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I think it's a good place for another progress report. I just reached the end of Chapter 8. That means I crossed the 10k lines mark, and it brings the progress counter to the 66%.

More like the game that solidified their game style. While their last seven games all seem different on the surface, they are essentially similar in concept. Create a situation that is full of open or hidden despair and disaster, make it go bang, then bring on the feels. Mirai Nostalgia, which came before it, was also like this, if to a lesser degree, but it was more of an experimental than a clearly delineated style template at the time. Hapymaher has the benefit of the best and most unique soundtrack the company has ever produced, combined with near-perfect music direction. This enhances a plot that is at times somewhat scatterbrained due to its nature (a dream) and turns it into a kamige. The ones that stand out, to me, are Aoi Tori, Amatsutsumi, and Realive, all three of which are more feels-oriented than Chrono Clock or Shiawase Kazoku-bu (which is also good). These three are helped by having excellent casts of characters and great writing but are hindered by abuse of the ladder-style story structure. In addition, for some reason Purple Software went for near-generic soundtracks after Hapymaher, a choice I think was a terrible mistake, given the degree to which Hapymaher's atmosphere is defined by its music and music direction (though its VA choices are godly too). The lack of Morisaki Ryouto and the tendency to split the tasks between multiple writers seems to harm them sometimes, which saddens me... Morisaki Ryouto is one of the best writers out there, and without him, Purple Soft has developed a tendency to make questionable hiring choices when it comes to its writing staff (why they would hire the writers from Laplacian, I don't understand). From what I can tell, the two saving graces seem to be that Purple Soft has retained the same BGM composer and Ishikawa Yasushi as the scenario designer and lyrics writer, who seem to work to maintain the same style.