Maitetsu

Maitetsu
N/A
Metacritic
95
Steam
81.784
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$14.99
Release date
29 June 2018
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
95 (323 votes)

Humanoid modules that control all aspects of the railway cars called “Raillords” exist in this world.

Show detailed description

Maitetsu system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Microsoft™ Windows® Vista/7/8/8.1/10
  • Processor: 1.3GHz and above
  • Memory: 512 MB RAM
  • Graphics: Integrated graphics
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 6 GB available space
  • Sound Card: Onboard sound
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
714800
Platforms
Windows PC
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Tiagox
Tiagox

Truly a heartwarming story with great characters and art. It somehow deals with themes of love, family, legacy, overcoming trauma, and can leave you a train nerd.

Despite being an adult game, the NSFW content is only available with patches and, honestly, if you don't care for them, the game is still perfectly enjoyable without those scenes. It took me SEVERAL hours of playtime to reach the first and, by that point, the story and characters had long since captivated me.

Still, it's a shame getting the full experience was such a hassle, and that the sequel will probably never get an official English translation. The world needs more games these, yet they hardly receive the support they deserve.

Shirley'sEssentials
Shirley'sEssentials

The game is soooo cool! Very cool graphics, all animated with Live2D, and also has a dictionary with definitions of various train-related stuff. I am a train ride enthusiast and a train picture enthusiast.

PureIllusionist
PureIllusionist

My first visual novel other than DokiDoki and I was not disappointed. I guess it's known for being the loli train game and sure you get trains and loli's (witch honestly is what i came for). But at it's core you will find a wholesome story to thoroughly enjoy. The characters personalities are rich and flushed out.

Lottie Marie - Fuzzyboots
Lottie Marie -…

This game has two sides. The original Steam version is informative, emotional, and ecchi. The DLC, that can not be purchased here, turns the game into FBI open up mode.

The protagonist suffers emotional scars from a train disaster and works towards reviving the railroads while attempting to prevent a corporation from moving to his hometown and causing pollution. There is alot of detailed train, business, and political talk. I found the subject informative and interesting. Bear in mind, that some of it is made up. Alot of the information is accurate. This is a long read visual novel. The protagonist is highly romanticized. It is easy to fall in love with his character with their high ideals and uncompromising ethics. The side characters are all unique and interesting as well and the raillords are adorable. The game has many ecchi moments but in this original steam edition there is no nudity. It has a harem theme running throughout, most of the major characters fall in love with him.

As I stated, in this Steam version there is not any nudity. However, with some reseach and web page shennanegans you can figure out how to purchase and install the three patches needed to bring things to a whole new level. Between the uncensored dlc, and two patches there are full on sex scenes. That is nothing special in and of itself. You notice you can't get this dlc on steam? in order to get it you have to know the product number, enter it in, and purchase via a seperate site. I want to say right now that I am not judging anybody for this. However, some of the characters look of questionable age. I'm not talking like they look young, typical of alot of anime artwork. I mean that they look so young that sharing some of the scenes and pictures from the dlc will get you in ALOT of trouble in many places. It uses the 'not human, its a raillord so its different (1000 year old elf anybody?). Again, I'm not here to judge, I am just here to share the info. The pictures are so risque that I am wary of posting some of the screenshots. I will often post adult screenshots that only friends can view but I will never post some of images from this game. I am not interested in the whole 'its just drawings debate.' You are entitled to think however you like. I am just sharing facts. I like to find and play games that are off the beaten path and this is definately one of those games. I play many controversial, or what some may call 'edgy' games and this is now probably one of the most 'edgy' games I have played on Steam.

Keep in mind that you can play this for the story and it is truly enjoyable. I like railroads. The translation is superb! The story , albeit long winded and technical, is interesting and emotional. The animation is gorgeous! Has the main route and side routes where you focus on and romance the various characters.

The Loser
The Loser

Unless you love trains and are not interested in hentai, don't buy!

Very far from what I thought I bought.
I thought it was a lolicon. With others a Hentai game. It didn't say hentai, but nudity and sexual content. There was nothing. It is not unusual to have to work a long way to get something in a virtual novel. I thought after chapter 15 but no. Nothing. Not even nudity or sexual content.
Normally I would have bought from Mangagames, but Steam is stealing everything from them, and apparently can't even do it properly! They sell one and you get blue balls!

᠌ ⁧⁧Tsubame ⭐
᠌ ⁧⁧Tsubame ⭐

STORY

Harem-like story where pretty much all the female characters (well, the attractive ones at least) will fall in love with the male protagonist, which is bundled inside the main plot of reviving a small town's economy through its railways.

Assuming you read everything, the game provides around 40 hours of story time. One thing to take into consideration is that, as pointed out by other reviews, there is not a lot of comedy. I think that is fitting given the character's rather sombre background history, and the rather serious task of trying of economy revitalization.

ARTWORK

Simply top notch. The characters are very well drawn, and beyond lovely. The character animation and movements match well with the story speech and events. The scenary background is no exception, and very pleasant to look at as well.

Characters poses and actions can be customized in the Gallery section, which is a nice touch.

MUSIC

I think Maitetsu has one of the loveliest music tracks of any visual nover I every played. There are is no shortage of sound tracks, all fit well with the story and plot at hand, and every character ending, including the minor ones, have their own voiced theme endings.

VALUE and SUMMARY

I think the game is very well worth the price, especially you are either into trains, or into a harem-like story with cute female protagonists. 10/10

ディジョン
ディジョン

There's skip button (I bought it for the H and this version is censored, all the expliciit scenes aren't in this version :c )

Michiru
Michiru

Absolutely uninteresting story about trains with annoying moe characters
Detached from main game H-scenes, meaning u have to view them from menu, also steam version doesnt have them so u must buy it for extra 15$, very nice touch if I may say :^)
1280*720 resolution at maximum, looks bad af on modern monitors
I highly recommend download this sh*t for free somewhere else if u know what I mean...that is If u are interested in loli H-scenes, if not I see no reason to do it anyway

ต้มไก่เทโอ
ต้มไก่เทโอ

pretty cool dictionary feature

Fortunes of Faust
Fortunes of Faust

The trains look cute and funny!!

