Haruru Minamo ni is one of my favorite games by one of my favorite charage companies, Clochette. Clochette is known for a combination of decent stories, moe-ero (sexy and moe) heroines, and fantasy/sci-fi settings. Haruru Minamo ni is based in the same world as Amatsu Misora Ni, which is - ironically - my least favorite Clochette game. In this world, the idea and existence of Japanese-style deities is a self-evident reality. This is partly due to the fact that 'arahitogami' (kami who take a human shape and live as humans) come into existence regularly enough that they are obviously recognizable and accepted as what they are.
This game has five heroines: The protagonist's little sister and goddess of the mountain, Miori; the new sea goddess of Tamatsue, Kanau; a young thunder goddess named Mei; Tatsuki's (the protagonist) and Miori's osananajimi Ena; and the fisherman's daughter Asumi.
Miori comes across as the most level-headed of the five heroines, having been a goddess from birth, rather than ascending to the position. She was 'raised' to a great degree by her older brother, and she is all-too-aware of how the task of raising her has shaped his personality and way of looking at the world. She has all of her worshippers' names, faces, situation, and lifestyles (and that of their relatives to the fourth degree) memorized, and she is the trusted and beloved goddess of the mountain. She is also a heavy gamer (console) due to the fact that the siblings' ancestor (the first goddess of the mountain) having promised to remain upon the mountain, thus binding her to the old town around her shrine, thus making her a homebody. She is the epitome of the Japanese idea of a tochigami, being able to express her will anywhere within her territory and protecting it against misfortune. Obviously, she is a brocon.
Kanau is a young girl who became a goddess at a relatively late age, and as a result, she doesn't have great control of her powers. She is also extremely unlucky and tends to draw misfortune to herself to an extreme degree. However, she also has a hidden core of steel in her spirit that lets her get up after every failure with relatively little help or interference. Her kind and hard-working nature show a great deal of potential, though it is, as of the beginning of the VN, unrealized.
Mei is the incarnation of a bolt of lightning given the form of a girl after attaining divinity. Unlike Kanau, who is learning to be a goddess because she was born human, Mei needs to do so because she has had little connection with humans. She is very straight-laced and honest, telling people what she thinks upfront. Her emotions are obvious, but she will often hold herself back for the sake of what she thinks is right. She desperately wants to be of use to humankind, but she has no idea of how to go about it.
Ena is the daughter of a Japanese sweets shop owner and the Yamagami siblings' osananajimi. She is an easygoing, kind-hearted girl who cares about others first and foremost, without a malicious bone in her body. Having grown up around Miori and Tatsuki, she knows them almost better than they know themselves, and thus she has made a point of restraining her long-held feelings for Tatsuki and keeping them below the surface. For better or worse, she is the type of girl who suffers as a result of her tendency to put others first.
Asumi is a seemingly standoffish daughter of a fisherman. Having been raised near the sea, she became an excellent swimmer at a young age. However, she quit the swimming club and now avoids swimming anywhere but the mountain river, avoiding the seas like the plague. She also doesn't believe in deities, feeling deeply betrayed by them for reasons that come obvious later. Despite this, she is actually very straightforward and easy to get along with... once you understand she doesn't like wasting time on small talk.
Mei
Mei has the cutest dere of all the heroines, I'm just going to say right up front. Think 'cat who absolutely adores her master' and you'll get an idea. Mei's path is pretty heavy on ichaicha... but since her dere is cute in a good way and there is little romance drama to annoy me past the actual stage of them getting together, I didn't mind either time I played it.
Her path's drama is mostly centered around her growing as a kami by being loved by Tatsuki (yes, seriously), so most of it isn't that serious. However, there are a few 'trouble moments', especially toward the end of the path. Nonetheless, all is well that ends well, and the path is tied off nicely.
Miori
Miori, despite her efforts to keep her brother at arm's length, is a rather self-evident brocon. This is fairly typical of Clochette imouto heroines (incidentally, Clochette little sister routes are some of the best out there, though they lack the twisted stuff you see in some other companies' lineups). However, this is made more complex by the background of the two. The first part of the path, the formation of the relationship, is more of a clash of positions: brother/sister, priest/goddess along with a bunch of other baggage that was inevitable. However, it does make it a lot more interesting than your typical 'incest is bad' drama you see in most imouto routes.
Miori and Tatsuki, once they get together are somewhat... intense. This was also the case with Mei, but if Mei and Tatsuki were an extreme version of the typical bakkouple (idiot lovers), Miori and Tatsuki are so insanely intimate (think finishing each other's sentences half the time) that it takes it in a somewhat different direction. There is some significant drama near the end of the path that is very, very revealing about the setting in general... but because of that, I would recommend that first-timers play most of the other routes before this one (Kanau's and Miori's can be done at the end) for the best experience.
Asumi
Honestly, as a character, I like Asumi the most of the five heroines. However, I have to say her dere is more 'hidden' than the other girls, as her feelings don't really reach the surface in the same way as the others. As a result, in her path, you don't get to enjoy the kind of melty deredere crazy couple ichaicha you do in Miori or Mei's path. On the other hand, her path is a gift to those who like intimacy over brain-melted ichaicha.
Asumi's romance starts the most 'naturally' of the three paths I've played this time so far. This is probably because she isn't a goddess (meaning Tatsuki's hangups aren't as strong an issue in that stage of the relationship), and Asumi's seduction of Tatsuki happening to be a lot more subtle than the others because of the way she handles emotions.
Honestly, I don't like the way this path ended, in comparison to the way the previous two did. While it is highly emotional, it also trips one of my major most-hated tropes
Kanau
Kanau is a pretty straightforward girl in every way... but the beginning of the romantic part of this path is seriously weird. I mean, it is a Clochette game, so sexually charged scenes are normal but...
The attraction of Kanau's path is the way she starts to change things in Tamatsue as a result of her personality. While Kanau isn't my favorite heroine, she definitely has a strong path worthy of a main heroine.
This path can be considered to be the 'main' or central path of the game, as it has the most story-focused approach, whereas most of the other paths had a tighter focus on the lovey-dovey aspects, with the story growing like weeds between ichaicha moments. That said, it isn't like this path makes the other heroines feel underserved. Rather, it feels more like a natural extension of what was going on from the beginning.
Conclusion
I'm not a fan of Ena's path or Ena as a heroine (Ena as a side or helper character is ideal, but I don't like her type as heroines). As such, I'm not interested in replaying her path. This game in general is Clochette at its best, in particular the way there are so many diverse elements interacting with the central characters, as opposed to the charage standard, which generally has only the heroines, the protagonist, and maybe a few friends with relatively few other connections. There are mild cathartic moments, humor, and ecchi enough for anyone who likes a more varied 'flavor' in their charage, and the heroine paths actually have a story to tell, not just a 'romance'. I recommend this for people who want some mild fantasy and story in a primarily SOL setup (and for people who like heroines who happen to be attached to oppai).
This is a VN made by a long-defunct company called Cait Sith. Its members went to a number of places afterward... the more famous ones include Nekoneko soft's art crew and the writer of Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de. In fact I can see that, in this case, some of the inspiration for the writer's later works definitely came from this VN. It is about a young man living in a mysterious village of youkai. He was raised from a very young age by the town's doctor, Waka-sensei, and he was watched over warmly by the town's various youkai, until one day a young human girl named Yuuna was brought home by Waka-sensei, leading to the beginning of the story.
Generally speaking, this is a warm-your-heart story, with three youkai and one human heroine. Riku is essentially a lump of warmheartedness, incapable of squishing a fly. His friendly and easygoing nature endear him to a lot of the youkai residents, and he is generally beloved, though thought a bit odd. The human heroine, Yuuna, is a pretty straightforward innocent genkikko... she is pretty much what would happen if you made Riku female and even more naive. The second heroine is the Yukinko (variation on the Yuki-onna theme) Sayuki, who is responsible for bringing winter to the village. The third is Rin, a bakeneko in training to become a nekomata (higher level of cat youkai) while she runs the village's only general store. The fourth and last is the kitsune tochigami, Aya, who is a hedonistic, lazy kami that prefers drinking and sleeping to doing her job.
The individual heroine paths in this VN are pretty emotional, designed to bring out tears, but this doesn't go down the utsuge path, sticking to something closer to a nakige. While the paths tend to be a bit predictable from the perspective of someone who has played as many non-violent fantasy VNs as I have, they are still touching (there are certain developments that became archetypical in the last few years that were new back in 2008, lol), because they feel more natural. I honestly liked all the paths in this game, though I'd say Aya's path left a really strong impression in my memory (mostly because Aya has the most interesting past and the protagonist's full past and nature come to light in this one).
Overall, this is another good addition for people who like soothing VNs with mild catharsis and youkai heroines. It has an aura similar to Toppara in some ways, though the protagonist isn't a self-pitying young man like in that one. Those who liked Toppara or Kaminoyu will probably like this VN, whereas those who wanted something a bit less peaceful probably won't enjoy it that much.
Kamikaze Explorer was the third game from Clochette I played, and even today it remains in my memory as one of the most well-balanced charage/plotge hybrids I've ever played. I say 'balanced' because most games don't achieve hybridization at all. Most charage are essentially character development, light romance, and SOL with little else. Plotge, on the other hand, often tend to go for 'efficiency' on character development, romance, and SOL (exceptions exist), and true hybridization of the genres has become exceedingly rare in recent years (specifically since the beginning of 2015, we saw a general decline in charage with actual stories and a fall in the overall number of plotge).
Clochette is a company more famous for being full of oppai girls than for its stories... but that is mostly because anyone's first impression on seeing the cast of one of their games is that the heroines are all... large, to say the least. That said, except for a few failures like Amatsu Misora ni, this company has produced nothing but charage/plotge hybrids since it came into existence, with the company having a steady, if not huge, following in Japan and over here.
Kamikaze Explorer is based in a future where much of the world has been sunk under the oceans and technological development has stagnated. However, about twenty years before the story began, large numbers of children began to be born with or display supernatural abilities that came to be labeled as Metis. These abilities generally were based somehow off of the hidden desires of the user, and, in the more well-off countries, it was decided to research them in a humane manner rather than the inhumane one you would usually expect.
The protagonist, Hayase Keiji transfers into a school that is centered on researching and training such individuals (such individuals being labeled as Metis-passers). At the school, he is immediately recruited by the pretending-to-be-arrogant-but-actually-shy ojousama Mishio into Argonaut, a club that seeks to help people in general while also acting to solve Metis-related incidents at the same time. Keiji is something of a genius, driven by his sense of curiosity to the point of obsession, and his current obsession is Metis.
From a purely SOL-romance point of view, this game is pretty sappy. There are a lot of really obvious emotional points, and the ichaicha is heavy-handed... However, in this case, that doesn't come across as a negative... mostly because the ichaicha is usually interspersed with relatively serious moments and plot-related issues.
The plot itself isn't huge in scale, but it is dramatic and shows off perhaps too much of a dark side for the average charage at points. However, for the most part, it is not heavy-handed or excessive. Well, I will say one of the antagonists is a bit creepy/scary, but that just made the game interesting, at least for me.
It needs to be said again, but this game is a hybrid of charage and plotge so those who purely want one or the other should think before playing. Like all the games by this company, the H-scenes are mostly mild... but they are also extremly erotic and relatively plentiful for a game of its length.
Edit: Incidentally Miiko (Mishio) is my waifu. Grab one of the other girls if you want a waifu *snarls viciously*
Kanojo-tachi no Ryuugi is a game made by 130cm back in 2006, during the 'golden age of VN innovation'. Like many of the games made during this period, it is far less bound by convention than you see in modern VNs, which has its ups and downs (as most games from this era do). In this case, the most striking element for modern VN readers would probably be the fact that the protagonist is fully voiced. The second is that, in most of the H-scenes (of which there are plenty), the females are the dominant side and the protagonist isn't a bed yakuza even when he is dominant, for the most part.
Essentially, this game's story begins when Kotaro, the protagonist, is called back to his estranged family's home after his mother dies of illness. There, his twin older sisters, Tobari and Akane are waiting for him... but their attitudes are odd. Akane, the older sister, has become active, mischievous, and selfish, and Tobari, the younger, has become a cold, expressionless young woman. There is no sense that he is welcomed into his old home, despite the fact that he and his sisters were once very close.
Things become a bit clearer when he discovers his sisters are vampires (and bisexual), and he ends up having sexual relations with both of them (Tobari reverse-rape and Akane essentially psychologically cornering him into doing it). Worse, there is no sense of actual affection from either of his sisters, who apparently can draw sustenance from the acts.
