Monobeno Happy End part 2: Alice, Natsuha, and a few thoughts

Entry posted by Clephas August 16, 2015

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https://forums.fuwanovel.moe/blogs/entry/704-monobeno-happy-end-part-2-alice-natsuha-and-a-few-thoughts/

I'm not going to go into detail like I did with Sumi's path, if only because my love for youkai isn't fulfilled to the same degree in Alice's or Natsuha's paths as it was in that one. Also, another reason is that the progression for both is far less dramatic than it is with Sumi's path.

In Alice's case, the actual events leading up to the end of the main story are really dark and sad, and the path itself tends to be quite a bit more gloomy than the other two. In exchange, there is a lot more focus on the romantic aspects and the 'living together' parts. This is, in many ways, inevitable due to the fact that the bond between Sumi and Tohru was so strong from the beginning that the romance was pretty much predetermined in vector once they got over a few small issues. This is opposed to Alice's path, where both sides have a lot off growing to do... which is done mostly in the after story, rather than the main path. Similar to Sumi's path, this one had a few extra characters added in (whom I will not name in order to avoid spoilers), and as a result, the after story felt a lot like its own VN.

In Natsuha's case... you can probably predict the main path from the original game based entirely off what you experienced in the others (the different regrets the protag has in both cases), as in many ways it is like a bringing together of the ideal elements from the other two in order to create a more complete whole. It does have the predictable incest issue, but once you are past that, you are into the after story. Natsuha's after story has the least number of ups and downs of the three, at least in part because there is none of the tension about 'what needs to be done' leftover from the main path, save for the obvious. I did find Natsuha's dreams for the future interesting, and I would have liked to see them achieved as part of the after story... but that is because the after story pretty much felt like a VN in and of itself, lol.

Overall, my thoughts on this VN are positive, save for the fact that there are a huge number of H-scenes (something like seventy) - though most are optional ones that can only be seen through scene jumps - and the fact that the makers were so obviously indulging their disease. I also was a bit exasperated that all three heroines are such... perverts once the protag gets them behind closed doors (just how weird do these guys want their lolis to be?). The VN itself is huge... about the same or maybe a bit longer than Grisaia no Kajitsu. Also, I wish the protagonist had Emi with Sumi regardless of the path (lol)... a little girl that adorable deserves to be born.

WARNING: This VN is unapologetically a lolige, as I said above. I am not a loli fan, so I found that to be one of the biggest barriers to enjoying this VN. I would have been a lot happier with no h-scenes being present in this particular VN.