Mahoutsukai no Yoru
Witch on the Holy Night

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I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the English translated version on the switch.

Mahoyo was a fascinating experience. The story and world building was really good. The story is surprisingly tighter than fate.

Instead of rushing through the story, somehow I was enthralled by the medium - The Voice Acting, the Visuals, and the music. The OSTs by Fukasawa Hideyuki in Mahoyo was next level! Combine all 3 and you can really feel the magic when it happens! The whole presentation was great!

I feel like the story would also be better if you have never watched Kara no Kyoukai or Tsukihime. Then you would ... not get any spoilers and the twists of the story are really good!

I look forward to Nasu ever building on these characters and stories. Really has great potential.

If you had to only read one vn, give mahoyo a chance and I doubt you would be disappointed.

Mahoutsukai no Yoru is easily the best visual novel I have ever read.
Art/visuals and music are extremely good.
Voice acting too.
Story wise, I loved the balance between slice of life and actual plot. It was refreshing to read the extra chapters and just enjoy the characters' interactions with each others. It did not feel boring even if it was irrelevant to the main plot, because there was always character development going on.

There is only one issue Mahoyo has and that is a bad English TL. As we all know, Hollow Moon is utterly incompetent and will never finish translating Mahoyo. The only English translation ... I consider good is McJon's and it only goes up to chapter 8. I just want to say that the official English TL is very inconsistent in its quality. Although I am not capable of understanding written Japanese, I would consider myself to be good at understanding it orally as a Japanese person. Many of the English text for the voice lines do not accurately reflect what the characters are saying. The numerous grammar mistakes are horrendous as well. I will admit some parts are decently translated though. But imagine reading an especially moving part only to be interrupted by a horrible grammar mistake. It just ruins the magical feeling that you get when you read Mahoyo.

Because of this, I decided to undertake the task of doing a voice port to PC release while fixing English translation. I would never normally do a thing like this but Mahoyo has just moved me that much. At least then I will have an English translation up to my standards.

This is a review of the visual novel of Witch on the Holy Night and not of the light novel since its impossible to find the original piece of work.

This is my favorite visual novel of all time and a must read for anyone who loves magic, the fate universe or good stories that may take its time but has an extremely satisfying ending.

Story 10
This is a prequel to Tsukihime Remake about Aozaki Aoko and her starting as a mage and someone trying to take her and Alice's Territory when a boy from the mountains who has never experienced technology interferes with their lives. Although ... the story feels like the start of a series (which it is if Nasu ever finishes writing it) its slow storytelling eases and invests the reader into the story quite naturally, it invests and introduces characters who have very minor appearances at the start of the game and will impact the story later on. It never feels like the story wastes your time at the start although nothing really happens till around the end of the second chapter where few of the many pieces start to fall into place. The story first peaks at chapter 5 where you get one of the greatest set pieces I've experienced in Japanese media, the OST, tension and pay off is there and if this doesn't pull you into the story then you will probably not like it as it has few action scenes and more of the slower slice of life moments which are pretty funny at times. By the end you will be satisfied and wanting more since this does not close out most plotlines from the story and leaving a lot to be answered in its 2 sequels if they ever happen but nicely wraps itself up as well.

Art 10
Most high production visual novels have great art so not much to say here, the characters all look great, have great sprites and CGs. Moving on

Characters 10
Side characters are fun but appear most in the slice of life scenes and don't get much time to shine in the bigger more serious moments, especially someone like Ritsuka and the church characters. A lot of these characters might even be missed out on if you skip extra chapters which are found in the archives which is a downside in my opinion and maybe should of been integrated better into the main story. I'm sure they will have bigger roles in the future though. The main characters are all great though Aozaki is my favorite female character in Japanese media, her struggle to balance her life as mage and student is interesting which brings conflict with her friend and mentor Alice from the mage side and her complicated feelings towards Soujuurou and her school life. Alice learning to accept people and Soujuurou learning about the world outside the mountains and learning about his emotions. The main three have such great chemistry with each other that its the main attraction to the story. The main villain is a spoiler but I will say they are this mysterious character who uses puppets and eventually comes out from the shadows. They are intimidating and have moments to steal the spotlight, wish their side story was implemented into the main story just like the side characters and not left until completion of the story though.

Enjoyment 10
I absolutely adored Witch on the Holy Night when it first came out without the voice acting and now it is even better with voice acting. The story is slow but there is some great comedic moments especially with one of the side stories unlocked by completing everything. The action is masterfully crafted and feels extremely satisfying. Your enjoyment though will come from if you can sit through the slower moments and feel rewarded by the set pieces or not. As stated above, if you do not enjoy it by the end of chapter 5 I would recommend stop reading it.

Overall this is a masterpiece and Nasu's best work yet (although technically it was his first), great characters, amazing payoff for Tsukihime fans and newcomers. this is an absolute must read although I do wish that the characters and side stories where better integrated than found in the archives.