Now, the reason why I drew out these initial scenes is because they aren't really spoilers (my rule limiting spoilers to the prologue at max), is because you need to understand that this, typically of most of 130cm's games, is a heavily incestuous story (literally and metaphorically) with some seriously twisted relationships resulting. There is love, but it is often only referenced laterally or after a great deal of pain on all sides. Kotaro has serious hangups that keep him from forming healthy relationships with anyone (mostly because of his weird relations with his sisters, Tobari in particular), and the girls aren't that much better.
Tobari
Really, it is recommended that Suzuki and Seseri be handled first by most people who read this VN, but I always end up going for Tobari first... mostly because figuring out all that is going on in her head is seriously hard the first time around. Tobari is a genius in general but also a genius when it comes to acting in particular. The drama club and its play, which serve a central role in all the paths to one degree or another, is her idea, as is drawing in Kotaro as the heroine (yes, he does dress up). While there is another club president, she is the obvious leader of the club. Moreover, her forceful personality and overwhelming acting talent pretty much keep anyone else from really even considering disobedience toward her.
Her relationship with Kotaro, in their childhood, was that of really close siblings, but the changes she began to experience (vampires in this setting are atavistic throwbacks to previous generations who lose the ability to have children, live eternally, and must consume blood or life energy through sexual intercourse in order to survive) shattered their family without Kotaro every knowing why.
Her attitude toward Kotaro is cold and distant, except when she suddenly draws him into sexual relations or the drama club in general. She loves Akane and will show emotion toward her easily, but in most other matters, her expression remains flat. Her path is a journey of unwinding the twisted ball of yarn that is her emotions toward Kotaro and the circumstances that make everything about their relationship difficult.
Akane
Akane is technically the older sister, but at first glance, you would guess her to be the younger. She is more active, she is less mature, and she has no intention of controlling any of her impulses. Anything that feels good (drinking blood, having sex with Kotaro, eating food, etc) is good for her, and she has no interest in struggling to do anything she doesn't feel like doing.
As a child, Akane was sickly to the extreme, rarely leaving her bed and unable to do even the simplest of activities for the most part. For her, vampirism was salvation, though it cost her five years with her younger brother (she does care, but her hedonistic nature dominates mostly). While she isn't precisely affectionate toward Kotaro (there is some affection, but, again, her hedonism tends to hide it), she is affectionate and loving toward Tobari. Despite this, Tobari can be considered to be the 'dependent twin' of the two.
Akane's path is more about dealing with Akane's own inability to understand certain aspects of her sister's feelings toward Kotaro, the harmful aspects of her impulsiveness, and Kotaro himself. It is more straightforward than Tobari's path, but it also has some serious issues, some of them leftover from before she became a vampire.
Suzuki
Suzuki is a misanthrope who only trusts Seseri. She is described as 'excruciatingly beautiful', but her manner, especially toward Kotaro, tends toward the acidic in the best of times. She has a rather extreme version of the aversion many women of her age have for sexuality in general, though it does have a good reason.
Her path is more about Kotaro getting past his siscon and her getting past her dislike of him (and herself) than anything else. Of the heroines, she is by far the most psychologically fragile, despite her thorny persona. She understands Kotaro the best of the heroines, when it comes down to it on a fundamental level, and this becomes rather evident toward the conclusion of the path.
Seseri
Seseri is your standard deredere kouhai and Suzuki's best friend. Seseri is a really straightforward and innocent girl who hits everything head on, yet she is also sensitive enough to get down in the dumps at times, though she usually gets right back up. The very first scene of the game has her confessing her love to Kotaro and him refusing her.
Her path on the surface seems to be an odd couple romance, but in fact it is a bit different. Seseri's feelings toward Kotaro never change, she loves him and she is really open about this fact.
Honoka
Honoka's path splits off pretty late from Akane's path, before things get all twisted up with Tobari and requires that you have played Akane's path to pursue. Honoka is the retainer (not maid) for the Shirogane family (Tobari and Akane) and a sort of blood bag for the two vampires. On the surface she is a mature older woman, but underneath she is pretty girly.
Her path is the most straightforward romance in the game, with an incident bringing her feelings for Kotaro into the open and forcing her to confront them. She has some real-life hangups that make for some mild drama toward the end, but her path ends on a pretty familiar (for charage readers) note.
Chisato
Chisato is the game's tsundere osananajimi, and she is also perhaps the most template of the heroines. For this reason alone, I would have wanted to avoid her path, but since I'd already gone through all the other paths, I felt I had to finish hers as well. This is perhaps the only path in the game where the protagonist's past is revealed in something other than the words of the protagonist and heroines. There are a few flashback scenes that are pretty revealing about a young Tobari and Chisato, and it does add to the story in general... but it also felt like the writer was favoring the least interesting heroine in the game a bit excessively.
Like all the heroines except Seseri, she has issues. Chisato has an inferiority complex toward Tobari, whom she considers a friend (Kotaro also has one toward Tobari), and she is by nature a hard worker who makes up for a lack of talent by putting more effort and time into things. The path is pretty revealing about Tobari as well... however, it feels like Tobari's path should have been the one route-locked, not Chisato's, in the end.
Black Moon
There is no need to hide this, but this is the game's true ending. This ending serves as an alternate ending to Tobari's path and is fairly dramatic. To be honest, I found this about ten times more interesting than most of the other paths in this game, save for Tobari's original one... which is probably the point. the first half of this path is the Tobari path told entirely from Tobari's point of view up until a certain turning point, where Kotaro takes an action that is different from the original.
Conclusion
This game has a number of flaws, not the least of which that there really only needed to be three heroines (Honoka, Tobari, and Akane) and the fact that the actual paths feel abrupt at points, showing the peculiarly odd pacing that was common to a lot of games from the time. However, it is also a nice game for people who like messed up and twisted relationships that don't stray into NTR or rape-related stuff.
First, it should be noted that this game was planned and written by Watanabe Ryouichi, who also wrote the Harumade series (Harumade Kururu, Natsukumo Yururu, etc). As such, it is - quite predictably - a mindfuck game. Don't expect SOL romance in the traditional sense, because that isn't the kind of game this is.
This game has two protagonists... the first is the normal-seeming Koumi Masataka, who begins the story by encountering Sarasa, the game's main heroine, as she eats canned saba miso (mackerel in miso) at a convenience store. The other protagonist is Tsubaki, a young woman who spends her nights obsessing over videos of deaths of all types and thinking about herself in the same situation (it is more complex than that, but if I explain too much, you won't get to experience the creepy weirdness properly).
While this game has four heroines, there is only one actual path. All choices that go off that path lead to cut-off endings ten lines later (which makes sense in the context of full knowledge of the mindfuck), so there really is no point in picking them. For H-freaks, there are multiple h-scenes for each heroine... just don't expect happy romance endings, since there is only a single ending.
There isn't a whole lot I can say about this game besides what I said above without ruining it for you, but I'll tell you what I liked that doesn't touch upon the mindfuck or main story. I really liked the way the Preppers Club members got along, as they are one of those 'group of friends' that can't seem to stay on topic for more than a few seconds at a time (usually due to Yaotome Hanae making a sex joke or one of the others bringing up a subject that derails the conversation). As such, I found many of the scenes involving the club highly amusing.
Tsubaki and Amika's relationship is pretty weird, by any standard. I won't go into details, but don't expect lots of soft normal emotions there.
As a conclusion, I can recommend this to fans of the Harumade series and the mindfuck niche in general. It is often hard to follow what is happening due to the way the story is told, but, even with that, it was an enjoyable ride.
Yes, it is another Takaya Aya game... to be specific, his joint work with Morisaki Ryouto (known for his sci-fi bent and work with Applique). This work is also considered to be one of his penultimate masterpieces, which is ironic, since the company he created got bought out almost immediately after this game was released, hahaha.
Anyway, Komorebi no Nostalgica was one of two contenders for my VN of the Year 2013 and lost out to Hapymaher. However, given how Hapymaher has proven somewhat difficult to replay (the Christmas arc puts me to sleep every time), and the way I find new things in Komorebi every time I replay it, I'm going to go ahead and say that that decision was probably a mistake, lol. Komorebi is a meticulously-written game, with so much attention to detail on the part of Takaya and Morisaki that it is literally impossible to pick up everything on one playthrough... and more importantly, it has a strangely powerful emotional impact that can't help but make you reflective on the issues it brings up.
The setting of Komorebi no Nostalgica is based in the twenty-fifth century, long after the changing climate sank wide swathes of the world's land beneath the oceans and fifty years after a humanoid AI rebellion that resulted in what amounts to a negotiated draw (mostly because the AIs didn't want to wipe out humanity). The AIs in question are self-aware machines that possess human looks and emulate human emotions using a quantum processor and a unique set of self-developing algorithms. They are called the Metosera and live alongside humans in a larger society that coexists with human society while they dwell in 'Arks', large towers in the major cities that take on the maintenance and 'procreation' of their race. The government is now a world government, mostly because the nations that existed before the war were utterly dependent on Humanoids for most forms of manufacturing and manual labor and couldn't continue to exist on their own.
This VN focuses on a group of friends that discover an extremely high-spec pre-war Humanoid hidden in the walls of their school building, and the discoveries they make as they rebuild Cinema (the Humanoid in question) and learn from her.
Cinema is not a heroine, but she is undeniably the centerpiece of the story. The mysterious 'Store Manager' that customized her (to the extreme) and his intentions become central issues in several paths, and her unique aspects come into play in others. However, the universal aspect is that her presence sparks a number of issues that were dormant to rise to the surface during the course of the paths.
Main Characters
Shimazu Shouta is the protagonist, a guy who loves retro machines and is great at repairing old hardware and jury-rigging solutions to mechanical problems. By default, he is the homemaker of the family, since the two women living with him (his stepmother Kagari and his adoptive sister Akira) are both programming geniuses incapable of taking care of themselves. What stands out in regards to his character is his adaptability and his acceptance of the way the world is. This is important because it is what makes him an excellent partner for Fluorite in her path and gives the perfect perspective on Cinema.
Shimazu Akira is Shouta's adoptive little sister, a natural-born hacker with a neural implant and way too much talent for her own good. Unfortunately, her impulsiveness and intolerance of 'inelegant' solutions to programming problems lead to constant trouble, since she has no impulse control. She is utterly dependent on her brother, to the same extent as her mother, without the wisdom of years to stabilize her.
Fluorite Alvega is a Metosera who has spent most of her formative years with the 'group of friends', making her somewhat unusual for her kind, who usually end up spending more time with their own than with humans. While she has the Metosera tendency to think in straight lines and constantly analyze the world around her, she is more self-reflective and tolerant of the flaws and foibles of humans than many, who tend to be overly straight-laced.
Kaja Fruhling is the daughter of two of Kagari's (Shouta's stepmother's) coworkers and was born in Germany. She is an easygoing girl who shares Shouta's love of motorcycles and scuba diving, and she is generally easy to get along with. While has some tomboyish aspects, she is surprisingly perceptive and compassionate beneath the surface. She is an all-around athlete who often gets recruited by the athletic clubs for help, but she isn't interested in joining any of them permanently.
Sawatari Itsuki is a sharp-tongued young woman who is the most reserved and bookish in a group that is full of straightforward people. Of the group, she is the most 'balanced' in terms of talent, being a general prodigy (as opposed to one-point monsters like Seijuurou/male-Momoka, Flow/humanoid AI, or Akira/genius hacker). She is bookish and tends to get put in positions of responsibility, but this is mostly because she has a surprisingly forceful personality that is at odds with her appearance. She is also feared because of her tendency to wield 'correctness' as a weapon while being perfectly willing to ignore it if it is inconvenient to her personally.
Cinema is the Humanoid uncovered in the school's secret room. Last active the year the Two Years War began, she was designed by someone even Akira describes as a 'genius'. She displays reactions that can only be described as 'emotional' and 'alive' in a fashion even the Metosera have difficulty managing, and certain aspects of her design indicate an extremely unusual design philosophy. However, she is undeniably too low-spec to gain sentience in the same way the Metosera did... so the question is just how is it that she leaves such a non-mechanical impression on those who see her...?
Samon Seijuurou is the last member of the 'group of friends', a muscleheaded martial artist who is infamous for knocking the classroom door off its rails as he runs in just before the bell. At one point in the past, he wanted to become the strongest fighter in the city and went around picking fights with delinquents from other schools, but he eventually ran out of people to challenge. He is very simple-minded and straightforward and disinclined to question things. He has a good heart, but his inability to understand subtlety often trips him up (not to mention that he is an idiot and an open pervert).
Important Side Characters
Shimazu Kagari- Akira's birth mother and Shouta's stepmother. A genius programmer who is utterly incapable of taking care of herself (a quality her daughter shares). She has a very childlike manner and tastes, but she is in actuality very intelligent and mature (if in an odd way) beneath that appearance. Her attitude toward parenting is very much a 'wait and see while taking everything in' approach, and this has resulted in her daughter becoming a hacking wild child (who is essentially good natured) whereas Shouta became a mature homemaker despite his natural tendencies.
