DRAMatical Murder Review

I finally got to finish DMMD after a month of playing and I got to say that I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I actually tried it around a few years ago but I think I stopped around the part in the warehouse because I thought it was becoming too long (I wasn't a big fan of visual novels before and only liked Action RPGs, look at me now... ). Here's the synopsis from the Official Steam Page:

Midorijima. Situated to the south of Japan, this beautiful island was once a place where people lived in harmony with nature. Then the Toue Corporation took over, driving off most of the island's residents and forcing those who would not leave to live in the shadow of Platinum Jail, a walled-off megaresort where the wealthy wallow in luxury.

Aoba is a young man living with his grandmother in the Old Residential District, the last refuge of Midorijima's people. While his peers join gangs and fight for dominance of the streets or immerse themselves in the virtual reality game Rhyme, Aoba works part-time at a junk shop and hopes only that his peaceful life will last.

But strange things are happening on Midorijima, and Aoba will soon have to fight... or lose everything that he holds dear.

This is the first review I’m writing so my thoughts will PROBABLY be all over the place (I’m sorry )
I’ll separate my review by: main thoughts, the routes, and pros & cons. I also tend to forget some stuff fast so I miiiight miss a few things while talking about something so I’ll apologize now LOL

With that, let’s jump to my review of DRAMAtical Murder!

Main Thoughts

With DMMd being the 4th N+C visual novel I played, it was a breath of fresh air compared to Togainu no Chi, sweet pool, and Slow Damage. It’s generally more upbeat and vibrant compared to the others, which is one thing I enjoyed about it a lot (sweet pool made me so depressed), don’t be fooled though, this visual novel still has a lot of dark moments. I’m a big fan of the overall aesthetic of the game and even its character designs. From the UI, backgrounds, the sprites, and the music, everything is top-notch and amazing.

The story is very compelling for me and actually kept me engaged to finish all of the routes. Absolutely loved the charming cast of characters, one thing I also enjoyed a lot is how Aoba interacts with all of them (NPCs included!), especially in the common route. I enjoyed seeing the main characters interact during the common route and loved their dynamics with each other!

I thought I’d have a favorite route just like in other N+C games, but after playing all of them, I ended up liking all the LIs (With Noiz as my fave), Each route felt unique and added to the overarching story. Oh, and I also now have Aoba as one of my favorite characters, he’s just so cute 😭😭

When it comes to stuff that I thought was quite weak or I didn’t like, I feel like I can only discuss them more when I talk about the routes, so let’s move on to that!

The main routes: Koujaku, Noiz, Mink, Clear, and Ren

Koujaku

Here we have Koujaku, Aoba’s best friend and a wandering hairdresser who is also a womanizer. After the common route, I thought he’s pretty cool and I can see how much he cares about Aoba and how he has a soft spot for him (which I found sooo fucking cute, by the way) which is why he’s the first character I liked.

I looked up the best order to play DMMd in terms of its routes, so I began with Koujaku's route. It honestly excited me since I’m a really big fan of childhood friends to lovers stories, so my first impression was that I’ll enjoy Koujaku’s route a lot.

After Tae’s revelation, seeing what Koujaku said to Aoba to cheer him up was super sweet, even saying that if he needed someone to blame, lay it on him. Then the moment we entered Platinum Jail, he went with two women and ditched Aoba. At that time, I figured he had his reasons to do that but that doesn’t make it less frustrating LMAO

A lot of things happened that probably just confirmed to Aoba that, “Wow, we’ve known each other for so long, but I really don’t know him at all.”.... Which probably gets worse because Koujaku keeps giving him half-assed answers. And that one scene of him was extremely disappointing.

