Eclipsed

Just don't fall for the 'got overhyped, then was left disappointed' trap  I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY
But yeah I totally went into Island with 0 expectations and am still in the post-VN feelsies after phase. Prob will last until I pick up another VN but I'll take my time
Yeah I getchu.
I just blitzed the anime version, and for all the rushed ultracondensed yo Ne.-I.-is-literally-shoehorned-into-just-2-episodes-LOL it's still a 10/10 anime for me cuz:
1. You get to see Rinne without a hat more often.
On a serious note it did end more in line with what you wanted, and now that I think about it yeah the VN didn't really do the 'final' confrontation much justice.
 
~~
Speaking of my next potential VN(s), I'm feeling pro-Frontwing atm for obvious reasons, so

Well, from what I'm hearing I guess Island should be on my list.
I guess I skipped over it in my "I bet the romance sucks, not going to play it" phase.

I was thinking the same because of the
 

Finished Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright
It was good overall, I tend to like medieval fantasy settings, and Phoenix utilizing his desk slamming prowess as a baker was outright hilarious and it was nice to have the Maya from the good ol' days
Puzzles were whatevers, they were about as good as some random mobile app you'd play to pass the time. Didn't know who the hell Professor Layton was prior to this but he was a cool guy, a bit too cool though in that he often overshadows Phoenix and makes him look like a total novice
The overarching mystery regarding the lore of Labyrinthia and the Great Witch Bezella was good enough to keep me interested, though when it came down facing the reality and unraveling the truth behind it all it was kind of disappointing if not super underwhelming
But the entire setting did make for some fun witch trials. I particularly liked the whole mob mentality / having multiple witnesses testifying together, it made cross examinations much more hectic and fun. The stakes were extremely high too, I mean you usually don't see or hear about the fate of the Guilty parties in Ace Attorney but here you get to see the results immediately ><
P.S. I think this game came out before Dual Destinies but apparently Professor Layton is a follower of Professor Means 

~~
Gonna take a break from this stuff now. It's nice to be late to a series, almost 20 years of games in the making defeated in a mere month. Pce out 
 

AA2 Justice for All was aight, but definitely these cases lacked the extra "oomph" that the cases in AA1 had, I guess because there wasn't really a prominent baddie nor was there any big case developing in the background like DL-6.
Pearls is just too adorbs, jeez the writers really can't stop shoving them Fey females in our faces huh >.>
Francizka(?) was waaay too overdone unfortunately, especially with the constant whippings and the foolishly foolish fool spamming. Good ending scene though :')
The drama b/w Nick and Edge was kinda weird, you get all this foreshadowing about choosing death and Nick getting mad at Maya for mentioning his name but then
  
Last case was pretty thrilling, if not a a bit too Hollywood-action-movie-glorified though
 
~~
Anyways I'm already on Ep. 4 of the third game AA: Trials and Tribulations, and wow they really did Mia's courtroom sprite justice, idk her regular sprite's face always had that weird tilt to it imo
Prosecutor Godot is my favorite so far. His best sprite combination is when you best him in court and then he shakes his head, slides himself a mug, drinks from it, then spits. HILARIOUS.
 
~~
The fourth case is... REALLY hard, idk. Playing it right now. I'm pretty decent when it came to making connections and deductions with evidence, but when it comes to pointing out contradictions due to perspective it's like holy shit i got destroyed xD
They played with perspective a few times already like how can two witnesses:
 
But yeah this case is just LOADED with them. Goddamn the Dusky Bridge, man. Let's see, I'm pulling up the walkthrough now because JESUS:
/

....I finished Island.
Goddamn, I haven't been this emotionally attached to a cast of characters in a looong time. Specifically the love tale between Setsuna and Rinne. It's just so fabulously romantic, everlasting love that transcends the boundaries of time... Sorry Sara and Karen, these two heroines get absolutely shafted in the grand scheme of things, but it worked in my favor anyways cuz I just ADORE Rinne.
Unfortunately can't say much without instantly getting into SPOILERS, but yeah, once I got into winter I was hooked until the end.
Random highlight reel (ULTIMATE SPOILERS) cuz I gotta rant about this stuff to get it out of my system or I'll get a real nasty case of post-VN completion withdrawal depression LOL:
 

I'm enjoying Island a lot more than I thought it would. I think that's the particular VN formula I enjoy the most- charamoeges with beautiful scenery that more importantly ultimately builds up to a greater plot. Probably why Rewrite is one of my top VNs.
Island really keeps you guessing though. Is all the scientific hypothesis jargon really true, or is it all just some grand delusions from a bunch of wishful islander kids?

