Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol.1

The dark and gritty visual novel, Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol. 1, opens up in a school setting with a new home room teacher starting at the academy. The new home room teacher quickly learns that this school isn’t quite like other schools—the students she is teaching are assassins who are sent out to kill specific people by the government. The murders these students casually chat about seems to be in great contrast with how pleasant they are to be around, and is a good indicator of what the rest of the novel is like.

Exceptional graphics

Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol. 1 isn’t the first Grisaia novel to come out. It’s popularity is in part because of its launch to steam, but also because fans know they can expect a lot from the developer’s artists. The art in this visual novel is stunning, and really carries the idea of the novel forward.

Separate storyline

Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol. 1 was developed based on a previous series, The Fruit of Grisaia. If you’re purchasing the Phantom Trigger series thinking it will be exactly like the Fruit of Grisaia, you may be disappointed.

For starters, Phantom Trigger is based on completely different characters, and is less about the romance aspects of it. Instead, the focus of the plot is more on the action part of the series. The home room teacher tasked with teaching these hired guns is as ordinary as they come, so even without knowing these characters the contrast is a unique dynamic for this book.

Short read

Most visual novels get their value from how long it is. This particular novel is on the shorter side of things, drawing its strength from the quality of the content rather than the length of the work. With just 3 hours of reading time, it feels like the story is just getting started when you have finished.

The problem with this is also that the plot line only just starts to get interesting by the time the novel is over. While you are left wanting to buy the next in the series to find out what happened, it feels like things were only just beginning in the novel you’ve already purchased.

With the action in the previous trilogy, The Fruit of Grisaia, so quick and intense, the slow start to this new series feels more like the developer taking advantage of Grisaia’s popularity rather than a fresh new novel.

Grisaia Phantom Trigger Vol. 1 may start off slowly, but it promises to be an exciting new adventure in future novels. If you’ve heard good things about the previous trilogy and are hoping to jump into the new series, you can safely do so with this new series even if you’ve never read the old one.

Pros:

• Stunning graphics
• Quick read

Cons:

• Slow development of story