The Elf tribute continues!

Words Worth is a true classic, even if it draws from Elf’s older works and is in turn squeezed dry of ideas for Elf’s later works… There’s just something about the setting and the characters that’s so damned endearing about the entire thing.  It helps that the director of the anime KNOWS what makes a good sex scene.  It also helps that this is, no joke, one of the greatest adaptations of a video game ever.  Sure, it’s compressed, it cuts out about a third of the characters, and it leaves a lot of mysteries open, but on the other hand it hits upon most of the main story points, you don’t have to navigate horribad dungeon mazes, and some of the changes make for some excellent H-scenes that you wouldn’t see in the games.  Way better than the Yu-No adaptation.

I DO wish I still had the game on Kiria as a supplement, but alas, it’s not to be.  I do hope to reacquire it someday if I could just find a place that has it.  The light novels also look rather interesting, and I’d love to give those a look when I have the time.

BTW, before I continue on, I have to mention that I DID play and complete the Yu-No game.  It was an interesting experience that I hope to do a full post on someday.  But more on that later.  Let’s delve into Words Worth.

The worlds of Light and Dark were divided by the Words Worth tablet, until one day, the tablet was destroyed.  What followed were endless wars between the two tribes over the tablet.  If one were to read the tablet, the war would certainly end.

Our hero this time is Astral, the prince of the Shadow Tribe.

The Shadow Tribe is currently in a war against the Tribe of Light.  Basically, the Tribe of Light consists of regular humans from a fantasy surface world while the Shadow Tribe consists of subterranean human-likes and monsters.  Basically every OTHER race in your RPG that isn’t human.  Plus, y’know, the humans.

It seems Astral wants to prove himself a skilled swordsman to impress his fiance, Sharon.

Especially since that asshole Kaiser is making eyes at her.  His father refuses to grant him the Swordsmans’ Seal that would grant him the right to fight against the Tribe of Light, so he sneaks off and tries to earn it with the help of Nina, Astral’s catgirl totally platonic friend.

I rather enjoy the whole Shadow Tribe cast.  The fun assortment of monsters and demihumans really brings the setting to life in a way that’s depressingly absent in today’s hentai.

FYI, the famous “your resistance only makes me harder” line comes from the Words Worth Gaiden OVA, not this one.

Meanwhile, the Tribe of Light steps up their attack against he Shadow Tribe, getting the upper hand early on, but they’re led to a trap and their vanguard gets killed or captured.  Oddly enough, King Fabris doesn’t seem to care too much that his daughter Maria got captured since he’s rather distracted by plans to rape Sharon.

Anyway, Astral manages to win the Swordsmans’ Seal and heads to the front lines… only to get terribly lost and end up in the dungeon where he’s just in time to see Stallion get blown away by Maria’s Mystral Window spell.

Astral literally stumbles into Maria and frees her… only to playfully rape her.  Which, in hindsight, is still rape.  Maria wakes up some time later and is interrupted from killing Astral for… y’know, rape… when she realizes she needs to escape and free her friend Silvana.  At the same time, Astral is making his way to the battlefield and randomly finds Nina being attacked by a giant spider.  So he kills it.  Then, while she’s suffering from a debilitating poison, has sex with Nina.  Because why not?

Well, for starters, he’s a little late to the battlefield, where he potentially could have prevented King Fabris from killing his best friend Hyde.  Whoops.  Fabris proceeds to attempt to rape Sharon like he wanted, but he’s momentarily stopped by Maria, who’s kinda not into that kind of thing.  This gives an enraged Astral the opening he needs to chop off Fabris’s arm, which in turn enrages Maria, who casts her Mystral Window spell on Astral, presumably killing him.

Buuuuuuut it didn’t quite kill him.

For reasons never quite explained, Astral ends up in the World of Light with amnesia…. 20 years in the future.  He bears a resemblance to the great hero Pollux… so people pretty much just call him Pollux.  Good as any other name, right?

So in his wanderings, “Pollux” ends up doing what pretty much any amnesiac hero should end up doing: stumbling upon a fair beauty bathing in a pond, seeing her get attacked by a wild bear, and stepping in to save her from said bear.

As we’re all well aware, this won’t be the last time Elf resorts to bear violence for dramatic effect.

It doesn’t take long for Pollux to make his way to the castle town and meet up with a now-aged Fabris, who tests his skill in battle and, pleased with what he sees, enlists him in his army as the successor to Pollux, the long-lost hero of the Tribe of Light.  We learn that the girl Pollux saved is Myu, the daughter of Maria, who is suspiciously lacking a husband it seems.  So, do Astral/Pollux and Myu end up engaging in sweet, ignorant incest?

I’m going to say yes.

