The Fruit of Grisaia Reviews

Absolute cinema.

Main character has more edge to him then Hajime and Kirito combined, but at least the main girl has them bazooka bozangas

Ignore playtime, I've 100% complete it on a different version. This is a really great VN. The premise is a bit wacky, but the story handles it well enough that you shouldn't mind it pretty quickly. The common route (all the scenes before you enter a girl's specific route) is downright hilarious, genuinely one of the funniest things I've ever read at points [spoiler] crab-monkey-amoebic dysentery [/spoiler]; and the girls' routes are all generally heartfelt, [u]very heavy[/u], and well done. Quality writing all things considered. The art is also pretty great for a VN with over a decade on it. There is an 18+ patch that adds all the missing H scenes, and I found them to be pretty tastefully handled overall. Having watched the 1st season of the anime after finishing this I can say that the anime is waaay thirstier than the VN despite it not having any actual nudity or romance. On that note there is the issue with Makina given her "situation" and the nature of her relationship with Juicy-Yuuji. If someone told me they have a problem with it, I completely understand. That said, I felt it was handled fairly well and given that Makina and Juicy-Boy both separately acknowledge both her behavior, the veracity of said behavior, and the reasons behind it, I don't think its as much of an issue as it might appear. Still cutting it pretty close though. All the girls are great in their own ways, each one starts out as a comedic caricature and eventually is revealed to be a deeply flawed, troubled, and very human person. Juicy-Yuuji is likewise initially presented as a mildly misogynistic, sarcastic, and borderline psychotic, asshole. However, he does eventually show himself to be a caring, doggedly-loyal, and definitely psychotic (but in a good way, I guess), friend/boyfriend. Mostly at least, more on that in a moment. My biggest issue with the game is the way one of the routes is handled, and it unfortunately happens to be my favorite girl's route. Mild to moderate tone spoilers ahead for one of the routes: [spoiler] The way Juicy-Yuuji treats Michiru for a large chunk of her route is at best just north of bullying and at worst borderline abusive. In every other route Juicy-Lad is a genuinely kind, caring, and attentive (if maybe a bit unhinged) partner, but for some reason he can't help but treat poor poor Michiru like she's yesterday's trash. I almost didn't want to even continue her route at one point because the way he was treating her was making me actually upset. It does eventually come around but I still can't help but feel bad for my girl Chiruchiru. [/spoiler] And that's it, that's the bad thing about this VN, other than that the only other thing I can really complain about is that some of the flashback sequences can drag on for juuuust a tad too long. I haven't played Labyrinth or Eden or any of the other Grisaia VNs and from what I can tell that's fine as they're mostly either backstory, sidestories, or the harem route (not what I want, I feel like it cheapens the other routes). Fruits definitely delivers a complete story with mostly satisfying conclusions to each route. One last thing. If you've seen the anime and aren't sure if the VN is worth it, then listen to me. Forget the anime even exists, compared to this, it's trash. The anime skipped, changed, and bastardized so much quality storytelling, it's kind of baffling. At most the anime should be viewed as a side dish if you want to see more of the Mihama crew. This VN is 100% worth it if you even remotely liked anything about the anime.

The Fruit of Grisaia is one of the best and longest visual novels I’ve ever played, with an overpowered yet fascinating protagonist, multiple romance routes (that go beyond just cute dialogue, depending on your version), a perfect blend of comedy and emotional gut punches, and an incredibly engaging story, though it sometimes leans a bit too much into slice-of-life instead of keeping the plot moving, but seriously, if you’re going to play it, get the Unrated Version.