Capt. Pottypie
Capt. Pottypie

One of the more interesting VN's I've played. The characters are genuine, the story is interesting (although rather niche in interest) and the soundtrack is high class.

Monale
Monale

Good Storyline not gonna lie, 11/10

wanfai
wanfai

Played offline for a while so unfortunately 9 hours isn't accurate... more about 20 ish. Anyways, onto the review,
Maitetsu is great for train fans. Other than that, anyone with a passing fancy for trains and/or brewery depending on the section of the story can appreciate the work that went into the research of operations of both. Alot of it can get unrealistic, but you're looking at basically a anime novel, so if you're looking for a hard core realistic thing, why are you looking for it here?
Overall a fun read, with enough technical details to keep anyone who's nit picky busy, along with it's own tips section to expand more on the technical details. For anyone out there, yes this was converted to -17, and yes there is a patch released somewhere. That said, it's up to you to accept the "500 y/o but looks 13 y/o is legal" argument.
That said, there is one gripe i have with this, and it's that the issues from the different story routes don't affect the other routes or is never mentioned. People who finished this knows exactly what I mean by that. And I'm not talking about the execution of the last route so to speak, but just in general. One life threatening event from one route has no impact on the other routes, even if those other routes would not necessarily change how the participants of the prior mentioned event would behave.

StGeorge
StGeorge

adorable lolies
adorable animations
i like the UI and bookmark feature, felt really easy to navigate
has a "TIPS" section, in case you forgot what a word meant
word are colored when characters are talking, so you can click on them as well

i ofc skipped everything that was not a loli
sadly have not gotten to reina route yet, eh just a matter of time

i don't have a hard on for trains, so the story felt extremely long for me
sadly, it contain's censors

Mirei
Mirei

Very Nice Story and Character. Can't wait for TV anime ver this 31 Jan.

Alex
Alex

A story about a Trainlord and her conductor. A man from who despite living with modern technology comes back to his hometown to protect it's pure river from an advanced tech factory. The conflict between new and old. Bank and artizan the hero and his rival are all artfully managed. Our hero never becomes too isolated from other viewpoints and the story shows old and new can work together to bridge the age gap. A true classic of VNs
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31309147-South-Coast-NSW/

DhalasV
DhalasV

Are you a lolicon?
- Yes: Buy the game
- No: Don't buy the game

booba
booba

do you like trains? do you like lolis? if you like if both fucking buy it

actually the ending is a bit weak and doesn't end properly where it should ended. (it ended too early) but if you don't mind that I just wanna see cute lolis and amazing artworks of steam loco just buy it

Jayjm
Jayjm

+ You will learn a lot about trains and railroads
+ Great story (so far)
+ Interesting characters
+ Has a solid 20+ hours of content
- 18+ patch no longer exists (officially at least)link here

Chasekilleen
Chasekilleen

OMFG FBI 101!!!
FBI ARE GONNA RAID YOUR PLACE!!!

KorboKommando
KorboKommando

Let's face it. You know why you 'want' to buy this game. You're not going to get the 'complete, comprehensive' version here on steam. At least, not what you're probably expecting; it's got no H scenes out of the box.

In terms of story, if you're looking to understand the functions of trains, you're in the right market. It's a fantasy world, but you're looking at a solid 20+ hours to actually read through everything or listen through the really well-done voice acting. It's not a bad story per-se, but it can get a bit tedious. Don't expect to sit through this story in one setting without getting overtly bored, unless the story really immerses you that much. Everything (Literally everything) is also Live2D, which is a big plus. Characters really feel 'alive' in the sense of the word.
There's a certain DLC you can buy which unlocks the 'rest of the game' if you catch my drift. But only if you're truly, truly a degenerate would you probably want to do that. Cough.

Botan
Botan

It's here & on sale for Steam golden week!!

And I got to say, I love Maitetsu so much. One of my fav VNs.

The cast is really likeable and unique on its own way. Like you got robotic android who joins in your journey to revive the fallen railway industry to stop factory development at your old hometown, to a reserved but hardcore French/Japanese train enthusiast (aka the title drop of game)

It's really well written story. The strong message this game conveys as you read along, is that the only thing you should be focusing on is looking after & recovering yourself instead of worrying about atoning your past & old friends/family members if you weren't convicted by the law.

As you can see, character development plays a huge role in game. It's really inspiring to admire someone who dream big as the MC gathers the whole suburb to work together towards a common goal while making new close friends along the way. The game made me realize, how important it is to keep your friends close as you go places. Kinda like Shenmue does lol

I enjoyed my time in this journey, the author has set us out especially cute slide of life moments and relaxing piano soundtrack. Honestly does feels like "What a train ride". This game really did dive me into world of trains and railroads fandom.

But yeah, definitely worth a read if you wanted a chill slide of life story with but with a twist.

I can't wait for anime adaptation & sequel (Last Run!!) to come out soon !!

-

Just extra notes here, I spent most of my time with Switch version which has same content and JP script as Sekai Project Steam version but has completely different English translation.

I wouldn't recommend installing the patch as I believe having uncensored sprites and bonus sex scenes ruins the immersion as this is one of most wholesome anime I've ever read/watched. Similar to first 2 key visual novels, where it was originally an adult game but the newer releases were all ages for the better.

I haven't touched the patch and probably never want to. So, I can't speak if it adds anything important to story but I can understand why people want original uncut experience.

