Visual Novel Spotlight: Tokyo Alice
This fortnight’s spotlight features a visual novel inspired by a story we all know and love – Lewis Carol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Tokyo Alice, created by indie team Bouquet in 2008, combines elements of the much loved story with some original characters and twists.
Outa and Arisu are childhood friends who have practically been in the same class since time existed. While Arisu’s head is always in the clouds, imagining fantastical stories and creatures, Outa is the straight man, making sure she always comes back to reality. When Arisu is away from school for three days, Outa starts to worry and goes to visit her house to check up on her. What he finds instead is a girl who insists she be called Alice who pulls him into a strange place called Wonderland. As Outa struggles to get his bearings in the quirky new world, he must find out what happened and wake Arisu from her dream.
Tokyo Alice initially looks like another game that just wants to have fun with the Alice in Wonderland concept. Certainly, for the first half of the game, it plays with the various quirky characters of both Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass, presenting characters as a mix of their odd story selves with a dash of Disney’s influence. But as things start to unfold, the game reveals more original characters as Arisu’s dream world begins to break down. As much as it may seem like an imitation in the beginning, the story takes an interesting turn for the serious and links the goings on to a pretty common issue (if not made slightly more dramatic than needed).
I found it a little hard to get into the story initially because it so heavily relied on borrowed characters, but after a while it shows a its charm. The presence of Outa and a small rabbit named Clo stand to remind that the story isn’t a rehash while quickly progressing through areas takes the story in a new direction. There are still a few questions and confusing aspects at the end of Tokyo Alice, but it explores some interesting topics.
Unfortunately, the more dramatic points of the story are brought down by the English translation. While it’s awkward but fine for the most part, important lines are worded in a slightly confusing way and can impact on the ending’s twists. The larger questions that the game raises are vague by default, but some specifics are lost when Outa makes some realisations. Fortunately, for translation purists, the text has translation notes such as mentioning “Clo” is pronounced just like “Kuro”.
The backgrounds and sprite art often have moments when they mix well with each other, such as in the first screenshot above. All sprites besides Arisu/Alice’s are presented near the textbox, where the card flips when changing characters. The cute presentation is another of Tokyo Alice’s charm points, though doesn’t distract from things when it gets serious. Although the frequently changing backgrounds can sometimes seem random, and the square UI elements up the top can be hard to read.
Tokyo Alice is a short visual novel by Bouquet that takes the Alice in Wonderland story and gives it a new, potentially more personal meaning. While the translation can be awkward and isn’t as clear as it can be at crucial moments, it doesn’t stand in the way of the game’s charming yet serious story. The way sprites are presented and how Alice’s sprite interacts with the photo backgrounds only adds to the game’s charm.
Tokyo Alice is a free game for Windows only and can be downloaded from Bouquet’s site. A separate English patch can be applied to the game. Do remember that this game will require your computer’s locale to be set to Japanese, and rarely works through AppLocale.
- Visual Novel Spotlight: Corpse Party: Blood Drive - November 3, 2015
- Visual Novel Spotlight: A Kiss For The Petals – Remembering How We Met (PC) - September 29, 2015
- Visual Novel Spotlight: Sakura Swim Club - September 15, 2015