 
The heroines are all great. Going off of my 5yearold Grisaia memories, Frontwing was always good at making heroines with top-notch-common-route-bantering-prowess-but-with-fundamentally-flawed-personal-issues-that-will-be-explored-in-their-routes:

 

Karen, who longs to leave the island and its outdated traditions.
 

Sara, who longs to uphold tradition and save the island.


Rinne, who believes she and Setsuna are the same Rinne and Setsuna of legend.
 
Btw, devs were generous enough to give her a whopping 1 CG without her hat:

I CANT HELP IT! YOU LOOK SO GOOD WITHOUT THE HAT!

Rinne is obviously my best gal, and so I bawled absolutely hard at her ending. Now, I would've been fine if things ended the way they did, but hoh boy, Island gains massive bonus points for:
 

First off, let me just say that I love reading your posts. They actually serve as a great recap for me, as a person who tends to forget a lot of details from VNs I haven't read in a while.
As for Island, I enjoyed it a lot back when I read it, and I'm glad to see it getting some more appreciation. The only thing I wasn't entirely satisfied with was how
 

....I finished Island.
Goddamn, I haven't been this emotionally attached to a cast of characters in a looong time. Specifically the love tale between Setsuna and Rinne. It's just so fabulously romantic, everlasting love that transcends the boundaries of time... Sorry Sara and Karen, these two heroines get absolutely shafted in the grand scheme of things, but it worked in my favor anyways cuz I just ADORE Rinne.
Unfortunately can't say much without instantly getting into SPOILERS, but yeah, once I got into winter I was hooked until the end.
Random highlight reel (ULTIMATE SPOILERS) cuz I gotta rant about this stuff to get it out of my system or I'll get a real nasty case of post-VN completion withdrawal depression LOL:
 

I'm enjoying Island a lot more than I thought it would. I think that's the particular VN formula I enjoy the most- charamoeges with beautiful scenery that more importantly ultimately builds up to a greater plot. Probably why Rewrite is one of my top VNs.
Island really keeps you guessing though. Is all the scientific hypothesis jargon really true, or is it all just some grand delusions from a bunch of wishful islander kids?

 
The heroines are all great. Going off of my 5yearold Grisaia memories, Frontwing was always good at making heroines with top-notch-common-route-bantering-prowess-but-with-fundamentally-flawed-personal-issues-that-will-be-explored-in-their-routes:

 

Karen, who longs to leave the island and its outdated traditions.
 

Sara, who longs to uphold tradition and save the island.


Rinne, who believes she and Setsuna are the same Rinne and Setsuna of legend.
 
Btw, devs were generous enough to give her a whopping 1 CG without her hat:

I CANT HELP IT! YOU LOOK SO GOOD WITHOUT THE HAT!

Rinne is obviously my best gal, and so I bawled absolutely hard at her ending. Now, I would've been fine if things ended the way they did, but hoh boy, Island gains massive bonus points for:
 

I'm enjoying Island a lot more than I thought it would. I think that's the particular VN formula I enjoy the most- charamoeges with beautiful scenery that more importantly ultimately builds up to a greater plot. Probably why Rewrite is one of my top VNs.
Island really keeps you guessing though. Is all the scientific hypothesis jargon really true, or is it all just some grand delusions from a bunch of wishful islander kids?

 
The heroines are all great. Going off of my 5yearold Grisaia memories, Frontwing was always good at making heroines with top-notch-common-route-bantering-prowess-but-with-fundamentally-flawed-personal-issues-that-will-be-explored-in-their-routes:

 

Karen, who longs to leave the island and its outdated traditions.
 

Sara, who longs to uphold tradition and save the island.


Rinne, who believes she and Setsuna are the same Rinne and Setsuna of legend.
 