After everything that happened, Koujaku finally opens up to Aoba about his past and secrets, and they rebuild their friendship (If only Koujaku took his own advice of opening up). And honestly, seeing them when they were kids was super adorable too (crying emoji)

Then I get to see the cutest love confession from him HAHAHA

When it came to the bad end, I got so scared when Aoba repeatedly said, “It’s okay.”, then cut to the bad end CG and all I had to say was WTF. All in all, I did enjoy Koujaku’s route! A LOT, EVEN. Since I’m such a sucker for childhood friends to lovers. When it came to the whole bringing down Toue thing, I really didn’t feel it during this route because the whole focus of the route was about their relationship (I literally forgot that Toue was the bad guy here. Probably because Ryuuhou is the main antagonist here. Bear with me this is the first route I played LDKHALDJHAKJD)

Noiz

Now we move on to Noiz! He’s an information broker for Rhyme and also a player. My first impression of him was that he was an asshole, especially after finding out that he was the one who attacked Aoba in Rhyme. After going through Koujaku’s, I finally played his route to find out what his deal was. While playing through his route, I just kept on falling in love with him! I did not expect him to be my favorite route.

While Noiz is a very skilled hacker, he falters when it comes to social skills. He is rude, cynical, and distrustful of others. In the common route, he also kissed Aoba like it was nothing (which actually surprised me at how he did it nonchalantly) and how he didn’t know the names of street food. He also has a high pain tolerance, especially when he burned his hand with coffee and felt nothing. He also distrusts everything that Aoba does. It’s like he doesn’t understand it when people (specifically Aoba) are being kind to him and think that they have ulterior motives. I felt sadness seeing his words. What happened to him? What made him like this?

As we keep going through the route, we get to know more about Noiz. He has a condition that makes him unable to feel pain ever since he was young (something similar to CIPA..?), which explains why he takes it too far on fist fights and him not feeling pain when he spilled coffee on his hand. If he had it since he was young, what would you think that condition does to a person? How would it affect the way he views things? He’d be unintentionally impulsive and reckless, especially since he can’t relate to pain. And instead of helping him, his parents became embarrassed of him and locked him up, and because of this, he had a really hard and sheltered childhood.

Throughout his route, Aoba tries his best to teach Noiz: about the names of food, some other stuff, and most importantly, empathy. His character development in his route just felt so natural and I enjoyed it so much as I read through it. He also showed a very childish side during his route, where he would get in trouble from time to time, and I found that extremely adorable!

When it came to his bad endings and Aoba using Scrap to enter his mind, I felt sad as I went through the long sequence of black and white and glitches… Wow. This must’ve been what the world looked like to Noiz. And his bad endings just made me more sad after seeing them, I just want to hug Noiz WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And in the good ending, when he was at the hospital, we get to see a cute side of him…

In terms of finding out more about Toue, it gets sidelined again (I figured I’ll find out more during Mink’s route..?) and it focuses more on Noiz’s backstory and all that. But still…

I loved everything about Noiz. From his design (with a lot of bunnies, I love bunnies), his voice, his personality, his character development — I JUST LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM. His route was so compelling, and I never thought I’d feel so many emotions while reading through it. Noiz is such an endearing character and I didn’t knew I’d grown to like him a lot.

Also, before moving on, can I just say how cute Noiz's Allmate is?

Mink

After Noiz, we move on to Mink. He is the leader of Scratch, a group of former prison inmates. Honestly, I didn’t have the best first impression of him because the first thing he did was knock out Aoba to bring him to his hideout and get him nearly raped by his men. It wasn’t the best first impression so I was seriously wondering how his route would go. One thing I love about him a lot is his design though!

Throughout his route, he was controlling of Aoba and demanded absolute obedience, which of course, Aoba doesn’t like. He’d beat Aoba black and blue and brutally rape him multiple times to force him to use Scrap. It was really painful for me to read, and I felt really bad for Aoba during all this.

While going through the route, I get to see more reasons for him to act like that. He was the sole survivor of his tribe that was sacrificed for Toue’s research. While I don’t excuse and can’t forgive Mink’s actions toward Aoba, I understand his reason for revenge and how his past made him cold, he even planned his death after getting rid of Toue. He was a man that lost everything, after all. I symphatize with the loss that he experienced and got to understand him more because of that.

