melo4496

The Blurb
Flowers: Le volume sur printemps (AKA Flowers: Spring Volume) is a yuri game set in an all-girls catholic school. You play as Shirahane Suou, a shy girl who has come to the school seeking friendship. You see, she has heard that at this school a certain system exists that pairs up girls who are in the same year. With a system such as this, even an introvert like Suou can surely make at least one true friend! Or, so she hopes...

The Brood
Let's introduce our three main characters:


Suou is an introverted bookworm who has been homeschooled most of her life. Her lack of interaction with others her age has crippled her socially, and her one experience attempting to attend a normal school was a disaster. On the plus side, she has striking good looks that earn her easy praise from all around her, and when it comes to anything nerdy, including such things as fantasy novels and horror movies, she is quite knowledgeable. She's also got the mind of a detective, but we'll get to that bizarrely out-of-place addition later on.


Mayuri is a cool beauty whose laid-back attitude makes her an instant hit in the classroom. She is a bit of a tomboy, and sometimes she takes things perhaps a bit TOO easy, but it's also clear that there are times when her sunny smile is just for show...


Rika is the class president, and has a very mature, lady-like personality. She is very concerned with making sure everyone obeys the school rules, but even more concerned with making sure everyone in the class gets along. She is a mediator and defuser of situations, though perhaps she is too quick to help others, and not quick enough to find help for herself...

I am only covering characters here who have routes in the game, though I will say that the supporting cast is full of great characters who I hope to see more of in later games in this series.

Anywho, on with the review.

The Good
The writing in this game is very good. The feels are for reals. As you watch Suou change and grow through her experiences, and as you see the many, many layers of each character being peeled away, revealing lifelike complexity and multi-faceted personalities, you can't help but feel that you are one of these girls, going through these things with your dear friends. The emotional scenes strike home very hard, and I found myself teary-eyed multiple times on both of the routes.

The music, though sparse, is very good. Especially during the opening scenes, music is used in an almost sound-novel like manner to emphasize the scenes. One song blends into another in a kind of crescendo that really sends a thrill through you as you go through the prologue. While I wish there would have been more tracks and a few more cases where music was used to great effect like in the prologue, what is there is effective (though you will get tired of the one or two 'everyday' tracks that play almost constantly when there isn't another special song to play).

The CG is... excellent. Absolutely amazing. I've seen good CG in VNs before, but I've never felt as much like I really wanted to collect each one as I have in this game. Normally in non-H games CG seems to serve very little purpose except emphasizing certain scenes, but in this game the CGs are definitely rewards worth striving for.



Just... AHH! And they're all like that!

The Bad
This game appears to be low budget. There are a few reasons why I feel this way. First, there are maybe like 10 music tracks. It's seriously hilariously bad how often they force you to listen to the 'everyday' music. I mean yeah I realize it's the theme meant to represent your everyday life at the school but it plays for 90% of the game, I kid you not. No matter how much you like it at first you will get sick and tired of it before you pass the halfway point. Second, every character has all of two poses and maybe 2 changes of clothing (with the same poses for the changes). It's bad. Especially when the text describes a character doing something they are obviously not doing. Also, for certain characters (who I will get to in a moment) the poses given them are good for basically none of the emotions they actually want to show. Now, I realize we're probably going to get more costumes in later games and that this is meant to be the first of probably 4 games (one for each season, the 2nd one is already out), but that's still no excuse to only have 2 poses. That's just sad.

But a low budget can be forgiven. What can't be forgiven is the absolutely bizarrely bad character design. I want you take a look at these two characters:

When I first met these two I was convinced they were going to be the villains; bullies that spread bad rumors about me or something. They don't look like friendly, puppy-like little sister characters who act in huggable adorable ways. Except that's the role they actually play in the game. Their voices are also adorable and don't fit the images they were given at all. In fact, even in CG they look completely different from their normal sprites:

See? HERE they look like cute little kids, which is what they act like. If they had expressions like these on their sprites I could probably forgive the narrow necks and angular faces, but they have all of 2 expressions they can give and neither of them are cute! I don't know what the sprite artist thought he was drawing, but he and the CG artist (I can only assume for my own sanity that they were different people) obviously got mixed signals.

Also, the writer gets hung up on his own cliches way too often. This is mainly targeted at two characters, one of whom we are constantly told has a 'smile like a patch of spring sunlight' and another has a 'teasing, catty smile'. Which, I mean yeah that works for description, but we are literally told this about those two characters CONSTANTLY. There are seriously times with the latter character in which she has the cat smile multiple times in the same scene. If you take a drink every time that character is likened to a cat you will be drunk by the end of your first meeting with her in the story. It's ridiculous and a small failing on the part of the writer.

