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I just finished Folklore Jam.

And I have veeery mixed feelings about it. The mood, art, music, characters - everything was great, and I was wondering, why doesn't it have better rating on VNDB... The prevailing score it gets is 7, why I was feeling, like it was aiming for the 8 level ;) There was nice mix of action, mystery, friendship and just a tiny bit of romance. Maruto is pretty good at writing engaging character interactions. Even H-scenes, while rather fanservicey and unnecessary, weren't too jarring, and mostly in-character.

It played like multiple route mystery, where each route showed different part of the backstory (with heroines being mostly pretexts to create different branches). After all that I had really high hopes for the true route, which I played today. And that's where they decided to completely ruin it, by inserting completely out-of-the-blue H-scene

Spoiler

involving ghost loli twin sisters

right near the climax - and afterwards it all jumps to rather mundane and unsatisfying epilogue, which doesn't even have a single CG...

So, after such disappointing ending, my score also drops to 7...

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Reading Rupekari, its my first ugiusu vn, and they're primarily known for creating depressing VN's as far as I know, haven't actually tried one except this one. None of the summaries in their other games piqued my interest as much as rupekari since I have an interest in acting focused stories due to Oshi no Ko and Act:Age. It really does deliver though and it deserves  the reviews it has on vndb, although yeah im just a few hours in lol, i barely have any time to read recently and I only read at a snail's pace due to that, I only reached the first real theatre play the protagonist produced which is Hamlet.

Seiyuu talent is really apparent here and if you browse r/visualnovels it is full of praise for the voice acting and it deserves it, theatre needs actors that exhibit extreme emotion to make it more understandable to the audience and god damn they do it so god damn well, the first theatre play had mainly been acted by Kohaku and she acts and voices her role so good it enchanted me and I couldn't stop reading their whole play and getting chills from it.

Thats where I stopped for the moment since well I'm busy nowadays but I'm excited to read more

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[Soundless - A Modern Salem in Remote Area -]

This week I finished Soundless, an amazing OEVN that surpassed my expectations! At first, even though this was a recommendation, I cringed a little at the art just because it wasn't as "perfect" as the other ones I played. However, I quickly got used to it and I'm glad that isn't usually enough to put me off because boy, oH BOY WAS I WRONG. :pyaa:

Even though it never stopped being cruel, the game only started getting REALLY weird after a certain point; after that you won't be able to stop reading.

I really liked the setting. Stories with religion involved aren't all that uncommon but still! The BGM doesn't feel too unique but that has its own charm, in a way, since a lot of the tense moments are almost silent, with a slight static noise. 

Spoiler

 

I loved the way they represented the "I will fix your problems" mentality with Auma. Mercy's view of everything is really, really well done. I used to somewhat think like that myself so I can understand her.

[after finishing it] Oh boy, what a ride! This game was really good as a denpa but as a victim of narcissistic parents and emotional/verbal abuse throughout my whole childhood (and life in general) this hits different.

 

Overall, I'll give this an 8/10! :abipog:

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[Marco and the Galaxy Dragon]

This week I finished Marco and the Galaxy Dragon and dang! Another great vn that surpassed my expectations! I had already played the demo waaaay back when it released and was not bored, but I didn't expect it to hit me this hard in the feels near the end... :sadsacchin:

First impressions first: I LOVE the art and the fact that almost every scene is a new CG (that explains the size of the whole vn) and the various animated parts :abilove:The comedy is pretty over the top, normal for a vn, but it did make me laugh a few times; I'd be lying if it said I was bored, even for a slight second. Speaking of which, the thing I loved the most abt this vn is the pacing: so many vns end up either being VERY slow and dragged or just too quick to explain things and/or get attached to the characters and although this one is very fast in its pacing, you can still understand how each characters works. Sure, it could be better worked in some parts so you could feel more for some characters, but they all played their roles perfectly imo. It was so entertaining that time flew by and I didn't even notice! :ezgif-2-df452814b3f1: The ending left me destroyed and sobbing... It's not SUPER hard-hitting, but when it has to, it can make your eyes wet, at least. After that, it took me a while to recover and reflect on it. Aaah, it was such a good story... I'm really glad I played this one, since, except for Soundless (my previous read), I had been disappointed by the other vns I had read so far this year.

Also, I absolutely love Gargouille's design :reasparkle:

I haven't decided what I'll read next week but until then, toodles! :nyanpasu:

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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. 

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Rintaro and his assistant Magari

 

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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.

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I went and picked up an eroge after literal years of not playing one (I think it has at least been three years since I even opened one). I randomly picked a visual novel from my wishlist that was catching dust and only saw activity recently, and I ended up picking Yume Miru Kusuri.

... I screwed up. Not only was it too heavy for me currently, but it honestly felt a slog to play through. I'm not saying it's bad, but I'm disliking it a bit. Near the end of the final choice for one of the routes, I ended up holding the control button to see just how much longer will the route be, and holy sh*t it was still very, very long. I think I'll try to finish one of the routes later, and move to a shorter, more light-hearted VN.

