This is a VN by Circus, the company that makes the Da Capo series, which I'm sure most of our resident moe-addicts are familiar with. It is also based in the same universe (well, I'm pretty sure it is, since a Professor Amakase made an AI with emotions who likes bananas and who is the true heroine of this VN, lol).
To put it straight to you... this is a very old style of VN. It is a lot closer to the old Da Capo games and Key's early VNs than it is to anything else made in modern times. Like Da Capo, it has its emotional moments... and some decent drama. However, in exchange, the lateral relationships are almost nonexistent (character interrelationships other than with the protagonist tend to be weak to nonexistent, beyond a few templates). This is the standard for this type of VN, and it was more than satisfying enough for me when I first started playing VNs... but now that I've experienced more fulfilling interactions between casts of characters, this VN feels startlingly dull at times.
Both visually and audio-wise, this is a VN that 'feels' like a Circus VN. Almost all of the tracks are 'honobono' (restful) or playful in atmosphere. Visually, it is a reasonably pretty VN... but it isn't near the higher end of things.
I feel a need to mention the ero simply because of the degree to which the spare (short and plain) h-scenes screw up the rhythm of a VN that doesn't have that good of a rhythm in the first place. This is a VN that was definitely made with an eye toward releasing a console non-H version later on, and it shows. As such, the ero is fairly meaningless and tends to be more of an obstacle to enjoyment than is usual.
One more little thing that had me peeved about this VN was the fact that the protagonist is nameable... and that is also the single element that caused me the most difficulty in enjoying the VN as a whole. I don't say this to be an ass, but this particular trope has a singularly dehumanizing effect on the protagonist of any VN in which it is used. Considering how weak and pale charage protags are in the first place, this is a really bad idea, lol. In particular, when there is a blank spot in various spoken dialogue from the heroines where nothing is said or the name is changed to a pronoun, it feels really weird and breaks my engrossment in the story. Style-wise, this is one of the most abominable tropes in existence, and it is the reason it took me five tries to get into and finish Hoshi ori Yume Mirai, despite the overall high-quality of the VN otherwise.
Now... this VN particularly shines in its heroine routes. Those routes are done - as I mentioned above - in the 'older' style, where the heroines have a serious problem that only comes up when they are with the protagonist and the protagonist solves, thus affirming their bond (after some shakeups). Now, I don't particularly hate this particular archaic type of story, and the heroine routes themselves are fairly high-level... but looking at the VN as a whole, the weak scenario design outside of the heroine paths (the lead up to the romance formation) is absolutely abominable to experience. This, in some ways, makes the heroine paths an experience in the good slowly carving away at the negativity of the early game.
Overall, this VN is a typical Circus experience... good in some ways, godawful in many others. It is difficult to call most of the games by this company a kusoge, but this kind of BS is why this company isn't anywhere near a favorite of mine.
For the last two years or so, I've gotten repeated requests to unequivocally name my top VNs made up until the present, ignoring objectivity, my vndb votes, etc. I've more or less just ignored most of those requests, because it is a pain in the ass to name a 'favorite' VN in the first place. I've made lists of VNs I loved from various genres, and I've also made lists of VNs for a specific purpose. However, I've avoided making a list like this one up until now, mostly because my 'favorites' switch out so often.
Let's get this straight for those who are going to criticize my choices... these are the VNs I like the most, not the fifty best VNs of all time. I make no pretense to preeminence of opinion in this case, because I'm also discarding all attempts at objectivity. What a person likes is ultimately a matter of personal tastes, not a matter of logic.
Why did I make it fifty? Because my number of VNs played, setting aside replays and nukige, is over six hundred already (with replays and nukige, it is closer to eight hundred...)... I'd be surprised if I didn't have this many VNs I considered wonderful.
Keep in mind that these aren't in a particular order.
1. Evolimit
2. Dies Irae (the one by Light)
3. Ikusa Megami Zero
4. Nanairo Reincarnation
5. Semiramis no Tenbin
6. Bradyon Veda
7. Vermilion Bind of Blood
8. Hapymaher
9. Tiny Dungeon (as a series)
10. Bullet Butlers
11. Chrono Belt
12. Ayakashibito
13. Otome ga Boku ni Koishiteiru 2
14. Chusingura
15. Draculius
16. Otome ga Tsumugu, Koi no Canvas
17. Silverio Vendetta
18. Konata yori Kanata Made
19. Grisaia series
20. Akatsuki no Goei series
21. Reminiscence series
22. Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no
23. Harumade, Kururu
24. Soukou Akki Muramasa
25. Tokyo Babel
26. Tasogare no Sinsemilla
27. Komorebi no Nostalgica
28. Yurikago yori Tenshi Made
29. Izuna Zanshinken
30. Moshimo Ashita ga Harenaraba
31. Kamikaze Explorers
32. Devils Devel Concept
33. Suzunone Seven
34. Baldr Skydive series
35. Baldr Sky Zero series
36. Toppara Zashikiwarashi no Hanashi
37. Tsuisou no Augment (series)
38. Kikan Bakumatsu Ibun Last Cavalier
39. Shin Koihime Musou (series not including the original Koihime Musou)
40. Soshite Hatsukoi wa Imouto ni Naru
41. Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
42. Irotoridori no Sekai
43. Noble Works
44. Koisuru Otome to Shugo no Tate (series)
45. Kitto, Sumiwataru Asairo yori mo
46. Jingai Makyou
47. Sakura, Sakimashita
48. Abyss Homicide Club
49. Re:Birth Colony Lost Azurite
50. Owaru Sekai to Birthday
OK, I started playing Gears of Dragoon 2 about four days ago (I've only managed twenty hours so far, due to work), and I have a few comments on the game.
For better or worse, Gears of Dragoon 2 Reimei no Fragments is a dungeon crawler/rpg/VN hybrid, and like most VNs of this type, it is pretty big. To be blunt, in 20 hours, I've only managed to get to level 24 and get halfway through Chapter 2. Considering that with the same amount of time I was already halfway through (or farther) with each of the Venus Blood games, that means that I have long way to go. As such, I'm excluding this and Sengo Muramasa from VN of the Month for January. I'm not really seeing anything glorious enough to surpass the experience of Tokyo Necro, anyway.
The battle system is a pretty straightforward turn-based one, though it has a limited-size skill palette that makes the game a bit inflexible at times as I've gained access to more skills. The leveling system is an experience-based one where you gain levels by defeating enemies, then use skill points to increase skill levels or progress farther on the skill tree. The game experience is added to somewhat by the presence of a guild-leveling system (where you get guild points for finishing missions, then use them to increase the levels of the four guilds - (Warrior - which affects the item shop-, Thief - Which effects item drops and dungeon mapping -, Priest - which effects damage and healing, as well as drops for certain types of items - , and Mage - which effects drops for certain items, etc), making the game more convenient. I started out focused on the Warrior Guild, but the Thief Guild is a lot more utilitarian... if the Thief Guild's level is one above the current chapter, every dungeon in that chapter will come pre-mapped, thus making planning a lot easier.
Story-wise... it looks like it could be interesting, but the ratio of dungeon to story is a bit too lopsided toward the dungeon, thus making it hard to connect with the characters and story overall. This is a problem some of the Venus Blood games also had, but I honestly think this is a bit worse. The protagonist stumbles a bit too often for his apparent confidence, and the main heroine is once again a ditz (why is it that rpg/dungeon crawler heroines almost always are?). To be honest, I do wish we could customize how the characters level up their stats, as some of the characters have really, really half-assed statistics despite their roles, whereas others have ones lopsided toward roles other than theirs. I think this is mostly a matter of poor design, so I honestly can't be really complimentary about the game so far.
Now, for the reason why I'm going ahead and announcing VN of the Month early... to be blunt, Fire Emblem Fates is coming out, and I'm probably not going to touch a VN for a week at least after it does, meaning until February's VNs release. Also, except for this one and Sengo Muramasa, there really isn't anything left to play that is interesting.
VN of the Month January 2016
January was a month of extremes... I played two kusoge, one kamige, and one high-quality one. Obviously, there is no other candidate for the VN of the Month except Tokyo Necro, but it should be mentioned that Hataraku Otona no Renai Jijou would have had VN of the Month potential in many another month. It isn't a kamige, but it was solid enough to remain in memory. While having to plow through two kusoge was painful, the other two were worth it.
I first encountered Clochette with Suzunone Seven, a game recommended to me by a friend who lives in Japan. Suzunone Seven is one of the more memorable charage I've played, both for the depth of its story and the depth of its setting and characters. Now, Clochette is frequently jokingly referred to as 'oppai central' or 'The Oppai Corporation'... or any number of other similar names, with good reason. Their style has it so that all the heroines are either close to flat or... the opposite. It is a source of ironic amusement to me that this company produces some of the best fantasy charage in existence on a completely consistent level. In other words, I've yet to see a kusoge from this company, though Amatsu Misora ni wasn't memorable compared to its fellows.
Speaking of Amatsu Misora ni, this game utilizes the same world setting as that game... a world where the kami of Japan exist and have a close relationship with the Shinto priests (guuji) that enshrine them. If you want a crash course in Shinto concepts, this and Lovekami are two of the best non-dark VNs to turn to, in that way. The protagonist is the descendant of a long line of such priests and is the older brother of an arahitogami, which is a kami that possesses the form of a living human being (in the legendary histories of Japan's Imperial family, the founding Emperor was also an Arahitogami). His little sister is the 'kami of the mountains', the second generation to possess that title, and as a result both of them have been bound by her fate as a kami. The protagonist, as a result, has become an overly serious, immensely capable youngster who is far too wise for his age when it comes to the doings of supernatural beings.
