Kishin Hishou Demonbane

The return of the Innocent Blade!

A while ago after i finished reading all 3 routes in Zanma Taisei Demonbane, i immediately move onto Kishin Hishou which is the sequel of the Demonbane which still remain untranslated. I used AGTH+Atlas to help me going through the VN which doesn't provide perfect translation but at least i am able to grasp 60% of the content. Overall Kishin Hishou is much shorter than Zanma Taisei taking about 6 to 10 hours to finish and a linear story. However be prepared for heavy duty action as the VN is packed with full of Deus Machina in action.

Kishin Hishou briefly continues after Al-Azif's good ending in Zanma Taisei where Kurou managed to defeat Master Therion for good and start a new life together with Al in paralel world where Therion and Black Lodge never exist. Kurou enjoyed his brief peaceful time until blood creatures appearing in Arkham City along with a mysterious girl called Another Blood who claimed herself as Necronomicon and possess a bloody red Demonbane. Then a mysterious boy called Kuzaku appear shortly with yet another Demonbane confronting Another Blood.

After the appearance of 2 Demonbanes, things are getting more chaotic as Another Blood managed to drain the magical power of Al-Azif and summons Cthulhu upon the world complete with all 6 Grand Masters of Black Lodge assembled which were the great adversaries that Kurou confronted back in Zanma Taisei. When things look grim to Kurou, the original Demonbane appear again after its last final battle to help Kurou along with unexpected allies. Soon, Kurou and Al-Azif in her weakened state return again to Cthulhu for the final confrontation as they fought their copy of old enemies along the way.

At the end of the path they confront Another Blood with Kuzaku which the crimson girl reveal her identity as the unborn child of Kurou and Al who desires to exist to be loved by her father. Consequently Kuzaku revealed himself as the future son of the pair, half grimoire and half human who felt bitter toward Kurou in particular as he thought to be abandoned by his parents as an infant and seek to "settle things" by returning to the past. As both children confronts their parents and Al is on the brink to vanish due to Another Blood taking her pages, Nyarlathoteph the trollish malicious Ancient One appear. It turns out she comes to troll Kurou and Al again by bringing Another Blood to life and Kuzaku stranded to the present. When the situation gets really bad for the pair, Al-Azif's previous master give a copy of Necronomicon to Kurou which restores Al-Azif again to normal. Meanwhile Kuzaku and Blood slowly disappearing after they serve the purpose of Nyaa but they see a glimpse that both of their parents truly love them and they decided to leave Kuzaku since they are worried about his safety as the pair in the future are confronting Nyaa as an Elder God. With the new resolve somehow Kuzaku and Blood stopped disappearing and they fight Nyarlathoteph along with Kurou and Al defeating her first form with Double Lemuria Impact. As Nyarloteph changed into her 2nd Form, Kurou and Al confront her personally and ends up invokes Shining Trapezohedron which summons all Demonbane from paralel world to seal Nyarly from the world again.

As the chaos restored, everything that are not meant to exist disappear as well as Kuzaku and Another Blood. before they return to their place, Both children reconcile with their future parents and Kurou and Al promise to look forward to meet again in the future and promise Another Blood to be born as their daughter.

Kishin Hishou features some mecha combat throughout the story which you finally get to control a Deus Machina fighting against the enemy in 3D fighting game style. The gameplay is abit unpolished but it is quite great for a VN caliber since the 3D model is pretty well drawn. However AI is still left to be desired because some of the fight are just annoying like Beelzebub as the AI keep spamming particular attack which sometimes quite annoying. The mecha fight is quite hard to be played with keyboard which is why using gamepad is recommended. There are 12 battles throughout the VN and in the final battle you need to input some particular command during the finisher to unlock the True ending of the Kishin Hishou and you also get some secret ending if you managed to win Doctor West fight with Another Blood in 2nd playthrough.

For a VN, Kishin Hishou is rather short since it is kinetic novel but still an entertaining read for the fans of Demonbane. I decided to read the VN untranslated myself to see some more tender moment of Kurou and Al-Azif who is my favorite Nitroplus Heroine as well. Personally while i find Demonbane is rather mediocre VN, there are quite good stuffs comes out from the series and again i really hope that this series appear in SRW someday.