Tsukihime – A Piece of Blue Glass Moon (Nintendo Switch) – Digitally Downloaded (2024)

There are conventional visual novels, and then there are the kinds of visual novels that Type-Moon produces. Tsukihime is a game that has a fearsome reputation, being one of the very first works of the company (it came before Fate/Stay Night, which has become the Type-Moon behemoth), and was essentially one of those self-published adult visual novels that ended up drawing attention for being so much more than mere smut. It also never got an English release, which is why this title, Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon, is so noteworthy. It’s only part of the original game (a re-written and expanded version of two of the original game’s five routes), but it’s more than enough to confirm the reputation of that original doujin, released many years ago: This thing is beautiful (and don’t worry, the other three routes are being remade too, for a later release).

To get this out of the way up-front, the remake here does have the adult scenes removed. I have no idea whether they added anything to the narrative of the original Tsukihime, but Type-Moon’s creatives have been on record many times over for hating the self-imposed need to put those into their games (Fate/Stay Night had them too) to boost their commercial viability in the doujin space. I would hazard a guess that we don’t lose anything from having those scenes dropped.

What we get in their stead is a total reworking of the art style, and Tsukihime is utterly gorgeous. Colours are deep and vibrant. Character sprites are detailed and distinctive, and backgrounds offer a level of complexity that far exceeds most other visual novels. What’s more, where most VNs are fairly static – with characters stuck against a backdrop and text popping up one line after another – there’s constant movement in Tsukihime, with slow pans across backgrounds and character models, and constant shifts between what would be considered a “key art CG” highlight in most visual novels, but here the transitions are so smooth and seamless that it’s more akin to reading a beautifully presented manga.

Tsukihime – A Piece of Blue Glass Moon (Nintendo Switch) – Digitally Downloaded (1)

Short of the fully-animated remake of Steins;Gate (Steins;Gate Elite) I cannot think of a visual novel that has had such a “prestige” level of presentation. Idea Factory and Otomate is no slouch when it comes to visual novels, but coming from the excellent Radiant Tale – Fanfare to this is like comparing a very competent platformer to one of Nintendo’s Mario titles, or a quality Soulslike to Elden Ring. This is just another level for the genre entirely.

And all that beauty is before you even get to the writing. Tsukihime is written with a poetic love of words. Every sentence, phrase, and term is selected with precision for the vivid imagery and powerful meaning it conveys, and it supports a compelling and often challenging narrative with a literary skill we rarely see in even the best-written games. I don’t want to give away spoilers, as I do believe that Tsukihime is best enjoyed as fresh as possible, but what I can say is that the best point of comparison that I can think of is gothic romance literature.

I don’t mean the likes of Dracula or Frankenstein, though Tsukihime does contain its fair share of intensely unnerving, supernatural and dark qualities. And, without giving away anything, there are times when the comparison to those monsters of gothic horror is very appropriate. At the very start of the story, the protagonist discovers that he and he alone has the ability to see “lines” in everything, and by simply tracing those lines he can utterly destroy them. There is a jump forward in time then, and he subsequently starts to wear special glasses that allow him to conceal the lines so he can live a normal life. But that ability continues to hang over everything that goes on in the novel, as we wait for the inevitable moment that the protagonist starts having to deal with this terrible ability again. Again, without spoilers, very little could prepare you for just where it goes with it, though, and just what manner of beings the protagonist starts running into.

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But that’s just the surface side to the narrative, and it’s not what really distinguishes Tsukihime as a very gothic work. Rather, it’s a gothic more akin to a work like Wuthering Heights, which really leaned into the Romance (as in, the 18th-century literary style), in presenting a story of great passion and emotion, and a deep dive into what it is to be human, contrasted with extreme moral conflict, taboo, and temptation. As noted in this handy guide to the themes of the gothic: “Essential to the Gothic’s ability to obtain and sustain its audience’s attention is its involvement in defining and arguing the boundaries between morality and transgression, and conformity and subversion regarding cultural categories and individual identities. Fred Botting argues that ‘from the eighteenth century onwards, Gothic texts have been involved in constructing and contesting distinctions between civilization and barbarism, reason and desire, self and other’.”

All of the themes mentioned in that summary are present in Tsukihime, as the protagonist slowly comes to understand his ability (or curse), and learn about his background. The genre is also well-regarded for being critical of patriarchal gender ideals, and Tsukihime has more than its fair share of empowered women (or women who have been impacted on by a patriarchy that has been clearly depicted as a very bad thing) for that core theme to play out as well.