And, my final complaint (well, for the Bad section... I've got one or two for the Ugly) is that one of the two endings is a horrible sequel-baiting cliffhanger. I mean I should have expected that from a game that appears to be the first in a series of possibly 4 games, but it was still a low blow. A serious punch in the gut, especially because I was so emotionally invested in the characters.

The Sad
I've got to say the saddest thing for me (besides the stupid cliffhanger sequel-bait ending for one of the routes) was honestly the character design fail I mentioned above. I really loved those two characters and I feel that the designers really dropped the ball on making their sprites, and now they're just going to re-use those sprites for every subsequent game in the series so it's never going to get better. If this was a novel, without visuals, I never would have pictured those two looking like they do, not in a million years. All I can do is look forward to the CG, in which they are actually drawn correctly.

The Mad
The mysteries in this game made me mad, but we'll get to why and how in The Ugly, because they were that bad.

The Fad
Gahh! Everyone's wearing the same thing all the time! Even in their pajamas everyone looks fairly similar. Happily there is at least one costume that stands out during the game:

Just. Yeah. You can feel the power of the prayer. I wonder what's going on in this scene? Guess you'd better read the VN and find out!

The Rad
There is a scene where Suou and two other girls are up at night in the library of the school and they decide to tell ghost stories to each other. The stories are great chillers and, even though they're not meant to be terrifying or horrific, they hit just the right notes to send some shivers up your spine. There are even special CG just for that scene to add to the spookiness with images. It's a great scene and it felt like a kind of bonus, since the plot of the game itself has basically nothing to do with the paranormal. Definitely my pick for the raddest scene.

The Snuggly
The two girls mentioned earlier could have been this if their character designs had been handled a bit better. I still liked them in the CG, but it just wasn't enough. Sadly I must say that this game really does not have a sufficient level of cuteness, so moe fans should stay far away.

The Whaaaa-gly
The mysteries, again, were bizarre and stupid and horrible but again we'll get to that in a bit.

The Pugly
There were neither animals nor pet-like characters in this title so there's nothing to discuss.

The Smugly
Also, no villains. Skip!

The Ugly
The mysteries in this game are stupid.
Bizarrely so.
I thought Innocent Grey was sort of known for making psychological thriller stories, so you'd think they would know their way around writing a good mystery, but in Flowers it is quite the opposite. Firstly, I don't think this game even needed the shoehorned-in mysteries that mainly just act as barriers during the story. Failing one causes you to get a bad ending and, in fact, that's basically the only way to get a bad ending. I won't even say I didn't like them because of how difficult they were. I think if you carefully read all the text leading up to the mysteries (and by this I mean ALL the text, on both routes leading up to the mystery) you would probably have a good chance at guessing the correct answer. Even failing that, you can save and just guess and check easily enough.

The problem is that the mysteries make no sense IN CONTEXT. While it's simple for you as the player to pick from the small selection of answers given to you, there are several moments when I felt like there was no possible way the characters in the game could have made the logical leaps necessary to arrive at the conclusions they do. Not only that, but the ways in which the mysteries are set up are incredibly contrived and make it clear that the mysteries were apparently added in either as an afterthought, or because Innocent Grey felt they couldn't write a story without having some element of mystery in it.

Characters say or do things no one in their position would say or do, people jump to bizarre conclusions based on little to no evidence, events line up perfectly so that some obscure bit of knowledge the characters just happen to be talking about ends up being the key point to solving a mystery that happens a few days later that, for all intents and purposes, should have absolutely nothing to do with that obscure bit of knowledge.

The only mystery that felt like it actually fit into the plot and was well made was also the most idiotically obvious one, with the answer being painfully clear almost before the mystery even begins.

When I first heard about this game a lot of the rumors said it would have mystery elements or might have a darker side due to Innocent Grey's influence. Instead what I found is that it was an amazingly emotionally complex yuri story with the most out of place, dumb obscure-fact riddles thrust in as checkpoints that made no sense in-universe.

The Verdict
It's easy to set aside the stupid mysteries and the low-budget quality hiccups in light of the amazing, emotional writing. This is a great yuri story, and the start of a great yuri series. The experience isn't too long, and it will leave any player hungry for the next game. I think it may be early to give a final verdict before the whole series is available to look at as a whole, but as a beginning it definitely has me sold on wanting to know more about these characters and what's in store next for them. Avoid it if you're not into yuri or games that are severely lacking in moe, but anyone else should pick this up and enjoy this short, bitter-sweet tale.