At the beginning of this VN, a new 'Umigami' (kami of the sea) has been sent to take up the role in the town below the mountain, and it is Tatsuiki's (the protagonist) job to help her settle in. Unfortunately, Kanau (her human name) is a bit... immature as a kami and is only barely able to use her powers and completely incapable of fulfilling the role demanded of an ubusukami/tochigami (a kami who protects a region and its people from harm). As a result, he gets stuck helping her mature as a kami... a role he is surprisingly willing to take on.
The heroines of this VN are:
Kanau- A girl who lost her parents in a traffic accident and was deified in the process. She is kind-hearted, gentle, and extremely strong-willed. However, she is also more than a little clumsy and slow on the uptake. Nonetheless, her ability to keep going on in the face of suffering and misfortune is definitely a positive. She is the game's true/main heroine, so I seriously suggest playing her path last, as it is the deepest of all the paths.
Miori- The protagonist's little sister and the second-generation kami of the mountains. Raised as an arahitogami and worshiped almost from birth, she carries out her role as a tochigami seriously but with the ease of long practice. She is also immensely powerful, as she is also the overall tochigami for both the land and sea, though an ancient vow made by the first generation binds her to the mountain. She is definitely a brocon imouto, but she is also very similar to her brother in her wisdom and perceptiveness, so she isn't one of those little sister heroines who does her best to seduce oniichan from beginning to end. Her path is full of tribulations, though not the ones you would expect from an incest path. In her path, the origins of the dual tochigami system in place in the region is revealed, as is the reason why the protagonist has such extreme effects on the various supernatural beings there. I suggest reading this path after the other three heroines but before Kanau's path.
Ema- Ema is Miori and Tatsuki's osananajimi. Kind-hearted and intelligent, she almost instinctively does her best to help those around her. The only downside is that she and Tatsuki have one of 'those' osananajimi relationships...
Asumi- The daughter of a fisherman's family, she is an atheist by choice, despising all kami while doing her best to ignore their existence... kami of the sea in particular. While she is apparently quiet and stand-offish, this is revealed to be a simple function of the fact that she is terrible at showing how she feels on her face. She is very perceptive and instinctively grasps concepts that others take months or years to figure out in moments. However, when she doesn't have any interest in something, she can be unnaturally ignorant about a subject. Her path delves pretty deeply into the concepts of enshrining the dead and natural disasters to turn them into 'nigimitama' (the gentle side of a deity) from aramitama (the wild side of a deity).
Mei- Mei is a young raijin (kami of thunder) who comes to the city to help Kanau. However, soon after arriving, she ends up wanting to be enshrined by Tatsuki (a phenomenon that is by no means unique to her). She is a bit of a tsundere, with the typical extreme deredere mode that most tsundere obtain after they reach a certain point in a relationship. She is also extremely innocent and naive when it comes to humans and interacting with them, as she was born from pure lightning. Her path explores some of the pitfalls of the aramitama and the duality of the nature of a kami, and her personal growth is rather pleasing during the path.
Now, let's discard the Shinto jargon for a moment and go back to what this game is all about... I'm going to be straight when I say that if you've played any of Clochette's games you probably have an idea of their style. Their heroine paths have some of the best balance between ero, ichaicha, character development, and story that I've ever seen in the genre. As a result, they are extremely easy to read, if you aren't made incredulous by breast size issues. That said, the writer's fetishes definitely come out in the h-scenes (he definitely has a thing about impregnation), and I had to rofl at some of the sexual references during the heroine paths.
The endings in this game are exactly what you'd want from a story-heavy charage. They are reasonably detailed and extend far beyond the 'present' in which the main story is based, giving you a good idea of where the characters are headed and the happiness it has brought them. As such, if you want to see what my idea of an ideal charage ending looks like, this is a good company to look at.
Overall, this is a first class charage... one that reminds me of why I still dig through the rubbish for the gems.
Hi people! It's been a while since I posted anything (for me, anyway), and I wanted to go ahead and get the March releases explanation out of the way before I started on Waka-sama.
Love Commu
I played through one route of this game, but it was not really something I could keep going through to all the endings, primarily because the setting is pure nukige while the setup and execution is pure moege. Don't know what I'm trying to get at? Well, I'll go ahead and explain. Essentially, the game focuses on the protagonist being a teacher of the Love Education subject, which essentially allows him to get into a relationship with his students. The problem? Most of his students are either innocents about sexuality due to their upbringing or the very reverse. Naturally, this results in various wacky antics... and this would normally be a pure nukige with a kichiku-style teacher. Instead, we get the adult version of the classic charage protagonist romancing (by accident at times) a bunch of girls who would normally be underage for him.
While there were a lot of smile-worthy moments in the common route and I didn't hate the endings, this isn't the kind of game where you'll love the setting or get engrossed in the story. It is classic charage from beginning to end, with the setting being the only exception.
Sakura Iro, Mau Koro ni
I actually plan to go back to this one eventually. It is a first-class charage with a solid cast of heroines and side-characters, as well as a decent protagonist. As such, it is unusual enough that I felt I could go back and enjoy it later. It wasn't good enough for me to delay playing Waka-sama though.
Waka-sama no Zasuru Sekai
I'm going to be blunt going in... Minato Carnival's new game is, theme-wise, completely out of character. That said, it reuses a lot of resources from Tsujidou-san, being based in the same region, though without the same characters. The themes focus on Japanese mythology, youkai, and deities, and it is pretty screwy overall.
A few notes about this game's story... it is darker than you'd think from the usual Minato style. It is often casually violent, with lots of casual deaths and a huge number of bad (dead) endings you are required to read through to get to the true (Waka-sama) ending. The former element is very much in line with Minato Soft's style (the casual violence with superpowers), but the way people die off right and left in this story is more something you'd see from a horror VN company than this company.
Now, that isn't a complaint. If anything, I was amazed that Romeo still had this kind of game in him after all these years of spitting out reruns of his old games. Waka-sama is a great character and heroine. She is a sea goddess (at times she reminds me of the Cthulhu Mythos, though it is usually humorous) and is pretty badass...
The protagonist, Ryouga, starts out as a high school dropout and ends up going through hell to become her High Priest as she is resurrected into the modern world. Unfortunately for them, things are not as simple as an ancient evil goddess being released from entombment, but to me, that was good enough reason to follow the story from start to end.
I won't say that this game is very good at stimulating the emotions. Most of the events in the story, even the deaths and bad endings, are treated too casually to create a seriously emotional reaction on the part of the reader. Early on, the game feels like a new Majikoi with bad endings, but about halfway through, the more serious elements take over and make the story go bigger and bigger in terms of scale.
If I have a complaint about this game, it was the way it felt like reading something written by a guy on a Ritalin high. Yeah, it was frequently a fun read, but the very things that made it a fun read prevented me from empathizing with... anyone, really. Ryouga is so even-keeled and insightful in general by the end that it feels like he was a male clone of Waka at times.
Is this game worth playing for Romeo fans? Yes, I believe it is. Is it a kamige? The jury is still out in my mind, so probably not. This game would probably be very hard to replay, as a lot of its attraction comes from the surprises it throws at you constantly. Not to mention that this game is looooooong. I mean, it took me about 28 hours to complete, even though it is essentially a single-path game with branching endings.
This VN was made by the same team that did Zero Infinity and Electro Arms, and it shows (in some ways). They have definitely improved their character balance and the way they present them, as well as the overall storytelling. The common route is fairly long (think about ten hours for me, about the same amount of time it takes me to completely finish a small charage), and it covers a rather large amount of content (there is no wasted time in this game at all, and yet it still manages to be as long as any of the other VNs by this team).
For those who are unclear about the setting, it is based a thousand years after a disaster that ends our civilization, due to a huge breach in the dimensional walls that basically renders our most important technologies worthless, giving us the power of Astral instead.
First, the protagonist... Zephyr. He is the antithesis of a hero, to be blunt about it. His nature is very base (he isn't a rapist though), with a tendency to prefer self-protection above all other things... except when it comes to Milly, the adopted little sister who is the focus of his current existence. In battle, he tends to either be evading... or dismembering/decapitating his enemies, using insults, misdirection, and brutal tactics to take them down, without any trace of mercy whatsoever. To be blunt, in battle he is either running around or a cold-hearted killer, lol.
Second, the heroines... Milly, Chitose, and Vendetta. Milly is the protagonist's adopted little sister, with whom he escaped the massacre that killed her parents and over 73,000 others in a single night. She is kind-hearted, a skilled technician, and a natural sweetheart to everyone around her. She is literally incapable of hating anyone, as far as I can tell. Chitose is... Milly's opposite. She is aggressive, strong-willed, and utterly merciless with those she considers to be her enemies or those of the state. Vendetta... well, lets just say that Vendetta is a bit inscrutable, though she comes across as a nagging older sister most of the time.
Third, I think that whether you like this game is going to be primarily dependent on whether you can like the protagonist (if you are already able to read Light-style writing, that is, lol). For all that he is basically pond-scum (and quite well-aware of it), he grows on you once you get past it. The common route defies the usual classifications for the simple reason that Light action VNs tend to be a bit hectic, lol.
Milly
Milly, as described above, is the kind-hearted little sister. Her route is fairly heart-rending, if only because of the way things fall apart so fast, once they pass a certain point. Her route shows off a number of interesting characters, ranging from the hedonistic fist-fighter Asura to Milly's master as a technician, Jin.
As always, I'm avoiding spoilers, so it is hard to figure out what I can say... Milly's route definitely has impact. I cried numerous times along the way, and Milly does manage to escape being another Kasumi (reference to Dies Irae), in that she isn't hopelessly out of place in the story, despite being the only 'normal person' heroine.
