Ikusa Megami Zero Sound Collection

Foreword: When I first played the, I thought it was a very good game with amazing character design and a unique gameplay, and found it unfortunate that the story was not quite up to par. My review also revealed that I had only gone through what was the tip of the iceberg, with two prequels that I’ve completely neglected.Ikusa Megami ZeroIkusa Megami VeritaI’ve taken the time the past 2 weeks to actually go through every one of these games in its chronological order (with a maxed out savedata; grinding is so annoying), and found out that the story is indeed much better in the beginning games than the successive ones. In fact, I felt like a dumbass when I figured out that by playing the remake first, I’ve effectively spoiled the entire series for myself.

1. Ikusa Megami Zero Wiki

Fuck you, me from 2014.What I’d like to do to myself from 2014This’ll be a fairly long review WITH SPOILERS discussing the main characters, story, and gameplay. I’ll try to go deep into what I found good about the series and what I didn’t. Now, please do keep in mind that I’ve only played the Ikusa Megami series from Zero - Verita - Memoria (remake). This may have biased my viewpoints onto Serika instead of Louie. In addition to this, I’ll be less descriptive about the Louie side of the story, because I have not yet played this “arc” of the series. One thing to note is that “Memoria” which is a remake, is pretty much the “Ikusa Megami 1” that was released waaaay back in 1999.Also, you may notice that I use my own spelling instead of the Englishese that Eushully presents in the game.

I personally think their “translations” are freaking retarded, so please forgive me in this aspect.Please note that this game contains HEAVY spoilers! It contains a LOT of my personal analysis on the implications made within the game.Title: 戦女神 (Ikusa Megami; Battle Goddess) Series.Producers: EushullyVNDB Link: Game Type: Fantasy Novel with “Final Fantasy-Style” (SLG) Combat SystemSummary: What do you do, when you lose your loved ones?

How would you respond if the entire world hated you, and sought your death? What if your eternal, immortal life was filled with sleepless nights and silent anguish?Don’t think society is the only thing that shuns your existence; gods will find your presence disgusting, monsters will haunt your back for as long as you breathe, and evil will always follow the path you walk.At least for Serika, he didn’t know he would be walking this path as he returned from the Nohia Ruins after an expedition. As he is completely unaware of his eternal fate after returning to Markle, he meets a beautiful girl whose name was Satia.Do you believe in Destiny? Serika replies with a strong “no”, but his own will drag him into the depths of Death and back.Story Length: Moderately Short (15 hours; without gameplay) Very Long (40 hours with gameplay)Complete Story Clearing Difficulty: Very HardComments: The difficulty of this game stems from the presence of multiple routes that’s available through very subtle decisions made throughout the game. In the very sense, this game had “flags” that you needed to raise at that moment, and was very difficult to complete without outside assistance. While uncertain about the “Zero” title, Verita and Memoria requires multiple playthroughs of the entire game to actually “complete” the gameCharacter Design Rating: 9/10Story Rating: 5/10Protagonist Rating: 9/10Game Quality: HighOverall Rating: 8/10Rating Comments: I’ve tried my best to actually combine all three titles into a single rating.

I know this isn’t the best idea, but it would become too confusing to explain if I did divide all scores into separate titles.Character Design is highly superior, with multiple characters contributing to the series. Each have unique and memorable traits, and this score received a large boost due to the design that some of them were “connected” across games, as I’ll explain further below. If I had to make a complaint, it was that within the first two titles, ALL the male characters were unvoiced, while even the most insignificant heroines had a voice AND H-scenes. This was a big negative since said H-scenes were often unnecessary even annoying to a certain extent, while some male characters (especially Serika) would have been considered to have a better design with a voice.Oh yeah, Louie too. For the record, Lifia (green-haired loli on the left) is actually Louie’s granddaughter.MFWStory Rating falls greatly. As a game that incorporates an interactive element into the novel, there is less focus on the validity of the story and loopholes were present at some points. The game never explains “why” the things happened as it did and uses its “Own-World’s Logic” to commence with the scenario instead.

While this “Own-World’s Logic” can both be a good and bad trait, it was considered “bad” within the Ikusa Megami Series context due to spanning three games and still not having a good explanation (e.g. Sex Magic).In addition to this, the romance flat out sucks. This trait carries onto Memoria to a certain extent (while less prevalent), the characters pretty much fall in love for the smallest things or for the most trivial reasons.

Really, I think future remakes need to dedicate a bit more in this field since that’ll make the H-scenes a bit more valuable. As it stands, it really made the heroines very shallow, having sex with the protagonist just because he “needs to”.Though on the other hand, the game is HIGHLY climactic. From the mere CG backgrounds used to display battle scenes or the various stage designs which were intricately created, it was hard to believe that Ikusa Megami (At least the Zero title) is a game from almost 8 years ago. Don’t think the game skimps out on the gameplay either; well designed enemies with relatively easy to understand gameplay is really why I stayed to play the “prequels” of the game.As mentioned in my previous review, this type of protagonist is highly favorable in a game like Ikusa Megami. While donkan and oblivious to romance and completely desensitized to sexual pleasure, Serika has a heart of gold and is often very caring (even overprotective at points) for his apostles. Despite the hatred that entire world points at him, he’s often sympathetic to his enemies and actually tries to understand them before killing them.