First, the simple basis for understanding the way Japanese think about the supernatural. Simply put, Shinto, which was the country's official religion and is the religion that originated there, is an animistic faith, with a strong tendency toward the personification of nature and objects. Second, Buddhism was the dominant faith in Japan for centuries, when the various shogunates tried to weaken the Emperor's power by strengthening the influence of Buddhism as a rival faith.

Why is this relevant? Shintoism personifies the dead and believes in the concept of living gods. The Buddhist tributaries in Japan generally believe in reincarnation. Both faiths create a belief that there are things in the world that exist alongside us that cannot be seen by 'normal' people. Both have a belief in life after death, and both have a concept of 'lingering' and 'ascension'.

Generally speaking, Japanese spiritualists hold to a belief (or so they say) that if you can see a spirit, you can effect it and it can effect you. It is vital to understand this before anything else when dealing with Japanese spiritualism in general. While the idea of ghosts harming or possessing those who can't see them isn't denied by Japanese spiritualists, those who can 'see' them are thought to be more vulnerable, if left untrained ('training' generally resembling Buddhist asceticism and meditation).

Now, the word 'oni' is perhaps the most overused name for spirits in Japan. This is because it can be taken to be any spirit that can and does cause harm, refer to humans whose souls have fallen into evil, and/or the legendary giant ogre-type creatures like Shuten-doji that litter Japanese legend. Because of this, it isn't uncommon for ghosts, youkai, and even some 'kami' (the animistic idea of gods in the Shinto faith) to be considered 'oni'. This should give you an idea of how useless any attempt to define what an oni is can be, and why it is so conveniently used in VNs, anime, and manga.

A lot of this lack of discrimination comes from the fact that Shinto attributes souls to all things, whether they are humans, animals, natural disasters, or even inanimate objects.

Now, the two attitudes 'traditional' people in Japan take toward ghosts tend to be: 'seal them up' or 'banish them'. While Shinto can be said to be nature-worshiping, it is at its heart a pragmatist's faith. 'Cleanse people's souls so they don't do bad things'. 'Cleanse a place to prevent possible disaster'. 'Worship a god so it doesn't squish you'. Simple, isn't it? Of course, there are a lot of deeper details, but that is what you should keep in mind as a core reality of the faith and its view on spiritualism.

In otaku-media, it is extremely rare for fantasy anime that deal with ghosts, spirits, or demons to take a single-faith approach to it. You'll almost always see a multi-faith approach, with one or more being dominant (including Christian ones at times). Shinto is dominant the most often, though Buddhism tends to dominate when you get into stuff based a few centuries in the past. Onmyoudou, one of the original types of 'spiritualism' in Japan is very much a fusion of Buddhist and Shinto ideas, if you want an example, since it is extensively used in various anime.

What does this all come down to? Basically, traditional Japanese viewpoints on ghosts and spirits tend to be ones of rejection, and this is something to keep in mind when reading a VN or watching an anime that deals with ghosts, youkai, or other supernatural beings.

A few bits of vocab:

kami- While it is a term that is also used for the Christian god, it is a universal term for all supernatural beings that have worshipers or need to be be/have been worshiped. By Japanese standards, angels and demons would be considered to be kami under the right circumstances, as the Japanese consider 'enshrining' a harmful existence to be a way to keep it from harming them.

akuma- Simply, demon. This is a relatively modern term made of the kanji for evil and the kanji for 'that which is outside/heretical'.

oni- both a name for a specific type of ogre-type youkai and a generalized umbrella term for evil spirits, humans who have fallen into evil ways to an extreme degree, and aspects of certain kami.

youkai- spirits of Japanese legend. The most common are nature spirits, animal spirits, dragons, and 'object spirits' (Tsukumogami). It isn't uncommon for beneficial or powerful ones to be raised up as 'kami' and enshrined to gain the benefit of their blessing and prevent them from doing harm. Whether they are seen as having physical form varies based upon the individual viewpoint.

Reibaishi- An almost identical concept to the Western 'medium'... basically someone who can see spirits and/or communicate with them and makes a living off of it.

Jorei- Exorcism, though it is usually of spirits rather than demons.



PS: This isn't complete... I'll be adding to it later, lol.

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In this post I'll attempt to introduce JWPce (for those who don't know what it is)
(* = refer to JWPce User Manual)

JWPce

JWPce (Japanese Word Processor for Windows) by Glenn Rosenthal is a program designed for English speakers who are studying Japanese.



