Kagetsu Tohya is a Visual Novel and direct sequel to the studio’s previous game Tsukihime that released only a year prior. Once more, we follow the adventures of Tohno Shiki, a high school student with a unique set of eyes which allow him to see the death of things and destroy even absurd objects by cutting those lines. It takes place a full year after the events of the last game in where a vampire terrorized the city. This time around, there is seemingly nothing out of the ordinary happening. It takes a far different tone than its predecessor in that a large portion of it feels like a slice of life sitcom with nothing dangerous going on and everyone involved simply having a good time.
That is a far cry from the nonstop oppressive grimness and string of tragedies that occurred throughout all of Tsukihime. It is nice to see all of the characters finally being able to live a relatively normal life and joke around. That now present peacefulness may even seem like unnatural happiness, which our cynical character Shiki is quick to notice. One of the most immediate things you’ll see in this sequel is how many choices you will now have access to all throughout. It is a near open world gameplay mechanic that lets you explore areas of the town, participate in events, or visit your favorite characters from Tsukihime, assuming he/she is still alive.
Time will progress with whatever choice you make and force you to decide how you want to spend your day. Your decision will then splinter off into various other things you can do afterward to create a spiderweb of possible scenarios to see. As an example, the first choice you get is to either go to school or stay in your mansion. Going to school will let you participate in far different situations or even get sidetracked while heading there to do something else. Chilling in your posh mansion, on the other hand, will let you spend the afternoon with your maids, little sister, or get some sunbathing in outside. Whatever you decide to do, chances are it will be very entertaining, but before too long you will notice that the game ends that same day.
It is a title that necessitates replaying it over and over again to view the various different events you can get yourself into. After playing through the game multiple times, more options will become available, and it will slowly start to unveil its actual story. Or maybe you just had the luck to enter into one of the very specific scenarios that immediately ripped apart any pretense that this tale is a happy and carefree one. Either way, once you get a glimpse of just what is going on, you are once again thrust to live out that same day that you always do, memories erased and none the wiser. Desperately trying different things to progress the story is a novel idea for a visual novel, yet one that does no favors for the pacing or ability to hold one’s attention if you are not already invested in its characters. If ever there was a sequel you shouldn’t blindly jump into before playing its predecessor, it is Kagetsu Tohya.
You will be going through the same day countless times with a majority of what you do being to no avail. I strongly recommend going into the options menu and immediately turning on ‘skip parts previously read’ as there are some events that will always play out each time you go through a day. Luckily, with the vast amount of options you have and the great characters, I never found it boring despite how often you are making little to no progress. The fact that it spends most of its time in a humorous and cheerful setting only makes the occasions when someone gets their head violently yanked off or other Tsukihime like situations that much more impactful.
If you are not keen on either using a walkthrough or tempted into setting up a detective like pinboard to piece together the effects and paths of your vast amount of choices, you can always refer to the help section found in the main menu. It will tell you precisely what you need to do to get the story moving if you get stuck or can’t be bothered. The sad thing here is that the plot is hardly worth the effort. It’s not bad, but it adds little to the world and lore. Much like the premise of repeating the same day over again, once you finish it you pretty much leave having learned or experienced nothing. This is a title in where the developers clearly had a ton of fun making it, just go in solely expecting comedy and fanservice, not anything to push its predecessor’s narrative forward.
There have been a good amount of new characters added into the cast, and all of them are relatively memorable. Most of them appear in the side stories, which are stand-alone plot-lines that usually have nothing to do with the primary campaign. These can range from taking a rather interesting look into what happened at the end of a certain Tsukihime route, a game of tag featuring some of the series deadliest vampires, and a near Scooby Doo-like situation in a haunted mansion. They are all a joy to read, and some offer a ton of insight into the lore like the story behind the Nanayas or the Crimson Moon. However, you will need to unlock them in the main campaign via seemingly random means. Trying to collect all ten of the side-stories without a guide is a truly Herculean task. Whether you choose to try to get them normally or via a guide, they are all well worth reading.
As much fun as it is to select choices and see where life takes you, this can lock you out of some content. More specifically most of the title’s hentai content. If that doesn’t matter to you or if seeing a large portion of the CG gallery now permanently unable to be filled in doesn’t bother you, you will not need a guide. For those that think it would bother them, it is worth considering or at least being aware of this. The only way to 100% all of the CGs after being locked out is to delete your save data and start from scratch. Most of the music, character sprites, and backgrounds remain the same as in Tsukihime. Some new character-specific sprite variances have been added as well as a few original tunes, alongside remixed tracks of the original.
Kagetsu Tohya is all too willing to take shots at itself and break the fourth wall. The cheerful and playful nature of this title makes it a ton of fun. It may have a story that led us nearly nowhere, though it sure was an enjoyable journey. The colorful cast of interesting characters and the strong, humorous writing does wonders to keep you glued to your seat. Despite its unique boundary of having you repeat the same day over from its beginning to end, it has a ton of content as well. This was an interesting sequel without a doubt, yet for the most part, you could simply read a synopsis of the plot found here and continue on to the far better story found in Melty Blood if you wished. Kagetsu Tohya felt more like a spin-off game more so than a full-fledged sequel in my opinion and one I’d only recommend to hardcore Tsukihime fans. If you are, then this title is sure to please.
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