Tsukihime

Major review rewrite - May 27 2022
This review contains some vague spoilers but doesn't go into detail for any of the major ones

My knowledge of Tsukihime characters dates back to 2013, when I was still 16 years old and had discovered Melty Blood while browsing through random fighting games. I liked the simple character designs, but I never bothered to dive further into the big visual novel. Instead, my only engagement with Type Moon was the Fate/Zero anime, and I’ve grown to like that far less than I have when I first saw it. Then I played FGO 6 years later! Through the trials of gacha suffering, Tsukihime quickly became the first on my list of games to look through.

I had already been spoiled on a few major plot points for some of the characters, including Ciel’s ‘true’ identity, Kohaku’s backstory… and even worse, after subjecting myself to the Tsukihime anime (don’t ever do this), I learned about the Arcueid route ending as well. This knowledge didn’t end up ruining the game for me, though my brain was left in a scrambled mess of expectations during my playthrough. Especially when most of my knowledge came from Melty Blood, I ended up anticipating certain characters like Len to have more of a role in the story when it turned out that they didn’t!

What makes the game a bit intimidating is its reputation. Typically, my favorite games don’t carry an enormous burden of expectation. Most of them are regarded as ‘pretty decent’, though Tsukihime falls on a whole different tier of hype. This is one of the first games I see getting recommended to visual novel newbies. But is it really a ‘must play’ experience? It’s been around for decades, and people are still talking about it. It even managed to get its own remake 20 years later, so regardless of whether or not it lives up to its image, something is keeping Tsukihime alive.

The first big note is that Tsukihime is Type Moon’s first visual novel. Before Fate took over the bulk of their production, this was all they had for us computer nerds. By 2000 standards, this stands out for its adult-oriented story while maintaining the proven ‘choose your waifu’ game design. Those who weren’t amused by the saccharine presentation of its contemporaries might find more to latch onto in this violent, sinister world. The character selection is also comparatively unique, seeing how the female characters in this world are not only strong, but are capable of KILLING the main character, even when up against his supernatural powers.

Despite the looming threats, Tsukihime has a comfortable setting that pokes at the player’s imagination. The idea of living in a mansion with a personal maid and a younger sister (Akiha) who’s become head of the house comes off as a blessing. It’s just a shame about those heart problems and vampire run-ins… Is it really worth the trouble? A wrench gets thrown into the fantasy once Arcueid is introduced to the story, where Shiki’s natural urge to KILL vampires crumbles down the reality that had just been established. At heart, Shiki is a monster, and the story is not afraid to explore every aspect of this problem.

Ultimately, our main character Shiki can’t control himself when his urges get too strong. Which is to say, don’t expect tact from Tsukihime’s sexual content. Even the consensual sexual interactions are surprisingly aggressive, and they drag on for ages, with Shiki typically racking up 2 or 3 rounds at a time before finally being content with himself. The art doesn’t hold up in these situations either, meaning that no matter what angle you view these scenes from, they’re going to be long and awkward. I find them amusing in a janky kind of way, but they definitely don’t help the player in taking the story seriously.

In the long run, the erotic content of Tsukihime only plays a small part into the unwinding vampire-hunting story. At first, the player will be forced to take either Arcueid or Ciel’s route, meaning Akiha and the two maids have to wait until a later time. During these two routes, Shiki must confront the ongoing battle of vampires and True Ancestors by joining in on the fun. Each route has its own villains to deal with, leaving Shiki in a continuing conflict while Arcueid and Ciel try to explain all the workings of the vampire/human ecology to him. In it, he manages to spend some quality time with the chosen female character, including taking Arcueid out on an actual date??

Even if you don’t care for the action, you get to learn plenty about each of the six main female characters piece by piece throughout the five routes. These characters are the best part of the game, after all! And while Akiha’s route was far from my favorite, she ended up being the character I liked the most. She comes across as prickly, though it turns out that she’s genuinely caring, just trying to do her best for her and Shiki despite their rocky situations. Kohaku, the other maid of the house, is also a great character whose positivity and warm personality seem out of place, and for good reason.

