I finished Cartagra HD in Japanese today.

I played the original version in English when it released in 2014. I had already become a fan of Innocent Grey via Kara no Shojo, and being starved for anything similar, I bought this game upon release. I don’t remember too well what my specific impressions were, but I do remember thinking it was pretty good.

Upon the release of the second Kara no Shojo game, and as time passed, my evaluation of Cartagra declined somewhat. While I would still call it good, I often found myself recommending it more for what it did for Kara no Shojo rather than on its own merits. In fact I remember at several points mentioning that it was rougher and more focused on sex as a detriment to it.

For a long while after the second Kara no Shojo game, there was a large void. From 2013, when the second game came out in Japan, there was radio silence for many years. It wasn’t until 2020 that Kara no Shojo finally got its masterful conclusion.

In 2021, I took my then acquired Japanese skills and set about rereading the first two Kara no Shoujo in order to read the third. It was a perfect time as the first and second game had both received revised editions. Upon successfully making my way through them, I finally got to read my most anticipated piece of work Kara no Shoujo the Last episode.

The Last Episode was beautiful. A masterpiece. So much so that I instantly bought all the Kara no Shoujo games and soundtracks at the time, and spent many months just constantly replaying the same tracks.

In 2023 it was announced Cartagra would be getting an HD edition. While I wasn’t immediately champing at the bit to read it, I was nevertheless interested in picking it up for my collection. I figured at some point maybe I’d even replay it. I bought it and stuck it on my shelf.

It didn’t enter my mind until I started hearing things about Kara no Shojo 3 finally coming out in English (This time rebranded as The Shell for the west) I remembered I had a copy of Cartagra HD sitting around and I thought “Yeah, this would be something easy for me to read”

Again I don’t remember much about my initial experience with Cartagra, but upon starting it, I was blown away. While I realize that much of that has to do with stuff being added (the game has opening sequence and is in HD), there was a lot of old familiar stuff I had forgotten about like the music. It enraptured me.

After finishing it, the one thing I’ve got to say is that I’ve completely reevaluated it. Before, I would have said that it was a good thing to read for Kara no Shojo, but now I would say it stands on its own. I would even go as far to say it stands right up there with the best entries in Kara no Shojo. It’s a masterpiece. Or at least the HD edition is.

Apparently it’s getting a Switch version. I’m not sure how that’s going to work as while it can definitely work without the ero, I don’t know how they’re going to go about the more violent looking parts. Still I’d be willing to recommend it if that’s the only version of Cartagra HD we get or if that’s the only thing people will read. It’s that good in my eyes