It is a bit frustrating that none of the biggest mysteries get revealed, but the fights were brutal enough to satisfy my bloodlust, though they followed the usual pattern that Light prefers, of the protagonist almost always being at a horrible disadvantage.
The ending is quite satisfying, though bittersweet (you can't avoid lots of character deaths in Light VNs), and I honestly was happy with how it turned out for Milly and Zephyr, though I did think that falling short of actually finding out everything that was going on behind the scenes means you will probably have to play this one first to avoid feeling unsatisfied with it.
Seishun Fragile is the latest of Purple Software's VNs. Purple Software is famous these days primarily for powerful nakige/borderline utsuge like Aoi Tori, Amatsutsumi, and Hapymaher. However, they also are responsible for Chrono Clock and Mirai Nostalgia which, while having an actual plot, are closer to charage than their more plot-centric brethren. This game is much closer to Mirai Nostalgia in style (based on a few comments inside the story, it is probably based some years after the latest point of Mirai Nostalgia, while utilizing the same world setting) than it is to the Hapymaher style, so the emotional impact is greatly reduced in comparison. However, it does have its high points.
This game focuses on Yugahara, a hot springs resort town where a young man named Shiki Yuuto lives in a mansion that used to be a bed and breakfast. Other than the fact that he is a magic-user, there is nothing really remarkable about him. He has a lot of standard-issue charage harem protagonist qualities, like being insanely dense about his osananajimi's deredere attitude and accepting his fake imouto maid's service with a blase attitude, but he is surrounded by a few stranger characters, such as his self-proclaimed magic teacher Liz and his stalker (yes, she is stalking him for real) Setsuna.
To be blunt, Setsuna is the main heroine of this game. The constant hints about a past (serious one) between Setsuna and Shiki, her very real stalking habits, and any number of cues will tip you off if you have been playing VNs as long as I have. She also has the type of heroine profile that has become typical of true/main heroines in recent Purple Soft games (though I can't reveal what it is without spoiling it for you).
Despite that, I went ahead and played another path first, though.
Liz
Of course I played the foreigner girl path first. Yes, a ditzy blonde with no sense of self-control is weirdly attractive to me, even after so long. The fact that she can use magic is just icing on the cake.
Liz's path was... uninspiring. To be honest, while it had some high moments (mostly comedic), I found the drama to be excessively derivative and disappointing for a Purple Soft game. Liz, despite her issues, has a rather straightforward personality, and the drama feels kind of forced because it requires a level of complexity that anyone who was reading the common route would have had difficulty reconciling with her characterization. While I liked the ending, it still felt like this path wasted my time, at least a little, despite my fondness for some of the more comedic moments.
Setsuna
Setsuna's path stands in direct contrast to Liz's. I will state this openly... Setsuna is yandere. Oh, she puts up a good face, but there is a ton of darkness hidden behind her joking manner and 'playful-seeming' stalking habits. To put it bluntly, Setsuna is more than a little dependent on Yuuto for her mental and emotional stability, and the reasons for it make absolute perfect sense after you get halfway through her path.
To be honest, the degree to which this path differs in quality to Liz's pretty much finalized my viewpoint on who the main heroine was, if I hadn't already got it from the common route's cues. This path has much better emotional buildup than Liz's, and the drama toward the end is actually pretty enjoyable to read, though it made me feel even more like a voyeur of people's pain more than any of the recent works I've encountered.
Toune
Toune is Yuuto's fake imouto/maid. She is originally from a family that served his since their arrival from Britain a century and a half previously, and she has seemingly devoted her life to feeding her 'dame-oniichan' and cleaning up after him.
Generally speaking, if you aren't in her path, Toune takes a supporting role, usually taking Yuuto down a few pegs when he looks to be getting full of himself. She has a cheerfully optimistic personality and a very strong sense of what she wants out of life, and she is a bit obsessed with resurrecting the B&B that the Shiki family used to run (out of their mansion).
Most of her path is a normal 'I always loved you but it was more important for me to be with you than be your lover' transition. To be honest, this isn't one of my favorite tropes, but it works out all right in this case. Toune's path gets pretty emotional toward the end, but it lacks the darkness that was so evident in Setsuna's path, giving it less impact over all (more evidence to my Setsuna is the main heroine hypothesis).
Hio
Hio is Yuuto's osananajimi, the younger sister of Hibiki, who runs the Sakuranomiya ryoukan (Japanese inn). From early childhood, the two families have had close relations, while being sort-of rivals (obviously, that ended when the B&B went under, lol). Hio is a rather obvious tsundere with a tendency to retaliate against Yuuto's ever-present density (think nuclear reactor shielding thick) with pro-wrestling moves. To everyone but Yuuto himself, her feelings are ridiculously obvious, and she is horrible at hiding them even in the best of times (even for a tsundere).
Ah... but about the path. 'Predictable' is the word I'd use for the romance portions. To be honest, if you have seen a tsundere osananajimi heroine get together with a dense protagonist often enough, you've probably seen a variation on this path. There is some serious drama, but the drama is even weaker than Liz's path. Hio is pretty adorable as a girlfriend, but again, that is fairly typical of tsundere heroines once they lose most of the tsun. Probably the best part of this path was the protagonist's firm belief that sexually harassing Hio doesn't count as sexual harassment (no basis in fact). Use of that particular running joke was spaced out just enough that it didn't get boring.
Yura Extra
Anyone who reads the common route probably likes Yura. Yura is an occult-obsessed yurufuwa girl who can generally be trusted to make the situation funnier. Honestly, other than Setsuna, she was my favorite female character in this game, so I had hopes that this would be an actual path...
... unfortunately, it was just a brief set of scenes with Yura and Hibiki, followed by an H-scene with each. To be honest, I was saddened, since I liked both characters. Maybe we'll see an actual path in a future fandisc? Especially considering that this game doesn't have an official true ending.
Conclusion
By charage standards, this would be a top-level game. By nakige standards, it is undeniably sub-par. To be honest, if this game had only had Setsuna's path or if there was more complexity to the other paths (maybe removing Hio's path, since it was the weakest), this game might be worthy of replaying in the future. However, as it is, this one is unlikely to drift to the top of my list anytime soon. Setsuna's emotional darkness and traumas made her path interesting, but the other paths feel like half-assed attempts at nakige paths (Toune's path was reasonably good at drawing at the emotions, but Liz and Hio's path didn't manage it).
I had a lot of reasons for avoiding playing this game... first, it had really crappy-looking gameplay. Second, it was tagged both in Japanese and English with the hetare protagonist tag. Third, the concept was pretty stupid, even by VN standards...
On all these counts, I was correct in my assessment as to whether this would be playable.
That's not to say this VN doesn't have a lot of positive points. The heroines are generally well-developed, and they do have their own paths (though all of them other than Ryuana, Senshia, Yuki, and Kudelka are all short and less well-developed). However, that positive point is absolutely overwhelmed by the fact that EVERY FEMALE IN THIS GAME IS A HEROINE except the protagonist's mother... and that is just way too much.
Making it worse is that the protagonist is the perverted sandbag hetare type that generally ends up as the 'idiot best friend' in most love-comedy VNs these days... I'm sorry, but I don't enjoy vicariously experiencing being beaten on by the heroines in just about every scene. Unless you are completely do-M, you'll come to hate this protagonist well before you get out of the common route.
The writing quality is spotty, probably because it was handled by so many separate writers (five that I know of), and as a result, the gap between the really well-written scenes (usually in the dungeons or during special scenes in the heroine routes) and the 'normal' scenes is so obvious that I was a bit exasperated.
Ryuana is probably the most favored of all the heroines, because hers is the only route where you really see the protagonist grow out of his hetare-dom, if only just a bit. Frankly, he is pretty much a weak-willed, cowardly, perverted idiot until the end of most of the paths, and I wanted to impale him for most of the VN.
The gameplay is pretty pointless, since you basically walk through the dungeon (your level is automatically matched to it and you can't change anything about your characters) to the goal every time, and there is no real sense of accomplishment to it, since it doesn't gain you any advantages to out of your way. Thankfully, it generally only pops up three times in the common route and zero to three times in various heroine routes. That said, it was annoying just for its very existence, since it is basically a waste of your time.
Overall, I can't recommend this VN... at all. The art is good and there are some attractive heroines and some good moments, but that doesn't change the fact that most of the elements that went into this VN sucked donkey hair.
I'm going to be blunt... I can only take Tone Works games in small doses (one path at a time), so I'll be setting Gin'iro Haruka aside now, though I am interested in two of the remaining three heroines (despite Hinata's horrible VA).
Yuzuki's path actually starts out fairly similar to how you would imagine the classic 'imouto' path would if it was done by Tone Works... the slow growth into full sibling-hood, the slipping into habits that go a bit too far for teenaged siblings, then the realization of love... and that's the first part. I'll be honest when I say that I fell asleep on three occasions during this path. It wasn't so much a problem with the path itself as the simple fact that I went into slice-of-life overload after a while. Bethly's path alone had enough slice-of-life and heart-warming 'lovers being lovers' scenes to fill out an entire charage. When I added Yuzuki's on top of that, I just shut down after a while and couldn't go any farther.
As such, Yuzuki's path was an experience in suffering for me, despite its quality.
From this, I have to recommend that Tone Works games are done in pieces, paced out over the course of several months to retain your sanity. As it is, I know I won't be able to go back to this any time in the next thirty days.
Edit: It is a lot like the feeling I get after finishing an entire medium-sized bag of M&Ms (which I don't do anymore, for obvious reasons)... that sense of utter exhaustion combined with blood rushing to my head and my eyelids growing heavy, lol.
