Primal Hearts 2: Yes, I did manage to play this
Entry posted by Clephas
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First, for those wondering how I found time to do this... Fallout 4 is not a game you can play in small bits, so any time when I had less than four hours consecutively free, I went for this instead (generally it was twenty to thirty minute bouts during lunch, dinner, and breakfast, as well as an hour right before bed). For those wondering what I thought of the original, here is a link to the post in my thread: http://forums.fuwanovel.net/topic/2086-clephas-vn-of-the-month/?page=8#comment-159994
Now, first I'm going to say this game is generally better than the original. I make this statement straight-out because this one fixes a lot - though not all - of the complaints I had with the original, without disposing of what was best about it. The protagonist is generally more active/has more of an effect on the world around him, and he is a lot less of a non-entity, thus putting his character setting to at least some use.
This VN follows a different heroine as canon for each heroine route, so I'll list which heroines from the first one were chosen to reach the events in each heroine path in this one here.
Kana>Alysticia
Haruhi>Usagi
Sera>Masshiro
Yuzuki>Tateha
In many ways, the heroines in this one follow the same pattern as the original. Alys and Masshiro are both ojousamas, Usagi is an idol, and Tateha is the 'futsuuko' of the game. Also similarly, the heroines' deredere-ness is off the charts once the protagonist becomes their lover. In particular, Masshiro is a bit freaky that way. There is a fifth heroine, Anna, but she is a sub-heroine whose path lasts about twenty minutes, so I'm not going to bother covering her here.
Similar to the original, the two presidential councils (seitokai) face off against one another in 'elections' where their competing ideas are looked over and picked by the students. There are some differences... such as the fact that the deadlock at the beginning in this one is caused by bloc votes from the cultural and sports clubs and that Gekka's school president is not a charismatic individual (most people are - unjustifiably - terrified of her, and Masshiro is generally considered the face of the council) and Usagi, the idol who leads Tendou is not pushing fun like a dealer with a new, profitable drug like Haruhi in the original was.
This deliberate toning down of the general capabilities and the overenthusiasm of the two councils allowed the protagonist to step forward more in this one, allowing him to actually be something other than just a catalyst for events. For this reason, it was much easier to get behind his eyes and enjoy the story than the original.
On the down side, this means that there wasn't really an absolute defining heroine, like Haruhi was in the original. In exchange, Mokomoko-san (also known as Alysticia) has the best 'issues' in her path. Her psychological/social issue is pretty obvious from early on, and it is the defining issue with every story element dealing with her. In many ways, this follows a pattern drawn after than of Shino from Uruwashi no, though it is far less severe and the heroine in general is actually interested in 'fixing' herself from the very beginning.
Unfortunately, the very fact that that one heroine has pretty deep issues (Usagi also has some nice drama) outlines how weak in terms of non-romantic issues Masshiro and Tateha's paths are. I'd honestly thought Masshiro's path would turn into a typical ojousama drama... for the first five minutes after the drama began, until it concluded (at the end of those five minutes). Unfortunately (since I actually like that particular trope) that didn't happen, and the path itself was defined mostly by endless ichaicha and (as usual well-done) H-scenes. Tateha's path... is just dry of anything interesting, probably because they put all that effort into developing Usagi and Alys.
Overall, for those looking for a good charage with great visual and musical quality, this one is an excellent choice... just don't expect brilliance where you are guaranteed to get average-quality.
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