GAME REVIEW | Plundering Pirates Invade "Villainess" Visual Novel
There’s a lot of anime surrounding people being reincarnated into a dating visual novel. However, it’s sometimes rare for said anime to get a visual novel of its own. Thankfully, the brilliant My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! managed to escape that curse thanks to the folks at Idea Factory. But is Pirates of the Disturbance the romantic getaway we envisioned Catarina Claes would find herself in?
A non-canonical tale set in the series’s universe, Pirates of the Disturbance begins with Catarina in dreamland. She envisions seeing a friend in her past life, who is reading through a Fortune Lover fan book. As she listens in, Catarina discovers some lost lore about the game via unused ideas and storylines. And one happens to deal with pirates who would’ve made shish-kabob out of the game’s villainess (i.e. her!).
Catarina wakes up to the news that she and her step-brother Keith must entertain some guests on a cruise. On the massive vessel known as the Vinculum, Catarina and Keith find that all of their friends are also onboard with them. With that wonderful discovery, Catarina aims to have plenty of fun with her pals, all of whom hiding a secret crush for the food-loving farming aficionado. But wait: a vacation on a massive body of water? What was that scrapped Fortune Lover storyline about again?
In true My Next Life as a Villainess fashion, Catarina is thrown into a chaotic situation. Once again, she must avoid death my any means, with her flag hanging over her head the more dangerous things get. Thankfully, the likes of Geordo, Sophia, and Maria have Catarina’s back, even though they have their own share of problems to deal with. What was supposed to be a nice vacation with some elite elbow-bumping has turned into another situation that could spend the end of Catarina Claes.
Pirates of the Disturbance does a good job with the visual novel aspect of the series. With a concept created by Otomate, the overall presentation shows why it was best to go with a legit otome game developer to bring Catarina’s story to the gaming world. The visuals are great, which mesh together the light-novel’s illustration style with that of Silver Link’s anime adaptation. It’s also wonderful hearing all of the main voices from the show return, with Maaya Uchida sounding in top form as our villainess-turned-hero.
However, with this being a visual novel, players will have to prepare themselves to read a lot. While not as massive as most otome visual novels (my first play-through was about five hours), there is quite a lot of information that’s thrown at the players’ faces. And while there are moments where you’ll have to choose an outcome, those moments come very few and far between. To put it simply: its limited interactivity could chip away from one’s attention span.
Thankfully, there’s a good chunk of the trademark humor we’ve come to expect from My Next Life as a Villainess. Whether it’s seeing the boys gets flustered over Catarina’s antics, the questionable books Sophia likes to talk about, or how our protagonist is completely oblivious about her friends’ feelings for her, the comedy that made the original series a joy to watch is fully intact. The new characters (whom shan’t be spoiled here) also add to the wit and charm of the main series. However, one of the series’s biggest trademarks — the Council of Catarinas — is very rarely used in the game, a shame considering it was one of the best parts of the anime.
Although the game is shorter than most visual novels, there are multiple routes, endings, and memories to unlock throughout different play-throughs. It’s why there’s a plethora of save slots, as it’s certainly wise to make multiple ones so as to find every path Catarina can traverse on. (The option to skip dialogue on future play-throughs is also a blessing, making it faster to try one’s hand at different options.)
PROS:
- Fits well with the series’s style
- Great voice acting
- Multiple endings & pathways
CONS:
- A lot of reading
- Limited interactivity
- Not enough Council of Catarina moments
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Fans of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! will find plenty to love about Pirates of the Disturbance. From its voice acting to trademark humor, Idea Factory has managed to make a solid visual novel based on one of the better isekai rom-coms out there. With that being said, could the team make the actual Fortune Lover a real thing next time around?
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Bruce Gomez of Idea Factory.
