LUNARiA -Virtualized Moonchild- Reviews

as expected from Key

Mid start, but when it takes off? Absolute cinema.

Good but quite short.

I prefer the catgirl, but the game is still 10/10

If you've read any visual novel by key, you know what to expect, it won't disappoint

LUNARiA is in my eyes, in all likelihood, the single most underrated visual novel ever made. It got completely overshadowed upon release due to being in between 2 other short Key works by more popular writers (Loopers - Ryukishi07, & Tsui no Stella - Romeo Tanaka), but in my eyes it far surpasses either of those two as an overall story. Loopers left me wanting more with the large majority of the cast, and Stella left an awful taste in my mouth to the point that I don't like to acknowledge it as a Key work. However, LUNARiA managed to do what neither of those two could. It tells a story worthy of the Key name in a very digestible amount of time. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it manages to tell one of the best overall Key stories the company has ever put out in such a humbly short run time. At its core, LUNARiA is simply what it tells you it is, right at the start -- a love story. However, the twists and turns that this love story takes to reach its ultimate ending left me in awe and tears at nearly every development. Every character has something beautiful to offer to this story, and they all get their moment to shine, which is something you can't say for many works of this length. Generally there'll be at least one or two characters who just exist to fill background space, or make the cast bigger overall. But not in LUNARiA, absolutely not. Despite there only really being 4 true characters in the general meaning of the word, it never feels like anything is lacking, because of how well done all 4 of them are. I truly hope Key uses LUNARiA as the blueprint for their shorter works going forward, because it's clear they struck gold with it. The main reason this story is so incredible though, is due to the 2 leads, and more specifically, Q herself. I stand by the statement of her being one of the best characters Key has ever written. She's a pure ball of joy who you could never possibly be bored of being around, and yet there is SO much more to her than that which I can't say without getting into spoilers, but what I can say is that she means the absolute world to me. I would give my life to protect hers in a heartbeat, she will forever be one of my most beloved characters in all of fiction. T-BIT is a pretty great character too though, handily one of the best VN protagonists I've gotten the joy of experiencing, he truly moved me in those last few chapters. All in all, I can't recommend LUNARiA enough. If you like the general Key formula at all, you should absolutely love this VN. And this is all not even mentioning the incredible OST (One of my all-time favorites, personally.) And the very high level of production, this story really just has it all. Please read it!!