VN reading club - June 2015 (Yume Miru Kusuri)

[SoulJustIn]

To me,

YmK worth to read,

well,

everything depend on Vn and person who read it.

Do you know?

To other community, discussion about YmK,

....... very bad, total no one like the Vn. (all bad mouth about YmK )

I guess........

is generation gap  

[Fred the Barber]

Wow, I almost never 100% visual novels and I actually made it through YmK. I'm rather surprised to see people skipping routes and dropping... especially if for a VN reading club discussion. I'm sad to say it, but I think that this month was a bit less organized than in previous months

 

I don't think the problem had anything to do with organization. We just happened to vote in something that some people happened not to like. It's no big deal, and it'll probably happen again, and it won't be a big deal then either. When it comes time for next month, maybe we'll make a wiser decision.

[Nimbus]

I don't think the problem had anything to do with organization. We just happened to vote in something that some people happened not to like. It's no big deal, and it'll probably happen again, and it won't be a big deal then either. When it comes time for next month, maybe we'll make a wiser decision.

[Eclipsed]

I'll try () to get off me lazy bum this weekend and get some hours into YMK and see what all the fuss is about

[Eclipsed]

I previously said

 

I'll join the Nekoko -> Aeka -> Mizuki club

 

Though from where I'm at atm I'm interested in Aeka so maybe do Aeka -> Mizuki -> Nekoko

 

~~

Art style is naturally, a bit dated for me but I was still able to luv good ol' orchestral storm (symphonic rain) so it's not bothering me too much

[Fred the Barber]

Let's see what you think of the art style.  Apparently some people hate it, and some people love it.

 

I think it's more accurate to say that everybody (every post that I recall reading, at least) agrees it is hit-and-miss. Sometimes it's quite pretty, and sometimes it just looks off and weird, for character art. For background art, there hasn't been as much discussion, but I find it similarly hit-and-miss; sometimes it's detailed and nice, sometimes it's super bland.

[Deep Blue]

Wow, I almost never 100% visual novels and I actually made it through YmK. I'm rather surprised to see people skipping routes and dropping... especially if for a VN reading club discussion. I'm sad to say it, but I think that this month was a bit less organized than in previous months

what does the organization of this event has anything to do with the visual novel not being liked? what do you mean by less organized in the first place?

We voted a vn and now we discuss it, there isn't much else to analyze here :/

[Kurisu-Chan]

Trololo.

[Kosakyun]

I'll try ( ) to get off me lazy bum this weekend and get some hours into YMK and see what all the fuss is about

[Nimbus]

So I finished Aeka's route last night and here are my thoughts on it.

 

Contrary to the other routes I actually really enjoyed this route. I felt that the story was very well done and pretty realistic (besides the teachers involvement). what makes this route stand out from the other is that I was never once bored playing it and the H-Scenes for this route avoided the problem bogging down the other routes by being less frequent and giving us more time in between them. In particular I loved how there where none in the climax of the route, that I felt really helped convey how serious the situation was and how Kouhei and Aeka's relationship had ascended beyond what it started out as

Aeka herself was a very likeable heroine and I legitimately pitied her plight and Najou was a complete bitch who I was glad hot her comeuppance so mission accomplished writers.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Guys, here it is, just a few days left.

 

Now it's time, it's time for your final thoughts about Yume Miru Kusuri, feel free to speak about the VN Freely, and give us your sincere review of the VN, the cons, the pros, what you liked, what you hated.

 

And of course, the end poll is near, don't worry. 

[Kosakyun]

Oh yeah. I forgot to post.

Finished Nekoko's route yesterday.

I'm not going to write anything long this time. It's because this route felt like the shortest for me. However, even though it was short (around 2~hours, more or less), it was pretty much satisfying. The whole route wasn't just about Nekoko, of course. It was about Kouhei too. It was pretty nice how they made drugs something like an escape route from them being nobodies. Though it is wrong, it is somewhat a realistic option that some people would take, yes. It's wrong though. I'm glad that Kouhei was right in the mind, not succumbing to the pleasure that the drugs gave him. He saved Nekoko from her being eaten up by the influence of the drugs. Good thing she wasn't. Or I just didn't get the bad ending. Nekoko being the librarian was pretty obvious, imo. The route was something like a journey, you know. Something like soul-searching. It was really nice.

 

The ending was really sweet. I couldn't help tearing up when she acted as Nekoko again. That was too much for me. I'd probably react the same way Kouhei did. I'm ashamed to say that I already forgot her true name lol. Oh well.

 

"I've finally found my fairy's home."

-Sakurai Hiroko

 

I like this quote. After all, it can refer to a lot of stuff. Something that we've been desperately searching for. I'm glad Hiroko found hers.

