What are you playing?

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished first route in Tenshin Ranman Happy GO Lucky - Hime's route. It was... okay, I guess? How to say it... it wasn't bad, there were lots of quite funny moments, and I cannot say I didn't enjoy it, but at the same time it felt a bit bland - as in, it didn't make me want to immediately read the rest of the routes. I'll probably do it anyway, since there might be some gems hidden there, and the game isn't bad, but I guess I expected something more from the "main girl's" route.

Or perhaps it's just that the standard Yuzusoft's moege formula doesn't work for me as well as it should? So far I finished four Yuzusoft's games - Noble Works, Sanoba Witch, Natsuzora Kanata and PARQUET. And even though I rated them all with 8 points, I think that nakigey Natsukana was the best. Perhaps I should raise its score to 8.5? Sanoba Witch and PARQUET also had nakige elements. And Noble Works might be a bit overrated by me, since it was one of the first few VNs I've read.

[Silvz]

Finished Seabed two days ago and since then I'm sad because it ended but I'm also enjoying White Album 2! Also started to reread Little Busters!

[adamstan]

9 hours ago, Silvz said:

I'm also enjoying White Album 2!

I have high hopes for WA2 - but at the same time I'm a bit afraid to start it - I had similar feeling about Clannad

9 hours ago, Silvz said:

Also started to reread Little Busters!

I have very fond memories of LB!, but it might be too long to reread right now, with my backlog So far I've reread Princess Evangile (two times - once in English and once in Japanese) and Konosora (in Japanese).

[Silvz]

13 hours ago, adamstan said:

I have high hopes for WA2 - but at the same time I'm a bit afraid to start it - I had similar feeling about Clannad

I have very fond memories of LB!, but it might be too long to reread right now, with my backlog So far I've reread Princess Evangile (two times - once in English and once in Japanese) and Konosora (in Japanese).

Man, I have to say that White Album is being great so far! I'm still in the beginning of the Introductory Chapter [which was also covered in the anime version] but I'm already hooked.

I love Little Busters, but it is a VN that at the time I first read it I could not fully appreciate, not because I didn't like it, but because I didn't understand it. Since I still have the Ex routes to read blind, I decided it would be nice to read everything again knowing about the true nature of the story so I can enjoy the hints and nuances in the characters' routes.

My backlog is also packed with many VNs and books to read, but I decided to devote only one hour per day to read LB while I do other readings at the same time.

[adamstan]

On 2/4/2022 at 9:30 PM, Silvz said:

I love Little Busters, but it is a VN that at the time I first read it I could not fully appreciate, not because I didn't like it, but because I didn't understand it. Since I still have the Ex routes to read blind, I decided it would be nice to read everything again knowing about the true nature of the story so I can enjoy the hints and nuances in the characters' routes.

Yeah, that would make nice reason for reread

****************************************************

Today I finished another route in Tenshin Ranman - this time it was Sana's (little sister) route.

Spoiler

Actually they aren't blood-related

It was great - much better than Hime's route, at least for me. How to say it... - it had proper tension, and just the right amount of drama. And quite satisfying ending.
 

Spoiler

 

Family ending after a timeskip - my favorite kind for moege

 

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by adamstan

[adamstan]

Yesterday I finished another route in Tenshin Ranman - this time it was Aoi's route.

It was good route - perhaps even better than Sana's. I have soft spot for childhood friends, but I think this wasn't 100% typical osananajimi route. I mean, Aoi wasn't the kind of childhood friend that would come everyday to wake him up, bring the homemade school lunch and confess her everlasting love Instead they had pretty nice friendly relationship, with healthy amount of banter. And so they struggled pretty hard to step-up to the lovers level.

Spoiler

Also, actually Aoi had a crush on Haruki for a long time, but the "curse" he's suffering from made her suppress that feeling deep into the subconscious. And finally, as another side effect of the curse, those deeply suppressed feelings burst out creating the second Aoi. So not the split personality, but actually split person. "The other Aoi" starts dating Haruki, while the "true one" doesn't know about it at all, which creates a bit of turmoil.

