VN reading club - June 2015 (Yume Miru Kusuri)

[Nimbus]

So, is this thread open for discussion now? I've read YMK all the way to the end.

Yes, it is open. But please keep in mind not everyone has read it before (some may not be very far in or may not have even started) so if you are going to post something please use the Spoiler tag 

[Segai]

 

From now on, you can start reading this VN, and, after one weeks, discussions concerning your first thoughts will start.

 

I think we have to wait a week.

[Maxel]

Just finished (in one day, lol) Mizuka route, and I think I'm gonna stop at that, people are saying it's the worst one, but I had good time playing it

Oh, okay nvm then, I'll just jump into discussion in a week...

[Nimbus]

I think we have to wait a week.

Ah yes, I forgot about the one week, my bad. 

[GLM4475]

Then, I'll just tell the impression I got from this VN, I really couldn't put a  right word for this VN, Aeka's route is so unbelievable, thank God it's only a story, Mizuki's route is *#(@&%&$%@, thank God I'm not the protagonist, and Nekoko's route the one I like most. And Nekoko is actually her? A nice twist.

[AlexZandria]

Wasn't initially planning on reading with you guys but I've been wanting to read this title for a while so if I get a few more games in my backlog finished I might join you.

[yvetox]

I also already completed it,and for me only Aeka route gave any feelings(quite hard if you ask),Mizuki is so-so,and i did not feel anything during Nekoko route.Just my opinion,waiting to discuss with you all)

[Nosebleed]

One thing I didn't like about Aeka's route was that it was too unrealistic.

 

No reasonable teacher would actually let that happen in school grounds every single day, it was a bit farfetched for me seeing all that crazy stuff unfold in the classroom or on the rooftop without any consequences.

 

But disregarding context, I still liked the way they portrayed bullying as a theme and it was nice seeing Aeka and the protag getting together and help one another.

[kyrt]

I rather enjoyed YMK it was the first vn I played after Ever 17 and Dragonia and (possibly lightning warrior raidy?) and is probably the visual novel that convinced me to stick with the medium. I enjoyed the stories even if re-reading it I see a ton of flaws but the character and overall themes of each route were great back when I first read it (when it first released?) and while it has aged quite a bit and I've read better vns since it I have to say it still manages to hold up well enough. 

[Zalor]

 I still liked the way they portrayed bullying as a theme and it was nice seeing Aeka and the protag getting together and help one another.

[yvetox]

Nosebleed,sorry,but if you say that her route not realistic you may lived a pretty decent school life)I just can say,that in my old class there's similiar situation with one of the girls,and i have seeing forward in aeka route with anticipation-did the things really got turned out like i foreseen in reality?Or guys who make this game is still air-headed and just try to make some money out of theme of bulliyng.Maybe thats why this route left a strong emotions in me,just for reference-game is turned out EXACTLY like reality,with some details attached or miising.Of course,you can simply not believe any of my words,well,its dosnt chage the fact that only Aeka route have any impact for me.\

 

P.S.WTF,Its really hard hard to believe as I readed my message,but what can I say about this?*AEKA ROUTE SPOILERS AHEAD*

Girl what I know isnt bullied with electroshockers like Aeka did,simply because its unavaliable in our country as legal asset of protection,and of course pranks were not that heavy like you seen in VN,BUT preservation from most brutal jokes is  not connected with teachers,its just we ourselves as schoolers dont let some of them happened(teachers of that sort is really existing,they gonna play dumb till the end)

[Deep Blue]

This is why I hate vns that are not linear, you help a girl but what about the others...

 

btw bullying is real(just as the novel puts it or even more)

the Aeka's ending was a bit over the top but still, but some teachers are worst than the one in the vn, I experience many of them in my life

[TehRealOne]

I did a quick skim of the VN just to see how many H-Scenes there are.

 

And Damn, there are a lot, and not just your usual H-Scenes, this is some pretty erotic stuff. 

 

Not sure if I'm going to go through and finish it. 

[Deep Blue]

I did a quick skim of the VN just to see how many H-Scenes there are.

