Random VN: Iroha ~Aki no Yuuhi ni Kagefumi o~
This is a VN made by a long-defunct company called Cait Sith. Its members went to a number of places afterward... the more famous ones include Nekoneko soft's art crew and the writer of Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de. In fact I can see that, in this case, some of the inspiration for the writer's later works definitely came from this VN. It is about a young man living in a mysterious village of youkai. He was raised from a very young age by the town's doctor, Waka-sensei, and he was watched over warmly by the town's various youkai, until one day a young human girl named Yuuna was brought home by Waka-sensei, leading to the beginning of the story.
Generally speaking, this is a warm-your-heart story, with three youkai and one human heroine. Riku is essentially a lump of warmheartedness, incapable of squishing a fly. His friendly and easygoing nature endear him to a lot of the youkai residents, and he is generally beloved, though thought a bit odd. The human heroine, Yuuna, is a pretty straightforward innocent genkikko... she is pretty much what would happen if you made Riku female and even more naive. The second heroine is the Yukinko (variation on the Yuki-onna theme) Sayuki, who is responsible for bringing winter to the village. The third is Rin, a bakeneko in training to become a nekomata (higher level of cat youkai) while she runs the village's only general store. The fourth and last is the kitsune tochigami, Aya, who is a hedonistic, lazy kami that prefers drinking and sleeping to doing her job.
The individual heroine paths in this VN are pretty emotional, designed to bring out tears, but this doesn't go down the utsuge path, sticking to something closer to a nakige. While the paths tend to be a bit predictable from the perspective of someone who has played as many non-violent fantasy VNs as I have, they are still touching (there are certain developments that became archetypical in the last few years that were new back in 2008, lol), because they feel more natural. I honestly liked all the paths in this game, though I'd say Aya's path left a really strong impression in my memory (mostly because Aya has the most interesting past and the protagonist's full past and nature come to light in this one).
Overall, this is another good addition for people who like soothing VNs with mild catharsis and youkai heroines. It has an aura similar to Toppara in some ways, though the protagonist isn't a self-pitying young man like in that one. Those who liked Toppara or Kaminoyu will probably like this VN, whereas those who wanted something a bit less peaceful probably won't enjoy it that much.
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