The thing mentioned in the spoiler above is the story gimmick that could be seen already in various charage titles, but nevertheless they handled it pretty well. Also, when they finally overcome the difficulties, the route has quite good dose of ichaicha - even in All-ages version. Or, dare I say, the making out in all-ages version of this route is even sweeter than the sex in the original version

Spoiler

And, as a cherry on top, there's marriage ending

So, all in all, very nice moege route.

Now I think I'll try the two mini side-routes for Mahiro and Yukari, and after that I'll tackle Ruri's route (which is recommended by various reviewers to be read last), and then finally Mikoto's route, which is exclusive to all-ages version. It seems that Mikoto is another goddess.

Spoiler

I wonder if perhaps she's the Hime's "boss" who appears in other routes but never shows their true shape. I said "their" because Hime's boss appears through mediums - speaking either through Kotarou or Ruri

Also, interesting fun fact - this game seems to be the first untranslated one to be reviewed on the Joyjason's blog, and there he said that he prefers all-ages version - even though he confused the platform it was released for back then (it should say PSP, not PS2)

Quote

There’s the PS2 game with more CGs as well as Characters. This version, while excluding sexual content, is recommended over the PC version. (At least for me)

Judging by my experience with the game so far, I second this

I also read Micchi's and Zen's review, and my feelings about routes seem to be exactly opposite. They thought that Aoi's route was the worst, while so far it seems to be my favorite one. Hime's route that I played first wasn't bad, and the "plot/action" part about preparations for school festival was nice, but the romance part felt somewhat lacking.

Edited February 10, 2022 by adamstan

[fuyopon]

This week I finished The House in Fata Morgana and Fault: Milestone One! 

Fata Morgana (mostly just my conclusion)

Spoiler

oH GOD, I was ugly crying the whole time at the end there; I loved everything about this work!! Ok, maybe not everything - chapter two and three as stories alone were pretty hum... well, not as impacting as the first; but honestly, it was damn worth it! This might have a place on my top vns ngl

 Fault:

Spoiler

Hmmm, it was pretty mid for me... a pure 5/10. I feel like if it was a bit longer and the mystery was better developed, it might have been better; either that or I would be bored out of my mind lol it's a 50/50  The ending with Selphine getting sadistic was curious, I might play the sequel soon, who knows.
P.S.: The art for the translations (for each language, I mean) was lovely!

This week I'll be reading Root Letter and I'm so excited!! I remember reading the first half of the game on the PS4, three years ago (I think?). I'm now reading it on my computer and the hype and nostalgia is absolutely real 

[Seraphim]

22 hours ago, Fujoneko said:

I might play the sequel soon

I'd actually recommend against that, unless you're fine with then waiting several decades for the conclusion to the story (judging by the developer's current pace). Both the next part in the series and the prequel should've been out by now, but they've been delayed so many times that the developer seems to have stopped giving any estimates at this point. Furthermore, we can probably expect more sequels after those two titles, because I sincerely doubt they will be enough to conclude the story without it feeling rushed and unsatisfying.

[alpacaman]

I'd say the second part is worth reading on its own. It's a lot better than the first one and its main plot is pretty much self contained anyway. Most of the overarching plot and worldbuilding is kind of lame anyway, so I wouldn't mind it never being completed as long as AiD manages to put out at least one or two more episodes on the level of M2S:a (is that how you abbreviate the title?).

[adamstan]

On 2/10/2022 at 10:14 AM, adamstan said:

Now I think I'll try the two mini side-routes for Mahiro and Yukari, and after that I'll tackle Ruri's route (which is recommended by various reviewers to be read last), and then finally Mikoto's route, which is exclusive to all-ages version.

And so I did this, and thus yesterday I finished Tenshin Ranman Happy GO Lucky PC.

First let's talk about two mini-routes.

Mahiro's route was very nice - even if nothing groundbreaking, it had some twists and rather unusual start of the relationship. I enjoyed it very much.
 

Spoiler

 

It turns out that Mahiro was a bit weird as a child, and she'd been shunned out by other kids. And since she feared the rejection, she started to act out the "good girl" - basically trying to perfectly fit into other people's expectations. 