Samon Munenori Seijuurou's grandfather and the master of the dojo that Seijuurou, Shouta, and Kaya attend. He is a veteran of the Two Years War and one of the few veterans who managed to get past his resentment of what amounts to humanity's defeat by their creations (it was only a draw because the Metosera avoided killing humans directly, though some died due to complications later or because they helped the Metosera).
Celes is Fluorite's 'mother' and the Elder of the New Capital's Ark, the home of the city's/region's Metosera. She is a veteran of the Two Years War and one of the first Metosera to obtain sentience. She has a gentle manner and is deeply compassionate, and her attitude toward Fluorite and her friends resembles that of a gentle grandmother, as she merely laughs off the antics and trouble they got into in the Ark as kids. She sees Fluorite's oddities, born of her mixed socialization, as a source of hope for the future of her race, and she treasures the relationships that her 'daughter' has formed.
Fluorite Path
If you want the joy of discovering the details of the setting for yourself, do not open the spoiler box. I'm essentially getting extremely nerdy in the paragraphs in the spoiler box, so if you want my usual completely spoiler-free commentary, just ignore it. I considered just leaving it in the open, but I concluded that some people would not want to be spoiled about the setting to this degree.
As I say above in the spoiler box, Flow has a rather stunning gap-moe thing going in her route, with her normally calm, almost flat manner showing serious cracks when she is around Shouta (hints of this can be seen in her reactions to Cinema in the common route as well). The early part of this route is very telling about both Flow personally and the Metosera as a whole, revealing a great deal about how they think (analyzed partially by Shouta himself, who has spent most of his life around Flow as a friend). The latter half is fairly action-focused, with Cinema's issues taking center stage (really, in all the paths this happens), and it is very strongly focused on the legacy of the Two Years War. The climax of the path would have anyone in tears, and I honestly found my heart breaking each of the four times I played this game and this path in particular. The box below has a very general setting spoiler involved with this path.
Itsuki Path
First I'll say that the romance in this path is fairly conventional. Itsuki and Shouta have known one another for a long time, and they already care about one another, so there is a lot less of a hurdle for Shouta in getting together with her than with Flow, where he had a moral dilemma born of him worrying about how he affected Flow. As such, I won't comment on the romance any further, since it is little more than a device to help the story along in this path.
There is an excellent fight scene (by non-chuunige standards) toward the end of this path, and that is something to look forward to for action fans. However, the true spotlight of this path is
Yep, that was me geeking out again.
Essentially, this path contrasts the Metosera's evolution with Cinema's once again. This is one of the primary themes of the game, and Itsuki's path provides another point to build things up for the reader.
Also, the epilogue to this path is as good as Flow's if in a different way.
Kaja Path
One thing that is interesting about replaying VNs is that you realize the reasons why you forget things and remember others. All of the heroines in Komorebi no Nostalgica are extremely close to the protagonist, and all the ones other than Akira can be considered 'osananajimi' (childhood friend) characters. However, Kaja fits the most perfectly into the osananajimi template, especially in the romantic elements of her path.
Kaja's role with Shouta is as the 'friend he doesn't really see as a woman', a trope that gets pulled out a bit too often in VNs for my taste (it isn't so bad when they aren't heroines, but when they are heroines, the romance is usually wince-worthy at best). Because of this, it is no surprise that I avoided this path on future playthroughs, despite the insights it provides on Cinema. I should note that this path is one of those where there is a massive wall of text between the actual love confession and them becoming lovers (meaning the 'worrying about this and that' period is that long).
Unlike the previous two paths, this path doesn't have a major action scene, though it does have some drama. While this is a much better path than charage equivalents of the same trope, I still hate that trope, lol. The epilogue, like the previous two, is a 'several years later, after graduation' epilogue, which is always nice, since it is great to know how things turn out for the characters central to the path.
Akira Path
If Komorebi was based on D&D rules, Akira would have an intelligence stat of 40 and a wisdom stat of 5. To be blunt, Akira is something of a spoiled brat whose talent, mother's social position, and Shouta's tendency to spoil her have shielded her from most of the sticks and stones that would have hit someone like her. Her hacking ability is extremely high (helped by her uncontrollable curiosity and disinterest in restraining herself), but she tends to outright forget common sense in any number of situations.
One thing that stands out about the romantic part of this path (other than Shouta over-thinking things, as usual) is Kagari is a great mom, despite being incapable of cooking, cleaning, or doing the laundry (Shouta does all these things, lol). Her tendency to see through Shouta and the others is present in all the paths, but it is particularly in the open in this one.
Let's just say that this path has less of a philosophical bent than Flow's or Itsuki's and less of a romance/SOL focused bent than Kaja's. This path's drama is mostly focused around the search for 'Tenchou's' identity and fate after he concealed Cinema. While there is some action, the actual stakes involved are far less than in Flow or Itsuki's path.
Last Episode
Last Episode is a chapter unlocked by completing all four heroine paths. It is very revealing about how and why 'Tenchou' vanished from the public world, and it also provides a conclusion to the story as a whole. Certain aspects of this chapter change based on which heroine you choose at the very first part of the chapter, as this determines which heroine is your canon heroine, lol. Of course, I always choose Flow... if there is a choice between human and non-human, I will always choose non-human.
There are some seriously teary moments in this episode... particularly
To be blunt, this chapter is really about Cinema and the final purpose for which she was created. If you, like me, have come to love Cinema by this point, you will probably break down in happy tears.
Extra
There really isn't anything to the extra chapter (accessed using the usual Takaya Aya code nkmr). It's basically a short joke skit written for people who have finished at least one of the paths.
Conclusion
A few stylistic comments first. Each chapter of this game has an episodic preview that hints at a key aspect of the next chapter. It is done using the second opening song and credits, and I thought it was worth noting, because while it hints at what comes next, it does so without spoiling things. It is also notable that the second opening song is just as beautiful as the first one (in retrospect, the music in Komorebi is top-tier, but Hapymaher's god-tier BGMs are so beyond the pale that comparing them at the time couldn't help but be a win for Purple Soft's flagship game).
Komorebi no Nostalgica is one of a very small number of VNs that is 'complete' in every conceivable way. For better or worse, most VNs leave an opening for fandiscs, sequels, or dlc. However, Komorebi ties off all the loose ends and provides the answers any sane reader having experienced this story would want to know. Moreover, it does so in a manner that is not detrimental to any of the four heroines or their paths, which is, in itself, an incredibly unusual thing (essentially providing a true path that applies to all the heroines).
Komorebi no Nostalgica also touches on a wide range of philosophical and ethical topics, in particular relating to AI and information technology in general. That this was done without compromising the emotional aspects of the story at all is a tribute to the genius of the writers.
Final Comments
If I have any advice for someone playing this game, is that the magic (not the devil) is in the details. This is a game that rewards people who actually take the time to think about or look up things they don't quite understand from what they are reading, and both Takaya and Morisaki rather obviously created this as a work of love and art, not just business. There is food for both the intellect and the heart in almost every (non-H) scene, and the characters, especially the main ones, are all well-written and brought to life well in the course of the story, which is in and of itself both touching and food for thought.
Kouyoku no Soleil was the first Soleil game I ever played... and from a purely action perspective, it was fun... but it lacked something from my perspective because so much of the game is steeped in pre-existing knowledge from the other games (literally, this game pulls stuff in from Shirogane, Gouen, Soukyuu, and even Primary).
Basically, this story starts with the Norns fighting one another over what to do about the original Norse Mythology world, which hasn't moved on from the moment the fate they predicted came to a close. Touya, the protagonist of the story, meets the Norn of the Past, Urd and ends up getting dragged into her affairs as she tries to find the Valkyrie who was supposed to spark the new world into existence. In the process, he bonds with the clutzy newbie valkyrie Rinasoel, ends up partnering with the magical girl (from Primary's world) Palfina, is repeatedly plagued by attempted sexual assaults by the firebird youkai from the Ayakashi realm named Yatohime, and ends up in a rather odd friendship with the girl beloved of the Lovecraftian Old Ones, Celaeno.
This really... varied cast comes together because the world he lives in, the 'central' world, is a nexus of dozens of worlds, which in turn have connections to yet other worlds (though distant), thus leading to a rather chaotic situation. Making it worse is the giant immaterial sword plunged into the central world, which stands silently in the background for much of the story.
To be straight about it, Touya is, like most of the protagonists in this series, a serious philanderer. He falls in love and has sex with all the heroines I mentioned above, and he is rather passionate... unfortunately, he is also rather incapable of the fidelity some of the more jealous ones (such as Rina and Palfina) desire. Touya is devoted to protecting Kukuri, the hikikomori girl who is also his landlord and his boss for his part-time job at the convenience story. His soft side is most often shown with her, in an almost fatherly manner. He is strong and violent but highly protective of those he cares about and pretty compassionate, though he does have an immense potential for destruction. His right arm can transform into a beast-like claw, which he can channel power through to sever anything, whether material or immaterial.
This VN is a kinetic novel - save that it has bad endings - for the most part, with only one storyline, and that is probably its biggest saving grace, because it didn't share out the story between a bunch of routes that probably would have not been nearly as satisfying as it was. Upon my second playthrough, I honestly felt that the game deserved a higher rating, since I now possessed the background knowledge necessary to enjoy it fully, lol.
I first played this VN in 2011, having read Accany's review of it (it was on his rather long list of recommended VNs), and at first, I had trouble getting into it. To be blunt, my distaste for mysteries is pretty much the biggest reason why I had trouble with this... but the protagonist is, in some ways, your typical 'stick his nose in everything and anything' detective, meaning that he frequently takes actions that make me want to face-palm. In addition, his unwillingness to put the puzzle pieces together (some parts of the setting come together indirectly really early on, and it always bothered me didn't figure it out then and there) bothered me as well. Nonetheless, I set that feeling aside and decided to replay this, since it is technically a classic VN, lol.
Kurenai no Tsuki is one of those rare VNs (rare even then) where all the characters are full adults with their own occupations and lives. It is also a combination murder mystery, fantasy, and horror story. The game's setting is an isolated village in the mountains, where the protagonist, Kouya accidentally stumbled onto the bathing scene of the two main heroines, Sunao and Hiori. Being old-fashioned Japanese women, they of course demand that he follow the rules and pick one of them (or both of them) to marry. If this VN were to have been made this year, then it would have turned into a series of moe antics, with good-hearted villagers blessing the potential marriage and the mystery being cleared up as something relatively innocent. However, Kurenai no Tsuki was made in 2009, when it was still normal to have this kind of beginning take a different track.
This story has a ridiculous number of choices, most of them you are required to pick eventually and the only thing you can pick is the order, which makes them useless choices in my mind. Objectively, this is perhaps the most negative point of the VN, lol.
There are two arcs to this VN, based on a choice made mid-way through the second chapter, which requires you to pick between Hiori and Sunao. Depending on which you choose, you get to look at a different side of the events and mystery of the story. There are four heroines, two of which are in each arc. The first one follows the villagers' side and contains Sunao's and Akari's paths. The second one follows a second faction and leads you to Hiori's and Kokoa's paths.
While I enjoyed this VN and liked its characters, the fact is that it doesn't really meet my tastes, even now. I love Sunao and Hiori, and so I always felt that this VN could have done without the mystery elements, since the protagonist is so paranoid he is willing to doubt those pure-hearted girls at the drop of a hat. That's probably my problem, since I was already thinking of those two as my waifu inside the first ten minutes of the VN each time I played it, hahaha...
Anyway, this VN's atmosphere is frequently gloomy and the villagers are insanely xenophobic (violently so at times), and the deaths that keep occurring only make things worse. Nonetheless, as a story it is very well-made and has a really interesting setting. Kokoa's scientific approach to the mystery of the village is also helpful, since it provides some perspective when you find yourself falling into baseless superstitious paranoia, haha.
I recommend this to fantasy mystery lovers, though don't expect that the mysteries will all be solved in a single path.
Edit: Oh, and the true path is the harem path, lol.
I went ahead and based my schedule on the poll's numbers...
1: Silverio Vendetta (because I need some chuuni)
2: Houkago no Futekikakusha
3: Dracu-riot (Japanese version)
This is subject to change based on what is going on and sales (I keep an eye out for cheap games on download, lol), but for now, this is the schedule. I am also going to play Kouya (started yesterday as withdrawal reached its peak). Sorry, as I said before, I ignored that poll. Jeanne would take too much energy to read through at this point, and Dies Irae is something I'd like to save for a rainy day, when I feel like replaying the original again. Also, since Langrisser comes out on Tuesday, VNs aren't going to be my only entertainment occupation, so completion of the schedule is probably going to be slow, unless I get into one of my moods where I play seven VNs in a two week period just because.