Edit: Switch ver goes for more literate English translation compared to Sekai Project version. idk if it's more accurate through as I barely can read JP well.

AMagicalBuffalo
AMagicalBuffalo

Very wholesome story with a great cast of characters. What more could you want from a Visual Novel. Train Waifus Galore!

rinasae2
rinasae2

I just played for just 10 hours, so it isn't full experience yet. I love how cute they all are. The introduction to the world lore and each characters done properly. story for now, seems good. I am learning a bit more about trains, and also how they row boats(?). I love the animated characters during talking scenes, most visual novels are just 2D cutout with no movement. it feel like its an anime-like scene. Although the bath scene is a fan-service, it wasn't necessary for me to keep on reading, their normal life and different views and personalities already kept me entertained and wanting more.

mika
mika

Maitetsu is absolute hidden gem on steam

This visual novel has moving-animated characters and excellent voice acting
The characters are all good, and I think I fall in love with the mc rather than the girls lol
The story is about train industry in small city Ohitoyo, the mc and friends trying to revive the economy and such things like that.
There are many routes in this vn. Instead of choosing dialogues, you can choose the route since the beginning, although you have to clear 3 main routes first before you unlock the rest of routes.

This vn needs more attention, and I'm waiting for Maitetsu Last Run to be translated.
Buy it, worth the price.

wrb41977
wrb41977

Nice VN. Animations are nice, story is interesting. You will also learn more about steam railroads then you ever thought possible outside the industry.

Wholly recommend.

LiquidShadow
LiquidShadow

I don't even know if I could correctly express my feeling about this game just in words.
It's definitely a 10 out of 10.

I am nowhere near finishing the game yet, but it had already made me feel emotional.

The story itself is well-written and quite enjoyable. You can see all the love and detail that was given to every character (my personality resonated with the MC's so I was able to completely immerse myself in the game). The game can teach you a lot about trains, and for me, it even sparked an interest towards trains.

There are some downsides though. First of all, there can be some glitches in the animation of the characters, but they are so short in time, that you'll think you were just imagining things. The other problem for me is in the story. I understand that for the excitement to be kept high and the story to progress you'll need some minor (or major) setbacks to show up, but there were a bit too many for my taste. (It's like "Great, they finally figured this one out." and you wish for some peaceful and wholesome time, but another problem just butts in.)

And I could be telling you that if you like trains and lolis then this game is for you, but the game is still very good even if you don't have a thing for them.

Aoba Xu
Aoba Xu

Lolicons buy loli trains.(Already finished Chinese version)

[YOLO]SABERNERO
[YOLO]SABERNERO

LOLIS 10/10
JUST MOD THE GAME TO GET ACCESS TO 18+ CONTENT

Draaloff
Draaloff

1: Buy the game from Steam or Fakku.
2: Buy the Maitetsu 18+ DLC from Fakku if you bought the 'all ages' version.
3: Download the Bandaid Removal Patch + Restoration Patch and Maitetsu 18+ Demosaic Patch from forums.fuwanovel.net.
4: Enjoy the vast number of animated customisable scenes the game has to offer.
Note: you must be logged into Fakku, or you will get a 'content not found' error on their site.

PKMINECART
PKMINECART

its neet and all but this needs fully voiced english to rilly get the fell becuse presonaly I dont speek japanese or have a understanding of it and there is just to much reading for the english lang. but if you like hours of reading then wold not advize. sorry for the bad spelling im just bad at it. other than the voiced stuff its pritty good vn I just dont understand the why its in the game section of steam. i still will give it a recamed but it just needs a update for fully or parshaly voiced in english. I did not foreget about the ones that can speek japanese or understand japanese .

Kurogami Fandy
Kurogami Fandy

Great story but I need more ... It's not enough to satisfied my heart with loli heart warming story so I waiting for Maitetsu last run english ver for more loli heart warming story

『Percival』
『Percival』

Very long, heartwarming interactive story about trains in a world set after the near extinction of trains in favor of aircraft and AI. All the routes are set in stone and there are no real choices you have to make, so the interactivity with this particular VN is very low. Every character is animated with Live2D and given much more believability. If you want the H scenes, DON'T GET THE STEAM VERSION. it's very finnicky and I can't get the 18+ content to work. Fakku has their own version, and several independent users have made uncensored patches and have even demosaic'd the whole game. This is primarily a loli game though, so if you do not get behind that train, don't get the patch.

Mhmd_FVC
Mhmd_FVC

I don't really care about this whole loli thing but whatever.

Well, it's a VN about trains and the rejuvenation of a small city in present day alternate-universe Kyushu, except you also get romance thrown in. I think the underlying story has a message to it that makes me feel like I've learned something valuable, like most good VNs do. The train stuff is pretty interesting, too. You're given a whole bunch of details on how steam trains work, a bit on some non-steam trains, and things relating to steam trains (like coal mines), from the main character "Raillord", Hachiroku. However, the romance is not what you might expect. It seems more for comic relief than for actual dating sim content, which is fair game. It definitely felt empty, but that made some of the romance-related scenes kind of exciting in a cringy way, if that makes sense. I don't hate it, but it made the ending of the first route I finished (Hibiki) feel very lame.

I'm really digging the music style. Most of it is ambient-y and pretty chill, but still has varying flavor to fit different situations. Also, the Hachiroku theme, Railroad Romanesque (the song on the first video of the store page) is catchy as fuck and the lyrics feel kinda deep if you have played partway through the story.

But man, the English. It is mostly OK and I'm not tryna be one of those people, but sometimes the translations are just straight-up incorrect, like getting names wrong and translating aircra (fictional airplane thing) as "air cooler" in one specific instance, as well as weird inconsistencies with adjoining parts of the reading (which are consistent in Japanese). Not to mention the not-infrequent typo. But I understand this isn't the fault of the original creators who made this VN exist to begin with.