She asked out Haruki pretty out of the blue, just because during one conversation at the beach he suggested, that her smile looks a bit forced - so she kind of hoped that maybe he'd eventually see through her shell. But at the same time she still feared rejection and continued her act, so their first attempt at dating ended up in a disaster - Mahiro never showed her true feelings or gave any opinion - she was just a "yes-girl". Haruki couldn't stand it, and so he said they should break up.

But of course we couldn't end moege route at that - things happened, and finally they earned their good ending

 

Yukari's route is nothing to write home about - it had its funny and touching moments, but as a whole felt rather... pointless and ungrounded? I guess this was the most "eroge'y" route out of all - feels mostly like a fanservice for players with teacher fetish Well, it also gave some background for the Yukari's character, so that's a plus.

Ruri's route has quite different structure from the rest, and seems to be the actual true route (at least for the base game) - in this route we get to know more about Haruki's curse and Hime's and Ruri's past. It was really good.

But, to my utmost surprise, actually the best route was Mikoto's route, which is exclusive for all-ages version Or perhaps I should call it Wakaba's route, since that's the name she uses through the 99% of the game.

In the previous post I speculated that perhaps Mikoto/Wakaba is Hime's superior, but it turns out that I was wrong - she's just another goddess of the same level

I was expecting pretty typical "console bonus route" - nice, but nonessential. Instead I got the best, most developed route of the whole game - it was easily level or two above all other routes, really. It even had the most CGs

I liked almost everything about this route. First - Wakaba/Mikoto was really likeable character, and she managed to be both cute and hot at the same time Coodere, but with veeeery strong "dere" part, and ultra-masochistic closet pervert, which is mostly played for laughs, but works really well The relationship between her and Haruki kind of grows organically, and doesn't feel rushed or forced just by the route choice. It was really nice to observe those two gradually getting closer and closer to each other. The route also takes lots of hints from KEY's school of nakige. Of course, drama worked only because I already got attached to her - and it made the good ending all more satisfying.

So basically, a surprise, but a welcome one

So, time to sum it all up. The game looks really nice, as expected from Yuzusoft. This edition uses the latest version of Yuzusoft's UI, with flowchart and other conveniences, which is very nice. Voices were also very good.

If all routes were as good as the last Mikoto's route, this would be easily 8.5. But while they weren't bad, they also weren't really standing out - AFAIK it was the first work based on what would later become "Yuzusoft formula". And so for what it was - a nice, if a little generic moege with one outstanding route - I feel 7.5/10 is right score.

************************************************************************

Now I think I'll take a few days break, and then I'm going to read another Maruto's work - this time it will be Chocolat ~Maid Cafe "Curio"~ which is prequel to Parfait. I bought Chocolat ~maid cafe "curio"~ Standard Edition - First Press Edition (PC all-ages release), and it should arrive in a few days  

[Dreamysyu]

On 2/19/2022 at 6:27 PM, Fujoneko said:

Fault:

Imo the second part is a lot better, and I agree with @alpacaman that it works on its own. Though there is also something like a cliffhanger there, so there may be some sense in waiting another decade for 2b.

Also, Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bell deserves more attention than it gets.

[adamstan]

Few days ago I started reading Chocolat ~Maid Cafe "Curio"~ (PC all ages version)

Yesterday I reached the beginning of the first route - I'm starting with Misato's route.

So far I'm liking this VN. As usual with Maruto's titles, the character interactions are well written and engaging. As for characters themselves, I have kind of deja-vu, or even the reverse one , since I started with the sequel ( Parfait), and some heroines seem to be based on the same tropes. Misato, whose route I'm on currently, looks like proto-Yui from Parfait - except that she's not a musician But considering how lovely cute ball of moe Yui was, I'm not complaining - another such heroine is warmly welcome

Misato                                                   -                                                  Yui

Another close match seems to be Kanako - she looks a bit like protoype for Rikako. But in that case is less about appearance and personality, and more about role and setting. Looks-wise she's closer to Ema. And, while we're at it, both games begin with almost the same shower CG - in Chocolat it's Kanako, while in Parfait it's Ema.