This is probably the shortest route review here because I’m gonna be honest, I kinda felt sick watching his abuse towards Aoba so I tend to skim through most dialogue, but it’s kinda sad that there’s little to no character development for him, I wish he was written better. I heard that he gets better in DMMdrc..? So I plan to play that soon to hopefully see more of him. I want to see more of him!

Clear

After Mink’s route, we move on to the eccentric guy with a gas mask, Clear. I was so confused by him, especially when he started calling Aoba “Master”. But everytime he was on-screen, I ended up laughing a lot of times and so I had a positive first impression of him but I thought he’d be the least interesting one..…. UNTIL I EXPERIENCED HIS EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER OF A ROUTE. His route is probably the most unexpected for me out of the main 4.

My impression of his route at the beginning was like a comedy routine where Aoba acts as the straight man to Clear’s unhinged actions (I think I laughed out so hard when Clear was trying to get the policeman’s attention that my brother got pissed off at how loud I was LMAO). It was honestly refreshing to see after the previous route.

The more we proceed to his route, the more we see how.. peculiar he is. It’s not only how he always wears a mask: he’s crazy strong and he walked away like nothing happened when he got hit by acid?!?!?!?

When Aoba insisted on removing his mask to see if had an injury in his face from the acid, we get to see Clear’s face for the first time.

Clear didn’t want to show his face because of what his grandpa told him: That he shouldn’t show his face to anyone. Because of that, he became extremely insecure of his face and never wanted to show it to anyone. After Aoba assures him that he has nothing to be afraid of about his face, Clear’s route shifts from a lighthearted one to a more serious tone.

After a while, two people show up that have a similar face to Clear’s and are also equally strong. During this, it is revealed what Clear really is: He is a Humanoid Robot that Toue created as part of his Mind Controlling experiments. He was considered defective and the researcher assigned to him took him away and took care of him… His so-called “Grandpa”. He reprogrammed Clear and took care of him until his last breath. The reason he told Clear to hide his face was because all of the robots carry the same face.

Before carrying on to the tower, I get to see one of the most bittersweet confession of love to Aoba. And his shift from calling Aoba “Master” to his name was really moving for me. And I'm calling it bittersweet because of what happens in the good ending... 🥺

As the route progresses, Clear slowly begins to break down as he broke the protocol (?) of the Robots, which prevented him from self-healing. His bad ending fucked me up so bad because Toue reprogrammed him and it’s not the same Clear anymore… HIS GOOD ENDING THOUGH….

His last wish of experiencing Aoba’s warmth made me so fucking sad. I actually cried during it. HE WAS BREAKING DOWN DURING IT. And when the light finally left his eyes… 😭😭😭

I’m so glad that the end of his story had a happy ending. Clear deserves it after everything he went through. He’s my second favorite route after Noiz’s.

Ren

After Clear’s route, we finally tackle the last and “secret” route: Ren. He’s Aoba’s allmate, despite his very cute Allmate appearance he’s Aoba's voice of reason for like, most of the game. He’s the one out of all the cast who had a strong bond with Aoba, so I wasn’t really surprised when I saw he had a route. (And well… I was already spoiled that he had a route before I started the game LMAO)

The whole game and even the other routes already established that Ren and Aoba are extremely close (I think I remember that Noiz told him he was wayy too attached to his old Allmate and how Mink got mad when he didn’t want Ren to carry a virus), so my thoughts about what will happen during this route is to explain everything and to tie up loose ends. (And possibly show Aoba in a different light because he’s alone this time?)

The beginning of Ren’s route actually surprised me, because the usually calm Ren tends to lash out and become more expressive of his feelings, such as running away from Aoba and even getting more moody. This was then revealed to be a programming bug that affects Allmates, which made Ren became more expressive.