Btw, devs were generous enough to give her a whopping 1 CG without her hat:

I CANT HELP IT! YOU LOOK SO GOOD WITHOUT THE HAT!

Rinne is obviously my best gal, and so I bawled absolutely hard at her ending. Now, I would've been fine if things ended the way they did, but hoh boy, Island gains massive bonus points for:
 

I'm enjoying Island a lot more than I thought it would. I think that's the particular VN formula I enjoy the most- charamoeges with beautiful scenery that more importantly ultimately builds up to a greater plot. Probably why Rewrite is one of my top VNs.
Island really keeps you guessing though. Is all the scientific hypothesis jargon really true, or is it all just some grand delusions from a bunch of wishful islander kids?

 
The heroines are all great. Going off of my 5yearold Grisaia memories, Frontwing was always good at making heroines with top-notch-common-route-bantering-prowess-but-with-fundamentally-flawed-personal-issues-that-will-be-explored-in-their-routes:

 

Karen, who longs to leave the island and its outdated traditions.
 

Sara, who longs to uphold tradition and save the island.


Rinne, who believes she and Setsuna are the same Rinne and Setsuna of legend.
 
Btw, devs were generous enough to give her a whopping 1 CG without her hat:

I CANT HELP IT! YOU LOOK SO GOOD WITHOUT THE HAT!

Rinne is obviously my best gal, and so I bawled absolutely hard at her ending. Now, I would've been fine if things ended the way they did, but hoh boy, Island gains massive bonus points for:
 

I'm enjoying Island a lot more than I thought it would. I think that's the particular VN formula I enjoy the most- charamoeges with beautiful scenery that more importantly ultimately builds up to a greater plot. Probably why Rewrite is one of my top VNs.
Island really keeps you guessing though. Is all the scientific hypothesis jargon really true, or is it all just some grand delusions from a bunch of wishful islander kids?

 
The heroines are all great. Going off of my 5yearold Grisaia memories, Frontwing was always good at making heroines with top-notch-common-route-bantering-prowess-but-with-fundamentally-flawed-personal-issues-that-will-be-explored-in-their-routes:

 

Karen, who longs to leave the island and its outdated traditions.
 

Sara, who longs to uphold tradition and save the island.


Rinne, who believes she and Setsuna are the same Rinne and Setsuna of legend.
 
Btw, devs were generous enough to give her a whopping 1 CG without her hat:

I CANT HELP IT! YOU LOOK SO GOOD WITHOUT THE HAT!

Rinne is obviously my best gal, and so I bawled absolutely hard at her ending. Now, I would've been fine if things ended the way they did, but hoh boy, Island gains massive bonus points for:
 

Ok so, good first impressions on Island
You play as Setsuna, an above average decent looking 5.3 rating guy who wakes up amnesiac on an Island. That's as cliche as it gets huh.

Whew. Unfortunately, buddy, you ain't got nothing on Grisaia's Yuuji. 
Setsuna woke up feeling like he was in the middle of something important- a greater, save the world purpose perhaps- and there are immediate hints that this VN could be dealing with time travel and destiny and whatnot. 

Oo la la, didn't really expect that. Of course, this could all be a big ol' red herring and all the talks of future and time travel is simply a result of Setsuna's delusions. Cuz yeah the guy seems a bit out of it. But he is indeed fairly entertaining, Frontwing delivers with their male protags, as usual.

The poster heroine is Rinne. I think she'd look better without the hat, but whatever floats your boat. Setsuna immediately recognizes/knows her name upon "first" seeing her so maybe there really is some destiny shiz going on here. Rinne a rich gal, from one of the three elite families on the island (the other two heroines are naturally from the other two elite families). She hires Setsuna to be her servant.

TAKE OFF THE HAT LADY
There is a built in flowchart and in general Frontwings' software development team got so pro at coding that you can literally skip or rewind the VN in realtime and jump to any particular scene no problemo. I wonder if they'll narratively make this a plot feature like YUNO's save points

 
The BGMs are fantastic. I guess I have a thing for peaceful/tranquil/surreal/fantasy sounding types and Island would of course be stocked with plenty them. They really do enhance the reading experience indeed.
 