Other heroines are also interesting - a bit rough childhood friend Midori, shy Sayaka, relaxed, motherly Mako and brand-new step imouto Suzu There seems to be one more heroine, but for now she remained hidden, so I cannot say anything about her.

Map movement system in this game is very old-school, almost like in dating sims, but with the stats hidden. You have two map choices on almost every day, but not all are connected to the events - sometimes all you get is short generic SD slideshow, and supposedly it gives you relationship points. And after meeting certain conditions events are trigeered. This has been streamlined in subseqent GIGA's VNs (like the sequel Parfait or Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o) - in those titles every map choice leads to an event.

I'm looking forward to this VN - it seems promising

After that I think it will finally be time for White Album 2 (although perhaps not directly after this). Chocolat is probably the final Maruto's "pre-White Album 2" title I plan to read. https://vndb.org/s216

I think I'm going to skip Mama Love. While it is sometimes described like a "reverse Damekoi" (young MC and older heroine), and I had it bookmarked, it seems too nukigey for my taste. V.G.Neo and DUEL SAVIOR don't interest me at all - first one is part of larger series that I have no interest in, and the second one seems to be some weird hybrid. That leaves only Chocolat's prequel - Ripple ~Blue Seal e Youkoso~. While it might be interesting as a first Maruto's VN, I'm not too inclined to read it. Also, none of the VNs mentioned in this paragraph has all-ages edition (besides hybrid Duel Savior), and I still haven't recovered from the final H-scene in Folklore Jam which really soured the experience for me  

(For White Album 2 I'm going to read PS3 version)

Edited February 28, 2022 by adamstan

[adamstan]

21 hours ago, adamstan said:

Yesterday I reached the beginning of the first route - I'm starting with Misato's route.

Okay, sorry for posting two times in a row, but...

I already finished both Misato's endings - "normal" and "true". And if it took me ~3 hours to read both of those in Japanese, then that means those "routes" were extremely short It didn't surprise me that "normal" ending was very short (under 1 hour), since it was the same in Parfait. Then I got to the unlocked Misato's true route - and it also went in a blink of an eye Sure, sometimes the routes get too long and dragged out, but this was another extreme - almost all "filler" has been cut out, and because of that the whole route feels rushed. Misato is cute, the few making out and/or date scenes are nice, but it's all too short! As if I was reading an abridged version. Let me give you a summary of the route:
 

Spoiler

 

When we meet Misato in a common route, it turns out that she's kind of ojousama (but a very modest and humble one), and she ran away from house, because she wants to try to work and become independent. At first she's very clumsy and seems to know nothing about world, but she's very enthusiastic and eager to learn.

"Normal" ending doesn't touch upon her circumstances at all, it's just a bit of ichaicha and some generic line at the end. Okay, as expected from "normal end".

But then, let's move onto "true" ending.

In a otherwise quite nice pillow talk scene, Daisuke (MC) says that if they are going to be together, he'd need to get along with her parents - pretty obvious, isn't it? Misato says, that she also had arranged marriage planned - well, as expected from ojousama - and it was another reason she left her house.

 

And from that point the route started flying at ridiculous speed...
 

Spoiler

 

In the next scene we're at the "Curio". Suddenly, a scary man in a kimono appears, accompanied by a group of henchmen in dark suits and sunglasses. The man asks for a Misato, and it turns out he's her father (what a surprise ). He demands that she returns immediately. Daisuke tries to reason with him, but he just gets beaten to the pulp by one of the underlings, and then they take Misato away. After he wakes up, Hiroyuki (chef) tells him, that Misato's father is actually the head of pretty famous yakuza group.

Next scene, a week or two after. Daisuke visits (now empty) Misato's room, and there he finds something that encourages him to try to take her back. It's only briefly mentioned, that he's been spending lots of time in this empty room and got rather gloomy.

