Much like it's predecessor ef- A Fairy Tale of the Two, eden* is a visual novel released by minori only a year after ef- The Latter Tale, in 2009. The visual novel also localized recently by the efforts of MangaGamer. Unlike ef, the story does not have erotic content and is on Steam. However an 'adult-content' patch called PLUS+MOSAIC was made that added extra optional scenarios with the erotic content there, albeit in a censored fashion like in ef. Setting that aside, eden* is a decent story, although it's not as good as it could have been. Then again, ef might have been a hard act to follow.

Like minori's previous visual novel, eden* is a kinetic story with no branching paths from beginning to end. It's goal is to tell a very specific story. The is about a young male soldier named Ryou Haruna, who has been assigned to guard a hidden research facility, mainly as a guard for one of it's VIP occupants. The person in question is a woman named Sion, who is the world's most brilliant scientist. She's actually a product of genetic engineering,  but among other super humans(called Felixes), she stands out as the most brilliant of them. Through genetic manipulation, she's been able to retain her young for 100 years, all for the sake of finding the means and time to get humanity of of Earth and find a new home in the stars. This is because she actually accurately predicted the end of the world, which is an impact with an unusual mass of energy. Of course in the wake of such news, she has been targeted by various factions who want to use her politically.

The rest of the story is about how Ryou interacts with his peers as well as his budding relationship with Sion. It's discovered that since Sion has been basically been owned by the World Integrated Government, and has been unable to actually see the world and live in it as a normal girl, having been dedicated to getting humanity off world. So the plot eventually leads to Ryou fulfilling Sion's wish to spend the final days of earth instead of leaving like the rest of the world. This sounds crazy but Sion's eternal youth comes at the price of having an expiration date, which draws near. And Ryou's sub-plot is about how his troubled past has seemingly left him with no purpose in life, but thanks to his friendship with Sion, he decides to dedicate himself to her to that end.

It's a decent story but it could have been more interesting if they spent a bit more time on the supporting cast, as they don't have much backstory to speak of. So when their turning points come up, it's not as impactful as they could have been. It's hard to care about characters when they don't get as much development as they could have. Opportunities to go in further detail on how Sion copes with the fact that due to a random mutation in her genes, she stopped aging, and now has the perpetual body of a 13-15 year old girl aren't explored. As for other issues, the game uses the same GUI from ef, and those issues are still present here. As is the character design. While males look different, the females all still have big anime eyes(TM), which I thought was ridiculous. Another thing is that character's archetypes and seiyuus are pretty much the same as ef's. At least the male lead actually is voiced this time. Music is decent, and there weren't and font display issues that were present in ef- The Latter Tale. The story is also about the length of ef- The First Tale, so at least it doesn't overstay it's welcome. The previously mentioned adult content that's present in the MangaGamer version is only accessible after clearing the main story, and suffice to say, it's optional. The scenes are little vignettes that are non-canonical. And the scenes themselves aren't terribly interesting, so if you don't care for the eroge elements, just play the steam version. The game doesn't really need them, nor do they add any extra layer of depth. Pure fanservice fluff. However, it's a fun story that is adequately priced and while you might not care for getting the MangaGamer PLUS+MOSAIC version, it does come with a Steam key for the standard version. So if you are into Visual novel, you go too wrong with this one. It's just a bit weaker then ef- A Fairy Tale of the Two.

The bottom line: An good visual novel with an interesting story that could have been a bit better if more time was given to other character's backstories instead of going with the conclusion that it did. 

Acquisition Method: Review code provided to author by Mangagamer