Ok so, good first impressions on Island
You play as Setsuna, an above average decent looking 5.3 rating guy who wakes up amnesiac on an Island. That's as cliche as it gets huh.

Whew. Unfortunately, buddy, you ain't got nothing on Grisaia's Yuuji. 
Setsuna woke up feeling like he was in the middle of something important- a greater, save the world purpose perhaps- and there are immediate hints that this VN could be dealing with time travel and destiny and whatnot. 

Oo la la, didn't really expect that. Of course, this could all be a big ol' red herring and all the talks of future and time travel is simply a result of Setsuna's delusions. Cuz yeah the guy seems a bit out of it. But he is indeed fairly entertaining, Frontwing delivers with their male protags, as usual.

The poster heroine is Rinne. I think she'd look better without the hat, but whatever floats your boat. Setsuna immediately recognizes/knows her name upon "first" seeing her so maybe there really is some destiny shiz going on here. Rinne a rich gal, from one of the three elite families on the island (the other two heroines are naturally from the other two elite families). She hires Setsuna to be her servant.

TAKE OFF THE HAT LADY
There is a built in flowchart and in general Frontwings' software development team got so pro at coding that you can literally skip or rewind the VN in realtime and jump to any particular scene no problemo. I wonder if they'll narratively make this a plot feature like YUNO's save points

 
The BGMs are fantastic. I guess I have a thing for peaceful/tranquil/surreal/fantasy sounding types and Island would of course be stocked with plenty them. They really do enhance the reading experience indeed.
 

Ok so, good first impressions on Island
You play as Setsuna, an above average decent looking 5.3 rating guy who wakes up amnesiac on an Island. That's as cliche as it gets huh.

Whew. Unfortunately, buddy, you ain't got nothing on Grisaia's Yuuji. 
Setsuna woke up feeling like he was in the middle of something important- a greater, save the world purpose perhaps- and there are immediate hints that this VN could be dealing with time travel and destiny and whatnot. 

Oo la la, didn't really expect that. Of course, this could all be a big ol' red herring and all the talks of future and time travel is simply a result of Setsuna's delusions. Cuz yeah the guy seems a bit out of it. But he is indeed fairly entertaining, Frontwing delivers with their male protags, as usual.

The poster heroine is Rinne. I think she'd look better without the hat, but whatever floats your boat. Setsuna immediately recognizes/knows her name upon "first" seeing her so maybe there really is some destiny shiz going on here. Rinne a rich gal, from one of the three elite families on the island (the other two heroines are naturally from the other two elite families). She hires Setsuna to be her servant.

TAKE OFF THE HAT LADY
There is a built in flowchart and in general Frontwings' software development team got so pro at coding that you can literally skip or rewind the VN in realtime and jump to any particular scene no problemo. I wonder if they'll narratively make this a plot feature like YUNO's save points

 
The BGMs are fantastic. I guess I have a thing for peaceful/tranquil/surreal/fantasy sounding types and Island would of course be stocked with plenty them. They really do enhance the reading experience indeed.
 

Finished Livestream and Root Film
Livestream: was a decent horror experience. I was expecting a bit more SAW-esque horror scenarios for the heroines but outside of the first few flagship advertisement ones they got, it's been relatively tame. Kinda like Corpse Party. More focus on exploring the Hotel and gathering bits and pieces of information while avoiding the monster rather than back to back horror shenanigans.
There are several (4) bad endings that you have to get to make your way to the true ending, and they add a bit to the mystery/suspense while you try to figure out just wtf is going on with Hotel Izanami and what you should do differently to avoid the current bad end you got. Ultimately there's nothing too grand though. Pretty straightforward explanations and reasons at the end of the day. But will these heroines live to see that day?

 


~~
Root Film was a good mystery/suspense adventure. It's only shortcoming is, you spend 80% of the VN building up this overarching mystery revolving around a decade old cancelled film with a supposed cursed reputation and its relation to the protagonists while you're doing all of your episodic murder mysteries and then it just... kinda falls flat when you finally start getting into the thick of things.

