Hapymaher - 7.8/10 - Entertaining mystery / nakige
Entry posted by LostPomegranate in Reviews
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Hapymaher is an interesting read. It's a multi-route mystery with some really entertaining comedy bits throughout. Many people have called it a nakige, and I can definitely see where it could make a lot of people emotional, but it didn't really make me emotional almost at all. I think personally I may have just been distracted by trying to figure out what was going on at any given point in time to get emotional, so YMMV. Some parts are stronger than others, but overall it tells an entertaining story that manages to draw the reader in at various points, even if the major parts are foreshadowed well in advance. Overall I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys a multi-route mystery or just a well told story.
Systems in this VN are pretty standard. I do like to call out that they do let you do custom mapping of buttons, which is incredibly useful for me as I prefer using space bar over enter to advance text. BGM is pretty unique in that it doesn't just blend in and felt like it was actually adding something to the story rather than simply being there, as well as being memorable. I do feel that the BGM is probably in my top 5 or so and I feel like I will actually remember it for quite a while, which can't be said for most VN BGM's for me.
The story is pretty obviously influenced by Alice in Wonderland, right down to the character designs. Characters are pretty straightforward but cute and memorable. Character designs are pretty good, my favorite among the Purple Software games at least. There's Yayoi, the upperclassman who acts as a sort-of advisor to the MC, Saki, the childhood friend / sister who enjoys tormenting the MC, Keiko, the underclassman who is stubborn and standoffish. Alice, the naive, energetic, sort of mysterious girl, and Maia the sadistic younger sister. There's also some support cast that are entertaining in their own ways. I personally found all the characters entertaining to different levels. I found Saki to be particularly adorable throughout the story. Yayoi was also fun - and is voiced by my favorite VA Kazane. Keiko I found to be a bit of a one note character personally.
I won't go into details regarding the routes as they would be full of spoilers, but they were interesting and shared quite a bit of story between them with entirely different last chapters (8 chapters in the VN in total with a few intermissions). I found all the routes to be entertaining in their own ways, there were some emotional high - and low - points in the stories that are designed fairly well to get you involved in each heroine's individual history and story moving forward. I particularly enjoyed Yayoi's route personally, as it was the most relatable to myself, but I feel most people would probably enjoy Saki's route (among the three main heroines) the most. I liked Keiko's route less than the others, but that's probably partially because I was less of a fan of her character as she felt somewhat one note at times. In total there were 8 endings if you include the bad end, normal end, each heroine's route, and 1 true end at the very end of everything. Because of the shared scenes, each route you play through takes less time than the route before it (in most cases).
Due to the nature of the mystery and shared scenes, if you're a completionist like I am, I think it's best to follow a recommended route order of Bad End > Yayoi > Keiko > Saki > Maia > Normal End > Alice > True End - although both the bad end and normal end are completely skippable and Yayoi/Saki/Keiko can technically be done in any order. I do think the normal end adds to the story, while the bad end won't be missed except by completionists like myself. My argument for the order of Yayoi > Keiko > Saki is so that you slowly find out more information without seeing it in a weird order and possibly getting confused, as I feel Saki's route has the most useful information in it (at least in my opinion). The order I followed was actually Yayoi / Saki / Keiko and I feel that Keiko's route then dragged a bit as I felt I already had most of the information necessary to keep moving forward.
Ultimately I'd recommend Hapymaher to most readers, especially those who enjoy a well told story, multi-route mysteries, or a subdued nakige, especially if you're a fan of a mix of them. The BGM and systems were particularly strong suits in my opinion. Characters and routes themselves were solid without any obvious weaknesses or anything to complain about.
Edited by LostPomegranate
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