KARAKARA 2 (PC) Review

Sagami Fransisco is a city where the Japanese and American cultures have been mixed; a city amongst the very few that still "stand still" in this world. A catastrophe that occurred some time ago wiped out most people, with those who survived having to rely on "old" machinery, with the main problem being the fact that humanity has lost the knowledge required to fix or rebuild those past relics. An intriguing scenario, for certain, and one that, naturally, gets put aside for what really matters here - the interaction with nekos...

Forget the arid deserts that surround the world; forget the Armageddon that devastated the planet; forget everything. What's important is that this cataclysm created some mutations; namely, sexy, voluptuous, anime women, with cat ears and tails - oh, dear merciful God, what a sad place to live in! Long story short, while not entirely fluff, KARAKARA 2 is definitely more fluff than anything else, rather like its first outing. It's the typical harem visual novel, but with an apocalyptic "background" instead of the usual, cherry blossom-filled gardens, and super-clean school corridors.

Taking place in a restaurant (a typical post-apocalyptic setting) where a guy works with a bunch of nekos, this is basically the NEKOPARA series all over again, but with a lesser emphasis on humour and cuteness. Don't expect any great differences, though. Almost all girls want to have sex with the protagonist, all of them compare their assets for… comedic effect, and there are a few typical scenes where you are supposed to "feel" something about the girls, but the drama is as dry as a bone (no pun intended…).

As a whole, this is a mediocre kinetic novel that, thankfully, is not very long, manages to decently flesh out its few characters, and looks sufficiently… okay, with a lack of any additional bells and whistles, like animated sprites and so on. As usual, this comes in two forms: the clean, all-ages Steam version, and the adults-only one. The removal of the sex scenes, however, hasn't been done so well, with no additional text used to make the transitions feel less abrupt.