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Lump of Sugar redeems itself! (Kodomo no Asobi Part 1)


Clephas

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First, I should explain why I felt a need to make a title like that... though it is really quite simple.  Out of Lump of Sugar's last five VNs, three were complete kusoge.   Only one of them was something worth remembering (Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de) and the others were just downright rotten, due to their use of really stupid gimmicky progression systems (flowcharts with tons of scene-locks and going back and forth, Magical Charming's half-assed 'gameplay' etc etc) that ruined the games even apart from the actual quality of the stories and characters... which was generally pretty poor.

This VN, however, brings back at least some of the magic of what made me like Lump of Sugar in the first place... 'soft' moe fantasy that has enough emotional depth to make me actually care about the moe-moe characters.  While it isn't a nakige like Mannaka was (it is a light fantasy romance in the style that was popular back around 2005-2009), it is nonetheless a good read... for people who actually like this type of game.  The fact that this is what I hoped for out of this company enhanced my enjoyment somewhat, but the general concept - which was weird enough to capture my interest - is what kept me reading... and the fact that the girls hit good moe points without being tedious about it (repetitiveness, endless dating, etc.). 

The fact that the events in this VN are presented in such a way as to make you actually care about the struggles of the characters that I would normally call trivial is one of the signs of a really good VN design, and I only rarely wanted to hurry things along (to be honest, Sera's route was kind of frustrating at times due to her... inability to deal with her own emotions, though it wasn't nearly as bad as some of the moege I've played in the past). 

So far, I've played the common route and Sera's route... and unfortunately, my plans require me to move on to Hatsuru (mostly because my back injury leaves me in a state where I don't have the presence of mind to do a lot of work through the pain meds) before I find out whether I have to have surgery, lol.  If nothing else, I'll have something to look forward to when I've returned back to a level of health where a painkiller haze isn't interfering with my concentration. 

Sera's route... to be honest, it is hard to know how different it will be from the others, but is basic theme is personal growth and moving on with life.  The ending's epilogue is pretty nice... especially since it is based at least several years after the end of the main story of her path.  As I said above, there are some irritating aspects about the formative stages of their relationship, primarily driven by Sera's inability to handle her own emotions, but in the end, it isn't that bad.

Edit: Oh, and if you are wondering why I don't give an outline of the basic plot/beginning of the story... its because this is one of those VNs that is way too easily spoiled by any summary at all.  I'll be straight-up about this... if you decide to play this game, the vndb summary isn't going to be a problem (it is badly translated and doesn't give you any real info), but you should probably avoid checking out the information on purchase sites like Getchu, as they are pretty spoiler-heavy and this is a VN that is a better experience without the spoilers.  It is weird enough that it is just more fun to sit back and read it as is, without a lot of pre-knowledge.

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Lump of Sugar creating a decent game for once?

disgusted-mother-of-god.png

Yeah... it is nice to have them put out something else that is good after two horrible games in a row (Unmei Senjou and Rensou Relation).

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I guess Lump of Sugar's main appeal for a lot lays in their art (although YMMV), but that alone isn't enough to warrant a successful game. Maybe they'll start makig better games from now on...

Who am I kidding :makina:

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Mmm... about one in three of their games are pretty good... Tayutama, Itsusora, Hello,Goodbye, and Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de are pretty good.  However, the rest is mostly kusoge or mediocre.  The reason I keep coming back to them is because of my experience with Tayutama's Mashiro Route, lol.

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