Cautious recommendation - for big fans and people getting it on sale. The visual novel's full title is Ninja Girl and the Mysterious Army of Urban Legend Monsters! Hunt of the Headless Horseman. Quite the mouthful.
This is an endearing visual novel with good art, but it feels a bit "thin." It's worth the 3-4 hours it'll take you, but I would've liked to see it expanded on. There are some spoilers in this review (though it's more like a rant).
The concept of a 'league of extraordinary gentleman' type association is interesting, but the 'league' consists of one ninja (Kiri) and one ghost (Mary). A lot is implied about their shared history, but not really told, which can make their relationship feel a bit flat (as ironic as that sounds when Mary is involved).
The characters' struggle against the Headless Horseman is presented as this major event in their lives, but for us, the buildup isn't really there. Kiri goes through an entire arc of not fearing death to finally valuing her own life, and it's nice, but it's not like we really got to see her being particularly indifferent to her own life before then.
The climax of the story involves a large battle, but because the world and characters are so new to us, it's hard to get a handle on the "rules." Suddenly, the Headless Horseman has a rune that can banish Mary. Suddenly, the Headless Horseman can turn into smoke. It's hard to get invested when things just seem to happen.
Lily is an interesting and unpredictable character and one of the strongest facets of this VN. But I was ultimately left a little confused by her motivation. The final reveal implies that she works for a rival ninja clan, and the ultimate plan was to get rid of Kiri and the Headless Horseman by having them kill each other. But she also fiercely attacks Kiri on her own before the Headless Horseman reappears and hardly seems aware of her supposed temporarily alliance with him. Ultimately, it makes me wonder if this is sloppy writing, or if we're really still not aware of what her true motivations are.
The post-credits scene definitely makes you want more of the story. Sadly, I'm pretty bad at recognizing voices, so it was hard for me to discern if any of the two unseen "???" characters were someone seen earlier in the story.
There is some odd text formatting, where a '?' appears in between words. Might be a broken effect, where the text is meant to be bold, italic or play a sound effect. I'm not sure.
In the end, this visual novel provides an interesting setting with some good characters, but it hints at a lot more that it can't really make good on. But for the 4 hours it'll take you, why not?