Now, JWPce has BUNCH of functions (13 others) but I'm only going to talk about the DICTIONARY FUNCTION.


Upon searching a word, the dictionary will give you the word in Kanji, the word in Hiragana and the meaning of the word.




The dictionary is not limited to Japanese to English.
Press Ctrl A to search from English to Japanese. (To return to Japanese to English, Ctrl K)






How to use the Dictionary for Learning Japanese through Visual Novels

Rains told me about this program. lol
This is what I'm using to read Raw VNs. (I'm not an expert yet)

After opening the program, press F6.



On the left side, you'll see buttons such as Search, Sort... Click Options.




A window will appear. Look on the left side and check Track Clipboard. Then OK.



Say you have a hooked Japanese sentence on the ITH.





Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word.



This is the result of the procedure I described above.



If you look at the upper right side of the dictionary, you'll see four stuff you can check or uncheck.



These things are used to limit the search. A matter of one's preference.

Personally, I check them all so that only the needed meanings are shown and the search is fast (but there are disadvantages too).



Basically, you will be reading the text on the ITH which means that parsing (identifying words, particles, etc.) is done by you.

In case no matches are found, a warning is triggered and the default warning sound is annoying. Sound can be made tolerable by changing your Windows theme.

JWPce uses EDICT, ENAMDICT, and other dictionaries (you can add others) at the same time.*

It also has a USER DICTIONARY - a personalized dictionary you can make.*


Note:

☆ JWPce is free under the terms of GNU General Public License Link to download
☆ No romaji in this program. Go learn Kana first.
☆ Radical Look-up (F5) is useful for Kanjis you can't hook
☆ Again, to make the warning sound quite acceptable in the ears, I suggest changing your theme.
☆ There are times when the program crashes. This is because of certain words (it can't search). I suggest moving to the next line of the game and open the program again.

☆ To recognize the kanji more (make it bigger) or for more details about a certain kanji, point the mouse to the kanji (on the dictionary), right click then click Get info.




☆ I suggest reading the User Manual (atleast the section about dictionary)
☆ Some things I said are based only on my observations. Stuff may vary.
☆ credit to rainsismyfav for introducing me to JWPce / ITH method


I will answer questions I can / am willing to answer.
Also please correct me for false information I might have stated.

See you around.

In this post I'll attempt to introduce JWPce (for those who don't know what it is)
(* = refer to JWPce User Manual)

JWPce

JWPce (Japanese Word Processor for Windows) by Glenn Rosenthal is a program designed for English speakers who are studying Japanese.



Now, JWPce has BUNCH of functions (13 others) but I'm only going to talk about the DICTIONARY FUNCTION.


Upon searching a word, the dictionary will give you the word in Kanji, the word in Hiragana and the meaning of the word.




The dictionary is not limited to Japanese to English.
Press Ctrl A to search from English to Japanese. (To return to Japanese to English, Ctrl K)






How to use the Dictionary for Learning Japanese through Visual Novels

Rains told me about this program. lol
This is what I'm using to read Raw VNs. (I'm not an expert yet)

After opening the program, press F6.



On the left side, you'll see buttons such as Search, Sort... Click Options.




A window will appear. Look on the left side and check Track Clipboard. Then OK.



Say you have a hooked Japanese sentence on the ITH.





Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word.



This is the result of the procedure I described above.



If you look at the upper right side of the dictionary, you'll see four stuff you can check or uncheck.



These things are used to limit the search. A matter of one's preference.

Personally, I check them all so that only the needed meanings are shown and the search is fast (but there are disadvantages too).



Basically, you will be reading the text on the ITH which means that parsing (identifying words, particles, etc.) is done by you.

In case no matches are found, a warning is triggered and the default warning sound is annoying. Sound can be made tolerable by changing your Windows theme.

JWPce uses EDICT, ENAMDICT, and other dictionaries (you can add others) at the same time.*

It also has a USER DICTIONARY - a personalized dictionary you can make.*


Note:

☆ JWPce is free under the terms of GNU General Public License Link to download
☆ No romaji in this program. Go learn Kana first.
☆ Radical Look-up (F5) is useful for Kanjis you can't hook
☆ Again, to make the warning sound quite acceptable in the ears, I suggest changing your theme.
☆ There are times when the program crashes. This is because of certain words (it can't search). I suggest moving to the next line of the game and open the program again.

☆ To recognize the kanji more (make it bigger) or for more details about a certain kanji, point the mouse to the kanji (on the dictionary), right click then click Get info.