Now, I know what you are wondering... 'Why did Clephas pick a charage for a random VN this time around?" The answer is not as straightforward as usual....
This game is about as close to being the 'perfect' charage as I've ever encountered. That's not to say it is exceptional in every way. There are better written and better presented charage out there. However, I've yet to encounter a charage that utilizes every single element included to the greatest degree possible like this one does. First, the protagonist is not just the average guy, but neither is he super-exceptional. He is just interesting enough to make a good viewpoint (his fear of women, his skill at martial arts, and the taste for cross-dressing he tries to deny) for a game like this without his personality dominating everything. His issues are vital to all the paths, though in different ways due to the way they intertwine with the heroines' issues.
Second, the heroines are all fairly interesting... or at least funny, if they aren't intellectually interesting (Honoka's tendency to see everyone around her as food when she hasn't eaten in the last hour is one example). The actual paths are split into three arcs... the Rielle Arc, the Honoka/Rin Arc, and the Renka/Senri Arc. Each arc approaches the protagonist's own issues differently, ranging from a gradual healing (Rielle) to confronting the source (Honoka/Rin), to a wildly different approach (won't spoil it: Renka/Senri).
This game is brilliantly executed and not dependent on H-content to support it as a whole (which is probably why the game got ported five times), which is a huge plus, since most charage tend to be reliant on dating and h-content to fill out the heroine paths.
This game doesn't waste time. While there is plenty of slice-of-life, much of it amusing, all of it moves the story - and not so incidentally, Yuuki's personal growth - forward. There is not a single wasted element in this story, and that is a feat in and of itself... I once referred to this game as 'bare bones', but that was probably not the right expression. This game is filled out nicely... it just doesn't waste time on stuff that has nothing to do with story advancement or character development.
Overall, if you want to know what the charage ideal looks like, this is a good choice. While it isn't a kamige, it is a game that hits all the spots charage are meant to hit without seeming puerile or shallow to a reader like me, who is more than a little jaded.
Edit: It should be noted that the phenomenon of 'heroines devouring the protagonist', where the heroines' strength of character pretty much buries the protagonist, does not occur in this VN, which is a feat in and of itself. For obvious reasons, most charage heroines are far more interesting than their protagonist, but that often results in a game that feels unbalanced and is vaguely unsatisfying, because many writers actually put down the protagonist to make the heroines shine more... thus leaving a vague feeling of dissatisfaction behind in the end.
Edit2: Adding heroine, character descriptions below.
Protagonist
Kusunoki Yuuki- Yuuki is a reasonably intelligent (slightly above average) young man who is well known for his good heart and ability to put others before himself. When he tries to confess to his girlfriend, a young woman named Ran, she tells him she only went out with him as part of a penalty game and dumps him. As a result, he becomes unable to trust females and instinctively rejects interpersonal contact, even with his own little sister Tatsuki and his childhood friend Honoka. He quite naturally acts for the sake of others, despite this mental illness, and as a result he is a natural harem-builder. However, he is also as dense as the containment for a fission reactor core, meaning that he never notices. This comes at least in part from his inability to trust the feelings of women. He is a skilled martial-artist and very good at fighting one-on-one, but he has no talent for handling multiple opponents at once.
Heroines
Rielle Anderson- The CEO of the Anderson Corporation, an orphan girl who built her fortune from almost nothing in a matter of years. She is behind the new city policy that encourages romance, as well as engineering the 'love-war events' that are being tested at Yuuki's school. She is very blunt and expressive, as well as being highly aggressive when it comes to getting what she wants. She has a ruthless side, but it is not something she indulges to excess (she is a CEO after all). However, she, like Yuuki, tends to put others before herself when it comes to those she cares about, and she frequently indulges in philanthropy.
Suzushiro Rin- One of Yuuki's classmates and a close friend of Honoka. She is extremely distrustful of men due to her past experiences, and her reactions to men tend to range from dry and disinterested to outright malice. The exception is Yuuki, with whom she finds herself forming a sort of rapport almost from the beginning, due to his affliction. At her core, she is a kind-hearted and considerate young woman, but her experiences have rendered her with one of the most terrible of all afflictions... tsundere-ism.
Hiiragi Honoka- Yuuki's childhood friend and the person hurt the most by his inability to be close with women. She is a sweet, somewhat airheaded young woman with an insanely protective side directed toward Yuuki. She has been in love with him from childhood, but he never notices... and she is too much of a hetare to confess her love to him. When she gets hungry (which is often) she goes into a state where those around her start looking tasty, and she begins fantasizing about how she would cook them... with utter seriousness. She feels deeply and acts really directly in response to those feelings, especially when it comes to Yuuki.
Hazakura Renka- The vice-president of the student council. Normally, she is a serious, somewhat uptight young woman with genius level intelligence, but when she sees Yuuki she becomes a prowling panther, panting after him as if he were a delicious-looking deer. She is close with Senri and the only person who can jerk her up short... and vise-versa. She is one of the very few people around Yuuki who don't set off his condition, and she is always very considerate about it, even going so far as to subtly lead him away from areas where females gather.
Asagiri Senri- Called 'the Prince' for her behavior that looks like it came straight out of a shoujo manga, Senri takes a certain pleasure in being surrounded by females and naturally hits on any female that crosses her path. She takes a shine to Yuuki early on, after Renka becomes obsessed with him. Almost no one knows she is a woman, because she arranged things that way. She is a genius scientist who really doesn't need to attend school, but she does so for her own reasons, not the least of which her fondness for role-playing as the school's prince.
Side Characters
Azami Taiga- Yuuki and Honoka's childhood friend. He is a muscular guy who frequently gets treated like a delinquent, despite being about as far from one as it is possible to be. He is extremely protective of Yuuki, similar to Honoka, but he is also better than her about respecting his desire to change and encouraging him to break out of the shell he is trapped in. Unfortunately for him, almost everyone in the group that surrounds Yuuki and the class in general picks on him, and he ends up taking up the worst jobs in any given situation.
Chigaya Rei- A teacher at Yuuki's school who is infamous for his heavy smoking habit and fondness for not coming to his own classes. His bad habit of getting off track during class makes him well-liked by the students, but most people wonder just how he manages to avoid getting fired.
Kusunoki Tatsuki- Yuuki's little sister, she is madly in love with her older brother. When he begins rejecting all women, she discovers that she is a masochist and takes pleasure in the way he slaps her hand away and avoids her. She is Tsukumo's owner, and everyone but her knows that her job in life is to keep that particular monster in its cage.
Kokonoei Tsukumo- A bisexual cosplayer and Tatsuki's closest friend. She moves entirely on instinct and is utterly uncontrollable, frequently stealing looks at Tatsuki's panties and stealing the panties themselves. She is incapable of forethought and has an unnatural instinct for knowing when and how to cause the most trouble. If it weren't for Tatsuki's ability to control her to some extent, she probably would have been expelled long ago.
Rindou Anju- The school's banchou and the single most physically capable student at the school. She also is the child of the dojo that Yuuki attended and treats him as her underling... she is also one of two women Yuuki can actually deal with at close range from the beginning. Despite her attempts to act the lone wolf, Yuuki and the others inevitably manage to ruin her plans and make her seem likable, much to her consternation.
Kuga Erika- One of Rielle's two maid assistants. She is a black-hearted young woman whose hobbies involve SM and writing down information in her 'blackmail diary' to use against others. While she technically has more common sense than Yuzuha, few would willingly want to deal with her over her sister.
Kuga Yuzuha- A rude, violent young woman and one of Rielle's two maid assistants, primarily acting as a bodyguard and troubleshooter. She is easygoing and friendly to those with the right attitude and combative when provoked. When drunk, she reverts to a small child and tends to end up as a target for Erika's sadistic side. She keeps slacking off on the job and getting her pay cut, but she never learns her lesson.
Tsubaki Koharu- Yuuki's homeroom teacher, a small woman in her late twenties who is obsessed over the fact that she still doesn't have a boyfriend. Her tendency to spiral into depression after mentioning this fact in class has become a regular source of amusement for her students, and Taiga generally gets the job of breaking her out of it.
This game is on a short list of VNs from 2015 that I am pretty sure I underrated. As a result, I decided to take a second look at it and see if my impressions changed. To an extent, they did. I was much nicer to it this time around, if only because I had better perspective after having taken a few steps back from VNs in general.
This game is focused on the Gardening Club of a Protestant boarding school in Japan. The protagonist, Haruto (real name Hartviche or something like that) is a vampire born in the twelfth century and staked rather thoroughly by the Inquisition in the sixteenth century. He was then revived by the game's main heroine, Kureha, who gave his mummified corpse some of her blood as a child. His body then reverted to a child state of equal age to hers and he ended up being raised a second time as her little brother.
It should be noted for those who hate nerfed fantasy that this game is somewhat borderline in that respect. In this game's version of our world, vampires are actually people who, through intense mental and magical training, exceeded human limits and became able to live solely off of life energy or blood. Their purpose in doing so (at least the ones who became vampires by this method) was to save humanity by eventually becoming one with the world. If this sounds vague to you, don't worry, you aren't alone... it is probably the most out-there outlook on vampires I've seen since Twilight, lol.
Anyway, Haruto, who is a member of the club, one day finds that he has entered a state called the Flower Choosing, in which he is required biologically to find his mate and drink their blood, with the near-100% chance they will turn into a vampire themselves. Haruto, being a goody-goody type, is of course greatly conflicted by this idea (since his experience tells him that very few humans can withstand the burdens of eternity), and, like the hetare all charage protagonists who aren't hot-blooded or super-lucky (as in, the situation resolves itself without him having to move), he waffles a lot during the common route and heroine routes.
You won't see any action scenes in this game... though there are plenty of scenes that are emotional, the game's length turns out to be its greatest weakness at times. The common route and the heroine routes are about as long as you'd expect from a Yuzu-soft game, rather than your standard charage, and a ridiculous amount of time is spent with Haruto and the heroines wringing their hands about stuff that is exasperating, looking at it from the outside.
Nonetheless, the emotional moments are generally worth the wait, and I can honestly say there is one area in which this game managed to redeem itself in my eyes... the endings. Every one of the endings in this game is a 'years later' ending, meaning you aren't stuck reading what they did the day after the climax (a common occurrence in charage, mostly because companies want to leave stuff for a possible FD or just because it is 'tradition' now). However, one thing that seriously irritated me about this game (besides the somewhat excessive length created at least in part by switching out scenes depending on which heroine is set to dominate at the end of the common route) is the way the vampire setting only ever really lives up to its full potential in Kureha's route. Oh, there are a few moments in each route where you can go 'that would be kind of cool', but Haruto's general reluctance to use his abilities or actually change the girls ruins most of it.
I have better perspective now, so I can see it didn't deserve the poor rating I gave it way back when... but if you asked me if it was satisfying, I'd say it falls short.
To be honest, it is really hard to comment on this series of sequels/fandiscs...
S
For better or worse, S really is a sequel, starting from just before the events in the true route of the original. It adds a massive number of characters (seriously, the number added is ridiculous), extended after-stories for the original game, a what-if scenario for Yuki, and five new heroine paths... unfortunately, those heroine paths are hit and miss.
I'm going to say it outright... Tsubame's path was boring. Oh, there were some good fights, but I honestly never got to like her as a character, so there was no sense of tension in any of what happened for me. I really could have done without this path existing at all.
Monshiro's path, on the other hand... is first-class (as long as you are a lolicon or don't watch the h-scenes - which I didn't). Combined with the complete after-story in A, it is one of my favorite paths. Part of that is because Yamato grows more in this path and its related Majikoi A paths than he does on any of the others, and the other part is because it is just all-around the best constructed of the heroine paths.
Tatsuko's 'path' is basically just an after-story for the true path of the original where you choose the Itagaki sisters. There isn't much there but h-scenes and ichaicha, so it is hard to comment on it.
Kokoro's path is... less than memorable. Honestly, it felt like they didn't put much effort into it at all.
Margrit's path is pretty good, if you like the side of himself that Yamato showed in Chris's path. If you hated it, you'll hate this path.
A
First, I'll say that all but one of my favorite paths from 1-4 are Kuki-related (split-offs from Monshiro's path). Asumi, Stacey, and Ri all get paths in this one, and I liked all of them, though Asumi's was the best of the three. I also liked the Monshiro after story, Rin's story, and Homura's story. Each one is about equivalent in length and content to a full heroine route in the original Majikoi, so there is no reason to complain about the amount or depth of content. Seiso's and Benkei's paths were good, but not as interesting as the paths above. Other than that... there isn't much to say. I didn't really like Yukie's sister's path (mostly because I hate the 'pretend lovers' trope like the plague).