I like it overall, but it's a good idea to know what you're getting. If you're into lolis (I guess?), semi-deep story, trains, some politics, "romantic" comic relief, and chill music, then it might be your thing. If you want some emotional rollercoaster dating sim stuff, probably not. Fantastic deal for the summer sale, though I won't say I'm disappointed with full-price either.

Quick main character impressions:

Sotetsu: sometimes a dumbass, but a good guy
Hachiroku: based, cute, and wears sick clothes
Hibiki: talented sweetheart, clingy little sister
Makura: wisdom and boobs
Nagi: based energetic kiddo
Fukami: timid and annoying
Paulette: very uninteresting
Reina: usually annoying, sometimes based
Kisaki: cunning but also a good person, very interesting character

acdneo
acdneo

hnnng/10 just turn the brain off and have a nice read

That One Guy
That One Guy

Loli's AND trains! Whats there not to love?

Elcrest
Elcrest

Rail Romanesque is the best Opening and I wanted to get into trains when I played though this. Nine Stars all the way and I would be okay to own 8620 and Hachiroku and command the Railroad.

alanxu
alanxu

guys go to dlsite it only costs 100yan with full H scene

Sput Vas Normandy
Sput Vas Normandy

Sorry. A lot of technical conversations. Seems like I'm talking with an engineer.

Winter
Winter

I like this game. I like trains, they are cute and funny.

wide miko
wide miko

its a novel. about trains. you're getting train trivia. the progress with each route is also pretty straightforward and steady with little problems, so its a pretty light read.

get the patch from fakku or somewhere

info
info

10 out of 10 lumps of coal
Maitetsu is a mature and wonderfully written VN. There is decision making and romance paths to explore, with some humor mixed in. The art design and animation are beautifully rendered, and the dialogue is expressive and voice acted well using realistic Japanese. I also found the pace to be relaxed, though not slow; and as others have posted, you will learn a lot about trains! Maitetsu is an original gem of a VN.

bri_hn
bri_hn

I bought this visual novel because I am a train enthusiast (as hinted by my profile picture). So far, it is a great visual novel and I even learned a bit about how steam locomotives work and applied my current knowledge to understand some of the technical dialogue.

Might give a more detailed review once I go through more of it (so far I am bookmarked just after choosing Hachiroku's opinion).

Peko
Peko

Well, i enjoyed this game. And characters design are so good.

Kraxous
Kraxous

What an absolutely charming VN this is! Such a different vibe to your stereotypical read. I remember seeing a YouTube video at least 5 years ago with one of the protagonists, Hachiroku as the background and never thought anything of it until today. Having only played just shy of 3 hours as of this review, I can tell I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this.

The music is incredibly chill, and I love how the animations work - while quite crude, they compliment the art style and general feel of the game in a rather beautiful manner.

I'm not into trains in any sense and quite frankly, have absolutely no interest whatsoever, but this honestly just hits different. I actually feel absorbed in the story and want to progress with it.

The only negative point I would say about this game, is I've had two fatal crashes which made me lose my progress. This could, however, be due to the patch I installed which fixes various grammatical errors and restores various cutscenes.

Strongly recommend people who enjoy VNs to pick this up during the current Steam sale, it won't be like anything else you've played: I can guarantee it.

Gusbell
Gusbell

I only played the common route and I absolutely love the story and the visual! The BGM and all of the others stuff was perfectly execute. Truly loved this novel!

Edit : I've cleared Hachiroku route and installed the FAKKU DLC now, man IT WAS THE BEST
Edit2 : Just did 100% of this game, it was so heartwarming and cute.

Madam Moist
Madam Moist

I love so many things about this VN. The 3 main routes (Hachiroku, Hibiki and Paulette) are fantastic, especially Hibiki's which is pretty much a 10/10 in my book, although the last scene lacked impact and was a bit of an odd time to end.
Although the main routes are fantastic, outside of Kisaki's route (which also felt a bit rushed and unfinished), the side routes felt pretty unnecessary. Sure, we got to know a few more things about the respective route characters, but they were so short (3 chapters only, in comparison the main routes are 16 if I remember correctly), felt rushed and unfinished, that instead, I would've just made a 4th main route with Kisaki and call it a day.
In general, the story is not the greatest part of the game. It has odd time jumps and sometimes it's a bit hard to follow, but it's not a deal breaker.

On the other hand, I loved the characters. They are all likeable with great personalities, no one feels dull. Everyone has their own motivation, goals and think for themselves. But also, the synergy between them is something it's worth pointing out, they help each other and compensate each other's weaknesses. In this game it's on a whole another level which made my experience an absolute joy.

There are some unrealistic things, like high school girls running for mayor, but really, it didn't bother me a whole lot, it's fiction anyway and it didn't take away from the experience. But what did bother me how the story used Makura a few times as an "easy solution tool". It wasn't a huge deal, but I did frown for a few seconds.

The more technical terms about trains can be a bit overwhelming at times, but that's the theme of the game, and I didn't feel like they went overboard. However, to me at least, it wasn't a super easy read. Speaking of which, there are some broken english here and there, but other than that, the translation itself is on point from what I can tell with my limited Japanese.

The presentation is also great. It's animated via Live2D, the animations can feel a bit stiff at times, but the characters feel alive in return and I really liked it. They were a lot more expressive this way. The soundtrack was also one of the best I've heard in VNs so far. Some of the more romantic songs were one of the best ones I've had the pleasure of hearing, but just in general, I'm more than satisfied. The game has a great atmosphere for sure.

Overall, I think this is one of the better VNs out there. All of the positives I mentioned are a good reason to pick this one up and give it a go and the negatives are probably more just my personal nitpicks for the most part.

stompitdead
stompitdead

Trains and lolis. You'll enjoy this VN if you like either of those. And don't forget to get the FAKKU patch, otherwise you'll get sidetracked.

