warning: the first volume sucks

[pramit1994]

compared to the final, this is ur typical eroge : boy meets girl, boy helps girl overcome seemingly absurd and minor issue, sex scene. Don't expect to be amazed. This vn is crap if you are a mature person who does not enjoy sex scenes and you are tired of what passes for jokes in typical visual novel.
But if you haven't played the muv luv series yet, then do it. Its worth it for the final volume, alternative.

[Nuky]

It's not necessarily that it sucks. It's just really generic until you experience the Alternative counterpart, and to get the most out of that, you have to play Muv Luv Extra/Unlimited.

It's a relaxing slice of life visual novel, not much more at face value.

[Scyris]

Extra was garbage, unlimited was soso-good, then alternative was better however, as Extra is so damn boring just do the required routes imo to get into unlimited. In Unlimited only bother with 1 ending, because every heroines ending is the exact same, only diff is what is said in the room and if you have the 18+ ver what h-scene it has. This is just my opinion though as someone who has gone thru all 3.

Alternative is bascally unlimited except the failure that caused the ending of unlimited, doesn't happen in Alternative.

[Village Idiot]

To new comers, the thing I advise the most is for Extra, look up a guide and clear throw Sumika and Meiya's routes ASAP, and move on to Unlimited. You may want to go through Ayamine's route though before you go to Alternative.

Extra is super generic, but its deliberate.

[Krescentwolf]

Well... being a series that literally all about taking happiness for granted, the fact that the basic Extra route is relatively generic for a VN is, as the poster above said... deliberate.

And while Extra is kind of generic, that doesn't mean its bad. There seems to be alot of haters posting here... Unlimited is definitely the better storyline, but there are MANY... MANY... MAAAAANY worse VN stories out there than Extra *cough* Sakura games *cough* especially given the limited VN library on steam.

Extra is a good introduction to relatively normal VN.... And Unlimited turns that on its head. Both of which make Muv-Luv a good starter VN.

Besides... I liked Meiya's route in extra XD

[raiyamo]

Theres a reason for extra being that way. The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ description of this even tells you

[Svenhent]

Can't comment much that, since it's based on personal preferrence. I am personally on the same page as Krescentwolf on this. though some interesting point to note:
If you are a really attentative reader, you will notice that Extra and Unlimited have a lot of well placed details or writings which actually are tied in greatly in Alternative. The amount of foreshadowing and referrencing across the three VNs are rather brilliant when it came out more than 10 years ago. (Extra even have some foreshadows to some biggest plot twist to come in next 2 VN and no one notices it until it hits them)

[Code x70]

This suck as a japanese VN, but as a VN in steam, this ♥♥♥♥ is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great.

[Mavi]

Extra's there to make you connect to the characters. As well as Unlimited. You can only fully appreciate Alternative when you truly 'care' for those characters.

There's a lot of foreshadowing on Extra and Unlimited that you would basically facepalm when relevant scenes come up on Alternative. Seriously, try to read all three.

[Bogan]

Originally posted by pramit1994:

compared to the final, this is ur typical eroge : boy meets girl, boy helps girl overcome seemingly absurd and minor issue, sex scene. Don't expect to be amazed. This vn is crap if you are a mature person who does not enjoy sex scenes and you are tired of what passes for jokes in typical visual novel.
But if you haven't played the muv luv series yet, then do it. Its worth it for the final volume, alternative.

Trust me dude if it's anything like the anime, i'm not surprised it's garbage.

[Svenhent]

Originally posted by Lalouche:

Trust me dude if it's anything like the anime, i'm not surprised it's garbage.

Not sure which anime you're referring to, since Age doesn't have anime adaptation of Muv-Luv as of now. (only the spin-offs are adapted, unless you're referring to Rumbling Hearts which shares same world setting as Muv-Luv Extra)

But yes, the first volume was intentionally design as a generic Japanese romance comedy, so can't blame anyone for disliking it.

[vybertron]

In my opinion, Extra is typical rom-com harem VN; but I really like Meiya and Sumika route and I think it's quite sad while reading Epilogue for those two route.

[Scars Unseen]

Honestly, Extra isn't bad at all. Most of the "it sucks" diatribe stems from the expectations others saddle first time readers with based on what the story develops into in later arcs(which, in turn, are only as good as they are due to the setup Extra delivers). Compare Extra to something like Katawa Shoujo and it's not bad at all. Compare it to fast selling crap like the Sakura series, and it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work of art.

I have no defense for the lacrosse arc though. That part is a bit of a drag.

[Grimm Carrolls]

Alternative is not worth the hell that is Unlimited. Extra is "ok", but Unlimited is garbage.

Hell, Alternative isn't that good itself. It's a long, drawn out, slowly paced visual novel, rife with bad dialogue and... Shirogane.

The main character is the worst protagonist in the world. It's bad enough that he won't shut up with his no ♥♥♥♥ sherlock internal ramblings.

[Randomacts]

Originally posted by Zakku:

Alternative is not worth the hell that is Unlimited. Extra is "ok", but Unlimited is garbage.

Hell, Alternative isn't that good itself. It's a long, drawn out, slowly paced visual novel, rife with bad dialogue and... Shirogane.

The main character is the worst protagonist in the world. It's bad enough that he won't shut up with his no ♥♥♥♥ sherlock internal ramblings.

10/10 necro bro and I couldn't disagree more with you.

Even more so with the new translation that is on the new steam version.

[_]

This thread is rather old, so I'll be locking it. Thanks to all who participated.