One thing I noticed is that, throughout Majikoi A, they were setting up for a potential fourth Majikoi game... and I honestly don't know how I feel about them wanting to continue to milk this series and cast of characters.
Due to work and other stuff, I hadn't had time to really get into this until recently, and with friday signaling the release of October's list of VNs, at least one of which (Deep One) will play immediately, I felt that it would be fitting to go ahead and give you my initial impression of the game.
My first impression, after playing through the prologue, was that, while this game is pretty old, it is also very... familiar in an odd way. At first, I couldn't figure out where that impression was coming from... but then it struck me!
I finally figured out where Favorite stole its basic style. It always bugged the hell out of me that Favorite was able to produce such decent to great games despite essentially being a company full of lolicons and the writer basically being an unknown who produced two mediocre games before Irotoridori. The atmosphere of Meguri, Hitohira is almost identical to Irotoridori and AstralAir... which made the game feel pretty familiar as I delved into it.
However, this familiarity wasn't a bad thing, because I always liked the atmosphere of those games, even if I felt nothing but contempt for the loliconism. Say what you want about Favorite, but the atmosphere of their games is usually worth buying them for.
That said, this is a Shumon Yuu work... and Shumon Yuu is easily the best non-genre-specific writer in VNs. I was crying inside the prologue, empathizing deeply with the protagonist, his predicament, and his hangups, despite knowing that similar protagonists in other VNs have pissed me off in the past (understand, it takes a master's hand to make the suffering and self-hatred of a sensitive young man as sweet as honey, and when it goes wrong, it generally feels like I was eating aspartame in powder form afterwards). The fact that the game is very, very dated didn't hurt the presentation nearly as much as it does with some other old games (Ikusa Megami comes to mind, as does Tsukihime, despite my love for it).
Since I haven't hit an ending, I don't have a conclusion for you... but even if this game were to flop on its face later (an impossibility, given the writer) it would still be worth playing. You probably won't see my final impressions for a while, because, even though this game is engrossing and emotional, it takes actual courage get into it, since I know Shumon Yuu's habits well enough to figure out in a vague sense where he plans to go with the story (Hint: Most of Shumon Yuu's games almost border on utsuge at times, with the exception of Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide).
Mirai Nostalgia is the game that turned Purple Soft around. After Ashita no Kimi to Au Tame ni, the company produced a number of middling and poor quality games, and it looked like Purple Software was going to fade into the background, like a lot of other companies that prospered during the 'Golden Age'. Then, all of the sudden, they released this game... and they regained the hearts of their followers, leading to a series of high quality releases, including Hapymaher, Amatsutsumi, and Aoi Tori.
Mirai Nostalgia follows an extensive cast of characters... a group of friends centering primarily around the protagonist Youichi and Uta (called Hime by the rest of the group). Like most high quality VNs with a lot of SOL, the interactions with the friend characters and non-heroines are lively and vitally important to fleshing out the setting and characters as a group and as individuals.
The Protagonist
Kudou Youichi- Youichi is a lazy young man who is utterly incompetent at all forms of housework. He lives alone (at first) with the ancient bakeneko Kuro (who has apparently been alive for over a thousand years) and is a weak esper, possessing telekinesis and an unstable teleportation ability. In obedience to his family traditions, he keeps his powers hidden from all but those few others around him that also possess powers. Youichi is, by nature, a very calm, accepting individual who instinctively puts others first, often disregarding his own well-being if faced with the needs of others. He is also generally on the lowest rung of the family ladder (even the cat is above him), and he spends a lot of his time accommodating the females in his life (Shizuku and his little sisters especially).
The Heroines
Kasuga Iori- Iori is a traditional black-haired beauty and a miko... with an airgun and immensely powerful telekinetic abilities (think being able to erase someone from existence with pure kinetic force). She is also constantly threatening Youichi's life, for reasons she declines to mention to him, and her temper is almost always sharp-edged. She is definitely S by nature. Despite this apparently violent nature, she also has a deep capacity for love and compassion, and she is quite capable of forgiving a lot from those she cares about (though Youichi apparently pushes her over the edge).
Hatori Uta- Youichi's osananajimi, the daughter of the CEO of a large electronics company, and the spiritual center of the group of friends that lies at the center of the story. She definitely marches by her own drummer, living life as she wants to live it and ignoring inconvenient realities completely. All of the group of friends can't help but love her, and she doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She is a heavy gamer and loves nothing more than beating the shit out of Youichi in competitive gaming.
Kudou Nono- The older of Youichi's twin stepsisters, a genkikko who does the vault in track and field. She loves to exercise, loves to eat, and loves her oniichan (not necessarily in that order, depending on her priorities at any given moment). She always has a smile on her face and can make friends with just about anyone.
Kudou Hina- The younger of Youichi's twin stepsisters, a sharp-tongued beauty with glasses who rules the Kudou family with an iron fist. A natural dictator, she openly states that her goal is to become the next student council president and enslave the student body to her will. She adores her niisan, but she doesn't let that stop her from insulting him constantly and prodding him into doing what she wants him to do. Where Nono is the type that wears her heart on her sleeve, Hina is the type that has quiet depths beneath the surface.
Anna- Anna is an esper who has traveled from the future to the past, in order to change the timeline she came from. She states that the future Youichi denied her confession of love, and she also presents herself as the most powerful esper in existence. She is generally a prankster, playful and easygoing, taking endless pleasure in teasing Youichi. However, she is quite obviously hiding a lot of things from him... She is also the true heroine.
The Other Characters
Hatori Ei- Uta's elder brother, a rootless wanderer who travels the world for years at a time. His generally irresponsible nature makes him the butt of jokes for most of the group of friends, and he and Shizuku are rivals for the position of 'elder caretakers' in the group.
Hoshikawa Shizuku- The all-powerful student council president, Youichi's cousin, an immensely powerful clairvoyant, and the 'elder sister' of the group. Most of the group's members have resigned themselves to being her slaves, and when the whim takes her, she drags them all into her schemes and plots. She cares deeply about the other members of the group, but her position as an elder sister often puts her in the position of having to think of what is best for everyone.
Sanada Kanata- The waitress at a local cafe, one of Youichi's osananajimis, and an infamous dojikko. She shines the most as the butt of jokes or when being dragged around by Shizuku or caught up in her schemes. Everybody teases her, but they all love her, too.
Kase Touya- An unfortunate young man who finds himself in the same position as Kanata most of the time (the butt of jokes and getting dragged into trouble by Shizuku). While he is good-looking, because of his overly eager manner, most girls don't take him seriously, and he has yet to manage to get a girlfriend. He and Youichi often commiserate about their treatment by the girls in the group.
Kuro- A thousand year old bakeneko (youkai cat) who has advised the Kudou family for generations and is one of the 'people' who raised Youichi. Once an immensely powerful youkai, time has taken its toll, and now he only retains the ability to speak mentally to those who possess esper abilities. Immensely dignified, wise, and gentle by nature, Youichi's trust in him as an advisor is absolute. While Kuro will advise if asked or if he thinks it is truly needed, he doesn't believe in 'holding the student's hand' (figuratively speaking) and is perfectly willing to sit back and let Youichi make his own mistakes.
Kasuga Haru- Iori's mother, an easygoing nurse and sometime coach to the track and field team, she is an immensely strong person (mentally and spiritually). Her capacity for love is as deep and strong as her daughter's, and one can see the results in Iori's private interactions with her. She does share Iori's S side though.
The story
Mirai Nostalgia's story begins with the protagonist's first contact with Anna, the supposed 'girl from the future' and the return of his twin imoutos, Nono and Hina after several years apart. Soon after, he encounters Iori, and his peaceful life is suddenly overturned as a result. This is a nakige, much like the other games Purple Soft has made since, but its style is more 'traditional' (closer to the format Key pioneered, albeit with a stronger central story). My suggested play order for this game is Hina>Nono>Uta>Iori>Anna. The reasons are pretty obvious if you play the game, but I'll go ahead and outline them here. I basically put them in order from 'least relevant to the central story' to 'most relevant'. Hina's path is by far the weakest of the five, which is probably inevitable in retrospect (Hina's character is hard to grasp as a heroine). Nono is a bit stronger as a heroine, but the events leading up to the climax of the story felt forced in comparison to the events that led to her and Youichi becoming lovers. Uta's path is a bit more fantastical in some ways, mostly because of an unexpected turn of events caused by Uta's dependent personality. Iori's path... is emotionally powerful, not the least because it reveals the biggest reason why Anna returned to the past. Anna's path... is a cryfest. I cried through roughly a third of Anna's path both times I played this game, simply because it was just that good.
The audio
This game's music is slightly above the standard quality for commercial VNs, so it is noteworthy in that sense. However, this was also the VN where Purple Soft began to seriously typecast the company's favored voice actors (Kazane in particular), and so you can pretty much tell the personality of a Purple Soft character by the sound of their voice, in a generalized sense, lol.
Visually
The first time Purple Soft used Koku for their visuals was in this game, and for those who have played Hapymaher or Chrono Clock, the style will be familiar by now.
Overall
This game is a nice nakige with a strong mix of humorous slice of life and powerful emotional moments. If you want a good nakige to sit down and read through that is less moe-dependent than a Key VN, this is an excellent choice.
First, yes I decided to write about another nukige... a nukige with story. Now, the reason I decided to play this one is because of my fondness for kitsune heroines (my fetish is everlasting), and I thought, going into this, that it was going to be a sex fest from day one... but the actual amount of h-content in this game is quite a bit lower proportionally to the story than is the norm in a nukige. In fact, this game actually has solid heroine paths that impressed me with their quality.
This game focuses on a young wannabe potter who goes to a small country town to study as an apprentice under a skilled potter named Haruakira (incidentally, this was the first name of Abe no Seimei, the famous onmyouji from the Heian era that makes his way into so many fantasy anime).
This game's unique approach to the story is that, for one thing, there is no pre-marital sex (unheard of in any eroge I've read up until now), and most of the VN's content is about the married life with each of the heroines, as their bonds strengthen and they get to know one another on a deeper level. This was also what impressed me most about this game... because it focuses on married life rather than a relationship between unmarried lovers. In addition, the actual time consumed for the formation of the relationships to proposals tends to be a year to several years, and the married life generally lasts a year or more before the ending roll.
Now, while I liked the other paths, my favorite one in this game was the one for the kitsune, Kuzunoha. Kuzunoha is a mischievous fox youkai/kitsune who is more like a buddy to the protagonist when they first meet, though their relationship turns into love relatively quickly. Kuzunoha has her hangups, like any ancient heroine you see in one of these games (past losses and general loneliness being the major ones). However, all in all she is a somewhat odd blend between the ideal Japanese wife functionally (by the way, the ideal Japanese wife thing is extremely sexist, lol) while never losing that tendency to tease the protagonist every chance she gets.
There are a lot of points in this VN that are emotionally touching, and I actually never felt like skipping the non-H text (which tends to happen in nukige most of the time, since the non-H scenes usually read like they were written by the village idiot).
Honestly, on occasion it really is worth following your fetishes, lol.
This game is a peculiar one. This is the third time I've played the game, and the second time I've posted on it. If you want to see my original review, please look here:
I'm going to focus here on coloring in some of the details of why I like this game and think it is underrated amongst Western readers of untranslated VNs. First, the factors that lead to it being underrated.
1) The protagonist takes on a man-whore role through large swathes of the game and isn't a pure-hearted boy by any standard. For some reason, man-whores aren't received very well by a lot of Western readers, especially ones that are calculating and intentionally act that way.
2) The visual style of the game differs significantly, if subtly, from the more common styles of the post-2010 era. It is rougher in some places and more elegant in others.
3) A large portion of the readers don't like Arika. Now, there are good reasons not to like her in many's eyes. She is whimsical, manipulative, and lazy as all hell when she isn't interested in an activity. However, she is also hyper-intelligent, intuitive, and has the same kind of super-luck that Cap did in Majikoi. Unfortunately, she is the kind of character that seriously divides readers.
4) People's expectations of trap protagonists. Most people going into a trap protagonist game expect a lot of comedy antics related to the cross-dressing. However, Hajime doesn't bungle things and doesn't panic the way a lot of trap protagonists do. In addition, 'calculating' is a quality that many who actually like trap protagonist games don't like in them... and Hajime is nothing of not calculating.
5) The surprising darkness of the setting. People go into trap protagonist games thinking they will be comedic and moe-moe festivals. Ojomasu is neither. There isn't a lot of comedy in the game, and there is very little in the way of moe fanservice.