Pollux gets sent on a mission to open the path between the two worlds so they can begin the war anew.  Meanwhile, we learn that the advisers of the kings of Light and Shadow are in fact a third party: that of the Dark.  Their goal is to prevent the Words Worth tablet from being restored, which King Wartoshika of the Shadow Tribe is close to accomplishing.  Delta, a succubus-like demon, overhears this but gets captured and brainwashed, then sent to kill Pollux.  Which she kinda gets around to after having sex with him for… I dunno, distraction?

Pollux gets saved by Rita, a swordswoman of Light, and they manage to reopen the path between the worlds, and the Tribe of Light invades the land of Shadow once more.

Pollux and Rita’s infiltration kinda fails spectacularly, and Rita somehow manages to fall into a river that leads to a secret cove where the Words Worth tablet is kept.  She is easily defeated by King Wartoshika, who proceeds to rape her so she can give birth to a child that wields both Shadow and Light.

Pollux ends up fighting Kaiser and Sharon, who don’t recognize it’s Astral even though he’s literally just Astral with a beard.  He even wears almost exactly the same clothes Astral did, and he wields the same sword.  I mean, even Superman wore a freaking costume in addition to taking the glasses off.  What the hell is their excuse?

Pollux and Sharon fall off a cliff during their fight, and when Pollux comes to, he finds himself drawn to his old room.  This triggers his memories, and he finally remembers he’s Astral.  Just in time for some reunion sex with Sharon!

Sharon’s been waiting for Astral for 20 years, denying that he died that day.  This would be a really sweet, romantic scene if not for, y’know… Astral not being nearly so devoted a fiancee.

Meanwhile, the creatures from the Dark attack King Wartoshika and work to sabotage the Words Worth tablet.  But not before raping Rita in an effort to… unimpregnate her, I guess?  You can’t prove it’s not a thing in this setting.

After making sweet, sweet love, Delta barges in and attacks.  Myu shows up and uses her Mystral Window spell to knock Delta away, apparently curing her of her dark influence.  Oh, and she meets Sharon.

Delta realizes what she’s done and informs everyone about the creatures of the Dark, then leads them to their lair.  Surprisingly, waiting for them there is an imprisoned Nina and her daughter Ariadonne.

What follows is quite possibly the best scene in the entire OVA.

But it turns out the prison was trapped, and everyone gets swept away in a torrential flood… that once again leads to the secret cove where the climax of the anime threatens to start.

The armies of the Light and Shadow converge at the cove, where they engage in the powerful creature of Dark.  The only thing that seems to deal any damage to it is Myu’s Mystral Window attack.  Astral asks Myu to combine her power with his, and so she bestows Astral her Mystral Window power to augment his sword skills.  Pause.  I demand an explanation for how Mystral Window is supposed to work.  It seems to be near lethal against the Dark, proving to be the only effective weapon against it.  It blasts away people of Shadow in a Team Rocket kinda way.  When used against Astral, it somehow TRANSPORTED HIM TO THE WORLD OF LIGHT IN THE FUTURE AND GAVE HIM AMNESIA.  And now, being cast on Astral once more, it merely gives him a power and speed boost.  What the fuck is this spell?

Anyway, the creature is defeated and we learn from King Wartoshika that Astral is in fact the son of the legendary warrior Pollux, who was defeated in battle by Wartoshika himself.  This makes Astral a member of the Tribe of Light.  However, he was given a ring that slowed his aging so he could live as a member of the Tribe of Shadow.  Had he and Sharon gotten together as planned, their child would have been someone wielding both Light and Shadow, as such a being is the only one who can reveal the secrets of the Words Worth tablet.  Well, guess who actually does wield Light and Shadow?  Not Myu, since it turns out Astral and Maria are both Light.  That’s right: Ariadonne, since her mother Nina is Shadow.  Which technically makes Myu and Ariadonne related.

Ariadonne puts the tablet back together and reads the prophecy that the two clans will become one by sharing the land and presumably breeding with one another, and the tablet destroys the barrier between the two worlds.  The end.

It should come as no surprise that Words Worth is one of my favorite hentais of all time.  It’s on my short list of hentai I would absolutely buy on Bluray if such a release ever happened.

Words Worth borrows a gimmick from Yu-No, what with there being a shift in setting between two worlds.  Though at least in the case of Words Worth, the existence of the two worlds is known from the start, while in the case of Yu-No, the other world comes across as complete bullshit in the OVA, and properly foreshadowed but still kinda stupid in the game.

The OVA is a worthy adaptation of the game – it makes a great many changes and removes several important characters, but the primary plot points remain and are presented well enough.  It also gives just enough of a taste of the games to make one curious enough to check out the source material.  Finally, for those who have already played the games, it introduces enough new elements and makes enough changes to not come across as a rehash.  Basically, it does everything an adaptation ought to do and does it right.