☆ I suggest reading the User Manual (atleast the section about dictionary)
☆ Some things I said are based only on my observations. Stuff may vary.
☆ credit to rainsismyfav for introducing me to JWPce / ITH method


I will answer questions I can / am willing to answer.
Also please correct me for false information I might have stated.

See you around.

In this post I'll attempt to introduce JWPce (for those who don't know what it is)
(* = refer to JWPce User Manual)

JWPce

JWPce (Japanese Word Processor for Windows) by Glenn Rosenthal is a program designed for English speakers who are studying Japanese.



Now, JWPce has BUNCH of functions (13 others) but I'm only going to talk about the DICTIONARY FUNCTION.


Upon searching a word, the dictionary will give you the word in Kanji, the word in Hiragana and the meaning of the word.




The dictionary is not limited to Japanese to English.
Press Ctrl A to search from English to Japanese. (To return to Japanese to English, Ctrl K)






How to use the Dictionary for Learning Japanese through Visual Novels

Rains told me about this program. lol
This is what I'm using to read Raw VNs. (I'm not an expert yet)

After opening the program, press F6.



On the left side, you'll see buttons such as Search, Sort... Click Options.




A window will appear. Look on the left side and check Track Clipboard. Then OK.



Say you have a hooked Japanese sentence on the ITH.





Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word.



This is the result of the procedure I described above.



If you look at the upper right side of the dictionary, you'll see four stuff you can check or uncheck.



These things are used to limit the search. A matter of one's preference.

Personally, I check them all so that only the needed meanings are shown and the search is fast (but there are disadvantages too).



Basically, you will be reading the text on the ITH which means that parsing (identifying words, particles, etc.) is done by you.

In case no matches are found, a warning is triggered and the default warning sound is annoying. Sound can be made tolerable by changing your Windows theme.

JWPce uses EDICT, ENAMDICT, and other dictionaries (you can add others) at the same time.*

It also has a USER DICTIONARY - a personalized dictionary you can make.*


Note:

☆ JWPce is free under the terms of GNU General Public License Link to download
☆ No romaji in this program. Go learn Kana first.
☆ Radical Look-up (F5) is useful for Kanjis you can't hook
☆ Again, to make the warning sound quite acceptable in the ears, I suggest changing your theme.
☆ There are times when the program crashes. This is because of certain words (it can't search). I suggest moving to the next line of the game and open the program again.

☆ To recognize the kanji more (make it bigger) or for more details about a certain kanji, point the mouse to the kanji (on the dictionary), right click then click Get info.




☆ I suggest reading the User Manual (atleast the section about dictionary)
☆ Some things I said are based only on my observations. Stuff may vary.
☆ credit to rainsismyfav for introducing me to JWPce / ITH method


I will answer questions I can / am willing to answer.
Also please correct me for false information I might have stated.

See you around.

In this post I'll attempt to introduce JWPce (for those who don't know what it is)
(* = refer to JWPce User Manual)

JWPce

JWPce (Japanese Word Processor for Windows) by Glenn Rosenthal is a program designed for English speakers who are studying Japanese.



Now, JWPce has BUNCH of functions (13 others) but I'm only going to talk about the DICTIONARY FUNCTION.


Upon searching a word, the dictionary will give you the word in Kanji, the word in Hiragana and the meaning of the word.




The dictionary is not limited to Japanese to English.
Press Ctrl A to search from English to Japanese. (To return to Japanese to English, Ctrl K)






How to use the Dictionary for Learning Japanese through Visual Novels

Rains told me about this program. lol
This is what I'm using to read Raw VNs. (I'm not an expert yet)

After opening the program, press F6.



On the left side, you'll see buttons such as Search, Sort... Click Options.




A window will appear. Look on the left side and check Track Clipboard. Then OK.



Say you have a hooked Japanese sentence on the ITH.





Upon highlighting a word (in the ITH) that you do not know, the dictionary will automatically search that word.



This is the result of the procedure I described above.



If you look at the upper right side of the dictionary, you'll see four stuff you can check or uncheck.



These things are used to limit the search. A matter of one's preference.

Personally, I check them all so that only the needed meanings are shown and the search is fast (but there are disadvantages too).



Basically, you will be reading the text on the ITH which means that parsing (identifying words, particles, etc.) is done by you.

In case no matches are found, a warning is triggered and the default warning sound is annoying. Sound can be made tolerable by changing your Windows theme.