Edit2: To further clarify my thoughts about this path, all Tone Works paths follow a similar pattern, in my experience... the 'youthful years' making up the first arc, with semi-adult and adult years making up the second half. In most charage, you cut out when they are just starting to get into their dreams, but in a Tone Works game, you get to see them fulfill their dreams, step by step, with at least some of their travails portrayed as a spice to the sweetness. In Bethly's path, the best part would probably be the college years or possibly the time after, which makes it kind of a striking contrast to the average young romance you see in most VNs, where you stop while they are still in their teens, save for maybe a small cameo of them as an adult. Yuzuki's path follows a similar pattern, where the semi-child to late teen romance is trumped by the time they are together as an adult.
Edit3: I decided to play something violent and gory, as devoid of slice-of-life as possible, for a day until I have the wherewithal to continue. I don't intend to bother with Momiji's path, regardless, though. Her character might grow on me in time, but it didn't during the common route. As a side-note, one of the things I've noticed is that they go out of the way to portray how the girls' lives change by getting into a relationship with Yukito, giving his participation in their lives a relevance that isn't always present in other VNS.
Now... as I said in the nostalgia post, I've been replaying a lot of games lately. The reason is fairly simple... my backlog of VNs is almost nonexistent now. I've played roughly 85% of the ones I purchased during the first days, including all but a few of those that I've purchased in the last few years. That isn't to say that there are no VNs of interest that I haven't played yet... but many of them just aren't available to purchase by download and are too expensive to obtain a physical copy of (one in particular is two hundred for an open package). What is left are some 'rainy day' VNs and a bunch of third-rate moege/charage. Well, that and a few horrible-looking gameplay VNs.
So... the games I'll be playing after this month's releases are naturally going to be replays as well. However, I'm not willing to replay any more charage, so these are my random VN plans for next month.
1. Evolimit - I've been asked to make a full assessment of this VN and blog on it by several dozen people over the last year.
2. Muramasa- Muramasa is a VN it takes a lot of energy to play, simply because it is so gloomy. As a result, I keep putting it off, even though I like it.
3. Ruitomo FD- This is a fairly low priority, simply because I found that after playing the main game, I needed a rest from that cast of characters, lol.
4. Gleam Garden no Shoujo - I really, really need to replay this. I loved it at the time, but the memory is starting to fade.
5. Sinclient- similar to the above.
6. Itsuka, Todoku, Ano Sora ni - In this case, I've long considered this to be the game I judged the most wrongly, based on my inexperience with Japanese VNs at the time. So, I feel that I need to go back and reassess this one.
7. Akatsuki no Goei series and Reminiscence series - I just love this stuff and it is great for stress relief
8. Imouto Spiral - you ask me why? it is because, while the story is... pathetic, the VN is hilarious.
9. Bradyon Veda- It is about time that my memories of the details faded enough that I'll probably be able to enjoy a full second playthrough.
10. Akeiro Kaikitan- 'Already?!' you say? I'm currently replaying Nanairo Reincarnation, so I feel a need to replay this one too.
11. Gensou no Avatar- It is wasteful that this particular doujin game has been forgotten, lol.
12. Futagoza no Paradox and Owaru Sekai to birthday- Because they don't make them like this anymore.
13. Natsu no Owari no Nirvana
14. Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide
15. Boku ga Tenshi natta Wake
From the beginning I'm going to be blunt and say this VN is going to be a bit of a hard sell for most readers. There are several reasons for this.
1. Rapid genre shifts (this thing jumps through hoops for at least four genres and shifts rapidly from serious, to sad, to scary... so rapidly most people will probably lose track of what's going on)
2. There is a surprisingly large amount of rape and H in general for a VN that is only about five to six hours long for me (and about twelve to fourteen for slower people).
3. The rapid-fire pacing and sheer number of meaningless choices
Ok, first of all, this doesn't really function very well as a mystery, save for the first path. On the first path, you have no idea whatsoever is going on, and at the end of it, anyone with a brain will have figured out at least some of what happened. Second, this VN frequently slips into comedic turns (particularly because the protagonist is a perverted skirt-chaser who is utterly incapable of lying) that are often followed up by sad or mildly scary ones.
There are a lot of points where this feels like haunted house horror (without the murder), and there are even more points where it feels like everything is just put there so the protagonist can make you laugh. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if most people feel the way I did when it ended... that the entire thing was a joke, collectively speaking.
I can't really say who this would appeal to, because for every person that this hits the sweet spot, there is bound to be eight or nine who can't stand it. That is because it is so frenetic and weirdly structured. The true ending is fairly hilarious and actually quite pleasant... but people who go into this expecting straight-out mystery/horror will probably come out dissatisfied. If there were more VNs like this out there, I'd probably be able to define a new genre with this, because everything it pretends to be it doesn't quite match, hahaha.
Well, you'll be disappointed to know that I am disappointed with this VN, even though I didn't have high hopes for it.
First, I should explain the theory/template for a good trap protagonist VN.
1. Protagonist is voiced (voicing the protagonist in these VNs with a sex-neutral-sounding VA generally gives you what you want)
2. Protagonist is something of a submissive personality, when it comes to minor issues, but when it comes to anything major is proactive.
3. Protagonist at some point stops being bothered by the fact that they are dressing up as a girl. (along with occasional sighs when they realize they are thinking completely like a woman)
4. Protagonist is generally capable, earning the positive emotions he gets from the girls honestly.
5. The discovery of the protagonist's sex by the heroine is in a suitably dramatic manner, thus generally overwriting the shock of the discovery of his lie (most of the time).
6. The actual issue of his true sex is an object of humor to those who know the truth.
I should say that 1, 2, 4, and 5 are violated by this VN (though 5 isn't violated by all the routes). To those who have played Tsuriotsu since it got the voice patch or Koi no Canvas, you will know what I am talking about with 1. A protagonist that is on the verge of being a non-entity without a voice will become a real person the second they start talking, and the lack of a voice actually feels weird when everyone considers the protagonist to be a girl. In 2's case, the protagonist is a near-complete submissive with a side of hetare. This is a downside in any VN, but it was particularly bad in this one... With 4... the protagonist is basically a nonentity, shy and generally hopeless. Again, this is a downer for any VN, but this also means it feels like he didn't 'earn' the heroines' affections, which is pretty much unforgivable in this type of VN.
Now, for some general conclusions about the VN... this one only barely stops short of nukige territory when it comes to the h-scenes. The number per route (somewhere around seven or eight) is ridiculous, and - sadly - a large amount of the final parts of each heroine's story are a part of the h-scenes, thus making it almost a necessity to read them all. Making it worse is that the common route is ridiculously short and the heroine routes are of similar length, meaning character development is minimal at best.
While I generally don't expect much of Moonstone, this was a particularly disastrous entry, in my opinion.
Mmm... first, I should probably mention my first encounter with the company that made this VN, Hulotte, Imouto no Okage de Motesugite Yabai! Moteyaba was a pretty straightforward take on the 'popular protagonist that forms a harem he eventually chooses a girlfriend from' trope, and as a result, while it was decent, I didn't find anything to be particularly interesting about it. In a way the same can be said about Yomeyaba, in that it uses the same (common to about ninety percent of charage) tropes and is true to the ideas behind them... but in the same breath, I can say that it did manage to distinguish itself in some ways that were different from the genre norms (well, really they just hit another cliche of a less common variant, but meh). Basically, the protagonist in this VN is the descendant of a kami (I distinguish 'kami' from our Western concept of God because it is distinct) and as a result, he possesses superpowers... in his case, the ability to enhance his body... and dream about his potential future wives. Generally speaking, this VN moves pretty fast, the common route lasting just long enough to get you to like the characters without becoming the centerpiece of the story (as is common in many charage common routes). Instead, the centerpiece of this VN is the way the protagonist and the heroines adapt to some of the weird ways his powers and heritage effect their relationships. As a focus, this is pretty much the ideal for a fantasy charage, as an introduced setting almost has to be utilized properly in order to make it complete (and to prevent jaded VN-gamers from bashing it up one side and down the other), lol. I was particularly impressed with the heroine epilogues, as they tended to be pretty good in length and extended farther along than is the norm for a charage (normally, it ends before they graduate from school). This allows you to have a good idea of what the characters' lives are like after marriage (which is one of the major focuses of the VN) and gives you a sense of closure many charage are deliberately designed not to give you (so they have an excuse to wring more money out of fanboys with fandiscs). There is a harem route in this VN... and oddly, it is one of the few harem routes I've encountered that were foreshadowed or made sense in the greater context of the story, in my experience (some story-focused VNs also have harem endings that are the results of really unusual situations, and this is close to those, albeit with more sex). It explains some of the divine relations between Yoshihara Ookami (the kami from which the protagonist and his family are descended) and his wives, giving you a general idea of how it relates to Daiki and his wives in the harem route. Overall, this VN was interesting... and people who like charage with ichaicha and decent drama will find this to be well within their allowable limits... but the fantasy element probably won't satisfy someone who likes superpowered combat and the like, as there is none of that. The protagonist rarely uses his powers, though the heroines with powers do so a lot more profligately, lol.
Now, if you asked me my top three VNs of all time, I would honestly put this one as one of those three, no matter how often the other two get rotated out. Evolimit, in my mind at least, shows off the best of Higashide Yuuichirou's writing in combination with Propeller's unique art style and superior musical direction and composition.
Oh, and incidentally, this is the sixth time I've played this game from beginning to end, reading all the endings... that I can still find a VN enjoyable after so many playthroughs is a little amazing, even to me.