 

And Damn, there are a lot, and not just your usual H-Scenes, this is some pretty erotic stuff. 

 

Not sure if I'm going to go through and finish it. 

[TehRealOne]

you can always hit control to skip them like I always do

[Zalor]

and I didn't like all the situation with her sister either, some parts were a bit off imo like when he grabs her butt and start touching her. Or showing her naked all the time even if it was clearly that she is like 11 or 12.

[Nosebleed]

Nosebleed,sorry,but if you say that her route not realistic you may lived a pretty decent school life)I just can say,that in my old class there's similiar situation with one of the girls,and i have seeing forward in aeka route with anticipation-did the things really got turned out like i foreseen in reality?Or guys who make this game is still air-headed and just try to make some money out of theme of bulliyng.Maybe thats why this route left a strong emotions in me,just for reference-game is turned out EXACTLY like reality,with some details attached or miising.Of course,you can simply not believe any of my words,well,its dosnt chage the fact that only Aeka route have any impact for me.\

 

P.S.WTF,Its really hard hard to believe as I readed my message,but what can I say about this?*AEKA ROUTE SPOILERS AHEAD*

Girl what I know isnt bullied with electroshockers like Aeka did,simply because its unavaliable in our country as legal asset of protection,and of course pranks were not that heavy like you seen in VN,BUT preservation from most brutal jokes is  not connected with teachers,its just we ourselves as schoolers dont let some of them happened(teachers of that sort is really existing,they gonna play dumb till the end)

[Jakez123]

Ok, time to start up this bad boy, looking forward to it.

[Zalor]

And that plot twist at the end was great too, I really did NOT see that coming, though it should have been fairly obvious, but I was so engrossed in the story and Nekoko herself I didn't even pay attention to anything else as much.

[Deep Blue]

As uncomfortable as those scenes with his sister can be, they are significant. During that time when Kouhei is subconsciously expressing interest in incest, it is due to a confusion of identity on his part. Every culture has incest taboos, (although incest is defined slightly differently from culture to culture). The reason for this is because incest taboos make it very clear that family relationships are different from any other type of relationship. You're blood related family is culturally defined as those who you deeply love but don't have sex with. The problem is that for the longest time in the story, Kouhei doesn't feel like he is part of the family emotionally, and he knows he isn't part of the family by blood. Furthermore, he craves for something to destroy his monotonous life style. During those awkward scenes with Aya, he is subconsciously screaming that he feels alienated and frustrated at not being able to express himself due to his identity as an upstanding 'honor student'. You will also notice that as you get more involved with one of the heroines, those weird scenes with Aya stop. This is because Kouhei has found a different way to break his boring everyday cycle.

  

yeah I understand that, everything you described is the "train" he is imagining, but my complain was that they show her naked a lot of time without any reason (just for the sake of showing an underage girl naked without saying she is, for example when she is with her friends they dont show them, why? because you can figure it out her age that way (if your friends look like her then she is underage and not just a girl that looks really really young), in fact she doesnt go to the same school as you for no real reason either.... and they dont say her age not once on purpose, so you can't figure out anything about her except for the joke that she is "20"

 

Edit: some awful orthographic errors

Edited June 10, 2015 by Deep Blue

[GreyWolfXx]

I haven't finished Yume Miru Kusuri yet, but I'm excited to be reading it with you guys! 

[Nosebleed]

I agree. Seeing this seriously gave me the feels too:

 

I think I legit teared up a little with happiness.

Oh god, the feels!

That was so beautiful <3

 

I might just go re-read her route again.

[Kurokusari]

Welp done with Aeka's and Nekoko's route while I dropped/stalled Mizuki's. 

I only saw two dogs in the heat in her route and some stuff that are less sensible for me.