JWPce uses EDICT, ENAMDICT, and other dictionaries (you can add others) at the same time.*

It also has a USER DICTIONARY - a personalized dictionary you can make.*


Note:

☆ JWPce is free under the terms of GNU General Public License Link to download
☆ No romaji in this program. Go learn Kana first.
☆ Radical Look-up (F5) is useful for Kanjis you can't hook
☆ Again, to make the warning sound quite acceptable in the ears, I suggest changing your theme.
☆ There are times when the program crashes. This is because of certain words (it can't search). I suggest moving to the next line of the game and open the program again.

☆ To recognize the kanji more (make it bigger) or for more details about a certain kanji, point the mouse to the kanji (on the dictionary), right click then click Get info.




☆ I suggest reading the User Manual (atleast the section about dictionary)
☆ Some things I said are based only on my observations. Stuff may vary.
☆ credit to rainsismyfav for introducing me to JWPce / ITH method


I will answer questions I can / am willing to answer.
Also please correct me for false information I might have stated.

See you around.

Few people (or everyone?) know that I'm a big fan of Lump of Sugar. And of course, their lastest title - Rensou Relation, is no exception either. So when the trial edition of the game came out 2 days ago, I jumped right in and download it, though I only started playing (and finished) it today since I was busy with Kujiragami no Tearstilla. So, let see what they brought us with this game~





SYNOPSYS

Rensou Relation starts when the results for entrance exams are just rolling in. Sakurazaka Sinnosuke unfortunately did not get in the school of his choice but that would not get him down. But before he realized it he was left with not a single acceptance letter.

After a short moment of panic, Sinnosuke decided to call his former homeroom teacher. His teacher actually tells him to apply to a new and extremely popular school, with an awful competitive acceptance rate. With his grades it would be hard to get in, but there happens to be 1 special recommendation left open for a local student. What happens after that opens the door for an endless amount of possibilities…
(Source: Otakulair)

CHARACTER

1. Sakurazaka Sinnosuke





Protagonist - an extremely perverted otaku, a lolicon and also big boobs lover (wow). He is a lazy ass that hate study, only like playing game and eroge (just like me). However, he has a smooth-talking mouth, and get blessed with extreme luck. Currently living alone because his parents are busy with work (as usual).

2. Sakurazaka Yuuko






Sinnosuke's cousin. Her father manages the "Maison de Saint" apartment next to Sinnosuke's house, so she comes by his house a lot. A gook cook and caring person, she takes care of Sinnosuke with his meal and housework. She loves history, and even know about every kind of military strategy/strategist - Zhuge Liang, Masamune Date and such. She has a twin sister - Aiko.

3. Mikuriya Himari






The new resident of "Maison de Saint" apartment. A kind but clumsy girl, with zero sense of direction. She is a huge gluttony, and easily fall into "break down" state if she doesn't have enough food supply It seems like she is pretty bad with technology (or maybe just cellphone).
Her special ability: catching cellphone with her boobs

4. Sengoku Ichika





A kuudere with serious attitude and the infamous sting tongue. Not much is known about her, but I can tell that she is pretty smart and love reading book (especially English science, technical, and alike book). She hate people touching her, so she always wears gloves (Lucia much?).
Her special ability: Mind reading (can read Sinnosuke's mind with the accuracy of 100 percent )

5. Garland Arisa






Another new resident of "Maison de Saint". There is not much interaction with her in the trial, so the only thing I know about her is that she is a foreigner and an air-headed. Oh, and she is an osananajimi with Ichika (be in the same class with her since primary school).

STORY

The game started with a H-scene. Yes, you heard me right. A FREAKING H-SCENE. So don't play this game in public http://forums.fuwanovel.net/uploads/emoticons/default_dry.png' alt='<_<'> And it will make you go like "wait, did I download the wrong game?", because that H-scene is NOT from this game - but directly from another title of Lump of Sugar - Tayutama -Kiss on my deity-. Don't panic, they just want to troll you, and show you what kind of person the protagonist is, that's all And no, I won't post it here, even with my own censorship, because my life will be on the line







"There is a loli in front of you calling you "Onii-chan". Do you need anything more than that? No, nothing."


After the morning breakfast with his cousin Yuuko, Sinnosuke headed to Yamada High School for his entrance exam result. It's a school that "only utterly idiots may fail" - and guess what, we have an idiot like that this year - him. Carrying that depressing news home, he bumped into Himari - currently struggling with the map to find the way to "Maison de Saint". He invited her home to have party dinner with him and Yuuko - the party Yuuko made to celebrate his acceptance to Yamada High - just to pathetically confess with Yuuko later about his result, and his plan to apply into some private school. However, life said "nope" to him.







Note: All of these are "denied" letter from all of the private schools he applied to.


