What do you think about Favorite?

[Okarin]

As in Favorite the eroge company, of Hoshimemo fame.

I read Hoshimemo between 2016 and 2017 and I was satisfied with it. Eternal Heart, the fandisk, didn't hit any particular vibes. Then fast forward to June 2024 and I got Irotoridori no Sekai. The game's highlight is the mysterious and mystical atmosphere. The story, when fully uncovered, is not that great and has some apparent weak links/plot holes, but I hear it all gets explained, provided you continue the trilogy. Nah, I've seen enough and I don't want to sink more time on the other games (if they get TLed), as I'm middle aged and I need to plan my future carefully.

With just 2 franchises on the West it's very hard to rate Favorite. I need more games, like Sakumoyu, to create a solid opinion. You JOPs out there, how do you rate it?

[Clephas]

I rate Sakura, Moyu as easily one of the top three nakige of the fifty or so I played during my years as a reviewer.  Favorite in general has a bit of a lolicon issue, but their games are of the highest quality.

[ChaosRaven]

I'm currently reading Irotoridori no Sekai as well (amongst others), and it feels overall weaker than Hoshimem. Characters seem a lot more bland at least. That said, I'm not that far yet, so things could still change.

[Hiashi]

Yukito's stories are heavy on the prose but can often skip out on explaining details, which can make things hard to follow. That was the case with Sakumoyu. It's still a stellar story. Irosekai's story is incomplete without IroHika. Iro could have devoted more to developing the relationships in ways that don't feel contrived while Saku should have cut back on the winded monologues and be more clear about what's going on.

Nakahiro's stories are more direct and his writing is easier to follow. Astralair follows a similar direction as Hoshimemo but does it better. Hoshimemo suffers somewhat from subpar localization.

[Clephas]

7 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

I'm currently reading Irotoridori no Sekai as well (amongst others), and it feels overall weaker than Hoshimem. Characters seem a lot more bland at least. That said, I'm not that far yet, so things could still change.

Irotoridori is more focused on catharsis than character development compared to Hoshimemo.  Hoshimemo kept most of the catharsis to the latter parts of the game, whereas later Favorite games tended to have multiple catharsis points along the way, with the largest appearing at the end.  Sakura, Moyu is the culmination of this style, perfecting it, whereas Irotoridori was their first time to try it.  

Hoshimemo is much closer to older nakige in style, mirroring Key to a large degree.  This is opposed to the later games, which have their own style that is entirely distinct from Key's.