So now he suddenly decided to infiltrate Manai family's mansion. Then in a pretty ridiculous turn of events, he meets various members of "Curio family" (other heroines), who hand him the items needed for his quest. So he gets into the mansion (with the unexpected help of his friends), scolds the boss himself and finally gets the girl back

Cue the ending - very short wedding scene.

 

Credits. The end. It all happened over two or three scenes and around an hour of rather relaxed reading. If that's not short then I don't know what is...

 

[fuyopon]

Just finished Root Letter and I enjoyed it a lot!! It was very nostalgic as I first played the first 5 chapters back in 2017~18 on my PS4  I was loving it and I've been wanting to get back to it since then. I'm listening to its soundtrack while I write this, so that does tell you how much I liked it haha

Well, let's see!

• As I mentioned before, the OST is great! It's not something out of this world, but its sooo good to set a relaxed or tense environment  I get immersed in the story in seconds with the music playing in the background.
• Just like the soundtracks, the art is very soft, giving it relaxing vibes. The whole setting is like this ngl; so if you are expecting a thrilling and scary mystery story, well, it's not exactly that, but it's not always fun times either. Oh yeah, the backgrounds are 10/10.
• The characters were pretty good too - nothing super "wow" but they did a fine job for their roles, enough to keep me playing. No one was super annoying or frustrating to talk to, so that's a win in my book.
• The gameplay mechanics were okay, I think. They aren't exactly original but their use gave the whole game a different feel to it, which I enjoyed. I feel like without them, the game would be pretty linear and boring, maybe? The only thing that was kinda annoying after some hours of play time was the "Max Mode" (oh, and sometimes the whole "investigation" minigame) - like, sure, I get why he does it but what's really the point to turn it into a minigame? Like, it doesn't add much and it's not even logical, you can't guess what's the thing he is supposed to say LOL
• The plot itself was "just" OK. It was a pure 7/10, but my enjoyment of it was a 8(,5?)/10  like, the first ending was my favorite, just because of how WTF it is and the whole "scary" feeling it gives. The true ending was SO disappointing istg 

Plot holes?

Spoiler

• In bad end #3, how the hell are they supposed to explain it in the other routes? Like, the other routes seem to be somewhat consistent with everything we know about the events but this ending is just "surprise bitch, everyone is working with the government and your penpal is a secret agent too"; like, I can't see Sanpei or the other guy from the restaurant working with the government and just being all fake in the other routes lol
• In the True Ending, if it wasn't that big of a deal to Shiori, why couldn't she just TALK with them??? Like, is she that petty that she wanted all of this just so they could make up?? LOL okay That's fucked, Shiori
  oh, and the wedding ending was shit - out of nowhere and felt pretty shoehorned idk 

This week's reading will be a rereading, actually! Amnesia: Memories! I really liked my first reading of it (9/10) hehe I can't wait to see if it still holds up. I'm also excited for this one because I'm reading it for my VN club and it's the first otoge I'm reading for it, and, well, the majority of the ppl there are either guys or ppl who don't usually play anything outside of bishoujo games or both so I'm glad we're stepping outside of the confort zone, heh 

Edited March 5, 2022 by Fujoneko
typo

[adamstan]

@Fujoneko, thanks for another item added to backlog

BTW - do you happen to know what's the difference between the regular "Root Letter" and "Root Letter: Last Answer" editions?

[fuyopon]

15 hours ago, adamstan said:

BTW - do you happen to know what's the difference between the regular "Root Letter" and "Root Letter: Last Answer" editions?

ah, yeah. It's doesn't appear to change too much, according to the VNDB note abt it:

Remake of the original game with live-action graphics and adjusments to make it easier to play. The game will feature two modes, “Drama Mode” and “Original Mode.” In Drama Mode, the game’s live-action actors will perform as the characters in the game, both visually and vocally. The game’s setting of Shimane is also depicted in live-action. In Original Mode, the game uses Taro Minobosi’s original artwort and original voice cast. You can switch between these two modes from the title screen.
A resolution chapter that reveals the truth of the ending that was previously untold has also been added.