General Setting Outline
What might sound like spoilers in this part are unavoidable when talking about this VN and are mentioned in the summaries online (vndb, Getchu, etc) so please avoid 'that's a spoiler!' complaints.
This VN starts with a bleak scene in black and white, where the protagonist (Shiranui Yoshikazu) and the main heroine (Ichijou Shizuku) are fighting a man-shaped being with a face of flame. This scene is full of sorrow and despair, and one can tell just from the combination of the music and the lines (carefully chosen to avoid giving you too many clues as to the background of what is going on) that what is going on is a tragedy in action.
The VN then moves on to one hundred years later, where Shiranui and Shizuku have awakened from cold sleep, their memories gone (initially) then fragmented (after). Shiranui and Shizuku were part of the first Mars Development Project, which was wiped out one hundred years before, and the people they meet are the descendants of the second wave, who were forced to fuse with the 'Patch' (a mineral that, when it fuses with a living being, forcibly evolves them to a state where they can survive on Mars) in order to fight off waves of violent robots that sought to slaughter them. In the hundred years since then, their descendants lost most industrial technology, as well as contact with Earth. A new society, utilizing the power of the 'Patches' has risen, developing the planet and opening up space free of the robot armies.
Forcythe, the city they awaken in, is something of a training city for young people (since the Patch grants immense power to all people regardless of age, traditional childhood has vanished) to serve their cities later in life. Shiranui and Shizuku, being young themselves, basically join the city and things evolve from there.
The Common Route
The common route primarily focuses on Shiranui and Shizuku accustoming themselves to the new world and forming relationships with residents of the city. The comedic aspects of the story are most concentrated at this point, since there is a minimum of combat during the common route (outside of the one that caps it). It also introduces the reader to Shiranui and Shizuku themselves and fills in their backgrounds.
The Protagonist and Heroines (and Kokoro)
Shiranui Yoshikazu- Shiranui (as almost everyone calls him) is your classic 'hero type' chuunige protagonist. Oh, he doesn't wail about justice or anything like that... he is just naturally heroic as well as possessing the necessary humanity to make him feel 'real' to the reader. Shiranui, due to having given over a portion of his consciousness to Kokoro, no longer possesses the ability to feel sorrow. He has a will of iron, an endless well of curiosity, and an almost messianic capacity for self-sacrifice.
Kokoro- The spirit of the girl whose heart was transplanted into Shiranui as a child. She sees through Shiranui's eyes and shares his experiences. Shiranui resolved to go to Mars in order to fulfill the dream she had in life. She communicates with Shiranui in a room deep in his sleeping mind, where they converse with one another on subjects ranging from low-level philosophy to the events of the day. Kokoro is a wise girl, who prioritizes Shiranui's happiness above all other things and feels an intense guilt over having taken his ability to feel sorrow.
Ichijou Shizuku- The other survivor discovered with Shiranui in a cold sleep capsule. She is Shiranui's partner and companion (the relationship goes beyond friendship but falls short of lovers). She has an insane love of anything 'wa' (traditional Japanese), and she is both immensely intelligent and brilliant athletically. She often serves as the 'tsukkomi' to Shiranui's 'boke', though the roles reverse at times (usually when anything intrinsically Japanese comes up). Like him, she has a will of iron and a nearly endless curiosity. She is the only person Shiranui has told about Kokoro.
Takaboshi Kazuna- The Mayor of Forscythe and a 'Priestess of the Star' (rare humans who are born 'connected' to the sentient spirit of Mars itself, allowing them to wield immense power). She was raised to be objective and fair, and she strives with all her heart to be that way (and succeeds, for the most part). She is also playful and cheery by nature, though when she gets angry...
Ritya von Eirhardt- The head of Forscythe's Military Club (and the VN's resident loli heroine). Her adoptive father was a mechanic (a rare job in a society that has mostly abandoned technology) and she lacks a lot of the superstitious fear of technology that is endemic to the Martian society. She is well-loved (for her cuteness) and respected (for her charismatic leadership and ability to fight).
Aqua Danchekha- The liaison between the Military and Information Clubs in Forscythe, she most often plays the role of Ritya's aide-de-camp and commander of the ground forces (since Ritya takes overall command and command of the airborne forces). She is cold and rational above all things... except when it comes to Ritya.
Ritya's and Aqua's path
Ritya's path is really the second a first-timer should play. My reason? This path's endings are more poignant if you've experienced Kazuna's path. While this is technically both Aqua's and Ritya's path, that just means that there is a threesome ending (which is dramatically different after a certain point near the end of the path). While the end result (non-romantic) doesn't change, the way in which they reach that result changes dramatically.
Now... this path focuses on the Barbaroi (as opposed to Kazuna's path, which focuses on the Disasters). The Barbaroi are the murderous, genocidal robots that infest Mars' surface. In this path, the characters face off with the horrors of technology gone mad on both sides, in addition to Ritya and Aqua's personal issues.
This path is intensely personal in a way neither Kazuna's nor Shizuku's paths are. The main theme of the path is transhumanism and prejudice (to some extent, prejudice is a them of Kazuna's path as well).
Kazuna's path
I advise anyone playing this game for the first time to pick this path first. Unlike Ritya's path, which focuses on the Barbaroi and machines in general, this path focuses on humanity and the Disasters.
Kazuna's personal issues are mostly wrapped up with her social status and political position as a 'Mayor' and a 'Priestess of the Star'. Both of these positions require fairness and objectivity, and thus those born as Priestesses of the Star (or Priests of the Star) are deliberately trained, conditioned, and brainwashed to avoid personal entanglements or favoritism. Kazuna is something of an exception to the rule, in that she retains emotions beyond a devotion to her duty and a love for humanity that has no element of the personal in it.
The formation of the relationship between her and Shiranui is... hilarious, to say the least, hahaha.
Shizuku's path
Shizuku's path, being the true path, is obviously far more detailed and extensive than the previous two... and that's saying a lot, considering that both of the other two paths are many times as detailed and long than the average charage heroine path. Shizuku's path basically uses everything revealed in the previous paths... and focuses primarily on the true antagonist of the story (I'm not going to reveal his name here, though it is revealed in the other two paths).
This path contains the single most inspiring tragic scene I've ever encountered. All six times I've played this VN, I cried like a baby for this scene and was left with a sense of awe in the aftermath. Simply put, it is one of those times where a master writer makes everything come together perfectly.
Now, I should say that Shizuku's endings are a lot more diverse than in Ritya's or Kazuna's paths. For one, there are two distinct possible paths that branch near the end, which have dramatically different endings. One, which is fascinating in and of itself, might be considered a 'normal' ending by some, but it is still abnormal (a chuunige is a chuunige, after all) and fun to read. The other path leads to two endings, based on whether you choose for the characters to give up at a certain point or go on. For those who have played Tokyo Babel, this pattern should be familiar as a whole, since they did something similar with Lilith's path in that game.
Conclusion
The mark of a truly great story comes in whether it still stimulates you upon a second playthrough, in some ways. Of course, there are some exceptions... some VN types (mysteries, mindfucks) don't lend themselves well to a replay... and there is nothing more painful than replaying a mediocre game in a genre you aren't fond of in the first place. However, this is, at least for me, one of a very small club of VNs that I can play multiple times while feeling that I'm still getting something other than nostalgia out of it. Evolimit is a masterpiece of prose and musical direction, and it is definitely a kamige. My only regret is that the writer is retired from VN making and only writes LNs now...
Bullet Butlers has one of the more interesting fantasy settings that I've seen in a VN. Think film noir combined with elves, lizardmen, orcs, and magic and you won't be far off. The guy you see above is Rick Arrowsmith, the protagonist of the story and butler to one of the potential heirs of the draconic Mystic One (spiritual - not necessarily physical - descendants of the heroes who defeated the Undead King who serve as symbols of God's favor).
Now, Bullet Butlers was made by Propeller, the same company that made Ayakashibito and my long-lasting favorite VN - Evolimit. If there is one thing that some people might have noticed about Ayakashibito, it is that, to an extent, the heroines were less than satisfactory (from a moe-addict's point of view) and yet they still liked it... now why was that? It is a simple fact that the story in each heroine's path far surpasses the attraction of the heroine herself, that's why. lol
This is actually a quality that is present in all four of Propeller's really good action VNs (Ayakashibito, Bullet Butlers, Evolimit, and Tokyo Babel) but is especially evident in this one. The main reason? Two out of the three heroines are abysmally unattractive, lol. That said, their paths on the other hand, show the flair that made me fall in love with this company and still gets my hopes up even now, despite two major kusoge flops in a row.
This VN has a ridiculous amount of gratuitous violence in it, which is a reflection of the violence of the world they are living in. It is a world where death-worshiping cultists fight policemen in the streets, and where it is a matter of course for a security detail to drag half its number out in body bags... or in urns full of ashes scraped off the road. It is a world where men use magic to summon bullets into their guns and some guns can launch lightning or fire instead of simple solid slugs. Betrayal, murder, and general mayhem punctuate just about every major turn in the story... and to top it off, the protagonist's gun is eating his soul.
This VN stands out as being significantly different both from Ayakashibito and the others that followed in atmosphere... but at heart, it is still Propeller at its best.
I love Eushully's unique fantasy world, Dir Lifyna. Most of Eushully's games, save for a few oddball ones by the subsidiary Anastasia and Fortune Arterial, are based in this world, which began with the original Ikusa Megami (if this gets translated, somebody please smash the skull of anyone who translates the title, because they'll probably pick the worst permutation of it). The first thing that anyone going into this setting should know, if only for giggles, is that this was never intended to be an expansive setting containing ten or more games. Ikusa Megami was intended as a one-off game and was competing with Venus Blood, of all things.
