After a decade of patience, the long-awaited trilogy is finally complete! Congratulations to Shiravune’s team! Whether you had read Purgatio last year or during its much earlier releases, I believe that there is no doubt that every audience could agree with one thing. “That ending hurts. We want more. It’s not fair to end it right there.”
The climax for our protagonist struck such a high note that his pain lingers even after a long year. Reiji’s journey never ended. That by itself was heartbreaking. I felt that I was begging for the sequel right away. Supposed that InnoGrey wanted the fans to sympathize with the cost of Reiji’s patience, I’d say that they did such a terrific job connecting with the readers. Unexpectedly enough, seeing my beloved characters in Paradiso tugs my heartstrings with quite a painful heartache still, but that emotion was stronger for Reiji.
He had waited so much, and so have we, the fans and the newcomers—that specific connection could possibly enhance the enjoyment of playing Paradiso as a more pleasurable read, and perhaps, the longer the wait, the stronger that emotion would be evoked. Well, it’s here now. The Shell 3 is happening. I wish to hype the game for the sake of hyping up people but that would betray the impression that the game had given me. Regardless of how strong my excitement is, which is practically uncontained that goes hyper with each passing day. I will always love seeing my favorites taking over the lately stagnant VN community in social media granted that that’s not the first objective that most people desire when they’re about to sit down reading one of the most depressing games ever written.
The game starts with a somber slap of bittersweet melody outright convincing you to take the game seriously right from the get-go. As for me, the main menu soundtrack instantly made me think of happiness albeit with a tinge of loneliness. This was not the Reiji I imagined after the aftermath but maybe this is what Reiji needs. Maybe his loneliness was already nigh indispensable but it wouldn’t hurt for him to feel happy—enough of the tragedy.
Along with the decades of effort to set up the state where we could fully understand how depressed and obsessed this man could be, you can find that a bit hot, sad, or relatable, whatever floats your boat but The Shell Paradiso just simply has a lot of promises to bring. I want to feel the same emotion that placed me in a situation that is so restrained you can’t even begin to let out a cry but nonetheless tempts you to go on reading regardless of the pain it will inflict.
It can be sad. It can make you cry but at the same time, it’s a great experience nevertheless.
That’s The Shell, a visual novel for audiences that seek maturity and potent realism in their books. It’s literature. InnoGrey did such a great job, and Paradiso was the same as it once was.
Given all my preamble, I hope that you’ll enjoy reading my prereleased review. This article is supposed to give the InnoGrey fans a supplement of information to answer questions that might cause worries. Incidentally, I hope that it also hypes everyone up simultaneously.
1. What are the expectations I should have before playing The Shell Paradiso?
That, my friend, is a question that I cannot answer. Everyone has their different sets of opinions, but I assume that since you got this far, you have a love for the series enough to read the third, long installment of The Shell. Will it be a disappointment? Will it be so fulfilling that the game would never leave your top one spot, if ever? I don’t know, but as for me, I absolutely love how the game started and so far it has not let me down by any means.
If you’ve been a visual novel fan for years there is always one vital worry that has haunted non-Japanese speaking audiences. In which the next question is,
2. Is the translation quality any good?
For the record, there’s only one team credited to the people who translated the trilogy. From Inferno to Purgatorio, their work is considered by various communities as the superior version compared to the older version release, specifically Mangagamer’s. For Purgatorio, I’d say yes. Absolutely. Perfection, so far.
There’s not an instance where I was led to believe that I was actually reading a translation. During narrative descriptions, it is hard to vouch for accuracy, but for the dialogues where the voice actors/actresses performed their lines, Shiravune’s team had so far faithfully considered the weight of the words along with the mental state of the characters. Everything flows so smoothly, almost like you’re reading a well-acclaimed English book written by a highly skilled author that portrayed how it feels to be so lonely and broken through words. Not just that, but all the art aspects and pretty much everything reads smoothly that it’s very hard to find a flaw with my experience so far.
3. Can I start at this game?
Please do not. Currently, there’s no way to play Cartagra legally but it is fine to start with The Shell I: Inferno.
4. Why does the title mention Dante? I don’t see the guy from the Devil May Cry!
Kara no Shoujo, or The Shell, is immensely inspired by a medieval poem called The Divine Comedy! The poem is considered one of the greatest works of literature in the Western canon. Despite being written by a great Italian poet who was exiled from his home, several centuries later, the old relic of a tome was still read and studied in many ways!
As a bookworm who had read Divine Comedy, I personally do not think that reading Dante Alighieri’s poem is that much of an important factor when it comes to enjoying The Shell. If I’m allowed to surmise, I believe that The Shell poetically based the idea of obsession, a trudging yet barren, unrewarding journey of Dante from the Divine Comedy to Reiji himself. Specific characters realistically possess not much in common in comparison with the plot of the Divine Comedy, at least taking Inferno for granted. At best, there was this underlying metaphysical portrayal of what it would look like if hell on earth existed. Especially granted that in comparison to Dante’s journey, which describes historical figures, generals, warlords, seductresses, queens and kings, traitors, prostitutes, rapists, murderers, thieves, demon worshippers, brutality, philosophers, unbaptized death, pagans, sins, immorality, monstrosity, demonic imps, wretchedness, heretics, Satan, Lucifer, his legion of demons, endless torture, and death and repeat of the process—let’s just say that Reiji’s experiences were far less brutal.
Despite the fact that those particular events started his endless cycle of grief and pain, in loss between living and revenge, and love in which that Divine Comedy hasn’t really so carnally expressed even considering the main crux of Inferno where there’s this possibility that humans on earth were just as wicked as the fictional demons that the renowned poet himself had portrayed. Each game was like a scenario that drew its thematic inspiration from the hellish situation of the first game, the emptiness of Purgatorio, and lastly, the long-awaited bliss that is Paradiso.
5. Is this the whole informative review?
No, but it is going to be published soon, expectedly within the week of Paradiso’s release to avoid spoilers.
6. Where can I buy the game?
You could place the game on your wishlist at the following link:
The Shell Part III | JAST Store
The_Shell_Part_III_Paradiso | Steam
The Shell Part III: Paradiso | Shiravune
7. Where can I buy older instances of the game?
Just a small correction, if I may, but you can buy Cartagra legally through Mangagamer’s store, as they still sell their version of the original game. Although not remastered and all, it still provides a complete experience and is enough to understand the connections to The Shell.