The culprit confrontational scenes could've been done a bit better, it's probably the most simplistic/barebones out of the Ace Attorney/Danganronpa games. Basically a glorified multiple choice that you absolutely shouldn't fail if you paid the slightest bit of attention during your investigations.
Everything by the end of it is wrapped up with a neat little bow, all the motivations are explained yada yada yada but man i actually felt unsatisfied with the conclusion. Also Riho was criminally underused. You can't advertise having dual protagonists and then have Riho only take 28.5% screentime while Rintaro gets 72.5%. That's some Danganronpa V3 Ch1 shit right there. But yeah, good read, but overall would've liked more Riho. lel.

 
Also worth mentioning: the comicbook simplistic artstyle allowed them to litter this VN with CGs, there's probably an easy 75-100 CGs so presentation wise they did a stellar job. The world / Shimane Prefecture feels vibrant, colorful, and the characters are all quirky and distinct. It's something Root Letter kind of failed to do with its bland characters, empty world.

 
~~
Just did some Switch browsing.
Island came out on the 8th this month, I think i remember being slightly intrigued by it esp. by that one shrine maiden gal with the fuzzy hair when i read Grisaia no Kajitsu 50 years ago (btw still need to read Meikyuu and Rakuen or w.e for Grisaia...) but uhh yup Island it is

Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode
 
Licensed by Mangagamer
 

Summary
"To become my true self... I'll become one with them."
Prewar-era Japan. Deep in the snowy mountains of northwestern Japan there exists a settlement called Hitogata, the Village of Dolls. On the night of the festival honoring the clay idol Hinna-sama, a girl is murdered. The villagers all blame Hinna-sama's curse. One outside the faith has joined in the festival of Hinna-sama, and brought the painful death of the curse down upon themself.

October, 1957. Two years have passed since Kuchiki Touko's abduction from her hospital room. Tokisaka Reiji's younger sister saves a man who had tried to commit suicide. He, too, is the most recent victim of "Hinna-sama's curse". Reiji begins his investigation, clinging desperately to the hope that Touko can be saved, and at the same time, a strange religious group said to have dissolved six years ago begins to move again to put a certain plan into motion...

The curse will be carried out, whether by the gods or by human hands.
 
Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order
Kara no Shoujo: The Second Episode is a linear story with eleven endings. There are no individual heroine routes.
There are seven gameover endings, four endings, and one true end. You have access to all gameover ends, but only one ending on your first playthrough. The other three endings and true ending can only be accessed upon getting this ending and starting your second+ playthrough. You also need to get Bad End #2 "To Search for Toko" to get True and Obsession Ends.
  Route Guideline
*Due to the mystery nature of this VN, it is strongly advised that you make your first playthrough without a walkthrough to avoid spoilers! You can do it!
*Though, to avoid being locked into Bad End #3, you have to make sure you visit Yukiko at least 3 times during your Free Time before 1/9


First Playthrough
I have included Save Points in the walkthrough for Memories of That Day below since all Bad Endings can branch from it.
End (Ending 08)
 

Memories of That Day
 

Bad Ends (Endings 01 ~ 07)
 

1. Hinna-sama’s Curse


 

2. To Search for Toko...
 



3. The Holy Prophet
 



4. Disappearance
 



5. Yukio
 

 

6. Karen




7. The Two Yukaris
 

Second Playthrough
Must obtain Ending #08 "Memories of that Day" and start a new playthrough to get these following endings. Also must get Bad Ending #2 "To Search for Toko" to get True End and Obsession Ends There are extra dialogues and scenes scattered throughout the story this time, so pay attention if you are control skipping! There are H-scenes for Yukiko, Ayumu, Nanako, and Meguri.
Ends (Endings 09 ~ 11)


Normal End


 

True End
 



Obsession

 
Attribution
This Kara no Shoujo 2 (kns2) walkthrough is based on info attained from a source with some adjustments made by Eclipsed.
 