It goes on, and if you were to make a checklist of the structural qualities of gothic literature, this game hits them all. The gothic genre itself is largely a dead one, and is typically misunderstood to be one of archaic monster stories. However, there is a poetic beauty about the genre that elevates it to something distinct from the horror and monster fantasies of today, and the rare effort to appropriate that quality of the genre tends to make the work distinctive. Tsukihime is a better appropriation than most, and that’s entirely because the developers understood the beauty of the language. I don’t just mean within the visual novel genre, either. This is one of the rare visual novels that would be every bit as wonderful to read independently as an actual book. You could cut the text out, stick it on a Kindle, and have something that would turn the heads of the few people who find the time to read books these days.

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It’s incredibly frustrating to review a game like Tsukihime, because there is just so much to dig into with its narrative and thematic depth. I want to pull this thing apart piece by piece and examine the characters, dynamics, and brilliant use of language, that the need to avoid spoilers means that I can’t really talk about it. All I can say is that there is so much depth and intensity to the narrative that it works as a piece of literature, and for this remake that’s backed with utterly gorgeous art and presentation that pushes to the very boundaries of the visual novel format. It is such a good thing that we finally have this masterpiece on our Switches, easily accessible and wonderfully translated.

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Tsukihime – A Piece of Blue Glass Moon (Nintendo Switch) – Digitally Downloaded (2024)

FAQs

Is Tsukihime a piece of blue glass moon in English? ›

Pre-orders live for Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch

After being announced last July at Anime Expo, Aniplex of America has followed up to confirm that pre-orders are now live for the highly anticipated English translation of Kinoko Nasu's TSUKIHIME -A piece of blue glass moon- visual novel.

What platforms is Tsukihime on? ›

Tsukihime
月姫
DeveloperType-Moon HuneX
PublisherAniplex
GenreVisual novel
PlatformNintendo Switch PlayStation 4
57 more rows

How long is Tsukihime a piece of blue glass moon? ›

Aliases:
Single-PlayerPolledAverage
Main Story1141h 35m
Main + Extras561h 18m
Completionist865h 17m
All PlayStyles2453h 36m

Is Tsukihime getting translated? ›

Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon's English Translation Arrives Summer 2024.

Is the Tsukihime remake worth watching? ›

I'll definitely be looking forward to the second part of this remake, and so should you. TSUKIHIME: A piece of blue glass moon is a visual novel masterpiece. It was one of the biggest games in the genre that I hadn't played at all, and I'm glad to have finally experienced it through this remake on both Switch and PS5.

Should I read the original Tsukihime before the remake? ›

Tsukihime has so much to offer and it'll most certainly be a couple years until English speakers can read the Tsukihime Remake. The Remake is missing Far-side routes, which will be released at a later date. The Far-side routes are what make Tsukihime special, so there is plenty of reason to read through the original.

How long does it take to finish Tsukihime remake? ›

Around 42 hours, according to 114 GameFAQs users who told us how long it took them to beat it.

How to play Tsukihime in order? ›

First, you have to clear either Arcueid or Ciel's route. Once you've done that, you can now do either Akiha or Hisui's route. One you do Hisui's route, you can do Kohaku's route. Basically, since you've already cleared Arcueid's route, you just need to do Hisui's route then you can do Kohaku's route.

Is Tsukihime melty blood? ›

Melty Blood: Type Lumina

It also serves as a reboot of the series, and takes place in the new continuity established by Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-, the first entry of Tsukihime remake series. As such, it shares the remake's modernized setting, revised designs, exclusive characters, and story changes.

Is Tsukihime related to Fate? ›

A: It's the same world. And I can't give you exact dates, but basically Fate and Tsukihime are set around the same time, while Kara no Kyoukai is a little bit further in the past.

What is the English title of Tsukihime? ›

Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon- (月姫 -A piece of blue glass moon-?) is a visual novel by TYPE-MOON. It is the first title in the Tsukihime Remake series, acting as a remake of the two Near-Side Routes of Tsukihime featuring Arcueid Brunestud and Ciel.

Are Fate and Tsukihime connected? ›

Fate/stay night was originally imagined to be set in the same world as Tsukihime before it was decided to split them.

Is Noel in Tsukihime? ›

Noel (ノエル, Noeru) is an Executor of the Holy Church posing as a teacher at Metropolitan Souya High School in the Tsukihime Remake series.

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