About the February Releases

Currently, fun2novel is reading Ouka Sabaki for me, and he has a fondness for mystery games and the Ace Attorney series, so he is a good fit for that game.  When he completes it and I post his commentary, we'll make the decision on the VN of the Month for February at that point.

Omoi o Sasageru Otome no Melody

This is the newest game in Ensemble's ongoing trap protagonist series of ojousama-ge (charage where all or most of the characters are rich girls).  In this one, the protagonist dresses up as a girl to both attend school and teach music at a girl's school.  He does this because he wants to play the piano his father tuned that is only played during the school festival.

Now, I should say that this VN shares the singular flaw that all of the VNs in this series after Koi no Canvas have made... primarily the lack of depth in the heroine settings and the weak endings.  So, in that sense, this isn't an improvement over any of those, which I generally rated between a 6 and a 7. 

This game's common route is short and to the point, splitting off into two differing arcs based on your first choice, then into heroine routes based on your second choice.  The differing arcs also represent differing experiences with the characters in general and the heroines specifically, since the circumstances differ greatly. 

Now, setting aside my displeasure with the endings and the weak character settings (all character settings save the protagonist are 'confined' to the school, with almost no reference to their lives before or their formative experiences), I can honestly say that they did the protagonist well.  This is despite the fact that he is basically the same protagonist as in the previous games in the series, based off of Koi no Canvas's protag, who was kind-hearted and giving but more than a little passive outside his areas of expertise (this has become a series tradition, to mixed results).  In this protagonist's case, it actually fits really well into his role as a teacher, so it isn't as much of a downside as it was in the previous games.  

Now, the focus in this VN generally lies with the music and the development of the relationships with the heroines, rather than the heroines themselves, if that makes sense to you.  That decision, as in previous games, to ignore the 'history' of the heroines, means that character development is based entirely in the here and now, with no information on the 'why' of things in depth.  It also means that you won't see outside influences dropping in to create drama, which is rather a waste considering that one of the attractions of ojousama-ge by other companies is the way the parents or circumstances almost always intervene to interfere in the romances. 

Don't expect a strong conflict in this VN... for the most part, the girls all end up accepting the protagonist in their paths with relatively little worrying, a fact that left me feeling a bit bemused.  Mia, in particular, seemed like the type to at least go to another teacher with it (I was kind of looking forward to it), so I was a bit let down in this sense.  Generally speaking, while there are 'moments of drama' there aren't any drawn out drama elements in it, so tension tends to be limited to one or two scenes before it is resolved. 

Romantically, since this is a relatively short VN, things move really fast, as they always seem to in this type of VN.  Because the protagonist is in an 'upper' role to most of the heroines, it actually works better than it did in the previous games in the series, even if it shared some of the same elements. 

The big attraction of this VN is the protagonist's teacher role, at least for me.  For the first time since Koi no Canvas, I actually felt like the protagonist was playing an interesting role... and at the same time, he is also a brilliant and devoted pianist, which is a huge positive.  In this sense, this game escapes the 'pale and useless' protagonist box that almost every charage falls into. 

So... is this a good VN?  It will probably pick its readers.  First, you have to be fond of or at least tolerant of trap protagonists.  Second, you'll have to bear with the lack of in-depth character settings.  Third, the endings are even less in-depth than the normal charage.  This is a decent VN, in my opinion.  However, it isn't VN of the Month material, unfortunately.  It is an improvement over the last few games in the series, though.

Edit: Just a bit of information...  all of these VNs after Koi no Canvas were written predicated on the future release of a fandisc.  That seems to be at least part of the reason for the weak character development, though it is inadequate as an excuse.