6) The prologue H-scene. Probably the thing that annoys a lot of people is the h-scene in the prologue and how it came to be. For people that go into this game with a 'I want to see pure love romance from beginning to end' attitude, this is a huge downer. That it is followed by Hajime using the affections of a number of other women during the course of the story only enhances this impression for this part of the crowd.
7) Ginko isn't one of the heroines. Yes, in any other game, Ginko would have been one of the heroines.
The things that make this game worth playing.
1) Everything above. Seriously, the fact is that a lot of the people who play this game aren't the intended audience. In some ways, this is a more down-to-earth version of the 'guy infiltrates a girls' school' trope.
2) Despite only having three heroines, those heroines provide a full spectrum of personalities. The whimsical Arika, the stoic and straightforward Benio, and the sweet-natured Peko provide a lot of variety without any real overlap. If Ginko or Rion (the ones the largest part of the fanbase seemed to want routes for) were heroines in this game, it would distract from things greatly. Moreover, there is way too much overlap between Ginko and Arika personality-wise.
3) There is just enough darkness to the setting and story to create a firm contrast to the soft atmosphere of the girls' school. In a lot of cases with these 'girls school infiltration' VNs, there is a sense of unreality created as a result of poor buildup of the setting.
4) This game doesn't even attempt to imitate the success of other companies. I honestly think they should have named this game something else, because the title makes it seem like a game that should be a soft romance rather than the more complex story it is.
5) Hajime is a protagonist you can enjoy self-inserting into. He is capable, intelligent, and ambitious, a combination that is a refreshing change from most VN protagonists in general.
Onigokko is a high-quality fantasy charage that was amongst the second fifty I played after I began plowing through untranslated VNs. Unlike many I read during that time, I find I haven't really forgotten anything significant, so it turned out to be a bit harder to get into than I expected, even after half a decade. That said, it has a lot to recommend to it, even today.
The story focuses on the protagonist, Keisuke, who is also the Phantom Thief, Ura. He and his family have been stealing magical treasures and using them to do good for over a century, and he is the third generation to take on the mantle. He is unable to lie for the most part, but he is surprisingly good at misdirection. His straightforward and honest personality make him an easy companion for the heroines when they don't know he is a Phantom Thief, and the Phantom Thief persona is also fairly likable, if you don't happen to be a victim, lol.
Anyway, this story focuses on Keisuke's pursuit of the false Ura and his daily life on an island ruled by the descendants of Momotarou, Kintarou, and Otohime of Japanese legend. His own family is on bad terms with theirs, as they prefer to seal away the magical treasures made by the oni in the distant past, whereas his family utilizes them for the good of others. It makes for some interesting conversations, lol.
Keep in mind, when reading Otome's path, that this is based in the same universe as Osananajimi wa Daitouryou (for some odd reason, translated into 'My girlfriend is president)) and Naka no Hito Nado Inai, which means things aren't so much pure fantasy as they are science-fantasy.
Kureha
There is only one phrase I need to say to give you an idea of how I feel about this path... Kuu-nyan Moe! lol
Seriously, nobody does tsundere loli characters like Aoba Ringo (the VA), and I found myself wanting to give her candy and pat her on the head at every turn. Amongst Onigokko's heroines, she is the one I remembered the most clearly, and I spent most of her path waiting for the moments when she went dere or said 'Kuunyan yuuna!'
Did I mention that I love cats...?
Anyway... her path is pretty long, with a lot of ichaicha (in the time when Onigokko was made, it was still fashionable to layer it on so thick it collapsed the cake beneath), and it actually has two climaxes, which kind of makes it a weird experience, since most VN heroine paths tend to have a single major climax. I love her character, so I enjoyed it for the most part... but the loli thing just doesn't attract me...
Fandisc
Kureha's fandisc after-story actually occurs before the last part of her epilogue, covering a period roughly one year after the end of the main part of her path. For ichaicha it is fine, but as after-story goes... I was hoping for something a bit farther down the line (like little Kureha children running around, driving her into tsundere fits).
Kana
Kana is a descendant of Kintarou (other name: Suzuka) who fought the oni on the island with a giant axe. Her family deals with outside threats and searching for treasures outside of the island itself, as well as providing training for the security personnel (ninjas) for the other Three Families. She loves archaeology in general and studying the ruins on the island in particular. She is rather obviously infatuated with Keisuke from very early on, but her shyness makes her path a bit frustrating at first... particularly because Suzuka's existence kind of confuses things at key points.
I honestly liked her path as a story and I shed a tear for her ending. However, I found the epilogue a bit unsatisfying in comparison to Kuu-nyan's.
Fandisc
Kana's fandisc path should be read only if you have finished Otome's path in the original, since it basically spoils everything in Akari's and Otome's paths. However, it also is really, really good as an extension of her story, bringing a conclusion to the promise made at the end of the original game and a wonderfully happy ending to the story.
Akari
Akari is Momotarou's descendant and the daughter of the current head of the family. Her family controls the political end of the Three Families' business (providing a place to hold the treasures, as well as overseeing security) and dealing with internal difficulties. Akari's issues are entirely wrapped up with her family's internal politics and the cost of their dedication to protecting and concealing the treasures. She and Kuunyan could definitely fight it out for which heroine oozes sweet stuff the most around Keisuke in their paths. Like most paths in charage of all types during that period, the romance part is pretty long and has a really long buildup (the same can be said for the previous two paths as well).
Fandisc
Similar to Kana's path, the fandisc after-story for Akari provides a lot of nice extra details and a frequently amusing conclusion to her story. It also fills in the details of what went on between the ending and the epilogue of the original game quite nicely for those who are interested.
Otome
Otome is technically the 'true heroine' of the story. She is a busty, sweet, deredere senpai character with a love of hugging people. She is a member of the Saionji clan, which is supposedly descended from Otohime. Anyway, her path is mostly romantic... until it starts delving into 'where the treasures came from' and comes up against the common setting with My Girlfriend is the President and Naka no Hito. It is actually a fairly emotional story, but while it falls into the realm of 'true paths', it doesn't really have more impact than the others, so you won't feel like you were gypped by the other paths.
Fandisc
Sadly, the fandisc doesn't really add anything to the story, really. It is mostly ecchi, ichaicha, and day to day issues, and as a result it doesn't really feel like it adds anything to what came before.
Aoi
お兄ちゃんの童貞は妹のものだって、法律で決まってるのに～～～！！ For those of you who can understand Japanese, this line says everything you need to know about Aoi.
Anyway, her path exists only in the fandisc and was a gift to fans who voted her the highest-rated character in the game. That said, I don't have much of a taste for Aoi... she is nice as a side-character, but I couldn't see her as a heroine even in her own path. The whole thing falls out in a typical 'forbidden fruit imouto' path for the most part, without any really dark undertones (this was written by the same people who did Daitouryou, after all). I really can't say that I'd bother playing this path again....
Ototsuki is one of the few, in fact the only, Ensemble trap protagonist game I hadn't at least tried. There were a number of reasons for this, but the biggest one was that it came out after my burnout on SOL reached its peak. By that time, I had no energy for any kind of SOL VNs, even ones in genres I normally liked. In retrospect, I'm glad I waited until I recovered before playing this, because this is the game that proves that Ensemble still has potential as a company, despite the last five years of mediocrity.
Ototsuki focuses on a servant-ojousama pair, to be specific, Yuuki Touya (the protagonist and servant) and Shijou Ran (the ojousama). Ran is a genius in science and maths, as well as an extremely capable athlete. She is also extremely eccentric, walking her own path to a degree that would probably drive most of us crazy. Yuuki, who grew up beside her, is used to dealing with her eccentricities and acts as the ideal servant for her type, occasionally restraining her and at others merely assisting. However, one of Ran's bad habits becomes a central point of the game's story, when she goes to an all-girls school and forces Yuuki to cross-dress and come with her, and while they are there, Ran and Yuuki regularly switch places (they have mastered dressing up as one another) as needed to make Ran look good, lol.
The choice to create such an intimate situation for the main heroine and protagonist was, in my mind, the reason why this game stands out from the rest of Ensemble's games made in the last half-decade. Ran and Yuuki's synchronicity and odd couple dynamic make for an ideal situation for this type of game. There are downfalls to this approach (such as it being difficult to consider heroines other than Ran), but the benefits are rather obvious.
Still, this game is rather straight-out as a charage, albeit with a few minor twists to make it feel like it actually has an overarching plot (technically, there is something going on behind the scenes, but its relevance varies by path).
Ran
I knew that Ran was the main heroine of the game, but I couldn't stop myself from playing her path first. The intimacy of Ran and Yuuki's relationship and how it deepens into romance is the major draw of this path, though it probably doesn't happen the way you would think it would. Ran's tendency toward being straightforward to the point of bluntness and unapologetic about it (she isn't the type to be bothered by others' reactions to her) is one of her major draws as a heroine. The climax of this path has some nice drama, and I honestly liked how it concluded. However, typical of Ensemble and its endless fandisc-preparation, there was not a significant after-story/epilogue.
To elaborate on Ran's personality, since she is a relatively rare type of character, she technically falls into the 'arrogant genius' archetype. However, her character doesn't come across as being abrasive, most likely because there isn't even a scrap of contempt or prejudice on her part. Rather, she simply doesn't have a humble bone in her body... which, combined with the fact that she really is as capable as she says she is (for the most part), makes it hard to be offended by her personality.
Shizune
Shizune is one of the ojousama heroines in this game, the daughter of the head of the school board of directors, and a member of the student council. Despite all these titles, she is fundamentally a humble, kind-hearted girl who always puts others first. Unfortunately, her family name and tendency to be strict with herself make her somewhat less than approachable for common students. She is paired with the game's 'other' servant, Iroha, who serves her with obvious affection and devotion. Shizune is pretty much the picture of the 'total innocent' when it comes to life outside of the wealthy old families of Japan, to the point where she honestly had never experienced such common things as shopping for herself or using a bus.
Shizune's path probably isn't what anybody would expect from this description, lol. I won't spoil it for you, but I appreciated the departure from tradition in this path, though in another way it uses a common trope (drawing a 'special status' character out of their usual life). The romance is fairly cute and relatively innocent for this type of game, and I appreciated the 'revelation drama' as being just right. It isn't at the top of my list for trap protagonist game paths, but it is pretty good. I did have to laugh at how she found out, though.
Iroha side-story
After completing Ran's and Shizune's paths, Iroha's side-story popped up, and I read it, curious about the details. This path is an H-scene free path that focuses mostly on what was going on behind the scenes of Ran's and Shizune's path, and it also has a pretty big revelation with some mild catharsis along the way. Honestly, it was nice to have the gaps filled in, though the game as a whole probably would have been better if these revelations could have been somehow integrated into the main paths instead of being told in a side-story.
Conclusion for now
I blasted through two paths of this game, but I'm pretty sure I'll come back to the other paths eventually, if only to experience the commoner heroines' stories. My current conclusions based off of what I have played are that this is one of Ensemble's more memorable games, taking third place overall behind Koi no Canvas and Gokigen Naname so far. While the story in this game is not spectacular, it provides enough variation from the usual norms of the niche trap protag genre without alienating the fanbase. I liked the heroines, and I felt their paths were well-designed. I am a bit annoyed, as I usually am, that it was made with fandiscs in mind, but the quality of the heroines I bothered with is such that I didn't mind as much as I usually would have.
Otome ga Tsumugu Koi no Canvas is the rarest of the rare... a charage that is also a kamige. In fact, I've only encountered three charage that I consider to be kamige out of the hundreds I've played. How did that happen? Well, a large part of it is the writer. For all that his first VN was a half-nukige with an absurd setting, his style is poetic, his settings deep, and his timing and pacing of events perfect.
Another part of it is the structure. This VN has a very, very short common route... as in the prologue only. After that, it immediately moves on to one of the five heroine paths based on the choices you made in the prologue. The paths themselves are about one and a half times as long as the average heroine path in the average charage, with an extremely tight focus on the heroine and the protagonist's romance with her. They are designed to make you fall in love with that particular heroine, to allow you to empathize with the course their love takes, and to let out the tears when the story demands it. I cried numerous times the first and second times I played this VN, as the writer's rather poetic descriptions (inside Shin's head) of the heroines only make it easier to care about them and their relationships with Shin.
The third element of this game that makes it great is the protagonist. I honestly consider this protagonist - Miyami Mizuki (true name: Mizuki Shin) - to be the best trap protagonist in all of VNs. First of all, he has been dressing up as a girl for so long that he does it quite naturally. Second, he is fully voiced... every bit of his dialogue is voiced... and voiced in a manner that perfectly matches his character's personality as written. Second, he is really, really good at whatever he puts his hand to. He is a gourmet-level cook, a self-taught art-appraiser, a master of domestic chores (even the advanced ones that the head maid isn't familiar with, lol), and... a brilliant artist, though he has a trauma that prevents him from letting it out. He is actually more girly than most of the girls in the VN, though he doesn't seem to be aware of it, hahaha...