After finishing either Arcueid’s or Ciel’s routes, a couple more unlock, revealing the ‘far side’ area of the story that takes place in the Tohno mansion. Your choice is split between your personal maid Hisui and your sister Akiha (no Kohaku for you, buddy!). Compared to all the insanity that happens in the ‘near side’ routes, you might be expecting these new ones to be far less violent or at least a little more peaceful. It’s true that Shiki won’t be straying far from the Tohno mansion. However, these routes are filled with a whole world of their own misery that will make you wish Shiki was out hunting vampires during the night again. Those looking to get to Kohaku’s route will have to finish Hisui’s route first. However, the finality that comes with Kohaku’s ending makes it all worth it.

Each character has to deal with their own level of torment, leaving Shiki in the passenger seat for most of these story branches. It makes for an interesting dynamic where Shiki is always entering somebody’s life in the middle of the conflict rather than knowingly jumping in from the start. But are the conflicts in this story far more painful than they are believable? How would Kohaku or Ciel even be able to function considering their horrendous backstories? They go as far as they can to try and wring out emotion from the dried up player base. Tsukihime is always riding the line on overkill, sometimes balancing it out with casual character interactions and much Shiki introspection. And does it work? Eh… not really, but you end up liking these characters anyways, so what the hell, bring in the Tohno pain dungeon.

Despite all the Shiki monologue and winding backstories, I wouldn’t call Tsukihime smart, though I’m willing to call it creative. Its flaws are obvious, and its strong points are far more subtle, but my issues haven’t stopped me from enjoying this. The art isn’t amazing, the music sucks, and the story is ridiculous, but I have to admit, it’s an interesting experience.

Given that the character select screen in Melty Blood alone is full of late-arrival spoilers, I don’t make special effort to avoid spoilers in this review. No plot events have been mentioned, but if you’re especially spoiler-sensitive you may want to avoid this. If you’ve somehow stumbled upon this page wondering if you should play this game, I do recommend it, with the caveat that there is a LOT of sexual violence in this game. It’s not a factor in every part of the story, but it’s still featured prominently in both the lore and the foreground of a few scenes.

It’s been six weeks since I finished the last route of Tsukihime at this point. I had originally contented myself with throwing down some lazy notes as I completed each route, slowly amounting to a large wall of text without many of the qualities of a real review. At this point, though, I’ve realized that I’ve not stopped thinking about this game for a month and a half - any piece of media that can do this deserves a better, more thought-out review.

The first thing I feel that I should mention is that it’s an incredibly... rough game, in a number of ways. I’ve already mentioned the sexual violence in my disclaimer at the beginning, but even with a strong stomach for this kind of thing there were a couple times where I found myself actually physically cringing at the text on my screen. The dialogue is sometimes laughably weak (god help you during the H-scenes) and the art itself can also be… strange. Nrvnqsr is an unsettling presence in the VN for his incredibly long neck long before he gets to directly participate in the story.

Despite all this, it manages to shine rather brightly through strong character writing and excellent usage of the enforced play order (certain routes in a certain order) to execute layered reveals. It takes a lot of skill to keep new plot twists coming after 4 playthroughs and 25 hours without feeling contrived, but Nasu manages to pull it off. In the early routes these tend to be delivered in the form of one of the heroines sitting down to have a thirty minute info-dump conversation with Shiki, but as the game progresses the new reveals flow better with the story and can even be rather subtle. I know it doesn't sound like I'm setting a terribly high bar here, but the late plot twists are rewarding to discover as they feel logical (by the standards of the universe) and have sufficient build-up.

Tsukihime’s characters are the real draw. There’s a reason half the reviewers here have profile photos from the game. While trope-y writing weighs some of them down pretty heavily (I’m sorry, but Akiha never progressed beyond “real doujin hours”), the saving grace here is that each character is given real agency within the story, even if they fail to capitalize on it. This is why I found the Far Side routes to be much more enjoyable overall - with most of the background lore about this world out of the way and the transition to a focus on life within the Tohno mansion, there’s a lot more room to drive at what makes each of the players here special. Some of the supernatural stuff is still tiring, with SHIKI and Yumizuka becoming especially grating presences, but being able to ignore “True Ancestors” and “Dead Apostles” in favor of stories about festering resentment and familial guilt is a real blessing.

