Gin'iro, Haruka Part 1: Common and Bethly
Entry posted by Clephas
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First, I'm going to say right out that this VN feels very familiar to me, as someone who dropped Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai. I dropped that game for a number of reasons... but the biggest one was that I was extremely tired of slice-of-life and romance at the time. Since Hoshi Ori (and indeed all games by Tone Works) is a pure slice-of-life/romance VN (not charage) it just was a bad time for me to hit on it. As I studied my feelings about my experiences with the path I'd played, I went ahead and rated it based on that, and I'm going to tell yall some of my impressions of Tone Works' games.
Tone Works, unlike most slice-of-life companies, doesn't utilize any sort of heavy-handed moe. As a result, it definitely isn't a moege company, as most slice-of-life companies are. This is only the first - and least important- distinction. The most important distinction is the detail in which this company portrays the blooming, growth, and maturity of the relationship between the lovers. The creation of the relationship, its growth into deep love, and its mellowing and deepening into maturity in adulthood are all portrayed in this company's VNs in incredible detail... That is why their heroine paths are generally ten hour affairs (seriously) and actually much longer than the common route.
This VN is no exception that way. The common route covers the first half of the central cast's middle school experience together... and that in itself covers about six hours of reading. However, from there it extends through the end of middle school, throughout high school, college, and into the characters' mid-twenties, touching upon various experiences in each era, as the characters grow and mature.
To be honest, this kind of VN will probably overwhelm most people who read it with the sheer overload of information you get. By the time I'd finished Bethly's path, I'd been playing for eleven hours, just covering the growth of their relationship and path to marriage. As such, I can't really make a good comparison to give you reference points for how to understand the experience of a VN like this. In my experience, neither novels nor VNs actually cover this kind of gentle, almost real-feeling relationship growth. That is probably the reason why I had trouble with Hoshi Ori. For better or worse, the story goes so deep into the characters that it really feels like a betrayal when you pick another heroine, to the point where I actually feel like I'm cheating on Bethly for starting a new path. I didn't even realize I was becoming this emotionally invested in her, lol. It isn't quite the same as the epiphany I had when I first watched a love-comedy anime (Ai Yori Aoshi), but it is the first major epiphany I've had in some time, when it comes to fiction.
While I always complain about the incomplete nature of Vn endings, I am definitely getting the feeling that I should have been careful what I wished for, lol.
PS: Incidentally, I rofled hard at the scene from the pic below.
http://s21.photobucket.com/user/Rihochan/media/Bethly zombie.png.html
- Narcosis, Freestyle80 and Chronopolis
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