His tendency to “not expect anything” even after saving someone’s life draws people to trust him more and more, and I can definitely say that Serika was a dynamic protagonist throughout the entire series (whether it was for the better or for worse).Character Summary: Due to the nature of the title having so many characters, I’ll focus on Serika, his apostles, and a couple of the key characters, who I think were the most significant.SerikaObviously, this guy’s gonna be the first, the main protagonist for the Ikusa Megami series and one called “God-Murderer”. In reality, while it seems that Serika accepts this pronoun instead of his real name, he himself does not like it, since he’s not actually a “God-Murderer”; he was forced to kill a goddess while being controlled.Imagine killing someone you love with your own hands.

Yeah, not so great.Due to various reasons, his memory is erased at various parts of the game throughout the entire series likely due to trauma or via other characters who didn’t want this character to go out of control. While he does have scenes within the Verita title where he regains all his memory, this comes at the sacrifice that he must forfeit his goddess powers and immortality.It’s explained that due to the forceful “taking over” of the goddess’s body, Serika retains the goddess’s beauty as well as her female body parts. In order to maintain his gender as a male, it seems that Serika requires the collection of energy via killing demons (who have magic that can be drained), or via sexual intercourse (much more effective).

Ikusa Megami Zero Wiki

It’s shown that Serika is highly skilled with “Sex Magic”, which he can perform various things, from giving a girl an orgasm or modifying curses. In fact, in this game’s setting, it seems that “Sex Magic” is widely accepted as one of the forms of rituals relating to gods and such, which was really awkward in my opinion.I honestly found myself sympathizing with this character quite a bit throughout the story, since here you have an orphan who’s alone except for an older sister, but due to corruption of the leaders of Markle, he is forced to kill his loved one, “raped” his older sister, and placed the burden of immortality and eternal hate from society. At this point, I was actually slightly irritated that the game conveniently erased his memories, since Serika would have had a better design if he retained this caring personality even with all the memories of pain and suffering he went through.Me: Um, I think I’ll just leave nowSerika: No you can’tAnother thing that I really didn’t like was how his “love” jumps all over the place, first to Satia, then to Shamala, then to Eclair, to Luna, and so forth up to Loka during the Memoria title. I mean, I get that Eushully was trying to make this character super-popular, but how his affection jumped all over the place made me question the value of the affection he was displaying for each character.Remember that creature in Satia’s arms; we’ll see her again soonSatia/Goddess AstriaI’ll admit after playing the third game and having this character appear in the beginning scenes of Ikusa Megami Zero, my first reaction was “Oh Shit” because I was able to immediately recognize who this was. As someone who should be more prevalent than how much she’s displayed, Satia is indeed the Goddess that Serika unwillingly kills.

The sad thing about this is that Serika was madly in love with this goddess and vice versa, and with both characters about to die, Satia actually relinquishes her body to her loved one with the promise that Serika “live on”.In this sense, Serika didn’t take over Satia’s body; it was forcefully given to him. It’s shown explicitly in game that this promise then haunts the poor protagonist as he genuinely contemplates breaking the promise and killing himself. It becomes bad enough to the point the game suggests that his “convenient memory loss” (which I kinda think was a bad element), was a good thing since it would cause Serika to break down much more easily.Satia herself has very little role within the entire series, as strange as it sounds.

Although playing the first game is crucial to help understand her occasional appearances in both the Verita and Memoria titles.HysheraThe Blue Demon of the Land is what this Demon God is called, the fearful ruler who is first seen performing a large-scale genocide on the half-snake tribe (Naga) when Serika visit their land to borrow their knowledge. Hyshera has an unknown motive to “attain more power”, and after witnessing Serika with the goddess’s body, decides to do whatever she can to take the body from him.While she does have failed attempts, Hyshera eventually succeeds in pushing Serika’s conscience away and taking over the goddess’s body, which she utilizes to the fullest extent to take over a country and initiate wars with the surrounding neighbors. Her plan is foiled as she is defeated by Ancient Weapons and Serika takes over the body again.Hyshera has somewhat of a rivalry with Serika at this point and challenges him to a 1-on-1 duel, where after her defeat, agrees to be sealed within Serika’s sword to guide him in any way she can. She is an irreplaceable guide and a 3rd wheel (in a good sense) throughout Verita and Memoria.AbiruseAs someone who’s only played the Memoria game from the entire series, this antagonist was very hard to understand at first glance. Abiruse is a magician who meets with Serika at an underground cave-like town called Funoro as he escapes from his pursuers, and offers his help and friendship. He has a pure goal of trying to create a war-free world for magical beings including his apostle Perrel, and actually “falls in love” with Serika for his “beauty”.However, this same romantic affection soon mutates into crazed obsession as he literally throws away everything in order to obtain the goddess’s power. Readers can see this character doing anything in his power including summoning the Dragon of Death in order to obtain his goals.The 3rd title actually briefly repeats the same events that happened between him and Serika up to this point, which was a nice reminder for players.

