Tsukihime: Near Side of the Moon Routes

OK, so I compared several of the previously mentioned visual novels with Tsukihime. A lot. A bit too much.

So I may as well do a piece on it. Rather than flood this place with one post per route, I'm just going to do two posts - one for the Near Side of the Moon routes (Arcueid True and Good ends, Ciel True and Good ends), and one for the Far side of the Moon routes (Akiha True and Good ends, Hisui True and Good ends, Kohaku end).

Anyway. Any of the Near Side of the Moon routes provides the background necessary to understand the universe of Tsukihime. Hence, one cannot progress to any of the Far Side of the Moon routes without playing to the end of either of Arcueid's or Ciel's routes. Considering the choices needed to be taken to get onto the Ciel route (and stay on it) compared to those needed to keep to the Arcueid route, it is actually 10 times easier (roughly) to get Arcueid's endings.

Just a piece of random trivia.

Anyway. In this game, you play the role of Tohno Shiki, a male student that was disowned by his father and sent to live with a branch family. Just prior to the beginning of the game, Tohno Makihasa (the father) passes away, and Shiki is called back to the Tohno mansion by the new head of the Tohno family.
The reason why Shiki was disowned in the first place was that after an almost fatal accident seven years ago, he was too weak to remain the heir of the family and would thus tarnish the name if he remained in the Tohno mansion.

Meanwhile, there have been mysterious murders occurring in their city - the victims have all been found to have been completely drained of blood. With all of the chaos of moving house going on, Shiki pays little attention to these deaths, thinking that that sort of thing wouldn't happen to anyone he knew.

Until one day, he encounters a beautiful foreign women that seems so otherworldly it makes his blood pound and his mind to scream that he wants to...

...kill her.

Tohno Shiki, a young man capable of seeing the 'death of things' after he all but died seven years ago. And it was thus that he sliced Arcueid into seventeen pieces.

Of course, she comes back to "life", being a vampire. *rolls eyes* She ropes him into helping her hunt down other vampires to make up for the fact that she was weakened by his actions, and thus begins the many trials and tribulations of Shiki.

The story of the Near Side of the Moon deals with 'the threat from outside', whether it's Arcueid losing control of her vampire instincts or the monstrous vampire she's hunting deciding that Shiki is an eyesore and needs to be removed right now. Near Side serves mostly as an introduction to Tsukihime, laying the background for the Far Side routes. Even so, the routes aren't completely lacking in complexity and are still good stories in their own right.

For those that watched the anime, you really should play the game to find out why there are die-hard fans that insist that 'there was no Tsukihime anime'. Truly, the anime failed to capture a lot of the character expression and development seen in the game. The manga version has so far managed to stay faithful to the game, but as in most cases - the original is the best. There is no media adaptation that can give you all the possible scenes that are seen in the game.