A friend of mine played this version and chose the live action art and while it isn't bad, there are some scene that just look weird and somewhat comical in supposedly tense moments lol

[adamstan]

Last Thursday I finished Chocolat ~Maid Cafe "Curio"~ 

(I played "Standard Edition" - all ages PC version)

It was nice, but had its share of problems. I'd say that in some way it has that unpolished "early work" feel - something like what ONE is when compared to KANON. Heroines were all very nice, and, as usual, Maruto writes nice, engaging character interactions, but the quality of the routes is very uneven.

In my previous post I complained a bit about Misato's route. On the contrary, Midori's route which I played next was great (it's also heavily connected to Kanako's story). Mako's and Suzu's routes were so-so, not great, not terrible. Then there was another very good one - Sayaka's. I really liked her as a character, and her route was very emotional.

And then there's epic final - Kanako's route. It's much longer than other routes and features quite a backstory. The concept is a bit similar to Rikako's route from Parfait (or rather the other way around ) - Kanako and Daisuke have been together in the past, but then their relationship fell apart. And just like in Parfait, at first attempt we're locked onto bad ending. After that there's additional hidden route for Chiroru/Tirol (チロル)

Spoiler

チロル is a fairy living in a cafe, and her "parents" turn out to be Kanako and Daisuke - she's the character from the picture book Kanako was writing, and Daisuke has given her the name. And she wants "Papa" and "Mama" to get back together and finish her story.

After this cute and funny interlude, Kanako's true end gets unlocked. And after completing her route - there's another epilogue accessible from the main menu. It also features some flashbacks about Kanako's and Midori's relationship. It was veeery satisfying, especially the final CG, where for the first time we see

Spoiler

Kanako's happy and innocent true smile

So if I had to rate route's quality, it would be Kanako > Sayaka = Midori > Suzu > Mako > Misato.

Apart from uneven route's quality, the map movement system is a chore - it's very difficult to track down missing events, because there's no flowchart with timeline, like in later games (Parfait, Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o), but just the list of events grouped by heroines. The descriptions of the (seen) events also aren't as good as in those later games.

And this version (together with PS2 port) has already streamlined choice/map movement system. Adult and Dreamcast versions are even greater mess, since they extend the map movement system also far into routes themselves, which is nightmare.

It's also worth noting that Standard Edition features much better music. I'm really surprised that this soundtrack hasn't made it to the 2021 remake - the remake features upscaled artwork and a bit streamlined system, but it uses the old soundtrack from 2003 version, which TBH sounds more like a poor General Midi soundtrack from the late '90s, and not in a good way It kind of clashes with nice graphics - perhaps it would be more fitting if the game was done in the PC98 pixel-art style

So, summing it all up, this VN gets 7.5/10 from me. It has one great route, two very good ones, and three mediocre ones. (I count Chiroru's route as a part of Kanako's story). It was a bit rough around the edges, but all in all I enjoyed it - thankfully the true ending was satisfying

 

Since I'm sucker for VNs with nostalgia and memories themes, I think my next read will be StarTRain (PS2 edition). It looks like it's the first VN written by Nanaumi Sou, who latter has written Sukimazakura to Uso no Machi (which also sits in my backlog ) and Kazato sisters' route in Konosora.

 

[Seraphim]

Playing Evenicle II right now, and to noone's surprise, it didn't take very long for the first rape scene to show up. I like Alicesoft's games in general, but I still find this and some of the other questionable content (like the mandatory prostitution minigame in Dohna Dohna) they're so adamant on including in every title quite offputting.
They're also kinda playing down the seriousness of it all by wording it like this:



I guess that means that theft could be considered non-consensual borrowing, and murder could be non-consensual life expectancy decrease.

They've also somehow managed to make the UI even worse than in the first game, by putting more pointless bloat (that can't be hidden) on-screen. To my knowledge, that huge picture of a house doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever; it's just there, taking up like 15% of the screen at all times. If you want to make the minimap, which is quite awful in itself, visible, an entirely new window pops up in the lower left and takes up even more space.

I could list a bunch of other annoyances related to gameplay, but I think you kinda just have to roll with it and go into this game knowing that it's going to be a pretty horrible experience gameplay-wise.
I just hope the story will be exciting/entertaining enough to make up for all the bad stuff.