In the middle of his agony, a miracle suddenly happened - he received a call from his former HR teacher, telling Sinnosuke that he will give him a recommendation to Amami High School - a high-class school where Yuuko and Himari are enrolled in, only required him to pass an interview. Of course, he snatched the golden opportunity right away, and dash to school for the interview - and succeeded!
Next day, Sinnosuke left house early to get some food for his real celebration party, and meet with Himari outside - struggling with the map (again) to get to the supermarket. He offered to help, and ended up having a nice date with her. At the end of the "date", they visited a candy shop, and Himari ended up taking a part-time job there to help an old woman with managing the shop.







I actually had to pause the game here to get some food, since my stomach was protesting so much. I had no dinner last night, haha...


School day came. While waiting for Himari, he suddenly heard footstep running up to him. BANG! Someone bumped right into him. At this point you will have a choice - a REALLY IMPORTANT CHOICE - that will decide either you can skillfully recover from the bump and impress the strange girl - Arisa - or activating his godly skill - "Pantsu Stealing" - to unlock a no-pant H-CG. And no, I won't post it here either, go find it yourself
Depend on your choice, things will happen differently. But in the end, he will ended up in the same class Himari and Ichika, and may even unlock extra scene with Arisa if Sinnosuke used his technique.
Back home, he had a nice dinner and gaming session with his two kawaii cousin - Yuuko and Aiko. Funny enough, somehow Aiko is - at the moment - the only character with super-deformed sprite in normal scene.






Physical measurement day came, while Himari was up and down about her weight and her diet plan, Arisa in contrast, seemed to be really excited about this, because "it's not everyday that you can look at other girls naked" (no yuri - unconfirmed). Ichika - hate being touched by others - not so thrill about this either.
While waiting for his turn, Sinnosuke received a call phone Arisa - Himari fell unconscious during the measurement session - due to running out of gas (a.k.a hungry). He took her to the infirmary, just to witness Ichika come in, lock the door and start taking off clothes (to take the measurement herself). Of course, she found him out right away, but for the weirdest reason ever - "Somehow, I feel like you are the only exception of humanity that can touch me." - she asked him to measure her 3-sizes. Welllllll..........I mean..........Hah? Umm, hold on, the heck with that reason again?

The trial ended after the physical measurement day. Well, what to say... I generally not that much of a fan of perverted protagonist (My Girlfriend is the President for example, I played that one just for Ell then drop. Couldn't handle the protagonist, wayyyy to annoying), and I do find this guy a little bit annoying, but still acceptable. The plot doesn't seem to have any sort of serious story (my impression), so it should be a pure moege focusing on comedy and romance. Most of the comedy are based around the perversion of Sinnosuke, so it may get a little boring if they just keep it like this in the full game. The amount of H-CG in common route - with nipple and v*gina is unusually high, so play the game with caution And I really need some explanations with the weirdly sudden change of attitude of Ichika. Seriously Lump of Sugar, that reason is totally wtf.

SYSTEM






As usual, Lump of Sugar loves to implement random mechanic into their games, and this game is no exception. Aside from the "Doosle" choice system, which may lead you to a completely different flow of story in the flowchart (in theory), you also have the "Hirameita!" system, which I still don't really get how it works (haven't seen the actual usage in the trial). Supposedly, it will be used in a minigame to unlock some new choices in the "Doosle", or something like that.






GRAPHIC

I love Lump of Sugar's art, so I have no complain about this. Totally suit my taste. All of the special effects are nice also.
No, actually, I think they over-colored a bit, but I will just let it slide.

MUSIC

Pretty good so far, no complain. And I love the OP - as usual, their OPs are always nice and catchy.

VOICE

When they first introduced this game, I decided that I would go straight into Ichika route first - I just fell in love with her right in the first sight. However, when they released the countdown movie, I just hit my head to the pillow - her voice, imo, is absolutely off with my impression about her. Technically, it still "suits" her in a way, but I just find it really unpleasant somehow. I would give it 10/10 if they changed her seiyuu...

CONCLUSION

The trial did tickle my interest a bit, so I guess I will pick it (actually I will pick it no matter what ), but whether or not I really play it, is a different matter. That, only the full version can answer me -_-

Temporary Score:
Story: 7/10
Character: 8/10
Graphic: 9,5/10
Music: 8,5/10
Voice: 8/10 (Damn it Ichika)
Overall: 8/10







"I wonder if this GUY has a p*nis or not in the first place?"