Well, i don’t know if you already know it or not, but the complete series ( at the moment ) consist of six game. The timeline is follow: Ikusa Megami Zero - Genrin no Kishougun - Genrin no Kishougun II - Ikusa Megami VERITA - Ikusa Megami ( the remade version is MEMORIA) - Ikusa Megami II. After the event in IM2, there’re still quite a number of loose ends, as well as many event in the past ( entire the war between the Old Gods, Present Gods and Mechanical Gods for example ) go unexplored, so i really hope that the series could expand more in the future.If you already finish VERITA, it’s highly recommend that you should try both Genrin games as well ( about game play, those two are very similar to early Fire Emble title, with some very welcome change and improvement. Honestly, it’s quite good, much better than many main stream Fire Emble clone. Heck, those two are even better than later Fire Ember games ).

Louie is the main protagonist in those two games though, but you do get to see the first time Serika meet Eclair, and maybe you’ll understand a bit better, why Serika actually care and protective toward her mean so much ( she was really bad in that series ).Actually, remembering this make me quite disappoint at VERITA, again. When the title was announced, i was super duper hyped for it.

It was mean to connected everything together, and Serika vs Louie, both protagonist of their respective series, one wield the power of God while other have entire military strength of an empire, with many impressive vassals at his call, heading to a duel that decide the fate their loved woman. It have so much potential for an epic story. It turn out to be an okay-ish game, with kind of a happy ending for all was such a hugeee let down. Many apologies for the late reply and thank you for the information!

Ikusa Megami series have been one of my favorites purely because of the impact it had, though truth be told; each titles are pretty damn long LOL.Having playing Zero, Verita, and Memoria, I have a very good general understanding of how the story progresses except for Louie’s side (Sorry Louie), but can’t really see myself coming back to these titles unless there’s similar remakes like they did with Memoria purely because of other games I’d rather play and/or the lacking graphics.I agree that Verita worked to make things more confusing than to connect everything. Though at least for me (who already played Memoria like an idiot), it was a great blessing to see Zero and Memoria become connected somehow. I’m just hoping Eushully releases more titles because it’s such a great series!. So true for almost no romance!Well Celica really do love Satia though, and Shamara to some degree.

Luna-Clear and Roka are.Supposed. (It’s a fan theory) to be Satia reincarnation though. He cares for the rest of the girls greatly, but not in a romantic way.About conveniently memory losing At least after the final boss in Zero there are valid explanation to this. So I don’t really mind, plus his memories are all return in IM2.

This time permanently. Even his apostles said Celica real smile is very beautiful.While I’m actually not too sure why Serika said this phrase to Shuri, thoughHe feel extremely broken of course. His existence brought all kind of dangerous to people around everywhere he went. The entire village is destroyed because he went there. In Zero he destroyed Malc by himself. In Haishera form she was a great tyrant in Ceress region.

Entire caravan fell down to God’s graveyard with him in Verita. And don’t forget that Revinia was almost destroyed by Evil Dragon. So he want to be someone who can give life to people as well, not just taking them. Celica even admit he helped Shuri due to guilt. The time they spent together however, made them close and finally opened their heart to each others.My question to you, if you read.1) In Verita, what route you like the most?

Mine is dark route2) Which girls should be with Celica the most. Ekria, hands down3)Will you played IM2 too? Although the system is very laggy and outdated. Man, I was waiting for you to come back and reply!

I needed someone who is an expert with this series, and I’m so glad you took the time to come by and add a comment!Luna = Satia’s reincarnation? That’s something I never thought about, though I’d love to hear the Fan-theory on this.To answer your questions though:1) My favorite route in Verita is definitely the Seishi (正史) route, mainly because it involves Shuri and also introduces Marinia, along with Louie still working towards reviving Irina. The Dark Route seems to involve either of them being defeated, and as someone who loves seeing two well-balanced protagonists in a story, I guess I didn’t like the Dark Routes for that reason. Light route wasn’t really too different from either of the Dark Routes (in my opinion)2) I would normally agree with Eclair because I really appreciated how she worked so hard over the 50 years (along with Naberius and Rita; they’re both so adorable) when Serika was in the Grave of the Gods. It’s just that it’s really really hard to throw away Shuri, who I have somewhat of a crush on.3) I’m DEFINITELY thinking about IM2 after receiving a bit of information from you. I’m just worried though, that since it’s such an old game, I’ll have a hard time finding a copy. I’d love to see what path it follows from IM1/Memoria, though.

I’d love to see Abiruse appear again:D.