However, to the people who played the game, the setting was incredibly attractive, and they sold well enough to justify a sequel, which was even more well-received (if only because the dungeon-crawler elements were toned down to normal jrpg levels).
The basic setting of the world is that, far in the past, a technologically-advanced human world created a gate/tunnel linking a world full of magic and demihumans, for reasons that pretty much boil down to boredom and stagnation as a species due to excessive technological development. Unfortunately, this accidentally caused the two worlds to begin to merge, causing a conflict between their denizens and their gods.
An important common element to note between the two worlds is that gods existed in both worlds, but the gods of the human world had mostly ceased intervening in mortal affairs openly long before, causing the near death of faith. Since faith/belief is the source of all deities' power, the humans found themselves at a surprising disadvantage in the war, because their belief in their deities was almost nonexistent. Worse, magic was quite capable of countering most of the advantages of human tech based on pure physics.
A faction of humanity chose to pursue the amalgamation of magic and tech, creating wonders and horrors (including artificial demons and gods), but over time (the war apparently lasted for generations), more and more humans switched sides, devoting themselves to gods on the other side, even as humanity's old gods were destroyed, sealed, or enslaved one by one. By the end of the war, humanity was just another race, perhaps more numerous than the others, in the service of the 'Living Gods', and the 'Old Gods' were relegated to dusty legend and actively considered evil by most, if they weren't in the service of a Living God. Human technology was, for the most part, wiped from the face of the new, merged world, and the only remnants can be found in ruins filled with monsters and/or automatic guardians.
The dominant deity of the new world is Marsterria, a minor war god who enslaved and killed more Old Gods than any other. Most of his worshipers are humans, their prolific breeding and generations of faith having given him immense power. His followers are often at odds with the protagonist of the Ikusa Megami series and nonhuman races, because of their excessive zealotry and broad determination of what species are considered 'dark races'.
Conflict between dark gods and their servants and the gods of light and theirs is a normal part of the world of Dir Lifyna, with neutral regions and nations often becoming the battlegrounds for said followers as a result. This is a world with a massive number of intelligent species, and that, in the end, is what makes it so much fun to look forward to each game, even if the flop ratio is over 50%, lol.
Damn, it was hard to do that without spoiling anything.
Edit: It should be noted that demons, angels, nagas, and a few other races were actually coexisting with humanity but hidden due to their more direct service to deities in the original human world. The nagas still maintain faith with old gods for the most part, and as a result, they are marginalized to an immense degree. Most angels 'fell' or serve one of the Living Gods now (or both), and demons are a plague, with more summoned on occasion since demon summoning was one of the few magics that remained to humanity when the worlds met.
I'm going to come right out and say it... Sca-ji slipped up a bit when he designed the true path. Oh, I could understand the big turning point event being as it is, but its effect on certain characters - Rin for instance - doesn't make nearly as much sense as he wants you to think. Rin's change is the most dramatic (for all that happens during the true path, the protagonist is pretty much rock solid, even if he wavers). It is also the most odd, even with the knowledge about her that Sca-ji has been pounding into you from the start (with his usual heavy-handedness). Ai can be considered the true path heroine... except that there isn't one. There is a side-ending for Ai that basically could be considered a normal ending, where the protagonist becomes completely dependent on her in most ways... and it feels almost like a bad ending, despite the easy atmosphere. She does play a role in the main part of the true path after the turning point, but that role is mostly unseen. Sca-ji's choice of turning points in the true path would have been - in many ways - better carried out as an unmovable point of all the heroine paths. My own feeling was that he wasted a perfect way to create an even stronger dramatic escalation for Makoto's, Shizuku's, and Rin's paths by choosing to structure the game the way he did, making you feel too much like the heroine paths were just a foil for what he really wanted to write... the true path. Considering that I actually enjoyed Rin's, Rina's, and Makoto's paths more than I did the true one, I honestly feel that he failed in that respect, actually weakening the VN as a whole by going that way. To be blunt, the turning point of the true path is pretty much the only incident that completely and utterly strips the protagonist of his armor of nonchalance, and seeing how each heroine would have dealt with it would have in and of itself provided a lot of enjoyment and added a lot more depth to the experience. As it is, the true path is actually more of a drag on the VN as a whole, rather than a good center. PS: Yes, I'm aware that, for everyone that agrees with that assessment, there will be a half dozen others who disagree, but that is how I experienced it. I'm biased against Sca-ji's style, and I honestly think he let his bad habits get out of control in the true path.
October VN of the Month Announcement This was actually a harder month to judge than any of the last three or four months, because there were multiple VN of the Month candidates that actually made it to a level where I thought them worth considering. Primal Hearts 2, Kyuuketsu Hime no Libra, and Sakura no Uta were all worthy of a VN of the Month, and it is typical of my experiences with the Japanese VN industry that all of them should be released at the same time. Libra is an excellent light chuunige/slice-of-life/comedy hybrid that has its flaws but overall manages to be more than it seems from the outside. Primal Hearts 2 was a sequel that easily surpasses the original in most ways, taking many of the best elements and discarding some of the worst ones of the original. Sakura no Uta, despite being a deeply flawed work, is nonetheless one that has a lot of artistic (not making a joke, no) value, even if Sca-ji's inability to restrain his love of pompousness and laying down the endless layers of foreshadowing tended to weaken the experience as a whole at times (as well as his tendency to go off on tangents to over-reinforce points he already made). As such, I had to go back and honestly consider each on its own merits... if one ignores its flaws, Sakura no Uta is the obvious forerunner. If one goes for completion as a single work within its genre, I'd have to point to Primal Hearts 2. Last of all, if I had to point to a work that took a lot of different elements from various VN genres to create something interesting within a somewhat stagnated hybrid genre, I would go for Libra. However, the point I made above stands... Sakura no Uta really is the obvious forerunner, based on pure writing quality and the existence of three excellent heroine paths. I honestly haven't encountered any better individual heroine paths than those in a long time, and it proves that Sca-ji is capable of doing that kind of work, if he really puts his mind to it... and though I still have reservations about making this announcement, Sakura no Uta is my VN of the Month for October.
Shin Koihime Eiyuutan is something of an alternate fandisc for Shin Koihime, including characters from the 'extra materials' that have come out over the years and a canon story flow from the original that seems to be based on Kazuto somehow being on all three sides at once during the wars (lol). To be honest, for consistency, Moeshouden was much better, because it uses the Gaishi setting to explain everything, lol.
Having played all three, I can safely say that it is a very satisfying after-story for someone who liked the original Shin Koihime Musou. However, one thing I also noticed was that, for all that it went first, the Shoku version was the weakest of the three by far. Part of it is that in the original, both Go and Gi's paths were far deeper than Shoku's (Shoku=Shu, Go=Wu, Gi=Wei), with Kazuto taking a far more unique role in how things played out. For better or worse, in the Shoku path, he was mostly the voice of rationality behind the idealist throne that was Touka, whereas in Go he served as a husband and one of the tacticians, and in Gi he was given the role of setting up the training of new troops and the implementing of his own idea for policing the capitol. This difference in roles was part of the reason why the stories each differed so wildly.
To be honest, one thing I'm glad they did away with was certain events revolving around Sheren (Sun Ce) and Meirin (if you are familiar with history, you know that sad stuff happens). While the scenes involving those events in the original Shin Koihime were awesome in every way, I still felt a sense of relief that canon had changed that particular aspect.
Most of the events in the three versions are either emotionally touching (for those that read the original material), mildly interesting intellectually (though mostly with Gi and Go), or H-events (lots of them). I was surprised that Yue was sort of pushed to the side in the Shoku disc, as she was one of the top-rating characters on the old character polls, lol. On the other hand, all the Gi and Go characters made appearances and had their own little scenes during the game.
Overall, this is just a treat for those who played Shin Koihime. While the Shoku disc was something of a disappointment, both the Gi and Go discs were interesting enough that I didn't feel cheated for paying for them. I do wish they had put it up on dlsite or Getchu instead of DMM though... fooling DMM's region-locking setup is a serious pain in the butt.
Edit: I recently finished re-playing Shin Koihime Musou (one of the VNs I've been replaying bit by bit over the last five months)... and I'm debating on whether I should do a full post on it, lol.
This is just my opinion, born of my experiences with both bad and good VNs with gameplay. Note that I more or less expect half of humanity (or more) to disagree with me on most or all points, so don't expect me to respond to every scream of rage at my apparent assumption of superior knowledge. These are written on the basis of the philosophy that VNs are trying to tell a story and are primarily a storytelling medium.
1- Due to the nature of a visual novel (with the emphasis on the novel), the gameplay must not become more important than or overshadow the story completely. Gameplay should ultimately only be an aid to becoming immersed in the story.
2- Eros is fine. You can't avoid eros in VNs, so I won't bother protesting against it. However, h-scenes should be meaningful (both to the gameplay and story progression) and shouldn't interfere with actual storytelling or be inconsistent with the overall plot.
3- Eros combined with gameplay aspects should be minimal. By that I mean making an erotic element vital to the gameplay itself. Similar to overwhelming the story with gameplay content, it is very easy to destroy a good story with repetitive h-scenes and excessive ones that have a 'purpose' in relation to the gameplay.
4- The elements of the story - setting, characters, plot - should be consistent and regular. What this means is that all elements of the story should be consistent with one another and the story itself should regularly interject itself into the gameplay (and not as 'slice-of-life' events or h-events 90% the time).
