Cho Dengeki Stryker All Ages Version

Developer: OVERDRIVE | Publisher: MangaGamer | Release Date: 2015 | Genre: Visual Novel, Adventure | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

Like most young boys Yuuki Yamato has a superhero character who he absolutely idolizes. In fact, Yuuki would love nothing more than to grow up to be Imperial All-Terrain Strike Support Ranger Codename: Stryker Zero. However, in reality Yuuki is rather wimpy and despite trying to protect his best friend, a girl named Haruna, often ends up soundly beaten by bullies. This all changes one day when after another thrashing Yuuki is confronted by a mysterious man who seemingly has the power to grant wishes. All he wants in exchange is memories and since Yuuki is so young he ends up sacrificing all his memories in order to become that which he desires most, Stryker Zero. Because Yuuki loses all his memories and in essence “becomes” Stryker Zero he spends most of his childhood feeling very confused and isolated. It is only ten years later when an army of cyborgs from the Balbora Empire, sworn enemies of Stryker Zero, shows up and causes havoc that Yuuki can fulfill his destiny.

Cho Dengeki Stryker is definitely a far cry from the usual romantic visual novels and features a much more action oriented approach. The story follows the adventures of Yuuki as he tries to deal with the fact that he is a super hero who has to deal with ordinary life as well as school while constantly guarding against threats to his country. The writing is very good and while there are a couple of obvious plot holes it doesn’t detract from the overall story. The game starts out very light hearted and humorous, but definitely features some dark moments as well, especially towards the end. As this is the all ages version of the game all the explicit adult content has been removed, but in all honesty this doesn’t make much of a difference as the sex scenes were never the focus in any case.

Cho Dengeki Stryker is actually the upgraded version of the original Dengeki Stryker and features three new routes which expands the storyline considerably. The original release already boasted three different routes, so be prepared to spend a lot of time with this visual novel. Although not a kinetic novel, Cho Dengeki Stryker is still a little light on choices, so you will be spending the majority of your time reading. Thankfully the writing is very engaging and the scenes are described very well. All of the characters, including the bad guys, are fleshed out and there are plenty of great scenarios. The location of the “Balbora Imperial Vanguard Headquarters in relation to the “Japanese Imperial Army Outpost” is hilarious, although it is hard to swallow how the heroes and villains are incapable of recognizing each other outside of battle. I don’t want to say any more about the plot, but suffice to say this is easily one of my favorite “non-romantic” visual novels.

As far as I know the original Japanese version of the game was released in 2012 and unfortunately this means that the visuals are restricted to a resolution of 800×600. When playing in fullscreen mode you can choose to stretch the visuals instead of retaining the original aspect ratio, but obviously this leads to distortion. Even with big black borders the visuals still look good and the art style is great. The characters are all well drawn and their designs definitely match their personalities. The game features a ton of locations and quite a large cast, so there is definitely more visual variety than what is found in your typical visual novel. Although the normal character sprites during conversations are static the game does feature a couple of very nice animated cut-scenes. Compared to the original Dengeki Stryker the game also features more event CGs, character sprites as well as graphical enhancements for the combat scenes. The game also features a CG gallery and scene replay mode to view the content you have already unlocked.

Overdrive is known for stellar audio and Cho Dengeki Stryker certainly doesn’t disappoint in this regard. You’ll hear plenty of vocal tracks, including the theme song “Fight for the Future” as well as the usual high quality background tunes. The amount of tunes in the game not only put most other visual novels to shame, but most of them are very catchy as well. Like with the visuals, the audio can be replayed using the song as well as music library. In addition, the game features full Japanese vocals for all the characters and the actors all deliver great performances. Rounding off the audio are some great sound effects which further adds to the immersion. As it is a visual novel the controls are a breeze and text can be advanced by either left-clicking or pressing “Enter.” You can also set the text to advance automatically at the speed of your choosing if you simply want to sit back and enjoy the story.

Even if you have played the original Dengeki Stryker, Cho Dengeki Stryker is a worthwhile purchase as it offers plenty of additional content. If you have never played the game before prepare yourself for hours of superhero themed shenanigans. The story definitely kept me hooked all the way through, even during the slower parts and some of the best scenes are found in the additional routes, so playing through everything is a must. Although the price tag is a little higher than most visual novels on Steam there is more than enough content here to justify it. If you want to experience the game with all the adult content intact you will have to purchase it directly from Mangagamer though.