My previous review:
Kujiragami no Tearstilla

I keep getting questions like, 'Who are you?' and 'Why should I listen to you at all about VNs?'... not to mention questions that are a bit more personal. So, I thought I'd answer those questions I'm willing to answer (feel free to ask more in the comments, and I'll answer those that I can in a second post).

Full Handle Name: Clephas Aurenius

Handle Origin: A unique character I made up for a fictional fantasy universe some ten years ago. I've been using it as my sole handle for eight years now.

Age: 33

Country and State of origin: Texas in the United States

Hobbies: Gaming, VNs, reading (fiction and non-fiction), otakuism, mini-reviewing untranslated VNs, anthropology, linguistics, brewing rum and root beer, cooking, and attempting to define VN terms that are actually a lot more vague than I try to present them for the sake of convenience *smiles slyly*

Profession: ghost writer (don't ask me about this, look it up)

Dream: To build an underground house in a seismically inactive (inasmuch as that is possible) area and retire. Take a six-month trip to Japan and tour the hot springs, shrines, and temples.

Likes: Efficient and/or cunning work. People with a non-harmful sense of humor. Pragmatism. Chuuni-fiction, fantasy, science fiction. Good stories.

Dislikes: Wasting time (from my perspective). Being mentally inactive (this is actually painful for me). Foods with jalapeno or parsley in it. Sloppy work done when a more efficient method obviously exists. Political corruption (outside of reasonable limits).

Personality: I have a rather massive temper, that I manage to restrict through breathing exercises and violent video games. I value thinking as something that is both necessary and enjoyable. I am excessively introspective, to the degree of actively mocking myself and being self-derisive when I think I might have been in the wrong on some level. I am a natural troll who reformed himself as best as possible. I tend to think that everything is funny on some level, even my own stupidity and outright disaster. I am a recovering megalomaniac.

My role-play: The 'forums' Clephas is actually quite different from the original Clephas, in that he is a lot more comical and exaggerated. He is the megalomaniacal and overwhelmingly arrogant side of my personality, deliberately exaggerated to the very limits, to the point where it is actually funny. He is something of an insane deity who devours universes and envelops them in his infinite stomachs, using avatars to interact with those inside. He honestly thinks eating people (both whole and chewed) is an expression of love. He also does various seemingly (and most probably) meaningless things solely for the sake of his own amusement.

What Fuwanovel means to me: In a lot of ways, Fuwanovel is my last community. I've just seen too many otaku communities collapse under their own weight to willingly involve myself with several at once, anymore. In many ways, I joined Fuwa solely because I thought it would be fun to argue with Aaeru (and it was immensely fun). I respected her for the strength of her beliefs, even if I disagreed with her on a number of points (pragmatists rarely agree fully with any idealist). Fuwa now is the community I've come to love, with the people I've come to love (Marie, Tay, solidbatman, Nayleen, fun2novel, Flutterz, Zakamutt, Mephisto, etc. etc), and so I'm more or less in it for the long haul. I chose this community because it was a lot easier to talk about VNs here than in the more Jaded tlwiki-related communites.

What are VNs to me: I like VNs, both as an enjoyable storytelling medium and as one with an immense potential for growth (if someone can just kick the industry out of its nukige/moege and cookie-cutter chuunige rut). They are emotional and intellectual rides (better on the emotions in most cases), that frequently have an impact far out of proportion with their actual quality.

My VN Experience: Tsukihime was my first VN... and it stunned me when I first played it back in 2007. I immediately devoured every single translated VN, in a marathon that lasted about two months... then dove into my first untranslated - Jingai Makyou - on 9/14/2008. As I'd been fansubbing for over a year by then, I'd thought I had a full grasp on Japanese as a language... but it was a rather rude kick in the butt. Translation Aggregator with Jparser presented me with a challenge that allowed me to get around the lack of kanji knowledge on my part... in exchange for mastering how Japanese syllables were put together in reverse (normally a skill learned through kanji, rather than learning it first, then learning kanji).

A few last comments: No, I do not have and will never have a Facebook or Twitter account. If you really want to chat with me live, pm me and ask me to get on IRC (rizon). Do not ask me to help translate more than one scene of a moege, as doing more than that (even for a friend) would make me want to scream. I do not have a lot of free time, other than that which I use to play VNs, so no I don't go to otaku conventions. I can cook a traditional Japanese breakfast... but sadly, the only parts I really like are the natto, the miso soup, and the pickled vegetables (cooked fish that tastes like cooked fish makes me feel sick). I have a fourteen-year-old calico cat, whom I adore and who tolerates me as a favor to me as her devoted slave.