'Light science fiction' with insufficient stamina and progress visible to the naked eye
In general, "evaluating the past" is much simpler than "evaluating the present." Because our values will always change according to the environment of our time, and our views on things will gradually change due to the intervention of external factors. From the player's point of view, this is probably why many games that were unpopular at the time of release are regarded as "legends" many years after their release.
I don't have the intention or ability to delve into such a complex issue in a shallow review article, which you can think of as a dead man's gibberish – or you can think of it as my most straightforward play experience with Future Radio and Artificial Pigeons.
Future Broadcasting and Artificial Pigeons
In fact, among the many Japanese beautiful girl game companies, "Laplacian" is not an easy name to impress. This is because it has only been established in the industry for a short time, and the main creative members are not famous, and secondly, in the years since Laplacian's debut release, it has not released any too influential works. This continued into 2020, when Laplacian changed its brand positioning to "all ages" and after the stunning debut of Daydreamer's Vision.
In contrast, 2018's Future Broadcast and Artificial Pigeon obviously didn't cause much reaction at the beginning of its release, but as the third work since the company's founding, it still adheres to most of the characteristics of Laplacian's previous work, including a "sci-fi" worldview and story theme, sudden funny bridges, a solid production lineup, and a script structure with obvious strengths and weaknesses.
Contrary to "Newton and the Apple Tree" that "travels back in time", "Future Radio and Artificial Pigeons" is set in the near future of 2061, but at the same time avoids the description of future technology and life details, although the two core elements of the game "Future Broadcast" and "Artificial Pigeons" are very sci-fi, but the overall atmosphere and world view shaping of the story are closer to the modern society we are familiar with.
The future world in Future Broadcasting and Artificial Pigeons has not been developed accordingly by the advancement of science and technology. More than ten years ago, more than ten years ago, an android technology "artificial pigeon" with self-reproduction ability suddenly began to devour signals and radio waves covering the world, causing human society to fall into a dilemma of isolation from each other. The hero of the story, "Tsukimi Riku", is a science and engineering student who lost his parents in the "wave eater" phenomenon more than a decade ago, and in order to help humans regain control of the sky, he specially restored antique radios from the early centuries and began daily radio broadcasts - until he received a "death notice" from the future from the radio.
Interestingly, in order to realistically resonate with the theme of the game "losing touch with the sky", Future Radio and Artificial Pigeons deliberately set the stage prototype of the story at Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, known as the "entrance to Japan". After the accident caused by the artificial pigeon, it was a dangerous ruin, and only a girl with white hair lived in it.
As the first half of the story of "Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeon", that is, the most important mystery in the "Common Line", the existence of "Future Broadcast" was thrown out shortly after the beginning of the game, and it also served as a key node in the narrative, which well introduced different narrative centers for each stage of the script. From the investigation of the truth of the possible disaster of the protagonist at the beginning of the story, to the joint efforts of the protagonist and his party to avoid the tragedy, to the final disclosure of all the truth and tragedy, although there are not many unexpected unfolding, the scripter has well interspersed the light "science fiction" and "suspense", as well as the "campus youth" elements of the royal road.
It's crucial for a game that doesn't play gimmicks to get players interested within twenty minutes of the game, and Future Radio and Artificial Pigeons does a really good job of that.
The ruins in the background are Terminal 2 of the actual Narita Airport
As we've said before, the pros and cons of Future Radio & Artificial Pigeons are clear. On the bright side, Future Broadcasting and Artificial Pigeons, although it uses Laplacian's favorite "sci-fi" theme, its scripted "Osu Wasabi" is not someone who abuses complex concepts. His usual narrative methods are simple and direct, so that readers can always substitute into the story with a clear and complete attitude, and feel the charm of the world view and the story itself without delay. In order to maintain the integrity of the above process, Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeon has omitted almost all unnecessary depictions for the main story, leaving only minimal emotional conflict and key information. And the original artist "Frostfall" has some thick expression style in the meticulousness, which is also surprisingly consistent with the overall tone of the science fiction story.
But at the same time, its shortcomings are also very obvious - that is, the description of the changes in the characters' feelings is not enough, so that after the mystery is revealed more than the personal route, the completion of the story immediately goes downhill, whether it is the process or the length, it shows obvious deficiencies. To be honest, it's a pity for the characters that could have been fleshed out, and even more so for the good framework built on the worldview and suspense in the first half of the story.
To go into more detail, even under the premise of already being mentally prepared, the personal route of "Future Broadcasting and Artificial Pigeons" will still make people feel obviously lacking stamina. Although the arrangement of the story in the "true ending" is enough to convince the reader logically, it leaves people emotionally with a feeling of "This is the end?" - even the "plot lock" route leading to the true ending, but it is better in terms of completion.
Normally, this feeling is found in games where holes are dug but can't be filled, but the opposite is true in Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeon. It does tell a good story in its entirety, but there are other better ways — at least, it could have used more daily life to pile up the emotional growth between the characters, which alone would have made the story much more comfortable to read.
Of course, I'm not trying to say that Future Radio and the Artificial Pigeon is bad. After putting aside the lack of stamina of personal line and script volume, its exquisite original art, music that fits the atmosphere and theme perfectly, and good story rhythm at the beginning still deserve a fair evaluation of a "good work" in similar games. For better or worse, it inherited all the characteristics that Laplacian has always had, and it didn't help Laplacian push its limits.
But it is precisely because today that we can say some things.
From his debut to "Future Radio and Artificial Pigeons", Laplacian has adopted an almost fixed production team, which also allows players to see its growth trajectory more clearly - the fact is that "Newton and the Apple Tree", which has enough gimmicks and stories, is more interesting than the modest "Dream With You", and as the most important "passing point" in the process, "Future Broadcasting and Artificial Pigeons" further emphasizes Laplacian's dedication and control on the theme of light science fiction. Until "Daydream Vision" brought more exquisite original art and script, and successfully faded most of the former's shortcomings.
For Pretty Girl Games, this may also be inspirational.