My thoughts on Heavens Burn Red so far.

Done with the 1st chapter of the Heavens Burn Red.

So far quite enjoyable game. Here's my initial thought. (long post)

Story - The main takeaway from the game is its story, written and directed by legend Jun Maeda himself. I've only finished 1st chpt of the story and didn't expect much from it other than some setup, character introduction, lore and world building. And although it did just that, the content in 1st chpt alone was lengthy, so aside from basic intro on world building, lore and side character, this chpt mainly focuses on the slice of life and comedy elements of the story. The Main character and the main cast's daily interactions, developments and chemistry among them shown so far have established enough bonds with both the characters themselves and us readers as well. It gave enough time for us to be emersed with the characters and atmosphere. I've heard main criticism of Jun Maeda is the redundant and boring slice of life in the initial phase of his story, in fact I've suffered myself in Air VN from this. But here to keep us entertained with the slice of life, Jun Maeda added good hilarious comedy among the interactions between characters, using clichés as comic tropes and protagonist being r3tarded most of the time for the humor. Seriously tho, comedy is genuinely hilarious. But damn, Maeda didn't miss here either. Among the slice of life and character interactions, he added an emotional juncture at the end which was unexpected but looking back foreshadowing it since earlier. I can explore the theme and motivation of the MC and story in quite detail from what I've read but I'll just give more chpts before doing so.. Story also have various options with of side stories, character stories for more fleshed out developments and characterizations. But I haven't tried much of it other than few character stories' 1st stage since the progression requires. And it was genuinely fun to read them. And other side stories only unlock after chpt 1, so I'll be trying the from now on. (also the stories are fully voiced, tho in Japanese)

Gameplay - A turned based gameplay with easy to operate system and mechanics of gameplay seems understandable so far, which in long run requires attention to understand regarding different skills, roles and mechanics of various character in higher difficulty content. It has auto system with customisable options too. Though early game content are quite ez to push through so I've been relying on auto play so I haven't gotten chance to learn the mechanics in depth so far. Guess it'll happen after mid game content. One negative aspect I find in gameplay was exploration mechanism, although it's a simple side scrolling exploration, this gets tedious and redundant in dungeon crawling which takes time to get from start to ending point with exploration for buffs and item along with constantly going to new area for 100% exploration. Although dungeon exploration isn't large, but the surfing through still felt annoying and tedious. (could've made it faster instead and remove the loading screen or remove the requirement for loading that is, just a single exploration map without different area.)

Music - Jun Maeda and top tier music goes hand in hand, and both key visuals and Maeda didn't miss here as well. Music so far has been pleasant to hear. And story have incorporated multiple songs too (I can recall 4-5 songs in chpt 1 alone). So yeah music direction is peak.

Designs and Visual - Game and gameplay itself is 3D but story relies on 2D style with its sprites and background for most of the part, the visuals of 3D models looks stiff imo but doesn't really hinders the enjoyment. As for 2D style, backgrounds are very picturesque and sprites and character design have water colour ambience, very pleasant to look at, with vibrant expressiond and emotions of the character. Although so far there is no fanservice or even hint lewdity in designs so far. Which, for this game, I consider as positive point, since it goes well with the atmosphere and didn't ruin the vibe by adding unnecessary fan service and lewdity.

Gacha - This game released with the roster so big that it is convoluted as hell and gacha is generous with the premium units too (for me at least). Pity system works like blue archive, where you can just buy off the character after accumulating certain numbers of pulls. Honestly don't really have much attraction towards gacha since idk about the meta, haven't really connected with the characters either (except the main casts so far) and don't have enough attachment towards the gameplay for now.

Extra features - Game seems to have various extra feature to do in leisure times, although I haven't explored them fully yet but there's a rhythm game in it too with the existing songs and music in the game.

Overall - Came for the story, which I'm enjoying alot but also come to like the gameplay as well. With some minor flaw and dislikes from my end, the overall experience has been quite good. If nothing else I'd recommend to try it for the story and in chpt 1 alone the comedy is hilarious so you won't be disappointed.

PS - Ruka is my spirit animal now.