 

My route ranking would be this: Mizuki > Nekoko > Aeka.

I won't rank the girls. This is one VN I'd prefer not to.

 

Final impressions? Probably later this week.

[Nimbus]

 

My route ranking would be this: Mizuki > Nekoko > Aeka.

 

[Kosakyun]

Really?

I found Mizuki's route really boring and direction-less (mind you I haven't finished it). Anything in particular that you liked about it more than Aeka's?

 

It felt more realistic. The problem was handled pretty well, too. If you haven't reached the part wherein Kouhei finds her in the middle of the city looking at people, then you haven't started the main part of her route yet. It's basically just normal interactions with senpai at the start, so it might be directionless at that part, yes. Though I cannot understand how the route was boring, since I wasn't really bored with it. Maybe because I read it in one sitting too? Other than that, the series of events really put into focus her problem. Though it might have not been dealt with until after the climax, there's this feeling that the two of them slowly become closer and closer. I don't know. I can't explain it all too well. All I know is her ending holds a special place in my heart. The problem she needed to deal with was also my favorite, out of the three. 

 

Oh, don't misunderstand me. I really liked Aeka's route, but I just liked Mizuki's better.

Aeka's my favorite though.

[LinovaA]

Just finished Aeka's route... and with that... YMK as a whole.

Aeka's route pissed me off, if only because bullying really gets to me. I found myself time and time again gritting my teeth watching as Aeka, and later on, Kouhei, got bullied in various ways. You don't even want to know the sick grin I got from them choking the life out of Nanjou. Seriously, it was like every angst infused daydream I had back in middle school fulfilled.

[Kosakyun]

Just finished Aeka's route... and with that... YMK as a whole.

Aeka's route pissed me off, if only because bullying really gets to me. I found myself time and time again gritting my teeth watching as Aeka, and later on, Kouhei, got bullied in various ways. You don't even want to know the sick grin I got from them choking the life out of Nanjou. Seriously, it was like every angst infused daydream I had back in middle school fulfilled.

 

This. I felt almost the same. It's just that I could not really find joy in them doing what they did by the ending of the route. I just can't get joy out from something like that.

 

Also, I share your sentiments regarding JAST's TL, but I didn't complain anymore. There were also times when Mizuki's line says 'boy', even though she's calling Kouhei 'Kagami'. That was the most annoying part for me.

[Turnip Sensei]

Here's some of my thoughts about Yume Miru Kusuri, now that I'm finally finished it.

 

The biggest problem I had with this game was the abundance of H-scenes. Or not really the amount, but rather how often they appear. Nekoko's route was probably the worst example, new H-scene appeared every 5 minutes or so at one point. YMK had too much sex for being so short VN, the ever so often appearing sex scenes just killed the pacing for me. Just as the story was getting interesting, a new unnecessary H-scene happened. I managed to read through the H-scenes in Mizuki's route, but after that I skipped most of them. The sex takes so much time that the remaining story suffers.

The characterizations and the overall storytelling was little weak. When most of your character interaction is sex, it's no wonder. Like I said before, I would have wanted to see other ways of seeking comfort in each other than sex. The story lacked good build up for the endings, they just kind of happened, so the emotional involvement wasn't there. That said, the final events in each route were the best YMK had to offer, at those points I actually enjoyed reading it. When their problems finally got out of control and the characters had to actually confront them, that's when the story became interesting. 

 

My favorite routes are Mizuki>Aeka/Nekoko

I felt like Mizuki had best character development during her route and her route was the darkest, which is something I prefer. Also Mizuki's route was the only route where I read the H-scenes properly. Partly because she's closest to my preferences, but also because her H-scenes were actually interesting. There was more than just sex in their scenes, they played for dominance and sought new sides of each other. I also really liked the fucked up sex scenes they had when they were intoxicated and on drugs, those actually showed the escapism side the best. They were more than just H-scenes to fill out the game, they actually did something for the story. The ending was something really sweet as well, I'm not event that fond babies.

 

I can't really say which is better, Aeka's or Nekoko's route. Both had their own problems and suffer from the filler H-scenes as well.

Aeka's was more interesting, but it had awful pacing problems. Reading through the middle parts of her route was painful slog. The picked up at the end and had a thrilling finale, but that's it.

Nekoko's on the other hand was at least stable all the way through, thanks to the drug problems, but it lacked the impact the other route's had. The conclusion to her problems was too light for my tastes, I expected for the drug usage to have more grave consequences.

 

Overall I consider Yume Miru Kusuri to be a pretty mediocre VN. Despite the problems it has, it's not all bad. The concept is good and there's some interesting ideas, but the execution doesn't work that well. 