5- The gameplay should be relatively simple and/or accessible without being boring or repetitive. Raising simulations and dungeon-crawlers most often break this rule, as both are repetitive by nature and the latter tends to deliberately set out to sabotage smooth game-play at every twist and turn. To be blunt, trying to insert the equivalent of a first-rate game into a VN story isn't going to work ninety-percent of the time, and complex or excessively difficult gameplay just gets in the way of telling the story.
6- All decent VN/gameplay hybrids should have a full-inheritance (money, items, skills, levels) New Game + system in order to allow the obtaining of other endings without having to grind through all the difficulties of the first playthrough... or they should make the gameplay skippable entirely on a second playthrough, though including a high-difficulty option for masochists who love repetition is fine (though there shouldn't be any story-related rewards for finishing on higher difficulties).
7- Solid endings. If there is only a single ending, let it be extensive... an actual reward for slogging through thirty to forty hours of gameplay rather than a five minute sop to the people who loved the characters and story so far. If there are multiple heroine endings, then let them be something other than an excuse for H-scenes and actually give you some idea of what will happen to the protagonist and heroine in the future.
Now... I know you've heard me bash charage/moege before. That isn't the purpose here, though. I've played plenty of VNs of the type over the years, and a decent number of them have actually managed to make it pretty high on my list of recommendations, despite the genres' flaws. I've also mentioned before that VN quality has fallen drastically in the past two years... and I still think that, despite a few seriously stand-out works this year in general and this month in particular.
The reason why I'm focusing on charage/moege right now is because I just played one great one, one average-quality one, and now I'm playing a mediocre (but pretty-looking) one. Having seen, just in the last few weeks, the variance in the genre in detail... I've had it thrust in my face that my conclusions, which were previously just instinctive (thus I thought it was at least in part because I was tired of the genre/s in general) and thus had the possibility of not being entirely justified, were not entirely off the mark.
To be specific, I'm somewhat bemused at the degree to which people have been pushing/hyping the one I'm playing right now, considering how pathetic this writer is at using the tools available to him.
It isn't the first time where I've encountered a mediocre VN with great visuals that gets pushed by the Western community (mostly by people who haven't played it but voted on it anyway... or ones who just extracted the CGs or used a save file to read the h-scenes) like crazy. However, it is the most egregious example of this particular social pattern I've seen recently.
Now, leaving aside my outrage at completely unjustified hype and recommendations... I have to ask, why is this VN, which probably never would have made it to production three years ago, is still somewhat better than the baseline of what I've experienced in the last two years?
Thinking about it, the answer came to me startlingly quickly... it is because it satisfies people's nether-regions and their desire for idealized slice-of-life with a few quirks without actually having a personality. The very reason I hate it is the reason it has caught the interest of some in our community, and I find myself smiling wryly as I realize that most of the people who play it are only interested in fapping to archetypical moe-heroines.
Understand, I actually don't have any objections to non-extreme fap material or moe fap material. I don't have problems with others' sexuality in general (as long as they don't inflict it on me or create victims along the way). However, I do have to wonder why these same people don't hit up one of the dozens of moe-nukige that get released every year instead, lol.
Obliterating all twists and scent of personality from a VN story is reemerging as a habit in VN makers, after a very very brief hiatus, and it is coming back even worse than before. On the bright side, it makes the gems stand out more... but it also means that I have to listen to people fawning over mindless drivel that isn't even good by genre standards.
I actually should have seen the signs long ago... considering Sougeki no Jaeger (Propeller's last VN) and the sudden reappearance of the previously endangered beast known as the 'pure moege' in the last two years (though only a few of them, thank god). The problem now, as it was thirteen years ago, is that the market is saturated with VNs in general and charage/moege in particular. Because of this - the Japanese being the most conservative businessmen on the planet - the various VN companies have started to 'go back to basics', trying again the sort of tactics that succeeded before. The fact that the average otaku ero-gamer in Japan is perfectly willing to shell out $120 for a crappy game that happens to have a cute (and preferably half-nude) dakimakura attached actually makes this trend worse, as it is creating an artificial (and very temporary) inflation of a stagnant market (and not for the first, second, or even third time). It is almost like the real estate market here in 2007... everybody knew the bottom was going to fall out eventually, but people kept putting their bets on making a few more bucks before it did.
Worse, even if the market does collapse, it is unlikely to result in better VNs, lol.
First, this VN is done in a similar vein to that of the Chuushingura VN, in that it is historical fiction with elements of fantasy. In this case, the protagonist is Okita Soujirou, the infamous Shinsengumi swordsman (in this case a trap, lol, since the Shinsengumi are all women). For those wondering how they chose to do this VN, it is pretty interesting. I have so far played three of the four end-story arcs (Hijikata and Kondou share the same arc, as do the Saitou/Sanou and the Sakuma/Higo pair). The 'true history' arc is Kou's ending, which follows the same basic story as the original history, with the minor addition of the fantasy element. In this one, the protagonist's fate follows history exactly, as does that of the Shinsengumi. The other paths I've played are the Sakuma arc and the Sakamoto Ryouma arc. Sakamoto Ryouma, who was infamous for his (in this case her) neutrality and what were considered wild ideas by many, was assassinated after he succeeded in making arrangements that might have brought about a peaceful end to the Shogunate, were it not for certain events. This arc is something of a what-if story, where Ryouma wasn't assassinated and you get to see how that alters history. It is a threesome ending, with the infamous Tosa assassin Iori as the other part of the triangle, lol. Sakuma was a famous scholar and scientist who advised the Shogunate in the years leading up to the war and was eventually assassinated, leaving the shogunate without its primary scholar of foreign technology. This is also a what-if story, where Sakuma survives to alter the fate of Japan. Sano and Saitou's ending is basically an alternate epilogue that is a part of the same path. The last arc, which I'm playing at the moment (I will edit/update this post when it is done) looks like it focuses on a Hijikata and Kondou, and I'm interested to see how they'll handle that. A few comments on the story in general... one thing is that this VN, like Chuushingura, gives you a lot of insight into an era that is a bit overly romanticized, retaining a strong element of that same romanticism while at the same time going into the gory details of what went on (both political and literally gory details, lol). The degree of detail in this VN will probably be overwhelming for the average person, and I can see that they are lining the story in general up so that they can later create a 'true ending' fandisc, if the VN is well-received. To be honest, the linguistic difficulty of this VN stays around a 7-9 throughout its length, and I honestly can't see it being comprehensible for someone who isn't at least familiar with the historical outline of what happened in Japan between 1861-1868. Another thing to understand is that anyone who reads this with even a slightly objective point of view should be able to see how this era eventually resulted in the birth of the insane nationalism that defined Imperial-era Japan before and during World War II, and it does indeed touch on many of the underlying issues that created the antagonism toward the West in Japan. It doesn't gloss over economic or political issues (in fact, those are central to the progression of the story), and as a result, it can be a bit confusing if you've only heard one side of the story (the average western textbook doesn't mention the unequal treaties, the bombardment of Ezo, Satsuma's brief conflict with Britain, or the element of proxy war between France and England involved in their internal civil war). For weaboos, this is pure crack, just like Chuushingura. Sure, it is bloody, violent, and shows off the less romantic side of the fall of the shogunate... but the Shinsengumi fights are as wonderfully violent as you would expect from the legends (even up to the recreation of the infamous Ikeda-ya incident). As a VN, it is also probably the most solid VN, from a literary perspective, written this year, simply because they simply added on and breathed life into the existing history and romanticized events of the era. What-if stories about Sakomoto Ryouma surviving aren't uncommon in jidaigeki historical fiction, but this is the first time a VN has gone into this much detail on the era. PS: Will update this later. Edit: Ok... first, the Hijikata/Kondou paths are both split out of the Kou path (so naturally, the protagonist's fate doesn't change), but in exchange, the endgame changes greatly, diverging from history (where Kondou was executed and Hijikata died in the battle for Hokkaido). Nonetheless, the story is definitely a tearful one, with the more traditional 'tragic hero of the losing side' feeling that you generally expect from Shinsengumi-related stories. The actual storytelling between Kondou and Hijikata's paths doesn't change much, though the actual end result does indeed change. Overall, this VN was a good experience for me... I got deeply emotionally involved with the characters, weeping over their suffering and glorying over their triumphs, and I honestly felt that it did justice to the writer's expressed intent 'Shinsengumi with an element of steampunk fantasy'. Shuuri's path (Sakuma's arc) touched the most deeply on the steampunk elements, for those who are interested, and honestly, I preferred the Ryouma and Sakuma arcs over the Shinsengumi ending arc. Nonetheless, the VN as a whole was immensely enjoyable. However, I do think this needs a true ending arc, and I honestly hope that Takaya Aya (the main scenario writer for this VN and most of Caramel Box's other VNs) will produce a fandisc to fulfill that desire for me, lol. That said, this was an immensely satisfying VN with no real downsides, save that the protagonist was only partially voiced (probably due to budgetary constraints). Edit 2: Just so no one mistakes my feelings about this VN, the endings and the paths themselves are satisfying. My single complaint - that there isn't a unifying true ending and it felt like there should have been - is mostly because I was put into that kind of mood after an experience that was in someways similar to Chuushingura (except the protagonist kills LOTS of people, lol).
This game is a crossover FD for Anekouji Naoko to Gin'iro no Shinigami and Tsujidou-san no Jun'ai Road. To be clear, the former game (Anekouji) was a kusoge... inasmuch as it is possible for a game made by Minato-soft to be a kusoge. In fact, its section in this VN is several degrees more interesting than the original, which is just pathetic, in retrospect...
However, this fandisc is actually quite a fun read... setting aside that the Tsujidou side of things is based on a shared ending where Hiroshi ends up with no one but the events near the end of Ai's path still occur (Maki vs Ai), it was actually pretty interesting. The new character, Yui, was not as well-fleshed as the other heroines from the previous game, but that is inevitable, considering the sheer length of the original and its fandisc. For a fandisc heroine, her path is actually quite nice.
