Although Madosoft originally released this Wagamama High Spec fandisc just a year after the launch of the original visual novel in Japan, it has taken nearly nine years for the English version, Wagamama High Spec OC (short for Overclock), to finally arrive for international fans. I enjoyed the original visual novel enough to have interest in such a follow-up. It comes with extended after stories for each of the four main heroines, plus a few “side heroine” type routes of a few support characters, most of whom I liked enough to pique my interest at the prospect of a more extended story with them.
Given OC directly follows the events of Wagamama High Spec, I recommend reading that review prior to this one. I won’t spoil any major developments of either here, but presumably if you’re interested in buying a fandisc you’d want to know about the baseline experience first.
Back To It
As a fandisc, Wagamama High Spec OC lets you pick your choice of heroine as soon as you click “start game”, so there’s no real decisions to make after that. Each of the four main heroine routes happens directly after the events of their route from the original, while the three new ones more or less branch out after the common route.
Kaoruko is still my favorite of the cast, so I naturally went with hers first. More time with Kaoruko is always pleasant as she’s her typical goofy yet enjoyable self. A couple of details about this route felt a bit regressive for her and Kouki in terms of characterization, which held it back from a more glowing review. At the same time, it also addressed one of my biggest issues with her route in the original visual novel. Namely, she’s made to reckon with the people in her life who have led her to where she is and is actually challenged on how she conducts herself in a meaningful way. It ends up making for a significantly better overall ending than the base story had with her original route.
Ashe’s story is largely just an extended epilogue of her original route. Most of her conflicts have been largely resolved, so it’s mostly just spending time with her and getting to see certain events play out despite the relative change in course of how things went in her route compared to the others. I would have liked to see just a bit more development for her in this, but it’s ultimately a harmless enough epilogue-type extension of her route. And Ashe is still pretty cute.
Tweedledee and Tweedledum
While Toa and Mihiro’s routes in Wagamama High Spec were the weaker pair for me, there were enough aspects of their character to enjoy in the greater story that I didn’t come to outright dislike their characters. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the experience of reading their routes in Wagamama High Spec OC. If you aren’t here entirely for the H-scenes, I’d go so far as to recommend skipping both of their stories in OC.
Mihiro’s route in the original visual novel was generally saccharine, but ultimately pretty harmless. While the less poor of the two here, she ends up doing something kind of manipulative this time that rubbed me the wrong way. The one major narrative development here is just a worse version of something that already happened in a different route in the original visual novel. It all just failed to land and left a kind of sour feeling for me.
Toa’s is even worse. While she can be a bit acerbic in the baseline story due to her lack of people skills and somewhat selfish side, she ends up just coming off as downright mean at points throughout OC, something made particularly evident in her route. While the manipulative behavior in Mihiro’s route feels more born out of naivete, Toa ends up doing something even worse, such that any moments of her occasionally showing her softer side fall much flatter here. None of this feels in service of any greater narrative developments and actively just made me like multiple characters less. Even Kouki has a share of bad moments in this route, and it felt like questionable writing decisions undermined whatever dynamic there was for their relationship here.
The Side Bunch
There are three additional heroine routes here in Wagamama High Spec OC, which were given a relatively decent length. The most prominent one (given she’s on the cover art) is Karen, a classmate and acquaintance of Kouki’s who shows up fairly regularly throughout Wagamama High Spec’s story, who I can imagine several readers felt was due for a route of her own. The other more out-there options are Chitose, who is Kouki and Kaoruko’s editor, as well as Yukari, Kouki’s homeroom teacher.
Karen has a bit of a teasing, sarcastic side to her of a different flavor from the rest of the heroines, but is otherwise a fairly nice side character that rounds out Kouki’s external friend circle at school. Karen’s route begins with Kouki having to visit her house because of an error on the part of their teacher (more on her later), and he comes to find out that she’s often busy taking care of her younger twin sisters. They bond quickly over just how much they come to find out they have in common, given their similar natures and lives, which makes for a solid enough through line for their route and subsequent romance. It’s not especially elaborate, but there are some really swell moments and a surprisingly strong and touching ending scene to this route that kinda made me wish there had been a longer full route in the base visual novel.
