There are nukige out there with more consistent, enthralling plot lines. I want a clock to turn back time – 20 hours of it to be exact.
This article was originally written on 5/7/2015. May contain conceptual/structural spoilers.
In writing an entry, it’s generally within my hope to both be informative, but to ‘belabor’ the content so that it’s enjoyable. From personal experience, works that I find profound ‘inspire’ first, my urge to want to write, and second, my ability (in quality and speed) to write. This is evident with White Album 2, a work which I find remarkably easy to write endlessly about. Nonetheless, in writing about Chrono Clock (クロノクロック), Purple Software’s latest work, the opposite seems to hold. That is to say — there’s not a lot that can be said about the work.The work’s best described as a character game with incidental plot elements. The majority of the character routes within the work are centered on the character interactions — the plot developments have marginal, or minor significance. There are six heroines within the work , the first five with full-length routes. The ‘true’ heroine ironically, is given a ten minute route. Within this route, the protagonist and the true heroine profess the greatest love, all the while, not having any of that romantic love developed in a convincing manner. Despite some initial interesting foreshadowing and characterization of the true heroine (her background, and her ‘bad luck’), absolutely none of it is explored. The true heroine, which is traditionally used to ‘tie’ a work together, fulfills its function in Chrono Clock. But, it does so not in a true, thematically-meaningful way — but in an ‘afterthought’ type of manner. To clarify, it’s akin to getting a formal trophy after an achievement; the trophy itself has no significance, but is meaningful in some type of way (the true heroine route is analogous to a trophy as her route is unlocked after the other routes and contains just brief, ‘you did it’ sentiments).
Nonetheless, this is a complaint on the topic of plot. A character game need not be obsessed with plot so as long as it develops affable characters. In hindsight, I was foolish to have took up Chrono Clock under the presumption that it’d be fulfilling. The heroines of the work are entirely archetypal — they’re static for the most part, undergo no meaningful or significant development, and are as generic as can be. Truly, I was shocked that one of the heroines was a classic tsundere character (I-It’s not like I wanted to be shocked though.). I should clarify though that there’s nothing necessarily ‘bad’ about being generic — after all, I enjoyed the antics of the clingy, forceful sister character. Nonetheless, I’d be lying if I said that I remember the names of the characters (despite having just finished the work). Like the true heroine, a lot of the heroines were given backgrounds that would serve to potentially ‘take them out’ of their archetype (e.g. mob daughter, British exchange student, violinist). But, for most of the heroines, these quiddities were either left entirely untouched, or executed in a generic, superficial manner. In addition, the protagonist was hard to relate to. He’s a rather flat, generic character too.
On the topic of the heroine routes themselves,the majority of them made no sense. The logic of the drama found within the sister route was especially egregious. The penultimate route suffered in this regard too — it literally has a deus ex machina at the end. I found one of the routes to be somewhat touching and meaningful (DD’s). Because I read the work initially under the presumption that the true heroine route would be the ‘meaningful’ route, I hesitantly read through the banality of the heroine routes. It was to my surprise that I had finished the work prior to having escaped the banality (because a ten minute true route clearly makes sense). The time-travel angle of the work served a minor thematic role at the end (Don’t get lost in the past — move forward). Imagine how I felt when I realized that I could’ve gotten the same wisdom – to the same degree of convincingness – through a fortune cookie (except I’d be up 20 hours).
The aesthetics of the work are nothing to write home about. They’re befitting for a modern-day work. The music of the work is forgettable. The engine for the work is awful — it’s outdated and ugly. So, that’s Chrono Clock. Don’t explore new works. Only read well-reviewed works – there are no undiscovered gems in the landscape that is the current industry.
