The Expression Amrilato

I've read my share of VNs, ranging from terrible through mediocre to those that left me changed after reading them in a good way. I would definitely say that this VN falls into the third category. As the description of the VN says, you will come into contact with "Juliamo", a language used by denizens of another world or dimension that is similar to our own world. The language is not made up, only it's name. Juliamo is in fact a language we know in our world as "Esperanto". The story is heavy with Juliamo and even go out of its way to attempt to teach the reader the basics of the language. However, do not let that deter you from it by thinking that it is just a learning tool made in a form of a VN. It's actually the exact opposite! The use of Juliamo (Esperanto) in the VN is probably the most elegant way imaginable to using a language in a story where the main character is not able to even form basic sentences at first as a narrative tool and the central theme of the overall story. For me, all three main characters present in the story are relatable and they never evoked any problematic reactions, nor do they behave unrealistically. I would go into more detail, but you will surely fall in love with all three of them on your own if you end up reading the VN. In closing, I would definitely rate this VN high on my list, especially for it's commendable use of "alien" language in the story, for making me care about the characters and for making me wonder at every scene transition what is going to happen next. I can hardly ask for more from any story, as that's exactly how every hood story should be.

The Expression Amrilato, in my opinion, well surpasses Rosetta Stone in terms of “immersive learning,” effectively teaching the reader a language they hadn’t even intended to learn. By the end, you’ll have likely learned more Esperanto without even trying than a typical American high schooler does of Spanish after two years of taking classes. You’ll even naturally start to understand some of what Ruka is saying when she speaks Juliamo. And speaking of which, Ruka’s voice is adorable. Even if you have no desire to learn Esperanto, it’s still a phenomenal story. The way it presents the challenges of learning a language felt super relatable, as someone similarly learning Japanese. Not just her struggling with self-study, but even when she goes out by herself to buy groceries, fumbles her way through it, and walks away wondering how much she got wrong that the other person simply didn’t bother correcting her on. The pink sky aside, everything about Rin’s journey felt incredibly real — including her relationship with Ruka. The yuri in this game is not forced; that is to say, it’s not yuri for the sake of yuri. There are no H-scenes here, and for good reason: it would detract from what is otherwise such a wholesome story. Rin and Ruka’s relationship is that of friends with a (cute) crush on one another. It’s the kind of pure yet subtle romance that just makes you feel good inside (or super anxious, at a point in the story that I won’t spoil). As an aside, the “amrilato” in the title is Esperanto for a romantic relationship (amo meaning love, rilato relation). All in all, truly impressive work by the team at SukeraSparo, not to mention the Japana Esperanto-Instituto which not only is a thing but was actually brought on to help, and MangaGamer who did a great job with what was no doubt not an easy project to localize. If you’re as linguistically-inclined as I am, or just want a uniquely challenging visual novel with some cute romance, mi rekomendus ĉi tiun ludon.

I think as a yuri VN, it's kind of mediocre. That's maybe not right, since the setting and characters' relationship with the world is interesting, but boilerplate's not necessarily bad. At this point, I've become acceptant of the presumptuous prices Japanese VNs are sold at. Being said, this isn't an educational VN: it's just edutainment. Sure, you could use the study section and brute force your way into learning pseudo-Esperanto, but five hours in Anki would get you the core vocabulary and then some, and it would be much easier. There's clearly no educational theory behind this. That's why I'm kind of frustrated. The Esperanto is nice as a decorative motif for a fine story, but even an earnist learner is going to find decyphering Juliamo to be jarring. And, yes, you can switch the font, but there are still portions where you have to read the Juliamo font. It's much more enjoyable the second time when you can simply read it in Esperanto, as it really should have been read. Learning Esperanto is an infamous example of blind leading the blind, so I won't be too harsh, but the Esperanto is bad. Not just in the more forgivable ways such as the Asian dipthongs even experienced I've noticed even extremely skilled Asian ESL speakers struggle with or the fact that they often fail to distinguish /l/ and the trilled /r/. My compliments to the actor for Ruka, who's by far the best speaker, but, even in best form, it's very poor. For example, they don't trill their "r"s. Ever. It's always an alveolar tap. And they blatantly use incorrect sounds for words. In a lot of cases, they're misusing allophones that change the meaning of the word. It's rough, even by the Esperanto community's standards of quality. IMO, I always mute voice in VNs, because it's cringey, but this one's hella cringey. It's pretty interesting, though, how Japanese tackle pragmatics, grammar, etc. Even in the story, Ruka only really comprehends Esperanto in terms of English.

So, here's the "edutainment" visual novel. Or sorts. I think the language-learning part gets blown out of proportion too often. What I can say after having just finished the last ending is that you're getting a medium length VN that has a very cute and very very light romance at its heart that bridges a language barrier, and that uses the context of this budding romance to teach you about the language of the other person. It has cute artwork, the characters are done well, the main char's thoughts are presented well (even though I though she was obnoxious), and the main supporting "third" character is really cool. The only thing I didn't like - and hence the -1 star - was that the choices ultimately feel random. There's lots of choices but virtually none of them matter and those that do change to little to explain their different ending IMO. Still, a very very solid VN with a rather unique language-study aspect.