Iwakura Aria

Checkpoint GamingCharlie Kelly

9/10

When you’ve bled for someone, when you’ve really given all you have left, what else is there to do?

TheSixthAxisMiguel Moran

9/10

For the longest time, I’ve associated Japanese developer MAGES with absolute anime nerd (weab) slop. Now, as a massive weab, I say that in the most endearing and well-meaning way. The dense sci-fi visual novel adventures of Steins;Gate and the schlocky, shocking horror of Corpse Party are some of my favorite games, but in the last year, I’ve come to appreciate MAGES for a series of games that their work on has seemed to be relatively unnoticed. The recent Famicom Detective Club remakes on Nintendo Switch were developed in part by MAGES, including the incredible new entry Emio – The Smiling Man...

All of this might sound critical of Iwakura Aria, and I guess in one way I am disappointed in this, but only because it could have very easily been another House in Fata Morgana. The intensity of the themes are there. The art is right up there with the best VN art I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. The writing is beautifully eloquent, and this is a rare visual novel that I would happily pick up as a proper novel, where it would stand strong on any bookshop’s shelves against any of the literature on there. Even as it is, Iwakura Aria is better than 99% of the other visual novels out there.…

WayTooManyGamesOliver Shellding

8/10

Iwakura Aria brings up one of the most perplexing questions that seems to plague humanity as a whole in recent memory: why do we try so hard to define what love is or isn’t? While we are leagues ahead of the binary, Puritanical view of affection and sexuality that strangled the life out of so many mere decades ago, we still continue to try and slot things into specific categories. Love, hate and attraction all have similar wavelengths, and frantically trying to classify your feelings as one...

KeenGamerLaura Speller

8/10

Iwakura Aria is a visual novel with a haunting yet beautiful story, as well as an engaging and mesmerizing cast of characters. This dark tale will have you hooked from beginning to end - and wanting more, which it actually gives you.