Chitose’s route left me conflicted. She’s a solid enough support character in the base visual novel who often offers some relatively poignant comments that help move characterization along in the base visual novel, and the hook/setup to her own route is pretty cute. That said, both in the base visual novel and OC, Chitose also has occasions where she offers some pretty questionable advice as well. Once things get going in her own route, they start to move a bit forcefully, in more ways than one (and not good ways). The route is a bit of a change of pace from the other routes, given the romance here is a lot messier due to how neither party really knows how to navigate it and the writer/editor dynamic creating work complications between the two, but it can at times feel wishy-washy as a result of their disconnect. Kouki also feels out of character at times. It has its good and bad parts, and I came away feeling ambivalent.
Developments in Yukari’s route are similarly abrupt, albeit they come about from a different angle. She’s the classic spinster teacher character with a bit of a delinquent past and a short temper, making her somewhat offputting to a number of people and leading to many jokes at her expense. A chance encounter outside of school eventually leads the two towards the forbidden teacher/student romance route, one which is amusingly treated more scandalously than even the incest route option, though not by a lot given the typically lighthearted tone of the story. Once the route gets going, there is some actual intrigue to how the two go about their relationship, given they each have different insecurities regarding their romantic inexperience and relative age. There’s also a share of comedy, and while it gets to be a bit overly ridiculous at parts, I at least still found it amusing.
Edge of Eighteen
Beyond the new scenarios, most everything here is an extension of Wagamama High Spec, with mostly the same character sprites, locations, voice actors, and music. Each route gives you four 18+ scenes per heroine, this time all of them unlocking in their route proper (though some come after their respective credits). You can access the 18+ content either by buying the game from Denpasoft directly or by getting an 18+ patch from their website. The patch comes with three downloads, so for English, make sure to download the one titled “R18 DLC” rather than “R18CNDLC”, and follow the ReadMe. There’s once again an optional nude filter if the 18+ scenes aren’t enough nudity for you, which is its own separate download.
The content is still relatively vanilla, albeit with a bit more variety in things like outfits and location here and there, especially for the returning heroines. A couple of scenes are of…a bit more dubious consent, which felt like a bit of an odd fit here.
I don’t usually comment on the writing of the 18+ scenes in eroge, mainly because the dialogue in H-scenes pretty consistently ranges from unremarkable to relatively poor (the base visual novel lies somewhere in between). I do have to comment on the text in the case of Wagamama High Spec OC, however, because it honestly trended into unintentionally funny territory. I’ve seen worse out there, but it’s harder to take seriously than even many other eroge thanks to some questionable text choices.
The way certain characters talk about or go about sex at times feels a bit jarring and out of character as well. There are some downright iffy bits here and there throughout too, like Kouki’s hopeless loser gag character friend having a couple lines that cross a line into being a bit too creepy.
While the writing of fandiscs is generally weaker on the whole than the main story, I found the editing on the English script to still warrant comment. There are noticeable style differences from the original which at times can come off as a bit jarring, especially if you read both back to back, and the text is definitely weaker overall in OC. There are significantly more typos (including a few during H-scenes which make for incidental comedy), and some unfinished sentences and strings of text. There’s some strange uses of onomatopoeia, such as the frequency with which the sound “chu” appears in the text, that really stick out. I also question the use of the word “retarded” in its slang sense in a rather jarring context.
Verdict
Assessing a fan disc like Wagamama High Spec OC can be a bit of a strange endeavor. There’s plenty of meat on the bone here, so if you like Wagamama High Spec already it’s well worth the purchase, especially given its lower price point, and that’s ultimately why it gets the same score despite being a modest bit weaker overall. If you didn’t like it, this isn’t likely to change your mind.
The actual contents end up being a bit more of a mixed bag than I’d have hoped for, leaving the sense that this could have been something better. The routes range from nice little after stories to a couple of fun bonus side routes to two routes I actively recommend against reading. As such, trying to even give it a score feels like an effort to average out a pretty wide array of points, given its wider spread of highs and lows. I’ve also both seen better fandiscs out there and better from the original story. It’s fine enough for what it is though, and adds a good amount more than it takes away.
WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC OC IS RECOMMENDED
Purchase: Denpasoft
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Thank you to Sekai Project/Denpasoft for providing a PC review code for Wagamama High Spec OC.
Been playing games since my papa gave me an NES controller in the early 90’s. I play games of almost all genres, but especially focus role-playing, action, and puzzle-platform games. Also an enjoyer of many niche things ranging from speedrunning to obscure music from all over the world.
