If the title didn't give it away yet, SC2VN is a story about the real-time strategy game, StarCraft 2. More specifically, it's about a young woman (or man) named Mach, who made the decision to move to South Korea in order to pursue her dream of becoming a professional competitive gamer.

I greatly enjoyed the story and writing in this visual novel. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I even decided to write a whole feature post about it. I have to admit that I may be a bit biased, being a gamer myself, but I really can't hide my enthusiasm at getting a peek into the world of competitive gaming, especially in South Korea.


I think the story is refreshing in a sense that it's not like your typical OELVN. For one, it's not a dating sim, nor are there any romanceable characters (which surprisingly isn't a bummer for me, although it would've been cool to have romanceable characters in a game set in the world of gaming). The story wholly focuses on the challenges and journey of becoming a professional competitive gamer, which is only proper as that's the main premise of the game.

Your choice of sex does have an impact on the events in the game, although I didn't play the male version much as the story is pretty much the same, anyway. Still, I think that's quite interesting, and a nice little touch. I considered it a commentary on how competitive gaming really is different if you're a male and if you're a female. Based on my observations, females who play professionally may have it a bit harder, especially in the beginning, but not so much to the point that it already impedes them. The small changes to the script that reflect this make the game so much better than if the sex of the player character was merely a cosmetic option.

The ending feels a bit incomplete, but that's just because I was so invested throughout the whole game that I almost didn't want it to end. I want moar!

The writing in SC2VN is very high-quality. Both the descriptions and the dialogues didn't fail to keep me interested all throughout the whole game. Even the parts that only showed the play-by-play for StarCraft matches were pretty interesting for me, someone who has never played a single game of StarCraft in her whole life. Players will encounter a lot of StarCraft terminologies in this game, but rest assured, there's a glossary available at the side if you need to brush up on the different terms. Even if you don't look up the meanings though, you'll find that it's pretty easy to understand the game through the descriptions alone.

Near the end part, in her final match with Bolt, I was actually feeling nervous the whole time, as though I was the one sitting behind a PC and competing. I don't know if it's because the writing is that good, or if StarCraft is just really that exciting!


Despite having choices, the game feels more like a kinetic novel, to be honest. Choices seem to have only a termporary or otherwise short-term impact on the game. The story is very linear, and I think there's only one ending as well. Not that I mind. The whole game feels more like a coming-of-age movie, which I really enjoyed.

Another thing that I enjoyed aside from the solid plot is the equally solid characterization. The characters were all written very well, with their own personalities and little quirks. Mach is a fairly likable character, sometimes coming across as a bit weak-willed, but hey, that's her personality. Accel, one of the first characters she meets, is like a big-brother x boy-next-door type of guy who gets a lot of girls running after him frequently. Jett is a strong female character, and by strong, I really mean strong, both personality-wise and StarCraft-wise. Reva is shy and quiet and may seem like your typical hikikomori, but the truth about her (which I won't spoil for you, so you better play this game!) was pretty surprising and actually caught me off-guard. Stunt's youth shows through his playful personality, which is a nice change from his more serious, older teammates.


Even the side characters were well-written in this visual novel. They weren't just one dimensional, flat characters. They actually felt like real people. Mr. Kim from Enoch, the company that the team is trying to get as their sponsor, is a calculated businessman with a chilly stare, but his human side is shown during the times that he showed sympathy for Mach despite her being a new, unknown gamer. Mr. Yeon, a former professional Go player who now works at a convenience store near Mach's apartment, is your typical wise old man who gives advice to our protagonist when she most needs it, but his job as a cashier after a whole lifetime of Go makes him not-so-typical. Even Bolt, a pro player who basically serves as this visual novel's main antagonist, is not just a one-dimensional villain as well.

Out of all these interesting characters, my favorite has got to be Jett. Her fiery personality is at first intimidating, but that's actually what makes her quite endearing.

I don't have much to say about the art, other than it's obviously high-quality too, like the rest of this visual novel. Everything looks very polished, from the interface to the sprites down to the backgrounds.


The backgrounds are a lot better than the character art though, at least in my opinion. Or perhaps I'm just not too fond of the art style used for the sprites? This is just a matter of preference though. Objectively speaking, the sprites were done really well. I did notice that there were only a few expressions per character, which is sort of a bummer. To make up for this though, each sprite has around 2-3 poses, so there's that.

What I liked most art-wise is the use of effects. Effects? Yes, effects! Effects were used in this visual novel, especially in the scenes that showed StarCraft matches. The backgrounds panned, images stacked, and there were sparkles everywhere. Sparkles, yay!

The GUI is rather simple, but I love how smooth and slick it looks (and feels). My only gripe is the sparse amount of options in the preferences menu. I mean, seriously, look at it. There isn't even an option for auto-read. What in the world?

I find the musical soundtrack to be quite solid in this visual novel. The victory theme quite nice, to say the least. It's probably my favorite theme in the whole game. The ending song is pretty catchy as well, though I don't know the title and I can't find it. Nevertheless, it's a perfect ending theme to this pretty epic game, to be very honest.

Here's an example of one soundtrack in the game, if you're interested! If you'd like to check out the other soundtracks, you can visit the composers' public SoundCloud feeds, here and here.