NekoDat™
NekoDat™

The plot is definitely a nice one. A world with Railroads and Aerocrafts, the setting which led to current events were all impressive and consistent. The main 3 routes are also a success and Makura and Kisaki's routes were also decent.

The most successful thing about Maitetsu is how well-developed their characters are. Ignoring my preferences them as a heroine there's no flaw with them. They're all realistic and have enough background.

The mechanics of this VN is definitely impressive. Dynamic graphics, choices of which facial expressions we want to see and being able to see how long will it take to finish an episode are definitely useful features.

VN is informative for people who're interested in railways and trains. As person who took railway engineering as a subject even I learned many new stuff about them. Well the lesson I took was to build a proper railway so it's understandable why they haven't taught us this stuff but learning them made understand some stuff better. Kisaki route is also informative about management and business. Compared to the stuff we've learned about railways and trains it's tiny but it's still a thing.

Drawings are nice and cute. Once you make them dynamic it makes it even more realistic. It may make your heart to scream "MOOOEEEEEE".

misakimeigane
misakimeigane

The characters are cute. I'm learning a lot about trains too.

manmade horror beyond comprehens
manmade horror…

I love this game! Where's my father?

NavalWar
NavalWar

28 hours , all routes except Nagi & Fukami that I only read it halfway

+ The story is good especially Paulette because she is best girl
+ So many trains information
+ TRAINS
+++ PAULETTE BEST GIRL

thanbo
thanbo

I'm truly impressed by the life like 2D animations that I hardly see anywhere else.

NEKO#ΦωΦ
NEKO#ΦωΦ

this game taught me how to navigate the steam store page to find hidden tags

this game has sexual content

thank you steam for hiding that tag

Append
Append

I am just about 5 hours into the story. I am still in the common route and have yet to pick heroine route. That being said, I can already tell there's a serious amount of work and care being put into the making of this VN. Every single line, except ones spoken from a character's mind, is voiced professionally resulting in immersion. The characters have sway even when there is no active movement, making the visual dynamic.

From what I can find on YouTube, this VN's common route should last for about about 6.5 to 7 hours. After that, player can pick heroine route that can most likely ranges from 3 to 5 hours. Considering there are multiple heroine routes, the whole game can last at least 15 hours.

15 hours of story with great visual for $15 ($8.99 when on sale) is a great deal if not a bargain. I highly recommend this for those who want to support the team. This is a work of art. I have never bought a VN before, and I was very skeptical about it thinking I might have to ask a refund before the 2-hour period ends. I don't need that. This VN is worth every single minute of it.

Dudehacker
Dudehacker

Im just here for Tanezaki Atsumi
the pacing is so slow, the train info dump is so boring

fau.x
fau.x

Don't be No Life Person.
Go attend Engineering School and play this.

I guarantee it. You'll find a feeling of true peace. (at least I think that happened to me)

Code: Illyasviel
Code: Illyasviel

Cute girls & Loli's teaching you about life & trains desu!

I bought the R18 patch on FAKKU + Restoration patch + Bandage removed + Demosaic patch= Loli Heaven!
I get to make cute Loli girls go through adulthood desu!
H-scenes are animated beautifully and the female VA's is very pleasing to listen to.

Also I'm a huge fan of this art style, I just love it!

Finn
Finn

The localization is too annoying to comprehend and enjoy. It feels like the text could be simpler, but it became unnecessarily convoluted. Refunded. I will someday get back into it with the switch version.

qsq
qsq

Only cultured individuals will indulge in the beauty of this game.

All the H scenes are fully animated. H-scenes are beautiful and you get to lewd cute Loli girls.

If you are a lolicon this is a must have.

Best VN ever 10/10.

☣ Mayano Top Gun ☣
☣ Mayano Top Gun ☣

I've no idea about the R18+ patch people talk about in their review.

But, this is the first time I actually enjoy reading a VN game.
I have a few VNs in my library, but Maitetsu is the first VN that gives me this feeling like "man, I want to continue reading that VN." when I'm doing something else.

I'm not getting that 'I only play for the H scene' desire, just a geniune curiosity to the story.
(Though I don't mind seeing the H scenes).

I tried reading If My Heart Had Wings before, but because there's this big tiddied senpai, I couldn't help but have this horni feeling... I kinda stopped playing because of that
(Is that a proof that I'm a not a lolicon?) (I do like loli, though not as much as big boba anime girl)

I saw one review about the localization...
Well, the localization isn't really making the story that difficult to follow, I could at least understand the conversation without any problem. So, it's fine.. really

The developer even made character-voiced notes on "words" that we might not know in the game.
Like what a "railway" or "ballast" are..
Though I still don't understand much since I'm bad at understanding, but I got the gist of what is the meaning of the said word.

That's all I could say for now...
Probably will update after I got a bit farther. Or probably not.

d_d_c_95
d_d_c_95

edit 8/10 got both the fakku patch and demosaic patch working after bit of fight love it only complaint to game would be the h scenes arnt intgrated naturaly into the storylines u got to go into extras and select a scene

man damit i got a feelin this vn gunna have the feels damit well see how she goes loved it but any one know why the fakku patch and denpasoft version been deleted also can anyone with the patch tell me wether or not it adds the h scenes

SleepyBlanc
SleepyBlanc

Got this game in the summer sale already hachiroku is best girl.