Chiharu
Chiharu is Rena's bodyguard and a member of a family of bodyguards that has protected the Ootori family for centuries (Rena's family). While she can sometimes take extreme actions, she is at heart a compassionate soul, with an intense desire to protect which led her to become a bodyguard despite certain physical disadvantages she possesses. When alone with those few she is truly close to, she is rather straightforward in her affections, but she always puts others before her first, leading to trouble at times. Her path is one of those few charage paths where I honestly felt that the romance was worth experiencing even on its own. It helps that this writer is really, really good at portraying his characters' inner conflicts and emotions through narrating their thoughts.
One thing I absolutely love about this VN is Shin's (Mizuki's) poetic turn of phrase with internal narration. I believe these lines are the best description of how Shin sees Chiharu.
瑞希「……目が、きれいなんです」
Mizuki "... Her eyes... are beautiful."
怜奈「えっ……？」
Rena "Eh...?"
瑞希「お嬢様の隣にいるとき。千晴の目がきれいなんです」
Mizuki "When she is at your side, Chiharu's eyes are beautiful."
あんなにきれいなオレンジ、初めて見たんだ。――千晴の涙。
I've never before seen such a beautiful orange.... Chiharu's tears.
理屈じゃない。
It has nothing do with reason or logic.
仮にお嬢様が大洋だとすれば、千晴はその水底に落ちている、一個の石だと思う。
If milady (Note: trying out a possible translation for ojousama as a title, lol) were to be seen as the ocean, I think Chiharu would be a stone lying at the bottom of it.
でも僕はその石が好きなんだ。
However, I love that stone.
深い深い海の底で、人知れず輝きを放っている。誰に褒められたいわけでもなく、認められたいわけでもなく。
Deep deep beneath that ocean's surface, she shines brilliantly, unknown to men. She doesn't shine so that she will be praised or acknowledged by others. [note: took some liberties here]
きっと宝石として大衆に愛でられる価値を秘めながら、ショーウィンドウへ並ぶことを拒み続ける。
Though she is probably worth being adored by the public as a gem, she continually rejects being lined up in the store window.
千晴は最後まで、海の底で『無価値』の原石であることを選ぶ。
Chiharu will choose to lie at the bottom of the sea as a 'worthless' raw stone to the very end.
海に寄り添うために。
In order to nestle up to the ocean.
海が広く深いと僕らに分かるのは、あの小さな石が落ちているからだ。
The reason we can tell the ocean is deep and wide is because that small stone is sinking into it.
あの不器用な小石が光っているから海は寂しくないし、もし誰かが溺れて迷いこんでも、その明かりを頼りに浮上できる。
With that clumsy stone shining within it, the ocean will never be lonely, and if someone were to become lost and drowning there, they could rise to the surface, relying on the stone's light.
Anastasia
In this game, there are technically three 'sides' to the story as a whole... there are the Ootori-focused paths (Rena and Chiharu), the Karasuma paths (Yuki and Shizuku), and the stand-alone Anastasia path. Anastasia is... a seemingly soft and kind-hearted woman on the surface. However, it becomes obvious in her path that she is actually a mischievous, somewhat devilish young woman. She is the curator of the museum seen in the prologue and the overall curator for the art fair that is held in the city toward the end of each path. She does have a rather... unexpected secret however...
Anyway, her path greatly differs from the other four paths in focus and rhythm, so I recommend that it be played last, since it partially spoils Rena's path. While it has a rocky start in comparison to the others, it is nonetheless an excellently-written, high-quality path that is definitely worth reading. On the popularity rankings, she got the lowest score (probably because her path's tone is so different from the others), and as a result, she doesn't have an after-story in the FD, but don't let that stop you from playing it, lol.
Rena
Rena is the game's main heroine. She is Shizuku's rival, Chiharu's master, and the daughter of the man who owns most of the town they live in (a fictional part of Tokyo repurposed into an Art Town). She is very big-hearted, forgiving, and compassionate. By choice, she wears her emotions on her sleeve, choosing to show her anger, her sorrow, and her joy on her face, restricting the display of her emotions in no way or manner when she is with those she trusts. She tends to act on instinct, and she has a highly-developed sense of aesthetics, born out of being raised by and as an art-dealer and due to her own passion for art. While not an artist herself, she nonetheless has an absolute devotion to the art world, and her evaluations of people tend to be colored by how they act toward art. As such, she doesn't get along with the auctioneer Shizuku and despises Wolfgang (an annoying side-character and occasional antagonist).
Her path is perhaps the most complete when it comes to dealing with Shin's issues. Shin, by nature, shapes himself and his desires to fit his environment, and his primary motivation is always to act for the sake of those he cares about (the heroines, in each path). This is the one and only path where Shin comes to the fore as himself and the only path that reveals in full certain aspects of his past and current motivations. At the same time, this path tends to be the most poetic of the paths, as he and Rena's attraction for one another is very... intense.
Note: The h-scenes in this path are very emotional and vital to the experience... don't skip them. Normally I advise the reverse, but I make an exception for this game.
Yuki
Yuki is the protagonist's kouhai and a genius of modern art contracted with the Karasuma Corporation. Shy and more than a little eccentric, Yuki by far has the 'cutest' characterization (right down to the dog-head pajamas she uses for work clothes). Despite her sweet and innocent appearance, she has long experience with the bitter edge of society's tongue, and she has an intense dislike of the mass media. She is the only heroine who has almost no relationship with the protagonist outside of her own path (she briefly appears in the common route and as a side-character in the other routes), but, in exchange, in her route, the relationship she develops with Shin is intense and close.
One element of this game I've failed to speak about until now is the reason why I love the paths in this game... for better or worse, most charage paths involve the protagonist one-sidedly 'saving' the heroine from some trouble or helping her out with some issues. However, perhaps the greatest attraction of this game's paths is that the relationships are so... mutual. The protagonist doesn't just one-sidedly save the heroines, but rather he is saved by them in turn, rescued from the intense loneliness he feels even in the presence of others, as well as his bad habit of self-sacrifice. The reciprocity in this game's paths makes for a far more 'equal' relationship than you usually see in a VN romance of any sort.
Yuki's route is no exception... while the protagonist undoubtedly resolves the issues that plague her life, she also returns the favor by salving his spirit, saving him from himself in a way that can't help but bring tears to my eyes, even on a third playthrough.
Shizuku
Karasuma Shizuku is Rena's rival at school and in business. Shizuku's family company is a second-line dealer, primarily auctioning off art pieces whose value has already been set by the art community, whereas Rena's Ootori family specializes in discovering and raising up new artists whose works have not yet been given a value by the art community. In addition, the Karasuma corporation specializes in modern art, whereas the Ootori family specializes primarily in classical-style art like paintings, stone sculptures, and other such works. Shizuku is extremely sharp-tongued and aggressive... with everyone except Shin. She and Shin go way back... ten years back, to be specific, and when she sees him as a cross-dressing maid, she goes a bit berserk, jumping to all sorts of conclusions that make for some pretty hilarious events in the other paths. In her own path... well, let's just say her path is a lot more comedic than the others at first.
By nature, Shizuku's first second and fourth priorities are Shin, even when it isn't her path. She loves him, is aware of it, and she has little to no hesitation about using her immense fortune and personal influence for his sake. She is also the only heroine that is willing to accept his decision without questioning when it comes to a certain issue... and probably the most passionately focused on him alone, as opposed to splitting their attention between art and him. For better or worse, Rena is driven by a hunger for art, Chiharu by a desperate need to protect people and to find someone to accept her, and Yuki has numerous issues that are equal in importance to her when compared to the protagonist. In that sense, it can be argued Shizuku is the most loving of the heroines, because she always acts for his sake, above all other things.
It does, however, take a bit of effort to see beyond her cold mask in the other paths, lol.
Conclusion
Along with Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no this VN is one of my top two charage-type VNs (in Uruwashi no's case, a nakige). After having played this game a third time, my belief that this is a kamige has, if anything, become stronger. This game is actually far shorter than it seems when you read it, but due to the sheer 'density' of the events in the game, it feels like a far larger story. Any one of these paths would be worthy of being a true path in another VN, and it is a VN that is very easy to invest emotionally in. For those interested in the fandisc, it should be noted that it had a different writing and production staff, and as a result, it is little more than an excuse for extra h-scenes.
Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai is one of my favorite games by AXL, which has consistently made high-quality games since the middle of the last decade. Ou no Mimi is based in a medieval fantasy village in a nation that is still recovering from a war that wasted most of an entire generation of young men's lives. The protagonist, Cactus (generally called Cas), lives his daily life as a self-proclaimed bodyguard for Baree Village while skipping out on working in the potato fields and taking long naps at the riverside. However, at night he really does protect the village, patrolling the area to look for bandits, wild beasts and monsters, and various other dangers that might harm the village.
Cactus was originally a spy and assassin from an organization known openly as the Izayoi Knights and behind the scenes as the King's Ear. During the war, he carried out all sorts of dirty work for the King, ranging from assassinating enemy commanders to purging traitorous aristocrats. However, in the last days of the war, he was used as bait, along with his friend Collum, and his friend was killed in the process, though not before asking him to bring his heirlooms to his grandmother in Baree Village. When he arrived at the village after a long period of wandering, Collum's grandmother's kindness gave him a purpose, in quietly protecting his friend's village and family, while never letting on he was doing so.
Now, none of this spoiler material. All of it is revealed in the prologue or in the Getchu page. However, a lot of people don't take second looks at AXL games because their art style is different from the current trends (though it has been refined over the years). So I felt a need to go into more detail about the setting than is usual.
Now, this game, is for the most part, a medieval slice-of-life game with occasional moments of serious drama (in both the common route and the heroine routes both). This game probably has the darkest moments of any game made by this company, with the possible exception of Shugotate 2. Cas was a master of assassination and misdirection, and there are times in each path where he gets to show off that expertise. His primary weapon is the needle, followed by the long dagger. He is also a master of poisons and various chemical concoctions which he uses to provide specific effects, which can range from mundane stuff like laughing endlessly to instant death or the complete loss of all memories.
The four heroines are Coreo, Thistle, Peony, and Jinnia.
Jinnia is the princess of the Reste Kingdom in which Baree Village sits. She is a proud but kind-hearted princess with high ideals who can nonetheless admit when she is wrong. While she has led a very sheltered existence, she lacks the arrogant disregard for commoners which is common to her fellow aristocrats, and this leads to her being a much more interesting character than most variations on the princess archetype.
Coreo is the daughter of a former mercenary and bandit who has spent most of her young life looking after her father and his small gang, who now work mostly by hunting meat and exchanging it with the villagers for veggies and various other goods. She fell in love with Cas at first sight and has been pursuing him for years, but she is innocent of most of the details of what goes on between men and women, which can lead to a number of amusing situations.
Thistle (pronounced as Shizuru) is a poverty-stricken aristocrat girl living alone with her butler in the run-down manse at the edge of town. She is sweet-natured and compassionate, as well as being a glutton with a stomach that seems to have a black hole inside. She is also immensely clumsy, constantly tripping over her own feet or getting into other messes that put her in compromising positions (think lucky sukebe).
Peony is an apothecary/doctor (literal Japanese term is kusushi, which is a pre-modern word for a doctor who is trained in the use of herbal remedies as well as minor surgery and diagnosis of various common ills) who is dispatched to Baree Village shortly after the beginning of the story... and turns out to be Cas's estranged adopted sister. Kind and impartial by nature, with a tendency to be harsh with Cas's apparent laziness, she serves as a tsukkomi character throughout much of the game. She is also the game's main heroine, though none of the heroines are neglected in any way.
I have already reviewed this game in the past, so I'll conclude by saying this is an excellent game with well-written routes with just the right balance between SOL and drama in a medieval setting. For those who want something based outside of a school in modern Japan, this game is an excellent choice.
Paradise Lost was the first game in Masada's/Light's 'Shinza series (Paradise Lost>Dies Irae>Kajiri Kamui Kagura). For the sake of those who read Dies Irae but still don't understand how this universe/setting works, I'll explain it in a spoiler box at the end of the post.
Paradise Lost is based in the ruins of a city once called Sodom, now the Quarantine City, a city full of poisonous miasma that causes death and mutation in its inhabitants, a city sealed from the outside world by an impenetrable barrier, a city where Darwinism is the only law. All the denizens of that city are beasts, monsters who combine human cruelty with the lack of restraint of an animal. In that city, a man, sometimes named Lyle, at others Nacht, and at yet others Death Scythe, walks the streets of the darkest, most toxic area of the city, stained with the blood of those unfortunate enough to encounter him.
