Norn9: Last Era

If you skipped the original Norn9 release, play that first for sure. If you liked it or end up liking it, Norn9: Last Era is essential for all it adds to the universe. It really pushes the envelope for a fandisk and feels like a blend of that and a sequel release thanks to everything included. On its own, it is hard to recommend Norn9: Last Era, but fans of the original will find a lot to love here.

Norn9: Last Era is a fantastic prequel and sequel to Norn9: Var Commons, giving you even more insight into your favorite boy’s life and thought process, with plenty more cute and romantic moments along the way.

Overall, I think Norn9: Last Era is a surprising improvement in some respects to its predecessor: offering new perspectives on the original’s storylines and showing detailed consequences for its many routes. It doesn’t necessarily fix problems Norn9: Var Commons has, but it elaborates on the inherent potential sometimes lost in the original game. Last Era is easily one of the best otome fandisks I’ve played, and I can recommend it to either returning Norn9 fans or newcomers curious about this particular visual novel series. Just go into this with tempered expectations, and you’ll find this attempt at a reset is more than decent.

Norn9: Last Era is a fine game for fans of the franchise as well as newcomers thanks to some great voice acting, great characters and beautiful music. The prelude is a bit long though, which might scare some people of.

Norn9: Last Era is a large, good-looking second helping for fans of the series. It makes no attempts to convert outsiders, though, so if you have no investment then look elsewhere. The writing is a little iffy at times and the lack of gameplay is a shame, but the decision to further the character's stories is one to celebrate

Norn9 Last Era is very clearly a game made for a particular audience. If you enjoyed Norn9 Var Commons, this is definitely an otome fan disc you will enjoy. All of the characters get their due. Aside from a bizarre requirement to force people through the Prelude, it’s well executed. Perhaps that love for the original game will even make it possible to overlook the formatting issues that still come up in the follow-up.

Norn9: Last Era is a fandisk that nicely expands on the narrative. Still, if you did not enjoy Norn9: Var Commons, then you’ll find it very hard to enjoy Last Era, and it becomes clear that the targeted audience for this title is clearly those who have already consumed Norn9 in some form of medium, be it the previous game or the anime. Some of the systems in the Western release also share the same issues, such as the awkward text lines, which diminish the experience a bit. Furthermore, half of the content that’s available just isn’t up to snuff when compared to other fandisk releases from Idea Factory.