DeadMoney
DeadMoney

A lengthy visual novel with highly animated sprites, beautiful art, lovable characters and quite a lot of infodumping.
Graphics: 9/10. The first thing that stands out in this game is the highly animated sprites - you don't see that too often in visual novels. They feel natural and add a lot to the cuteness of the girls. They don't look so good on some side characters but it doesn't really matter.
Length: 7/10. Dozens of hours of content and even more with the DLC. Speaking of which, it's a bit hard to find but it's worth it if you're into that. Also get the fan-made patches on Fuwanovel.
Music: 5/10. It's alright but it's nothing special.
Story: 7/10. At first, you'll go through some well-written and even emotional routes (the common route and Hachiroku's) while some of the other routes will be downright ridiculous. It's not necessarily a bad thing but you're gonna have a hard time taking some of those routes seriously.
Aside from that, the infodumping is often tedious and it gets aggravating in some of the secondary routes (not in your route Reina, don't worry).
Overall: 9/10 if only for the outstanding visuals and the 'main' routes.

Cordelia
Cordelia

The game itself might be decent, but getting it to run uncensored is an extremely frustrating experience.

First of all, the patch is only available from Fakku's website, but it doesn't actually show up when searching for it. Apparently, you need to activate some "controversial content" toggle, but I've looked seemingly everywhere without being able to find it.
After roughly an hour of searching, I eventually stumbled upon an external link that put the DLC in the shopping cart automatically, only to find out that they have the audacity to charge $14.99 for it. In other words, you actually have to cough up twice as much money for the game than advertised if you want the complete experience.

Suffice to say, after all this, I certainly won't be giving them any money, now or ever.
Quite frankly, Fakku can go fakku themselves.

GAO 酔っている蛸
GAO 酔っている蛸

I don't need to go too in depth for this review, but to put it simply: this game is cozy. The characters are adorable and the music is relaxing. Get it if you want to just vibe to wholesome loli stuff

SilverCheesecake
SilverCheesecake

So I went looking for a VN to offset the profundity of Clannad, which I had played just prior, and I came across Maitetsu, a game with trains and cute anime girls. And H-scenes. So I figured it’d be something more or less forgettable to re-dilute the palate and be simple fun after the heaviness of the previous VN. 60 hours later and Maitetsu is now one of my favorite VNs with one of my absolute favorite casts of characters in any franchise!

Synopsis! The story takes place in a fictional town called Ohitoyo in the Kyushu region of Japan (southwestern Japan), which is kind of a rural town with traditional townhouses. The time period is a bit arbitrary but it’s implied it’s either in the present or future, what with the presence of aircra (basically auto-pilot aircraft) that have become a primary form of transportation, and the consequent decline of railway usage. The main character, Sotetsu, who is the survivor of a train accident that took the lives of his parents and twin sister years prior, returns to his adoptive home after staying in the capital for some time. He later discovers a peculiar doll among his late foster grandfather’s belongings, which turns out to be the raillord of a steam locomotive (raillord = humanoid train operator that’s paired with engineers, usually taking the form of a loli – imagine Isla from Plastic Memories as a conductor’s aide). The story goes on to Sotetsu and the characters he meets restoring the steam locomotive that the raillord is coupled with, with the intention of bringing back the railways as well as raising Ohitoyo’s touristic appeal. Meanwhile, the construction of an aircra factory is being planned in Ohitoyo, which some people support for economic reasons, and some people stand against for reasons such as potentially adverse environmental effects (e.g. spoiling the nearby Kuma River). Even though trains are a humongous part of the theme, this isn’t necessarily a VN about trains. It’s more so about Ohitoyo itself, and how its constituents unite to exchange ideas and do their part to enhance the wellbeing of their town. There’s a very evident “we’re all in this together” aura, even when characters have starkly opposing views on matters. Reviving the railways becomes the spot-lit means to that end, though of course it bears many benefits at face value too.

Characters! Best part of the game, IMO. All of the main female cast has romantic routes that you can partake in after the common route (which lays out the story nicely). There are 3 main routes that are as long as the common route, and then a handful of short side routes, plus one final “grand route” that is unlocked after completing everything else. There are also numerous other side characters, but for the sake of the review, my attestation of the characters will mostly refer to the main ones. The first thing I love about them is that they’re not bogged down with common anime tropes. Don’t get me wrong – I love my x-dere girls as much as the next guy. But the Maitetsu ladies are noteworthily likable. While Paulette is my favorite (marry me pls), all of them have unique and lovable qualities. Though not without their flaws, they all are just very reasonable, helpful, positive and kind. They’re not pigeon-holed into archetypes that they have to fulfill. Kisaki’s a great example of this – very business-minded and may seem rigid, but actually really down-to-earth and receptive to others’ ideas. I love that the characters don’t engage in any unnecessary, annoying drama, nor do they begrudge each other. Even during the romantic routes, jealousy and lashing out is kept to a minimum. Sotetsu (who is depicted in first-person) is also really likable – super amiable, straightforward and calm. I really have no criticisms about the characters. I might nitpick and say that some of them err on the side of “abnormally mature”, with ones like Fu-kami and Hibiki being very precocious. But y’know, “precocious” is just “precious” with a few extra letters ;)

Gameplay! Very basic VN structure – there aren’t any choices, aside from being able to select the route you wanna pursue after the common route (it’s literally a question that pretty much asks “who do you wanna get with?”) Everything else is a straight shot – no decision-making, no influenceable outcomes, no selectable responses. You can just enjoy the story without thinking you might screw it up. The VN has a bookmark feature, which works pretty identically to save states. There’s also a status bar that shows your progress through the chapter, which is really nice because I like knowing if I’m close to or far from finishing a chapter (helps me to gauge my time). This is something that can be toggled, too, so you don’t have to have it showing. There’s also a helpful terms glossary and the ability to navigate to any frame that was already viewed. Maitetsu is really user-friendly when it comes to its setup.

