The Fruit of Grisaia Reviews

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Best Common Route I have ever read. Really fun character dynamics.

The Fruit of Grisaia is a visual novel that I give an overall positive recommendation, but I have mixed feelings about it that prevent me from calling it great, let alone one of my all-time favorite visual novels like it is for many. Almost every major aspect of this visual novel is a double-edged sword. The characters are generally pretty likable, especially the main five heroines. They have quirky humor, and the reveals that their quirks are related to surprisingly dark pasts are developed quite well. However, I don't like how their pasts and character development feel a bit TOO over the top for an otherwise down-to-earth setting. Without giving too much away, elements like burials, explosions, and alternate personalities particularly irked me. The main protagonist, Yuuji, is a character I've seen people love and consider one of the best VN protags while others HATE him. I have mixed feelings about him. I sometimes enjoy his sarcastic humor, and having a backstory and personality is nice. However, he feels WAY too much like Superman in how he solves the heroines' problems himself and barely gives them a chance to take action. As for the routes, I think the common route is actually pretty funny. The heroines get to show off their quirks, and there’s enough variation to get a good laugh out of me. The problem? It was TOO LONG. Ten to fifteen hours of just slice-of-life comedy was too much for me, especially since it was building up to darker psychological routes. If Grisaia were just a moege made by SMEE or Asa Project or something, I wouldn't have as much of an issue, but even then, the common route could EASILY be cut in half, especially when there's very little plot or character foreshadowing. Regarding the heroine routes, again, the character development and backstory reveals for all five heroines were done pretty well. It was nice to see why they ended up at Mihama Academy and how they overcame issues in their own ways was usually emotionally rewarding with solid buildup. The problem? Well... a bunch. Similar to the common route, every route was TOO LONG and slow-paced. Some routes were better, like Yumiko's, which wasn’t too bad with things moving along relatively quickly. Then there’s Makina's route, which was godawfully slow, with the other three routes somewhere in the middle. As I mentioned earlier, every resolution to the main heroine's problems has two main issues: first, Yuuji literally resolves almost everything himself like Superman; second, there’s some element that’s too over the top compared to what had otherwise been a quirky yet down-to-earth setting. If you don’t mind or even like long and slow VNs, super blunt and competent protagonists, some over-the-top drama or coincidences, and a lot of slice-of-life before the deep stuff, then Fruit of Grisaia could easily be your thing—maybe even one of your favorites. However, for me, despite its very positive upsides like solid humor and memorable psychological character development, I can personally only give a mild positive recommendation due to the pacing being excessively slow for me and Yuuji's humor being hit or miss; his overcompetence often takes me out of the moment at times.