A lot of Tsukihime’s biggest flaws crop up whenever sex is involved. I maintain that it would benefit tremendously from not being an eroge, as working the H-scenes into each route has a tendency to weaken them overall. When the buildup is fine, there’s still no guarantee that the scene itself will be any good - between the music, the premise, the writing, and the fact that it was apparently deserving of a “Fridge Brilliance” entry on TV Tropes, the mere thought of the Ciel H-scene is enough to make me laugh every time. The game falls back on lust to show that Shiki “isn’t thinking clearly” and while nothing usually comes of it (even the H-scenes are typically portrayed as romantic affairs) it doesn’t stop this from being gross when it comes up. I’ve seen Kara no Kyoukai, I know what Nasu can do when he doesn't have to shoehorn in some fanservice.

Even with its flaws, Tsukihime is one of the most captivating visual novels I’ve read. It is amateurish in many ways. Its characters are both tropey and fleshed-out, its world is simultaneously cozy and unsettling. I think the best parts of the game are contained almost entirely in the back half, after you’ve already played it at least twice - and I think it’s the experience of having read through four versions of this story that makes the fifth so rewarding. While I often find the “land of contrasts” to be lazy media criticism, with Tsukihime I do sincerely believe that it is because it is so frequently clumsy that the standout moments are so much more exciting.

That concludes the core part of this review. After this point I have included some thoughts on each route - everything from this point forward is full-spoilers, as many of the later routes are dependent on reveals from earlier routes.

Arcueid is the real gem here, and it makes sense why she’s still getting put in Type-Moon promo material 20 years later. Despite my initial apprehension about the “vampire GF” plotline, Arcueid herself actually does a great job of keeping the early (Near-Side) routes from seeming too self-serious. Even with all the lore dumps about the mechanics of vampirism and Mystic Eyes and whatnot, spending time with Arcueid ends up being a real blast. A ditzy vampire who just likes eating fries turns out to be an excellent inclusion for this universe.

Ciel was one of the characters I was most immediately interested in, since the game (confusingly at first) acts like we should just know this person. She suffers a lot during the first route since her later appearances make her feel more like a plot device than a character. Arguably strongest when she’s not the focus of the story, as her route is interesting but it feels like Nasu doesn’t really know how to write scenes about her if you don’t think Catholic imagery is so fucking cool, man.

The main strengths of Akiha’s route are primarily due to it kicking off the Far Side routes, which do a much better job of tying these supernatural elements into a batshit insane slice-of-life. Akiha’s at her best when she’s actually having a conversation instead of being snooty and wordless, which is unfortunately extremely rare. Just an uncomfortable route in general - one of the ones that suffers the most from this being an eroge. It would’ve been nice to learn more about this character without her wanting to bone down with her not-brother. She plays a far more interesting role in the maid routes as her interactions make her seem more down-to-earth. Really, the biggest highlight of the Akiha route is her heart-rending Normal Ending - you don't have to be my favorite character for me to be depressed if you're basically held in captivity for your own good, experiencing fleeting moments of lucidity and barely being kept alive through a genuinely parasitic relationship with a loved one.

The maid routes are spectacular and where this game really shines. There’s nothing left to lore dump on you so it’s all characterization for these two maids who seemed like caricatures before - one perpetually perky, one demure. Clicking through all these hallucination sequences gets a bit tedious but it’s tremendously effective at getting us into Shiki’s head and - if nothing else - it’s worth it to get to resolve the plotlines with the ribbon and the twins switching. While Kohaku as a schemer is definitely believable, I think the writing after she’s outed as a villain is a tad overwrought. It doesn’t really take away from how compelling either of these characters are, though, and sneaking in Kohaku’s True Ending as a secret third Hisui ending is one of my favorite tricks that the game pulls.