 

Wow time flies.

qureate's horror adv "Livestream: Escape from Hotel Izanami" is out. It's, naturally, about a group of three female streamers Nana(left), Mio and Azusa(right), who go visit an abandoned haunted hotel Izanami because streamers gotta stream and then they get trapped and subject to its horrors

 
There's a giant bloody pig mascot thing that serves as the poster monster of this VN and it stalks the halls during the adv 2D side scrolling horror exploration bits. Pretty scary at first, but once you take a moment to learn the game mechanics the Oinker becomes more of an annoyance than anything since whenever its chasing you, you are unable to progress with the exploration/puzzle solving segments until you get him off your tail.

 

 

 
Random nitpick: this is a supposed to be a survival horror adventure thingy, and it indeed is, but qureate just couldn't resist and they tossed in some typical ecchi stuff, though with a touch of horror. Even better (or worse), here's a screenshot of one of the 'features' they highlight in one of their trailers: 
 
 

Wow time flies.

qureate's horror adv "Livestream: Escape from Hotel Izanami" is out. It's, naturally, about a group of three female streamers Nana(left), Mio and Azusa(right), who go visit an abandoned haunted hotel Izanami because streamers gotta stream and then they get trapped and subject to its horrors

 
There's a giant bloody pig mascot thing that serves as the poster monster of this VN and it stalks the halls during the adv 2D side scrolling horror exploration bits. Pretty scary at first, but once you take a moment to learn the game mechanics the Oinker becomes more of an annoyance than anything since whenever its chasing you, you are unable to progress with the exploration/puzzle solving segments until you get him off your tail.

 

 

 
Random nitpick: this is a supposed to be a survival horror adventure thingy, and it indeed is, but qureate just couldn't resist and they tossed in some typical ecchi stuff, though with a touch of horror. Even better (or worse), here's a screenshot of one of the 'features' they highlight in one of their trailers: 
 
 

Noble☆Works
English Translation Patch (by The Oxford Comma is Superior Subs)

Summary  
"Well, I'll just come out and say it. We want you to... become Shuri's body double!"
Fujishima Takumi is a regular high school student just trying to make ends meet via his part-time jobs. Unfortunately, one day his employer becomes bankrupt and bails without giving Takumi his pay. Depressed and now broke, Takumi wanders the streets and eventually bumps into someone... who looks exactly like him! Turns out this clone of his is Kanemoto Shuri who is from a rather wealthy family.   Due to very, very special circumstances involving Shuri's medical condition and constant harassment of kidnappers, Takumi is asked by the Kanemoto household to attend the prestigious Rokuroku Academy in Shuri's place. Initially only accepting due to his financial needs, Takumi slowly but surely finds himself enjoying his new life as the doppelganger of Shuri...
    Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order There are five heroines and one bonus route: Akari, Sena, Hinata, Shizuru, Maya, and The bonus route is unlocked after completing at least one route.
Extras (CG + H-scene viewer) are unlocked upon completing at least one route. Sprite viewer is unlocked upon completing all routes + bonus route. You may play in any order you like (besides bonus first), I'm going Akari -> Hinata -> Sena -> Maya -> Shizuru -> bonus
 
Route Guideline Beware: there are three "return-to-title-screen" gameover choices:  
Kanemoto Akari
   
 
Tsukiyama Sena
   
 

Kunihiro Hinata
   
 

Masamune Shizuru
 
   
Nagamitsu Maya
   
    ~~ Bonus Route (accessible upon completing at least one route)    
  Attribution This walkthrough was created and formatted by Eclipsed with information based on trial-and-error (10%) and the Fiddler (90%).
Special thanks to Fiddle for his suggestions, edits, facts, and in general for letting me fiddle with his diddle

Picked up Root Film.
It's apparently set in the same universe as Root Letter, set in the real life Japan's Shimane Prefecture. Seems the developers "Kadowaka Games" have really taken a liking to this place. 
Premise: mystery adventure. Two protagonists: Up-and-coming director (M) (first) Rintaro Yagumo, and Rising-in-popularity actress (F) Riho. These two protagonists are just doing their own separate entertainment industry shenanigans when they get caught up in Shimane Prefecture's murder mysteries and whatnot. 

Rintaro and his assistant Magari
 

Riho and her manager, Manabe

Structure seems to follow the same formula as other mystery/detective adventure games like Ace Attorney- a case happens, protagonist and their sidekick gets some time to free roam, banter and do the detective work, then you commence boss battle to unveil the truth. Pretty entertaining so far.