Also since Aoba was alone in this route and Ren was in his Allmate form, it’s up to Aoba to defend himself because most of the time he’s like the damsel in distress in other routes. Now Sly Blue tends to show up more:

I actually enjoyed seeing him more, because the time I only got to see him was during Mink’s route. I think he’s neat :)

I also got to find out more about the guy who always saves Aoba in the other routes (His portrait always shows up), and finally got to know that his name is Sei, and then Virus revealed he’s Aoba’s twin.

This was actually a really big revelation to me and I was super surprised! I also thought to myself, “Finally, the questions I had in my mind are slowly getting answered”. It’s amazing seeing all of the clues I gathered from other routes and piecing them all together like a puzzle until I finally solve the mystery of everything that’s happening. Before continuing the route, I unlocked Virus and Trip end first and… :/ I didn’t like it…..

But anyways, we move on again and here we get saved by our four knights in shining armors!!! Can I just say how emotional I was when I got to see them four together again… Truly one of the highlights of Ren’s route.

We move on to Aoba using scrap on himself, then he gets to see his mind in the eyes of Ren. I actually got emotional here, he’s always been there…. Protecting Aoba, being by his side… Ren…

I think one of the things that hit me so hard in this route is Sei, because no matter what route you're on, he’s always there to save Aoba, his brother. Seeing sibling love in media always never fail to make me cry because I love my siblings dearly, so finally seeing him so lifeless and close to death made me tear up.

I’m also so glad that Aoba apologized to Sly Blue because during all of the routes, he was shown as an evil, trying to take over Aoba’s mind. But when I paid more attention, I saw that he always intervened when Aoba was actually in trouble. I mean, from what I remember, he always told Aoba to "Destroy Everything" when it was hurting him, so while I think Sly Blue was sadistic and “evil”, it came from the desire to protect Aoba from danger, I think that’s why I love him. (No.1 Sly Blue defender here)

All in all, I enjoyed Ren’s route especially because it tied up all the loose ends of the story and showed me more about Aoba, which was what I’ve been waiting for this whole time. Finally, playing DMMd was complete after seeing the ending for this. If I really had to nitpick though (This is really just my opinion, I still enjoyed Ren's route heavily), I think Ren’s route would also work really even without the romance (Maybe it’s just hard for me since 90% he’s in a dog form. Yeah. And with Sei giving his body to Ren.) but other than that, yeah! I liked Ren’s route and provided me with the closure to finally close the game. ( And giving me Sly Blue content)

Final Thoughts

All in all, I heavily enjoyed DRAMAtical Murder! It was such a fun experience with the colorful cast of main characters, an engaging story, and the game’s super cute protagonist, Aoba! I can never get enough of him, he’s such a sweet guy when it comes to the other LIs and seeing how he interacted with a cast of very different personalities. Though, I realized that I didn’t get to talk about that are quite weak, so here’s my pros and cons for DMMd:

:

• Colorful cast of characters, from its protagonist, main characters and even NPCs
• Excellent voice acting
• Amazing UI, Art, and Backgrounds (Can I just say how cool the Rib and Rhyme team logos look?)
• More lighthearted than other N+C vns, easier to get into
• An engaging story from start to finish
• Aoba :)

:

• I am weirded out by the pacing sometimes, especially at the end of each routes and how information is dished out, and how fast the romance development is, atleast for me
• Most of the original storyline only gets explored in other routes; In this case, Ren’s
• While some routes did well in exploring character development, others didn’t
• I REALLY wish they could’ve done more with Mink’s route

While DMMd has its flaws and is not perfect, it was still a really fun and enjoyable experience for me :) I absolutely love DMMd and I can’t wait to start DMMdrc!

And as a celebration for finishing DMMd, I drew the best boy, Aoba :) Hopefully I get to draw other cast as well since I love all of their character designs!