First off, those who remember my comments on Natsuzora and 12gatsu will remember I mentioned hating Minori games, with the exception of Eden*. The fact is, that I still do hate them, I hate reviewing them, and I hate reading them.

The question is, why?

I keep asking myself this. Minori has really good visual quality, good writers, and decent characters (even if they basically reuse the exact same cast over and over with different appearances and background stories to suit a given VN).

The reason turned out to be very simple... Minori is very good at making the interesting seem mundane in a bad way. To be blunt, if there is one thing I hate, it is mud and blood romantic drama (ie, the Lifetime Movie Network turned VN). Except for with Eden*, where romance wasn't really the focus of the game (though it existed), all of Minori's VNs are basically this type of story with the addition of fantasy. I don't think I've ever come across a VN company that can so consistently make me hate its protagonists in such a personal and intimate manner as I've encountered with Minori.

I have absolutely loathed all of the protagonists, at least on some level (though I wasn't conscious of it until I really went back and thought about it later) of the Minori games I've played besides Eden* and Wind (which I can barely recall at all, lol). All of their protagonists should, logically, be interesting... but with the 'mud and blood romance' that characterizes their stories, they make those interesting aspects into a reason for contempt and mediocrity. Since I get behind a protagonist's eyes when I play, it is like being forced to hate myself, and self-hate isn't exactly a healthy emotion, even when it is vicarious.

What is worse is that all their works after ef have followed this exact basic pattern. I used to have a vague hope they might do something as interesting as Eden* again, but I've more or less been forced to forget that hope as I've slogged through VN after VN by this company. If there is a company that is antithetical to my tastes while achieving partial synchronicity with them, it is this one. I find myself feeling like a hypocrite for hating them, which makes the hate worse, ironically.

I can't even really enjoy the suffering of the characters like I would with an utsuge... because there is always at least one moment where the protagonist makes such a big ass of himself that I want to throw my laptop on the ground and stamp on it in every single one of these things. There is no catharsis for me these games... and the whole reason I go for VNs that stimulate the emotions is because that catharsis is one of the things I seek from VN stories.

*breaths heavily and sighs* Anyway, that is enough raving... understand, this is just an opinion. I really, really hate ef and all the Minori works that are based on the same model. Some are good, some really are awful, despite visual and audio quality, but I hate them all nonetheless. Hearing people praise Minori causes me emotional stress, hearing people say ef is good makes me want to scream, and having people pm to ask me what I think of Minori games other than Eden* makes me want to break something.

PS: Soreyori no Prologue is more of the same so far... protagonist has already made me hate him, and he has only gotten worse since the first turning point of the story.