[adamstan]

Yesterday I completed the prologue in StarTRain - reaching the opening movie.

It has a bit unusual setting for a charage, because we start with a protagonist in a relationship. His girlfriend is two years older Nami, whom he met one summer night a few years ago while he was watching falling stars.

Spoiler

Sadly, they break up at the end of the prologue - yesterday I reached exactly that point. Looking at them and their relationship, it was inevitable, but nevertheless it made me sad

So now there's second part of common route waiting for me.

So far I met three (of four) heroines - tsundere childhood friend Kanade, shy but cute Asuka speaking with Kansai accent, and a bit mysterious Yomogi from parallell class.

According to walkthroughs there's also fourth, unlockable heroine - Nanami, but she hasn't appeared yet.

Spoiler

Although she looks quite suspicious to me - I have a feeling she might turn out to be Nami, or have some connection to her. From the glimpse in the OP, she looks similar, they share second character in their given and family names - Aida Nami (藍田 奈美) vs Hata Nanami (羽田 七美), and they're voiced by the same person. But for now I have no idea how will it turn out.

<< Nami    Nanami >>

As for Sunohara (), this time it's not one person, but a couple - MC's friend Hiroki and his girlfriend Maiko.

BTW, they get together during the first hour of the game

So far I have two issues with this VN, but they're technical ones, and seem specific to the PS2 version I own.

• The music gets cut abruptly during scene transitions instead of fading out - it makes those transitions a bit jarring. It was the same in Konneko - perhaps it's an PS2 or emulator issue?
• The font used in this release is a bit hard to read due to low resolution, but somehow I managed to get used to it. But nevertheless I'm a bit puzzled why didn't they used something simpler. 640x448 isn't that small, and it should be possible to have more legible font. But they used bold and shadows, which make the fine lines in more complicated kanji just blend together. Form over function

At the very beginning I also had to get used to different style, but over the course of the prologue I got hooked, and now I'm looking forward to the rest of the game.

Edited March 18, 2022 by adamstan

[Stormwolf]

Queue heavy drama if relationships are established early!

[adamstan]

17 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

Queue heavy drama if relationships are established early!

Well, the drama has already arrived, since

Spoiler

They broke up in the prologue. And at first glance it looks like Nami doesn't have a route/ending.

I don't mind some drama if it's well done - let's see how they did it.

And even though this game features hetare protagonist, he didn't annoy me too much so far (But then, it was only prologue)

OTOH I dislike the setup when you have to be a dick towards your girlfriend to enter other routes (like it was with Lovers or Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road), so I'm glad that it doesn't seem to be the case here.

Edited March 18, 2022 by adamstan

[Stormwolf]

Cant remember having to be a dick in Tsujidou though. 

[adamstan]

10 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

Cant remember having to be a dick in Tsujidou though. 

Yeah, you're right, I exaggerated a bit or my memory played a trick on me - we "only" had to break up with her, but yeah, it wasn't especially ugly - breakups happen sometimes.

(I played it 4 years ago, so my memories got a bit hazy)

But route structure in Lovers was truly awful - there in order to unlock side routes you really just had to completely ignore Rie so she would leave you. And those routes weren't even worth it

[Stormwolf]

4 minutes ago, adamstan said:

Yeah, you're right, I exaggerated a bit or my memory played a trick on me - we "only" had to break up with her, but yeah, it wasn't especially ugly - breakups happen sometimes.

(I played it 4 years ago, so my memories got a bit hazy)

But route structure in Lovers was truly awful - there in order to unlock side routes you really just had to completely ignore Rie so she would leave you. And those routes weren't even worth it

Indeed. You could break up that fake relationship. It was fake. Because she didn't treat MC well really. You could choose to ditch her and move on and that's where it branches out. Even if you do stick with her she won't be a good GF until waaay late in the route and the sequel. 

[adamstan]

15 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

Even if you do stick with her she won't be a good GF until waaay late in the route and the sequel. 

Which reminds me that perhaps one day I should check out the sequel