Visuals & sound! This is another huge win for Maitetsu. Both the sprites and CGs are animated, and they are done VERY fluidly. The animation just feels very natural and not anything like something you would see on a Flash animation from Newgrounds. This VN really spoils its viewers with its visuals… gonna be hard to go back to still sprites in the future haha. The artwork for both the characters and the backgrounds is very elegant and beautiful. The character models are mega cute – immediately fell in love with them. Voice acting for all characters was swell – everything sounds natural and there’s not one voice that I found grating. The music perfectly supplements the peaceful nature of the story, and all songs can be relistened to in the BGM gallery. I personally loved “Glassy Sky”, such a lovely piano piece. There are also character songs with vocals that play at the end of each route, which is pretty neat.

For criticisms, my only complaint would be that there was a noticeable number of typos. This was especially evident with main 3 routes (all the other routes seemed pretty clean of errors). This doesn’t really detract from the overall experience, though – it happens infrequently, just more than other VNs I’ve played. Moving from criticisms to warnings… as mentioned by quite a few other reviewers, there are times when A LOT of information is given. You’ll learn not only about trains, but about things like business, brewing, management, politics, and money. Some of the conversations are pretty high-level – I found myself doing a lot of rereading because of that. For example, some of the resolutions proposed and implemented by the characters are reeeally detailed, and it was hard to follow at times (eventually got the gist of them after rereading, though). The terms glossary and Nagi’s inquisitiveness do help alleviate this, though. I think some of the explanations could have done with more diagrams, too. A lot of what was being explained about train setups and mechanisms and whatnot was really interesting, but the lack of visuals made it a bit tough to understand (though the game does take measures to make things understandable).

For the sake of the character count, I’ll forego talking about the H-scenes (which I’ve only seen one of at the time of writing this). In short, they’re well-done, but not mandatory.

HIGHLY recommend Maitetsu, even though I wanna jealously guard it as a personal favorite! It was such a warm, wholesome experience that ended up being more unique than I imagined. Playing it made me feel like I had a personal invitation to be a part of Ohitoyo, and as weird as it may sound, I felt so connected to the characters. World-building was amazing, characters were top-notch, and story was wonderful – all adorned with gorgeous visuals and lovely sound. Love this VN so much. Though it’s long, it’s so, so worth delving into. Please give it a shot!

TL;DR – came for the H-scenes, stayed for the wholesome story, marvelous visuals and amazing cast of characters… and then (mostly) forgot about the H-scenes.

Blackbible.StandWithThailand
Blackbible.Sta…

If you can get through visual novel with romantic heart warming drama and loli. This game is for ya.

Hollow
Hollow

Better uncensored and patched with Fakku patch!

Dial-up King
Dial-up King

Note to Linux users: It is fully functional using Proton, although it is a bit buggy and occasionally crashed.

Review note: Played with the R18 patch. Don't bother getting it. The story doesn't change. It just adds a few CG scenes.

By far the most technologically advanced, and feature rich, visual novel I've seen. Between the emote engine bringing the characters to life, to the ability to click certain words to get description of the terminology, to the ability to scrub through the scenes or jump to specific points. There was an incredible amount of detail in the animations, and visuals. There were so many little details that were animated like the small ribbons in some of the characters clothes and hair. The soundtrack was really good and the story was a roller coaster. It took me about 40 hours to read all the routes. That is HUGE for a VN.

My only complaints are just nit picks. There were very rare misspellings, the animations occasionally freaked out (that might just be because of Proton on Linux), and the soundtrack really didn't loop into itself well (maybe because Linux). If a character is idle on the screen for too long (other characters are having long sections of dialogue), the animations freeze completely, even the eyes stop blinking and the gentle sway of the character stops. Finally, the endings to all the routes just kind of dropped off. The goal is achieved and the main character gets the girl, roll credits. No follow up. No "a few months later...". You just get dumped on the main menu.

Dervahkiin
Dervahkiin

We took a drink for every highlighted word. Alcohol poisoning speed-run.

KuroOneHalf
KuroOneHalf

As much as I respect the work that was put into this and want to like it, I just can't get past the fact that the story is intensely boring. You strip away the train lore dumps and all you're left with is a bunch of really cliche anime tropes. The protagonist, despite being an adult with a seemingly interesting backstory, plays as just your usual painfully oblivious anime protagonist, and the heroines are always playing the painfully coy and generic part. It's just going through these motions you've seen in a million bad anime with little nuance, and it moves at a snail's pace.

Like, here's some examples of your typical scene in Maitetsu. MC did some shoveling and is going to the public baths to rinse off the soot, and a childhood friend flusters over how they're both naked in the bath and how the doll girl (oh yeah, there's train doll girls here) is getting too close to him, and he's like hm, I wonder what she's so upset about. In another scene, the crew gets together to go over this old guy's documents to find the whereabouts of a train. A girl asks the MC to hold up a ladder so she can fetch a book from above, and flashes everyone her panties in the process, then gets all flustered and falls into his lap.

When it's not being super moe-anime-generic, it's doing some really dry train info dumping. I've read VNs about subjects I don't give a crap about and have been plenty entertained, like astronomy in A Sky Full Of Stars, or literally any shonen sports show, but the train stuff here is so dull. They fail to make it meaningfully interesting.

It's such a shame because the art and engine stuff is really good. Everything looks great and the game has a cool timeline system and some other nifty features. But actually reading through the story bored me to tears. I can't recommend this.