The Anekouji side of things... is actually pretty exciting, keeping the few really good elements from Anekouji and building upon them to make a nice dramatic set of paths (including a rather funny harem path in true Minato-soft style). I won't say it was godly, because it wasn't... but it was funny and interesting... and the climax of the Kirsti/Naoko route was pretty cool overall. Still... I could have wished for a bit of a deeper delve and more than just one extra main heroine. Loli-nee is funny as a character, but she alone doesn't really satisfy.
The joint (crossover) part is pretty hilarious, bringing in characters from every Minato-soft related game, including Hitodenashi (which has been mostly forgotten by time despite me promoting it on occasion). It also makes fun of the sheer number of characters the company puts in its games, which was reasonably hilarious at the time. Maki and Momoka getting along, in particular, was funny.
For fans of Minato-soft, this game is a treat. For those who aren't, it probably won't be of any interest.
September's VN of the Month is probably going to be a contest between Baldr Heart, Inochi no Spare, and Gin'iro, Haruka. Why? Everything else I dropped shortly after exiting the prologue, wanting to puke from the kusoge-smell. It might not be fair to them, but Ichibun, Yuuwaku, and Triangle Love just aren't VNs that have any chance, with Gin'iro defining the field for slice-of-life and romance. I can't bring myself to play anymore Gin'iro, but that isn't because it sucks... it is because I'm going to have to wait a few weeks to a few months so my memories of Yuzuki and Bethly fade enough for me to be able to bring myself to continue (just doing Yuzuki's path was kind of pushing it).
Now, it is almost time for my ritual yearly poll on whether to continue VN of the Month or not... and one thing I've noticed is that people are missing the point when I ask people whether I should continue or not. I'm asking people if they value me writing down my opinions on various VNs every month, not if they think it would be worth it from my point of view (which seems to be the assumption). Lots of comments telling me to take a rest... but none telling me what they actually think about the blog. This time around, I don't intend to do the poll, simply because it feels like a waste of time. However, I do want to ask the people who actually read this blog... do you get anything of value to you from reading the hundreds of posts on individual VNs I've put up here...?
A few words before I get into this...
As my previous post spells out, I will no longer be doing the VN of the Month column, and this VN was the one that was the straw that broke the camel's back. That said, it isn't like I didn't enjoy what I played of it once I got past the sticking points (date scenes). If anything, this game is a definite increase over the quality seen in Ensemble's works since Gokigen Naname blew me away.
That said, when it comes down to it, this game is SOL all the way. The protagonist is the son of the owner of a small but stylish restaurant cafe and what amounts to the assistant cook. He has a firm grasp on what he wants out of life (to become a fully accredited cook), and he is also very responsible and good-hearted in general.
The common route is basically one typical harem-building element after another, ranging from meeting a girl who constantly gives off 'I'm sickly but trying to hide it poorly' vibes (the protagonist doesn't notice, of course) to a seemingly strong-willed and free-spirited oneesama who shows off her fragile side at odd times. By the time it was over, even though it wasn't really long, I was so happy that I wanted to thank the magic bunnies for releasing me from that cliched hell.
It needs to be said that there are too many heroines in this game, and Ensemble's current art team has such a limited range of facial designs that I honestly found it hard to tell the 'normal heroine' trio (Iori, Sanae, and Misato) apart from visuals at times. This was one of the reasons that my first impression of the game was blandness, despite the characters having dynamically different personalities, for the most part.
Before I go any further, I'll say that the paths I played were the omake Nazuna path and Youko's path. This was because those were the only heroines I became interested in during the common route, which is probably the best reason possible.
Youko's path is surprisingly long (it looks like the short common route is compensated for by longer and more complex heroine routes), and it is pretty emotional. While there were some definite moments where I winced at the predictability of certain events, I did manage to enjoy it to the end... which brings up the ending, which is actually excellent, because it is a 'four years down the road' ending that sees Youko having grown past her hangups and living happily with the protagonist... a definite benefit of an epilogue that goes forward significantly in time.
Nazuna's path is an omake path, but it shouldn't have been. Nazuna is probably the cutest character in the game (other than possibly baby Minamo or a certain character who pops up in Youko's epilogue), and she is a rare yamato nadeshiko type to boot. However, she is cursed with an omake path that is short, feels forced, and ends without an epilogue. The decision not to make Nazuna a central heroine was a horrible one, and it isn't one I'm going to forgive anytime soon, lol.
Yeah, I said I was going to wait until I'd played at least two more heroines before I posted again... but Rin's path has enough impact that I felt a distinct need to post on it ahead of time. Misakura Rin is the protagonist's osananajimi... a childhood friend and one another's first love (this is said pretty much from the beginning, so it doesn't really count as a spoiler). For reasons the protagonist deliberately only hints at (typical Sca-ji) he has been avoiding any sort of contact with her for years... since she transferred out of the area. This is despite the fact that his memories with her are some of the ones he treasures the most from his childhood. To be honest, though Makoto's path is really good, the engagement with the protagonist and heroine is completely different in Rin's path. Unlike in my past experience with Sca-ji, the progression as Rin's personal issues are revealed in detail is carried out in a manner that is neither irritating nor excessive, and even the building of their relationship feels more natural than you generally see in a VN. Understand, if you have read a lot of Japanese literature, it is really easy to figure out where Sca-ji is going with Rin even without getting on her path. He lays the hints on pretty thickly, and the reaction of a certain fushigi-ko character (not a heroine) to Rin is the final nail in the coffin. If you honestly haven't figured out why the protagonist is so intent on avoiding building a relationship with Rin early on, you are probably pretty dense... though the details are - of course - only revealed in her path. In addition to the purely physical issues, there is a significant amount of psychological weirdness involved, and I have to make the suggestion that you keep in mind that Sca-ji can't seem to avoid inserting mysticism into any and all his stories on some level, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that read Ikikoi the way he tries to keep certain issues ambiguous throughout this path. I have to wonder if he himself has an ambiguous relationship with faith and fantasy, considering the way he writes about them. I honestly cried during the climax scene of Rin's path, and I was surprised to find myself actually ranking the path pretty high up there as emotional VN paths go... right up there with the true path of Irosekai and a few others that had me in tears. A lot of it is that the protagonist has that bad habit a lot of my favorite protagonists in emotional games have... he has an odd disregard for his own safety, health, and future when he puts them in balance with someone he cares about or even someone who simply needs his help. While I love pragmatist protagonists and even ones who can be cruel, that is mostly for the same reason as I like this type of protagonist... people that exist at extremes of the range of human personality are inevitably fascinating... far moreso than some humdrum 'normal' schoolboy, lol.
Edit: Linguistic issues Now on linguistics... I don't think most people who read VNs really understand how a simple choice of words can alter how someone views a whole issue. Above, in parenthesis, I said 'typical' Sca-ji in relation to what I referred to as a bad habit in a previous post. Now, if I were a long-standing fan of Sca-ji, I probably would have said 'classic' Sca-ji. What is the difference? By using 'typical' there, I inserted a note of sarcasm/cynicism into an otherwise neutral statement. If I were to have said 'classic', that would have altered it to sound somewhat fanboyish... I wonder how many of those who read this blog even realize how much reviewers manipulate you through simple word choices like these? Not only that, ninety percent of a writer's skill is in figuring out how to insert emotion using subtle word choices like this. The reason Masada - the writer of Dies Irae - attracts writers and reading-addicts like flies is because his prose really is a work of art, designed to gain a very specific reaction without entirely making you aware that he is doing it. The reason Sca-ji tends to irritate people like me is that he lacks subtlety from the perspective of people like me. Now understand, he is perfectly subtle from the perspective of your average reader. I doubt most people will pick up on more than ten percent of the hints he gives... but for people used to figuring out subtle hints as second nature, it feels like he is laying it on a bit thick, to the point of extreme repetition. Sometimes this works (Rin's path is an example of this) and at others it doesn't (my experience of Subahibi). This is an entirely subjective issue and not one that the mainstream will ever even recognize is there without some jaded jerk like me going out of his way to point it out. However, I felt a need to say just why my bias is always going to be against Sca-ji, because I can't stop it from coloring how I write about him.
Edit2: Rina and the Yuri path Rina's path is in some ways darker than Rin's. For all the depth of emotion involved in Rin's path, the entire thing was almost entirely between Rin and the protagonist, with only occasional intervention from third parties. However, throughout Rina's path, Yuumi plays an intimate role together with them. Indeed, a good portion of the path is devoted to a recounting of Rina's and her past from Yuumi's point of view, as well as the first meeting between Naoya and Rina. Yuumi as a child is pretty... messed up inside, at least partially because she is an honest to god born lesbian. In a moege, there would probably be a 3P path here... and while that kind of path is generally fun to read, it wouldn't have the depth this one did. After the recounting of the past, it splits into Rina's heroine route and a Yuri path between her and Yuumi. To be honest, I don't think I would have gotten as much from Rina's path if I hadn't chosen to do the yuri ending first, so I can honestly recommend it as something that adds some depth to Rina's ending, putting some things in perspective. Rina's path... is equally intimate to Rin's, but it lacks the kind of high-emotion cathartic drama that Rin's had (at least for me), at least in part because a great portion of the path was devoted to recounting the somewhat messed up formative time of Rina's and Yuumi's relationship. From a purely intellectual point of view, it was an excellent choice, but it had the effect of making the path deeper intellectually at the cost of emotional engagement, an occasional problem with that kind of flashback recounting.