That's my intro to one of Paradise Lost's two protagonists, Lyle. In a city where everyone is out for themselves, with no pretense of anything else, Lyle is a living legend, a monster who kills simply because he can, because he feels like it. Always at war with his even more violent alternative ego, Nacht, he searches for a past lost so long ago that it was forgotten by time itself. Frozen in place for years, time begins to move forward when he encounters the angel Ririel deep in the depths of the Dead Zone.
The other protagonist, Knowe Christ, is a bit more comprehensible from the average human perspective. He is a young man who is on the lowest rung of the Quarantine City's societal ladder. Born with defects that make a life of violence impossible for him, he supports his adopted little sister Sophie by selling drugs and being a 'body chopper', selling his own body parts for enough money to feed them both. He loves Sophie dearly, and she is the only thing keeping him sane in the abyss that is that city.
Paradise Lost is, like all Masada games, over the top and pretty much a perfect example of epic chuunige style (as opposed to the standard types, which are less melodramatic and grand in scale). In some ways, this game avoids everything that Masada normally does poorly (namely slice-of-life) entirely. It is pure story from beginning to end. There is no conflict between daily life and the darker struggle, because the struggle is merely an extension of that daily life. Both protagonists are dark by nature, though Knowe can be pretty frustrating for his surprising naivete (understandable, since he is a weakling by the standards of the city).
This game has a lot of great fights and slaughter, and the actual story is pretty interesting. Unfortunately, the visuals are dated (though still pretty cool) and the protagonists aren't voiced, both of which are negatives for a chuunige (you would have thought Light would have fixed that when they re-released the game). There is only one truly good person in this entire VN (Ririel), and most of the characters in the game would be considered to be monsters by our moral standards. Both inside and outside of the city the world is a huge dystopia, with merely the vector differing.
This game uses a lot of Christian apocrypha (as should be obvious, considering that Ririel is an angel) in the setting, but it is done in a way that should be pretty offensive to most Christians, lol (seriously, I don't think that Masada could have so thoroughly designed a blasphemous work even if he'd done so intentionally).
While there are six endings to the game, it should be noted that there are only two possible overall outcomes, with the only differences between them being whether the endings are focused on Knowe's side (and one of his two heroines) or Lyle's side. Basically, the essential difference between the endings is determined by whether the antagonist succeeds or fails in his main goal (ironically, the antagonist succeeding creates the 'good' endings).
Overall, this game is a great chuunige... but anyone who doesn't like chuunige won't like it, because there is literally nothing but chuunige content in this game.
Primal Hearts is a game I have an odd relationship with. At the time I first played it, I don't think I gave it a completely fair assessment. The reason why? I was hitting the first of my many 'charage doldrums' periods. However, in retrospect, it grew on me... sort of like mold.
First, I should note that the game is actually fairly old-fashioned, despite its modern visuals. The wacky concept, larger-than-life characters, and the sometimes ridiculous 'coincidences' that pop in all hearken to a previous era. At various times, this game channels such famous games as Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no, Majikoi, Shuffle, and any number of 'golden age' games. Of course, it doesn't go as far as any of those does, but the makers' fanboyism is fairly evident throughout the game on a second playthrough (something I didn't notice on the first playthrough).
First, the resemblance of Majikoi lies in the larger than life characters and sometimes crazy abilities some of them have (the protagonist included). The protagonist's casual manipulation of the other characters for his own amusement (and for their own sakes, more often than not) is very much reminiscent of Yamato, without ever actually approaching his level.
Perhaps the strongest resemblance to Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no lies in Haruhi's path... to be blunt, Haruhi is a redesigned version of Miyabi, with Kanna a reformed version of Lida who also happens to be a heroine. The resemblances and relationships are so obviously drawn from fanboyism of that particular kamige that I just had to shake my head during this replay.
Shuffle is channeled, along with a lot of other early charage, through the setting. While the specifics are drastically different, the wacky, overblown occurrences, the general madness surrounding the 'elections', and any number of other factors in the setting make me nostalgic for the middle of last decade (soon to be the decade before last).
I perhaps didn't notice all this the last time because I was focused on heroines... and I was playing charage rather mechanically already, two years into VN of the Month. A peculiar element that you generally don't see in most charage in general is character designs like that of Mizanori. Most charage tend to make all their regular characters (the ones at the center of the cast) attractive to one degree or another. However, Mizanori stands out as a character who was made comically unattractive, which struck me as hilarious at the time, since I used to make some of the same excuses he did to eat more as a teenager, lol.
The common route of this game is excellent. The relationships between the characters are formed and deepened appropriately, and it actually makes sense that the heroines would fall for the protagonist by the end. It helps that the protagonist is really a 'great guy' in every way, though he can lack common sense at times. The decision to avoid mediocrity in the protagonist and those around him is one that is rarely made in charage, which just made it that much better as a result.
Sadly, after the common route, this game stumbles somewhat. The heroine routes lack some of the depth the common route does, perhaps because the shift to romance automatically debuffed the intelligence of the writers. Oh, the heroines are unbearably cute when they go dere (Sera's dere makes me giggle hysterically even now, and Haruhi's is as strong in its own way), but the 'drama' included in the heroine paths pales a great deal in comparison to the drama that pops up in the common route. In that sense, it felt almost like they were running out of ideas at the end...
Overall, this is an excellent charage that manages to escape mediocrity by channeling some of the best parts of a number of famous VNs into its characters and setting. I won't say it is a kamige (because it isn't), but if you are just looking for a good charage to add to your collection, this is a good choice.
Primary was one of my earliest fantasy charage... and in many ways it shaped what I was willing to forgive in the genre, rather than how I looked at the genre as a whole.
Primary has a lot of good points... the heroines are interesting, the protagonist's motivations are compelling, and the actual central issues of the overarching story are potentially fascinating. However... it makes the mistake many charage of the type do, of failing to utilize the setting to its fullest extent in most of the paths. Part of this is because Hinana's path is the one where everything is supposed to come together to reveal all the 'truths', and I'm willing to forgive a lot in a story where the protagonist isn't just an average dude.
Unfortunately, the biggest low point of this game is that the protagonist, Rikuo, is not really that smart. He is a skilled mage-knight, and - with work - he manages to keep good grades. However, he is dense about women, more than a little ignorant about issues outside of magic and fighting, and he has a tendency to sort of fall into his relationships with the heroines in their paths (usually because the heroine loses patience with him).
This game contains a few nostalgic archetypes... such as the mild yandere (Lime) and the standard-issue tsundere who is constantly angry (Prim). Not to mention the brocon imouto (Hinana) and the fuwafuwa ojousama (Maria). Their characters, in retrospect, are far more predictable to me than they were at the time I first played this.
While this game could have done with a more focused story, for a fantasy charage it is actually in the upper ranks... it just doesn't satisfy the way something more story-focused would have.
Prism Recollection is a more recent release by Clochette, with a less fantastical setting than Kamikaze Explorer's or Suzunone Seven's. Prism Recollection's setting is in a future Japanese town that is being redeveloped by corporations using it to test cutting-edge technologies and techniques for comprehensive economic redevelopment (as opposed to the piecemeal redevelopment that is normal in most cities). From the fact that most stores require people to use digital money to the AR holograms that can be made to appear like screens or holographic overlays throughout the new city, it shows off a possible near future that we already see in bits and pieces in our modern lives.
The protagonist, Masanobu, moves back to this town after seven years away to reunite with his little sister Konoka and his parents... or so he thought. However, his parents hardly ever come home, and he finds that his sister has become an impulsive oni-san obsessed pervert and heavy otaku in the years he has been in the way. In addition, he allows himself to be convinced to join the Three Stars Club, a school club run by an impulsive and typically (for Clochette) massive-breasted girl named Sayaka for the stated purpose of giving guided tours of the developed and undeveloped portions of the town. In reality, the club ends up doing whatever is helpful to the people around them, and thus is as much a jack-of-all-trades club as anything else.
Masanobu is a devoted older brother, a surprisingly wise and capable young man who cooks at a pro level, has a strong understanding of computer hardware, and is accustomed to working hard. He is far more mature for his age than the others around him, except Veronica and with the exception that he doesn't bother to censor his appreciation for the *coughs* physical allure of the girls around him. He is a terrible liar, so he generally doesn't bother.
Konoka, Masanobu's sister (also the main heroine, though there isn't excessive favor to any individual heroine in this game) is more than a bit of an oddball. She openly tries to seduce Masanobu into compromising situations, toys with everyone around her to varying degrees, and she can generally be trusted to say something sexually inappropriate every five lines or so. She also records just about everything around her, using sketchpads, notepads, video recording, audio recording, and cameras. She has good reason for this, as she has a neurological disease that prevents her from recalling episode memories more than three days in the past, though it doesn't interfere with her ability to gather knowledge. It has, however, stunted her emotional expression in some areas, and she doesn't self-censor what emotions have developed at all, which is one reason for her often inappropriate behavior (though she also loves the reactions of those around her).
Sayaka, the club president, is a cheery, outgoing young woman who has almost no impulse control. She takes pictures constantly, loves nothing more than to help people, and she can be trusted to be attracted to trouble like iron filings to a magnet. She also has a tendency to overdo things, to act without thinking, and she rarely bothers to restrain her impulses. She rarely gets depressed, and when it happens, it generally only lasts half-a-second before her optimism breaks through. She loves Tonan, her hometown, and she wants nothing more than to see everyone else come to love it to, which is the main reason she formed the club.
Hinano is Sayaka's kouhai and one of the two initial members of the club. She is a master hacker and generally brilliant young woman with tsundere tendencies that generally do a poor job of hiding the fact that it is easy get on her good side. She has trouble saying no to those close to her, and both Konoka and Masanobu are extremely good at getting around her personal barriers. In the club, she generally is in charge of gathering information and organizing it into reports. She is personally indebted and in the hire of the director of the school board, Kujou Hatsune, and as a result, she is forced to also dress up as a maid and work as a waitress at the cafe Hatsune runs on the side (which also serves as Hatsune's research lab and the club room).
Aina is a half-Japanese exchange student from a fictional European country with a military background and a powerful politician and general for a father. She is easygoing, open, and she can generally be trusted to create explosive synergy with Sayaka if left to her own devices without someone to stop them (usually Masanobu). She is openly friendly and open about her initial attraction to Masanobu from the beginning. She loves Japan and is, without a doubt, a true weaboo. Moreover, she is in the weaboo stage where even knowledge of her own absurdity does not in any way weaken her adoration of Japan, lol.
Like all Clochette games, this one combines a lot of SOL with just as much story and character development. In this case, much of the story involves the effects the redevelopment, the corporations running it, and the people 'left in the dust' by the process. Central issues include the advanced quantum computer used to run the town's services (the way it is used, its invasiveness, the implications of such systems, etc), the disregard of corporate interests for outliers' circumstances, and the dark side of the town's economic rise. While the atmosphere is generally kept cheerful, there are a lot of serious moments and moments of danger in each of the paths.
Overall, I was glad to come back to this game... if only because Konoka is hilarious, lol.
This one is a doujin VN by Initial, a doujin group that seems to have pretty varied tastes. To be honest... I wasn't expecting what I got with this VN. This is a kinetic novel, meaning that there is only one story that is progressed without any branches or choices. You progress through the story by picking your chapters, which go in in order from one to forty-six. The game itself is about eight hours in length, and it is a science-fiction/fantasy VN.
The story begins in a city walled in from the outside world, where people called 'Canaria' who can use esper-like abilities called 'Scratch' live isolated from the rest of humanity. The story takes a lot of seriously whacked-out turns (so much so that you have to ask why they put on the Love Comedy part most of the time) throughout its length, and it is pretty heavy on the kind of esoteric science fantasy logic that those who loved Ever17 tend to like. Personally, if it wasn't so short, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish it... not because it isn't good, but because I don't really have much of a taste for that kind of thing.
That said, the actual story is told in a very interesting manner, and the writing is pretty high quality.
However, it also suffers from the downsides of being a doujin VN (meaning a limited to nonexistent budget). All of the music is basically public stuff and rearrangements of public material, and as a result it doesn't have the impact a commercial Vn tends to have. In addition, it uses a pretty ugly set of background wallpapers that will have art-lovers hackles rising. On the other hand, the character designs (all four of them either heroines or the protagonist) are actually pretty good-looking for doujin work, with enough variation in expression to satisfy me for the relatively short ride this VN was.
I honestly felt this VN was worthy of praise, so I'm going to outright recommend it to non-art-bigot lovers of the type of stuff in I/O, Ever17, and Remember11. I do wish they'd put some effort/money into the backgrounds and the music, but considering how limited their budget had to be, I've decided to forgive their sins in this case.
