Muv-Luv: Save in the name of true love!

DISCLAIMER: Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative started out as eroges, but all-ages versions are available.



Oooookay, don't close this window just cuz the above video shows a generic harem romance VN. This is an amazing sci-fi mecha story of honor and what must be done, not even kidding. Look below for the other two openings. Especially that third one, very intense and JAM Project-filled.





Muv-Luv is a franchise of (some) highly-regarded visual novels by age, with a sizable fanbase in the animu mecha community, to the point where we got fan-translations for some of the games. The very first game, Muv-Luv, is separated into two halfs called Extra and Unlimited(Think Fate and Unlimited Blade Works).

In Extra, our protagonist is Shirogane Takeru, an everyday high-school student who loves games and hates studying. He and his childhood friend Kagami Sumika(One of the two main heroines) are shocked when rich-girl daughter of a huge-ass company Mitsurugi Meiya transfers in and moves into Takeru's house, fighting for his love. This is the generic harem route, with the childhood friend and the rich girl and the class rep and the yakisoba lover and what-not. There are six girls but you only need to get the endings of the two main girls Sumika and Meiya(whose routes are basically the same but differs in some scenes and who you end up with). Upon finishing said two routes, when you start a new game again, you can choose to move on to the Unlimited route. For some, Extra may be a boring-ass route(Won't deny it, fucking lacrosse), but I still recommend you sit through it, as not only does it establish the characters, but gives you a sense of being in a peaceful world with harem antics, something very important for later parts of the game, and it has a shit-ton of foreshadowing, more than you would expect or recognize at all. The comedy is decent, and if you don't hold this part close to your heart like I do, then at least I hope it was a decent enough read.

In Unlimited, our protagonist is Shirogane Takeru, who was in the middle of an event from Extra when he suddenly wakes up in his room on October 22nd. Upon walking outside, he finds his entire town in ruins and his school turned into a military base. It turns out this new world has been invaded by aliens called the BETA, and humanity is on its last legs. Here, mirror caricatures of all of Takeru's friends and teachers from Extra appear as cadets or soldiers...Except Sumika. Sumika is nowhere to be found. While trying to adjust to this hellish world and hoping to go back, Takeru joins squad 207 of the Yokohama base, and learns about military hardships, the value of life, and what it means to work to protect the peace you value. In my opinion, this is the best part, where we see Takeru develop from an oblivious and selfish high school student into a soldier fighting to save humanity. Here we have a solid cast of fellow cadets who teaches and learns from Takeru, and a real sense of camaradie.

The sequel VN is Muv-Luv Alternative, in which Shirogane Takeru from the end of Unlimited wakes up again on October 22nd in the same BETA-infested world. The difference? He retains his memories and military training from Unlimited. With this knowledge, he changes the events that occur in this new world, which in turn causes unforeseen events. Without spoiling much, this is by far the darkest of the three stories, and despite the name and the premise, is actually a direct continuation of Extra and Unlimited that connects both routes into this one, and concludes the trilogy. Here, the various squad members(and Meiya) are slightly neglected in favor of using the setting established by Unlimited to create an amazing dimension-crossing story of epic proportions, involving political unrest and truly trying to eliminate the BETA to save mankind. While quite a bit darker(Especially later on), it still has its comedic and light-hearted moments. While I cannot deny Alternative is the most well-written and impactful, it isn't quite as character-focused as Unlimited, which I suppose is the point of Unlimited, but because of that I have a personal bias for Unlimited.

There are also side-stories and all, but since I haven't finished Alternative myself(This is really long), I'll leave those out. The two VNs/three routes should last you a long while anyways. The most important thing is that you should NOT skip parts, especially not to jump directly into Alternative. Reading summaries of Extra and Unlimited is not enough, you just need to do them all in order to really appreciate everything. Extra is much, much more useful than one would think. There are a shit-ton of spoilers lying on the internet, so obviously don't look into the wikia or anything like that(Totally didn't do that and got spoiled or anything). With a notably strong narrative and focus on the protagonist, a detailed sci-fi post-apocalyptic world, and values and themes it touches upon, Muv-Luv is a deep journey into Shirogane Takeru as a human being, while remaining true to its origins of saving in the name of true love.

just one question...deaths of major characters?

danna45 wrote:

In Extra, our protagonist is Shirogane Takeru, an everyday high-school student who loves games and hates studying. He and his childhood friend Kagami Sumika(One of the two main heroines) are shocked when rich-girl daughter of a huge-ass company Mitsurugi Meiya transfers in and moves into Takeru's house, fighting for his love. This is the generic harem route, with the childhood friend and the rich girl and the class rep and the yakisoba lover and what-not. There are six girls but you only need to get the endings of the two main girls Sumika and Meiya(whose routes are basically the same but differs in some scenes and who you end up with). Upon finishing said two routes, when you start a new game again, you can choose to move on to the Unlimited route. For some, Extra may be a boring-ass route(Won't deny it, fucking lacrosse), but I still recommend you sit through it, as not only does it establish the characters, but gives you a sense of being in a peaceful world with harem antics, something very important for later parts of the game, and it has a shit-ton of foreshadowing, more than you would expect or recognize at all. The comedy is decent, and if you don't hold this part close to your heart like I do, then at least I hope it was a decent enough read.

In Unlimited, our protagonist is Shirogane Takeru, who was in the middle of an event from Extra when he suddenly wakes up in his room on October 22nd. Upon walking outside, he finds his entire town in ruins and his school turned into a military base. It turns out this new world has been invaded by aliens called the BETA, and humanity is on its last legs. Here, mirror caricatures of all of Takeru's friends and teachers from Extra appear as cadets or soldiers...Except Sumika. Sumika is nowhere to be found. While trying to adjust to this hellish world and hoping to go back, Takeru joins squad 207 of the Yokohama base, and learns about military hardships, the value of life, and what it means to work to protect the peace you value. In my opinion, this is the best part, where we see Takeru develop from an oblivious and selfish high school student into a soldier fighting to save humanity. Here we have a solid cast of fellow cadets who teaches and learns from Takeru, and a real sense of camaradie.

That escalated quickly.