Picked up Root Film.
It's apparently set in the same universe as Root Letter, set in the real life Japan's Shimane Prefecture. Seems the developers "Kadowaka Games" have really taken a liking to this place. 
Premise: mystery adventure. Two protagonists: Up-and-coming director (M) (first) Rintaro Yagumo, and Rising-in-popularity actress (F) Riho. These two protagonists are just doing their own separate entertainment industry shenanigans when they get caught up in Shimane Prefecture's murder mysteries and whatnot. 

Rintaro and his assistant Magari
 

Riho and her manager, Manabe

Structure seems to follow the same formula as other mystery/detective adventure games like Ace Attorney- a case happens, protagonist and their sidekick gets some time to free roam, banter and do the detective work, then you commence boss battle to unveil the truth. Pretty entertaining so far.

Picked up Root Film.
It's apparently set in the same universe as Root Letter, set in the real life Japan's Shimane Prefecture. Seems the developers "Kadowaka Games" have really taken a liking to this place. 
Premise: mystery adventure. Two protagonists: Up-and-coming director (M) (first) Rintaro Yagumo, and Rising-in-popularity actress (F) Riho. These two protagonists are just doing their own separate entertainment industry shenanigans when they get caught up in Shimane Prefecture's murder mysteries and whatnot. 

Rintaro and his assistant Magari
 

Riho and her manager, Manabe

Structure seems to follow the same formula as other mystery/detective adventure games like Ace Attorney- a case happens, protagonist and their sidekick gets some time to free roam, banter and do the detective work, then you commence boss battle to unveil the truth. Pretty entertaining so far.

Hoh boy have I been dead

Wtf was the last long length thing I've read? Abyss of the Sacrifice? That one all girls trapped escape sci fi thingy? Back in December 2020? LEL WEAK!!

Then I tried to read Flowers in January and was like ehh I'll wait for the whole tetralogy to come out for Switch EN (it's already out for JP, plx hurry)
Truth be told I'm just out of gas for long length (30+ hr) VNs. Last year I was on a roll, craving and blitzing through trilogies like Muv Luv, Utawarerumono, like no tomorrow, thanks stay at home orders

Now what's the trend for me? SHORT LENGTH VNS
From Jan 'til now I've settled on Qureate's many one off fantasy single heroine live2D short story romances. They literally pump these out every 3-4 months, faster than whoever the hell pumps out them Nekopara volumes. 
And let's be real, if I was in full power no life read mode, I'd consider these utter trash. They only take 3-5 hrs to go each through so if you just marathon these there'll definitely be less impact and wholesomeness and whatnot but luckily I'm horrifically nerfed and have been literally only reading like 30min-1hr a day so they can take up to a week for me to finish. Artificial inflated value ftw.

 
NekoMiko - The Neko Para wannabe clone. Two shrine maiden nekogirls cling onto protag to cleanse him of his bad luck
 
NinNinDays - Real life Naruto female ninja (kunoichi?) Sumire begins her journey on the path of ninja, but is totally clueless to social norms and eventually meets the Protag
 
TroubleDays - Novice succubus Lovelia latches onto Protag as her first target to extract his "Technoforce"
 
KukkuroDays: Saber meets protag.
 

Fantasy Tavern Sextet. Ok, now Qureate's getting ambitious. They went from everyday normal protag meets out of this world heroine, to everyday normal protag GETS SENT TO out of this world to meet out of this world heroine. And they're making this a three volume short story series, with two star heroines each volume, cuz we gotta fulfill that sextet = six word play.

That's like what, 6 games made in two years? (Neko Miko started in Jan 2019). Makes me wonder how profitable these 3-4month development $10 3-5hr games are vs spending a couple years to make a 20-30hr $30-40 game ..

One last Qureate shilling: just next month Apr 2021 they're already releasing their next title: Abandoned. Looks like a survival horror entry? Jeebus that sounds delicious~

 
 
TL;DR- these 3-5hr short romance VNs only worked for me because I literally took a week to read each one because of my horrific reading slump. You can literally blitz through ALL of these in just a day or two and you'd just end up feeling "meh".