NeidhardtDB118
NeidhardtDB118

It's very enjoyable, the ost and the art are easily the biggest highlight's. Sadly it is held down by terrible "mini" route's of 1h00 that feel's more like an afterthought (nagi/fukumi has the best one, because the concept is so wrong it's funny)
The enhanced fix all of this by giving each route's a proper 6/8h00 rundown and give's each of them an after story. It is not yet localized, but who know's? It only came out in 2020 after all

Kud
Kud

Maitetsu is a visual I did not expect to really love and enjoy the story the game offers. I do wish to someday play the extra content version which is “Maitetsu Last Run” but at the moment it is still not translated. It is rare to have the protagonist to have a voice in the vn but it is great that it is in this story to know the person better on how he speaks which is good to know what kind of person the main character (Migita Sotetsu) is. The main plot of the story is to prevent a factory from being built by using a famous train to be revived as a way to gain tourists in Sotetsu’s hometown where he grows up after the death of his family and later be adopted from the Migita family who runs a brewing company. As we play through the story we the player get to learn about trains and function when a word in the text is highlighted and can be clicked to learn about it in the game's own way of definition like pressure or brakes of a train and many more.

The story is great to me, finding ways to make trains popular again rather than just artificial intelligence planes as a transportation and good romance to each girl Sotetsu gets to be with even if one of them can be questionable to some people but great overall. Learning about trains and the railways is a good addition and makes sense since the visual novel is about trains, mostly the steam locomotive 8620. The main character Sotetsu is not a fascinating character but still good to me as a normal while also a really calm and smart person and also being more mature than most visual novel main characters who are mostly high schoolers or one of those who gets nervous and misunderstands any girl's intentions to be love or as a friend (of course it be love most of the time for being part of a normal vn story but sometimes the main character sometimes goes over the top).

All the main heroines are different and show what kind of person they are. All likable and understood well enough on what they want and what they would think is a good idea to make their beloved hometown be improved with our main character as kind of the leader on finding ways to have solutions for the town rather than just accepting the idea of building a factory. We have a total of 8 heroines to choose from (mostly 7 since one of them are shared routes together) and also have another route called the grand route. Each route is not long but the length of each is good since making it longer may hurt it a bit.

The art style is also great and has a big bonus for even adding some animation when they are talking and blinking. It is a beautiful scene to view the character and the background in which the artist did a great job. I am really surprised at the full price this visual novel offers for only $15 not including the 18+ patch which seems to no longer be available but was able to get it. The patch is an additional $15 but it really is not needed to play this vn since it's still very good without it.

The music is soothing and makes the visual novel story a relaxing game that even made me play the songs when going out from walking my dog or listening to it in the car while driving. Hachiroku’s theme is one of my favorites with the piano solo Rail Romanesque with how beautiful the song is. The Rail Romanesque instrument version or the vocal version which is the main opening of the game is also really good and joyful. The other themes for other characters are also great. The background music is also fantastic to listen to and I sometimes slow down my reading to progress the story.

Overall, the visual novel is fantastic and would definitely play the revamped version “Last Run” to see the extra story the game offers. I love each route ending including the grand route which is also really satisfying. Hachiroku being my very top most favorite heroine in this game and Paullete coming close but goes second. The game has a great story, great characters, beautiful art style, and fantastic music that is really soothing to my ears to listen to even though I am no music expert or anything.

shizukutachio
shizukutachio

UWOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH CUNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

shes real to me
shes real to me

TRAINS UWOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

🍞Pan🌻
🍞Pan🌻
Art 🎨🎨🎨🎨 Gameplay
Difficulty Replay
Music 🎹🎹 Voice 🔊🔊🔊
Story 📘📘📘 Translation 📜📜📜📜📜
Comedy 🎭 Drama 🎃🎃
Kawaii 🐹🐹🐹 Ecchi 🌷🌷🌷🌷
Impact 💣 Score 🌻🌻

The most boring visual novel I ever read on Steam, and I tried my best to stay awake during ALL the routes.
If you like technical terms and stuff about trains, politics, business and things like that, you probably gonna love this novel.
If you want to see romance, avoid this at all costs. If you want to feel an adventure or fantasy, avoid like the plague. Let me summarise some good and bad things about the vn:

✔ Quality of production is pretty high - it has nice art with excellent animation
✔ Story is very realistic based in many real life aspects, this can be either a big plus for you or a major turn-off, I will explain more in the Cons below
✔ The game has a great number of CGs and adult scenes
✔ Translation is one of the best in all novels i seen, spectacular translation

✖ The elephant in the room - this novel is terribly boring and sleep inducing, there are a lot of aspects that contribute to this, for example - the protagonist keeps thinking too much about even minor details, which breaks immersion and sense of progress to the story; moreover the novel exaggerates in technical terms, politics and business stuff, chances are you already tired of seeing this stuff in real life, otherwise you may love this novel if you like these themes!
✖ Romance parts/scenes are subpar and rare between so much realistic (slice of life) stuff, they often feels disconnected to the story, as it's just there as fan-service rather than making part of the story as a whole
✖ Adult scenes are only through the menu and they are not part of the story, something I particularly don't like, this is even worse by the fact the main story is particularly weak in romance as well, so jumping from 'basically nothing' to 'woohoo' feels incredibly artificial
✖ Routes are an illusion... rather, they give you the illusion of a romance with a character, when most of the time it amounts to ... wait for it... nothing or barely anything in the sea of technical terms, politics, business and slice of life themes. Don't get me wrong, each character still has its charms and you can grow to like them, but it's not like they put a lot of substance on the romantic aspect for this visual novel
✖ Hibiki saying 'ni-ni... ni-san' gets old pretty fast, but you will see this at least a million of times
✖ Zero comedy/funny
✖ Unstable engine, sometimes crashes out of the blue

Now if you want to complete 100% achievements, two of them are a joke to find - (a minor spoiler): 'Nagi likes you' requires you to listen to tender green, a specific bgm in the menu, don't ask me why, it just doesn't make any sense. The last achievement requires you to read all the 'tips' in menu.

Nichinil
Nichinil

Ha- ah, AAAAH YES!
YES!!!!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!
Finally my latent desires catalyzed by hours of watching Thomas the Tank Engine, playing with toy trains, and watching the polar express on repeat have been realized!
UOOOOOOOOH YES!!!