 2016, the year when the world awakened to globalism, the author began to draw the dots from the information revealed by Wikileaks and Infowars. The writer had a burning need to convey his research in his fiction. The more insane plot points make perfect sense when you cross-reference them with the globalist agenda. Keeping things simple, a tiny group of rich people control the world economy.

GAMEPLAY

Ne No Kami is a kinetic novel. Click the screen to turn the pages. Save progress into several save slots. The story is linear, and doesn’t offer choices that would lead to different outcomes. I was given one choice the entire game.

GRAPHICS

The character art is gorgeous anime art. Every line of their bodies and flocks of hair is drawn and colored in jaw-dropping detail. Each main girl’s design made my crotch itch. The girls look good for polishing your dick, even as their designs aren’t specifically for the male gaze – otherwise they’d be wearing tank tops without brassiere and miniskirts that expose panty-lines.

The characters change expressions plenty, but don’t change pose during normal scenes. In battles, you see the sprites in tons of different poses, plus intense visual effects and sound effects.

The backgrounds look like photographs that have been painted over. In fact, the developer admits this on the product page by mentioning the locations are from actual Kyoto. The paint-over is so good, so consistent with the coloring style, they don’t look out of place with anime girls plastered on them. I really enjoyed the forest temples with the classic torii and all.

MUSIC

The soundtrack is the same kickass stuff from the first Ne No Kami. Every song is the same. The songs are bursting with a range of emotions and different instruments played by real professionals. It’s just disappointing that the developer didn’t commission new tracks for this sequel.

I enjoyed the songs for the strong feelings. My favorite song was the theme that plays when the ayakashi are on. It’s an extremely creepy song with sharp, screeching noises interjecting the hollow melody. It’s a masterfully chaotic composition that creates a dark, foreboding atmosphere that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Resident Evil game. The mood is in direct contrast to the dreamy theme that plays in the main menu. It’s like they stole the harp player’s harp and slammed it with hammers for weeks, until the only sound it could make was screeching cries of pain. Slap the bitch, make her scream.

VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)

The main cast of girls is fully voiced. The girls have an air of ruggedness about them. They sound in-character. Len for example is very childish and emotional, and this makes her voice quiver. Meanwhile, Shinonome always talks calmly, like she’s whispering what she’s expected to say, while keeping quiet about her true emotions. Ruka, the cute blonde babe, just sounds like a closet pervert. And Uzume sounds like someone whose very naive but also immensely deep because she’s been away from people so much, with only books and her thoughts to keep her company. Of the other cast, only Haku the twin-tailed fox is voiced. She’s super cute, like an insecure kid that wants everyone to be friends.

The voices are boner-inducing. Every moment they talk, you feel like shutting them up with your dick.

HENTAI

The hentai scenes are very rare. There’s barely even any flirting between the characters. Everyone is just a pent up soldier obsessed with her duty. When the characters finally have lesbian sex, things get steamy. The shower sex scene between Ruka and Shinonome was the first sex scene I accessed. It was a good length with plenty of CG variants. Both girls fingered the other’s pussy to a screaming orgasm.

Several scenes would’ve made for great hentai moments. The four girls bathed together more than once, and none of these encounters led to shenanigans. A reunion scene between Len and Uzume started with passionate kissing, but never escalated. I suspect Nutaku may have censored some content to abide with Canadian anti-loli laws.

CONCLUDING WORDS

Ne No Kami is a passion project. The passion shines through even on segments you wish were trimmed down. It’s a story that doesn’t compromise. If you’re a neurotic person obsessed with history, politics, and Japanese culture, this kinetic novel is your perfect escapist yuri adventure. The action never gets too sexual to make want to grab a cab, and get your cherry popped with a nightclub hookup before marriage.

Game purchases support our comics. Download Ne No Kami Part 1 and 2 at Nutaku.