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Akatsuki no Goei, though it is mostly humorous and/or fails.

So, almost a month ago, I read the latest Youjitsu volume, and a bad habit of Kinugasa shows up in it, so I decided it was time to read Akatsuki no Goei and Reminiscence to see if the endings were really that bad. Well, let's start with the conclusion: I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but didn't like the endings themselves. I'll come back to it later. First, AkaGoei 1. It was honestly pretty disappointing. Yeah Kaito is amazing, yeah the comedy is great, but that's it. Worse, the structure of the routes is terrible. Really short common route, then heroine route starts, but there is some common route chunks inserted in between creating some incoherences in the way the characters act. Also, the start of each heroine route is basically another common route considering that whatever stuff happens without leading to anything. Anyway, the only thing AkaGoei 1 has for it is the comedy. The rest is just some patchwork making it looks like a VN. Next, AkaGoei 2. Well, it's a FD, so nothing much to say about the after stories (or the fact that Reika totally got the short end of the stick). Kaito's past was interesting and make you understand why he's so strong, so it was pretty good. AkaGoei 3. The first half is amazing. The rest not as much. Kaito gets to shine more this time, but then come another problem I have with the trilogy: we never get to see Kaito being serious. Or rather, he does get serious, but never can show his 100% (either he's tired, or injured, etc) Kaito is so strong that Kinugasa had to do that to have some sort of tension, which is a shame. Then back to my other problem: not having either an open ending or harem ending. Like I said above, I didn't mind the way the routes ended, but my problem is that considering canon stuff happening in the series, there are 2 girls who literally can't live without Kaito, and arguably 3 others who most likely will never find another man beside him. So even if not a harem ending, an open one with everyone would be better. (though, considering Anzu is only in the Forbidden Area part of the story, it'd be difficult. At least she's with Kaito in all the Forbidden Area endings). Anyway, even that aside, Kaito's awesomeness and the comedy were totally worth the time I invested in the trilogy. Special mention to Son, and his antics with Kaito. More stories should make you love the male characters like that, rather that just using the heroines. Now we go 150 years in the future with Reminiscence. It's even more of a disappointment than AkaGoei. I think the main reason is because I played them almost successively. Hidetaka is a good MC, but when compared to Kaito (who I was with for 3 VNs just before), he just pales in comparison... Also, I wasn't particularly fan of all the negotiation stuff (the cases were so obvious). Another thing I didn't like was the fact it's the future of AkaGoei. Yeah, it's just an alternate future, but still. Even more so considering the crumbs we learn (and that CG in Kyouichi's POV). Still, it wasn't boring and I did went through all the routes. Special mention to Aki's, I guess. In a way, the whole story is all about her and Hidetaka, so once you've done her path, the way you see the other routes is different. Unfortunately, I just can't care about Re:Collect, so I'll stop here. TL;DR: AkaGoei Trilogy was great and worth my time. Reminiscence wasn't bad, but too long far what it was, so I feel like I wasted a little of my time.

Six, plus 23 side stories. If you look at the progress tracker, you'll see that Chapter 1 makes up about 17% of the script. Getting the patch by the end of the year will probably depend on how fast QC goes. I'd say it's possible, but I can't speak for everyone's schedule. I imagine it'll probably be done by the end of January at the latest, though.