G-Senjou no Maou – The Devil on G-String PC Review by Lolinia of We Touch Games – Developer: AKABEiSOFT2 – Publisher: Sekai Project – Genre: Visual Novel
G-Senjou no Maou – The Devil on G-String (henceforth known shortly as Maou) is a crime-riddled visual novel brought to Steam by Sekai Project and developed by AKABEiSOFT2. Thrilling and full of mystery, Maou brings me back to my childhood. Why? Because I grew up with the original Looney Toons, where classical music was almost always showcased around in several memorable episodes. The title of the game itself is a portmanteau of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Air on the G-String and Franz Schubert’s Der Erlkönig (Devil, which in Japanese can be roughly translated to Maou). The G-String in the name is referencing the string on the violin. Explaining that almost feels like it takes away from the game… almost. Many thanks to Sekai Project for the review key!
Audio wise, the game is absolutely wonderful. Maou brings lively adaptations of classical music to the proverbial table. From the aforementioned Der Erlkönig to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, each piece is transformed from its original sound to fit with the feel of the visual novel. Not only is the music good, but the voice acting is extremely well done. It does cost extra to get the voice acting; however, with the characters “Maou” being voiced by Jun Fukuyama (Code Geass), “Tsubaki Miwa” voiced by Chiro Kanzaki (Saki: Zenkoku-hen), and “Haru Usami” voiced by Kei Mizusawa (Mashiro-Iro Symphony), the quality of the voice acting is worth the extra money, in my opinion. The voicing aside, the music and overall audio quality are my favorite parts of this visual novel. From light-heartedness to murderous intent, the audio of Maou showcases a wide range of emotions.
Alongside the audio, the visuals are very nice. Character body proportions are not all over the place and the backgrounds are very well drawn. Characters move across the screen and evoke a sense of movement. The art is very pleasing to the eye and the CGs have been cropped to a 16:9 ratio to fit most HD screens. The cropping is mostly negligible as the art speaks for itself and most of the image is still here. What bit is cropped off is not needed to enjoy this visual novel in the fullest. The characters are unique not only in personality, but appearance as well. The game is naturally 1280×720, but can be made into higher resolutions through the Screen menu.
Technically, the game is pretty sound, but there are some issues that I personally have. For one, there are no Steam achievements. Yes, achievements for reading and making choices that actually lead you to a good route. I would prefer to have some. I don’t know the reason why there are none, as some of the other games released by Sekai Project do have them, but I’d still like some on a game this long. (I haven’t finished one route yet, but I am close. However, if I waited ‘til I finished the game like I normally would, it could be another month before I write this review. Haha.) The right click menu also doesn’t bring up the save or load menu. I’m used to so many other visual novels doing this that it threw me off for a loop when I first opened the game. I was ready to send in a bug report about there being no save feature until I finally saw it on the actual game screen rather than the menu.
Overall, G-Senjou no Maou – The Devil on G-String is absolutely gorgeous and is worth getting in every sense of the phrase. At $19.99 USD for the voiceless version, the game is extremely well worth it. The voiced version is $20 USD more, and is worth it if you play visual novels to listen to the voices as well. If you normally speed read and skip over the voicing, do not get the voiced version. Options for all!
Lolinia gives G-Senjou no Maou – The Devil on G-String a Drastik Measure 8.4 out of 10.0 (84).