 

First off, some strange things I observed in the game. The story was good, that's what I really think but some stuff made the experience less so. I have no idea why but the sprites seems to really lack in variety. I meant that per character, which made some scenes make less sense so I thought it would be better off with me relying on voice and context even more than average. Well not that I mind but I guess they probably had some problems in the development. Another one would be the how the music was used. When I finished the two routes I thought that there was some serious lack of number in music only to discover that they had 18 (excluding OP and ED) tracks. I didn't use any efficiency guide so I just skipped through read text and it made me realize that they used some music at short intervals. I appreciate saving the good music for the best scenes but that was being too conservative. These two things really made some scenes less than desirable but they still did a good job.

 

Welp enough of the technical stuff. Off to Aeka's route~

Something I really value about her route is her theme and the degree of realism it has. My value in her theme is purely only on my part so I won't say much. All I'll say is that I experienced both ends.

 

About the realism of the degree, it's something I have no idea if it's purely plausible. I've only seen news about bullying that drove students to suicide but I have no idea if it really happens this hard. I gave it the benefit of the doubt but after reading some stuff here, it seems that at it's at least partly possible. Frankly, I thought it was overblown when I was reading it since the teachers really were being asses and ignored the stuff in front of them. I don't think you'll be in the education business if you can stomach that kind of stuff. Now this is something that really failed or I'm probably just an idiot that can't understand it, the reason for bullying. In stories about bullying, there's always the reason why the bully is doing it. In this case, it says that the reason is jealousy because Gaito hit on Aeka during the first day. Now, here's is when things don't make sense. Really? Jealousy? Looking at them I don't see a couple at all. I didn't see any ounce of affection between then AND there was never any statements that said that "Oh they looked like a really good couple before." or anything remote to that. Meaning, is this really jealousy? I doubt it. What could be the reason then? I don't think she's afraid of Gaito. She managed to pull him by the ear in front of the class. If it's for some sort of power then she already has enough with her cronies and her massive influence. Later on it will be said that it turned to pleasure due to the regular occurrence but bringing out scissors with a mad look on your face doesn't really look pleasurable if you ask me.

 

Edit: Someone explained this to me through PM and I'm buying it. I'll leave it to someone else to explain it ~

 

Even when I said all that it's just two stuff that didn't really fly. The irrational antagonist (which is really important imo) and the fact that the school's administration didn't do anything. The resolution in this one is something I really enjoyed. Sure, you can look at it like they're running away but Aeka's too eccentric for normal people. Fixing that up will really change her and maybe not make her Aeka anymore. Making up with Antoinette and the others is really out of the question. Your woman was almost raped and you drove the perpetrator to the verge of death. Not really something you can just laugh about and be done with. If I'll add anything else it'll be the fact that I didn't grow to like Aeka. Sympathize, yes, and may even empathize, but never like. It's probably because I can't agree with how she dealt with things but that's something that's up to her, not me. Still, 2weird4me.

 

Btw can anyone tell me what he means by him being personality-less? That was something I really can't get my head around since he has a personality imo. Not the best but it's there. Or is just my understanding of the term wrong?

 

And is it just me or is there a massive amount of h-scenes? Of course, in relation to the length of the VN. I understand Aeka's since it's part of their deal but even that was a tad excessive.

 

Nekoko's route was something that was a lot better for me in comparison to Aeka's. No, I can't relate to her specific problem, that would be bad.

I enjoyed reading how they dealt with her drug-addiction problem, even the failed attempts. And the ending really packed a punch. The feels and the sense of happiness of finally conquering your demons while being able to show the results. And I did not see it coming when it was revealed who she was. I should've known with the subtle enough hints (mysterious sprite, saying that I've met her before, location of the book where Nekoko's name was from, etc) but I guess the story really got me going.

[Nosebleed]

I think the h-scenes here serve more as escapism and the sheer amount of them can kind of be excused because of that.

Still though I didn't think there were that many, I've seen more...

[Kurokusari]

I think the h-scenes here serve more as escapism and the sheer amount of them can kind of be excused because of that.

Still though I didn't think there were that many, I've seen more...

Nekoko's had 6/14 so almost 50% of the route.

Aeka's had 5/13 roughly a third of the route.

And Geezus Crais Mizuki had 7/12 or possibly more since I'm missing the last 2 scenes.

 

I guess I haven't read enough if there are even more than this gawd.