[Nimbus]

So as it turns out I dropped Nekoko and Mizuki's route just before the end of both thei routes so I just finished both of them

Nekoko's route was pretty dull. I was never really invested in her story and it got rather repetitive after a while. I'm sure the twist towards the end about her identity was supposed to have some impact but it was pretty obvious where they were going with that.

Although I did drop the route at one point this was for two reasons; I was sick of all the H-Scenes and I really wanted to do Aeka's route.

I can't really say anything else, the route left such a weak impression that I can't say anymore. I guess this basically sums up my feelings for Nekoko's route

As for Mizuki, I said before that I found her route really boring and I stand by that statement. Sure, the last half hour is really good and the whole idea of her not seeing a future was interesting but was it worth all the direction-less crap that is the rest of her route? nope.

[Eclipsed]

I'm waiting for your 'stalled' status.

 

Well, shit. 

[Kosakyun]

Well, shit. 

 

'Till next month's stalled status then.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Why do characters looks like potatoes?

 

Why do i have to watch naked lolis?

 

  

[Deep Blue]

Art style = 8/10

Music = 9/10

Plot = depends on the heroine but aeka 9.5/10 nekoko 8/10 mizuki 6.5/10

overall = 9.1/10  (yeah it should be 8.2 but I dont care )

 

cons:

 

Too many ero-scenes (still they used the ero-scenes for plot development kudos for that!)

sometimes the lolis were too much... (specially with her sister)

the length of the vn was really short (or at least it felt that way)

[kyrt]

Honestly Yume Miru Kusuri is one of the former gateway vns...it has a good amount of plot, sex, decent art, decent music and is short enough to keep most people's attention it has a few different characters and chances are you will be able to appreciate at least one of them. Now whether the vn is good or bad really depends on what you've read prior. To someone just starting out this is a great visual novel and it was for a lot of us who read it back when it first came out before there were a whole lot of good visual novels available for reading.

 

Before fan translating ever really took off visual novels were primarily only able to be bought via JAST USA, (Mangagamer had not yet come into existence) and fan-translations were in infant stages with even Fate/Stay Night only being in trial stages and the only real fan-translated visual novel available for reading being Tsukihime.  Kana Little Sister had issues when it was released, Ever 17 while brilliant had translation errors, censorship, and a few other small problems thanks to Hirameki, and really there were very few story emphasized visual novels at this time. YMK is the visual novel that changed that as far as company translated visual novels went. Yes it may have had a ton of ero scenes but they were done in a way that helped emphasize the overall plot. JAST really went out on trying to push the title and even tried to emphasize that this was a classic from Japan and a much more plot driven title. The game released in April of 2007 in english  so the visual novel is quite old compared to what a lot of people have read and has not aged overly well in the advent of the rise of fan translations and better titles released since then but when you look at it in the context of what else was released prior to it you realize that YMK was a pretty good title for the time of its release. 

[Fred the Barber]

Honestly Yume Miru Kusuri is one of the former gateway vns...it has a good amount of plot, sex, decent art, decent music and is short enough to keep most people's attention it has a few different characters and chances are you will be able to appreciate at least one of them. Now whether the vn is good or bad really depends on what you've read prior. To someone just starting out this is a great visual novel and it was for a lot of us who read it back when it first came out before there were a whole lot of good visual novels available for reading.

 

Before fan translating ever really took off visual novels were primarily only able to be bought via JAST USA, (Mangagamer had not yet come into existence) and fan-translations were in infant stages with even Fate/Stay Night only being in trial stages and the only real fan-translated visual novel available for reading being Tsukihime.  Kana Little Sister had issues when it was released, Ever 17 while brilliant had translation errors, censorship, and a few other small problems thanks to Hirameki, and really there were very few story emphasized visual novels at this time. YMK is the visual novel that changed that as far as company translated visual novels went. Yes it may have had a ton of ero scenes but they were done in a way that helped emphasize the overall plot. JAST really went out on trying to push the title and even tried to emphasize that this was a classic from Japan and a much more plot driven title. The game released in April of 2007 in english  so the visual novel is quite old compared to what a lot of people have read and has not aged overly well in the advent of the rise of fan translations and better titles released since then but when you look at it in the context of what else was released prior to it you realize that YMK was a pretty good title for the time of its release. 

 

Thanks for this - this kind of context helps things make a lot more sense, for those of us who are newer to the VN scene.

[Vorathiel]

Yeah, necro,necro, golden shovel, etc.

But seems like we don't have specific YMK thread and I don't feel like starting one, since I just have a question:

- Art style is rather mediocre (original, but nothing outstanding, and sometimes really crooked).
- Developers and scriptwriters never did anything big and well known.
- Setting is pretty standard.
- There is no YMK anime.
- It is not an awesome, omg, title (7.53 on vndb).

So...why is so popular?