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So I read Ciconia When They Cry - Phase 1 over the last few days. I know it's kind of a stupid idea to start reading the first episode of a series that's just been delayed until the end of the pandemic (whenever that is supposed to be) for dubious reasons, but I was in the mood for a murder mystery VN without wanting to buy one so I picked the most promising option from by backlog. As it turns out Ciconia isn't a murder mystery, which I could probably have guessed beforehand, given the Sci-Fi military setting. So it's less of a sequel to Umineko in terms of subject matter, but rather tries to develop (and deconstruct, of course) some of Umineko's core ideas and themes. What Ciconia Phase 1 basically does is to put a character who somewhat embodies the "golden" solution Umineko proposes for its central idealism vs. realism conflict into a situation where, despite him being one of the seemingly most important figures, he is powerless to prevent a war that could potentially wipe out mankind.

I read somewhere that Phase 1 is supposed to be Ciconia's equivalent of the complete question arcs in Higurashi and Umineko, which would explain its length (~25 hours) and complexity. It is rather heavy on exposition and introduces a lot of characters and factions.

As for overall enjoyment, I'm kind of torn. It has enough really strong moments, but it can get pretty cringey at times, especially when Ryukishi07 tries his hands at social and media criticism. Tbf Umineko had its weird/boring moments as well, but at least to me they didn't feel as central to the core of the narrative as they do in Ciconia. Then again Phase 2 is probably going to take the story into a completely different direction than I'm expecting right now, so chances are I'm completely wrong in this regard.

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[Magical Eyes -Red is for anguish-]

Soo, I've been reading this one for the past two weeks and wow, what a waste of time. Bah, at least now I know lol Also, it's funny how soft I was while writing the "first impressions" lmao :footsip: First of all, to anyone who might be interested on this one: if you don't want to wait for a sequel that is yet to be released, don't bother to read it. Sure it has a story on its own, but the main characters don't even start developing.

First Impressions

Positive:

  • The art!! Gosh, I find this art really good :D It's not as stunning as a lot of other vns I have played but it's still very pleasing to look at!
  • The story and mechanics; the story is very chuuni-ish, I admit - but hey, if that's something you enjoy, go for it! I don't mind it but I don't love it either. And oh, there's a map and you can choose where to go... Kara no Shoujo flashbacks, oof- I hope it's not as "stressing" as that one.

Negative: 

  • Definitely the sloppy writing. The descriptions are awkward, the English isn't the best and a lot of the sentences are very long, which usually isn't the best for both the English language and the readability of the game.

After finishing the game...

Everything was from bad to average. The OST was pretty forgettable; the background was awful, oof; the art was... ok? I don't know, it looked a little weird the more characters I saw, but it wasn't really bad; the writing was awful bad lmao almost every sentence is too dragged or long and it really affects one's reading experience and overall readability of the story. The narrative was very poor, to be frank... I don't know if it was the pace, but I felt utterly bored reading this; the dialogues are super generic, just like all characters; they look like they are trying so hard to be funny it hurts.

 :ganbarimess:

 

Spoiler

 

First the protagonist, Yuu: I don't know if it's because it's only "episode 1", but he felt so bland to me. He feels like a generic protagonist with big edgelord energy.

Chiharu: Yeah... Hm, I thought they'd develop her way more than this. It was basically nothing. She was so crazy over him I thought she'd go yandere or something weird like that - that would have been probably more entertaining than the actual plot. Actually, I still think she is somehow related to that giant spider/little girl we saw at the beginning, but since we have only episode 1 and they didn't touch on that, I can't know for sure.

Rin: I loved his design, but damn, I wanted to see Kuri!! So many comments about her and nothing grr I feel betrayed! Oh, I found his dialogue really annoying after a while: it's not even the things about Kuri, just the generic shounen dialogue lmao

I loved the "siblings" but them just becoming Chiharu's helpers mid-story was... hum, Idk, I felt it was such a waste of characters. I did want to see what kind of work Jun did as a Disobeyer tho.

Minamikawa is a cutie, but there's nothing much I can say about him; he's probably getting development (especially about that watch) in the sequel, but I don't know when it'll release, if ever at all.

I hated every bit of interaction with "Pops" and Kashiwaba, gods. Both their characters are obnoxious af, give me a break... Oh, I liked Nanakami! but maybe that has something to do with me being a shotacon, who knows

 

Overall, I will give this one a solid 4/10. So, would I recommend it? :nou:

Next week I'll be posting about Musicus!

Edited by Fujoneko
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Just finished up Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikats. I'll give it a solid 5/10.

The characters are as you can expect really, so i can't complain about those, but i'll praise them for being close-ish to the anime. Not quite, but close. The new characters were quite alright. But that was it, the original story characters are much better if you ask me.

The music was lackluster. No two ways about it, it just wasn't anything special

CG's? What CG's? It's a non hentai visual novel and it has only a handful of CG's in it. Was disappointing as many scenes that would have benefitted from a CG had the camera pan up in the sky or in the wall or something.

The story was so-so. For the longest part it felt like you were reading a repeat of the first season of the anime with some changes, but it branced out, just a tiny bit late. I'd prefer it branching out even further and also earlier so it would stand on it's own feet a bit more. Possibly changing up a bit the character dynamics. And it was very PG with it's gore compared to the anime. It had something just to remind us that it's Re:zero, but it didn't go the required distance to be Re:zero. That's the best description i can give on the matter

One thing that was amazing was the 3d-ish characters and animations. 

Edited by Stormwolf
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On 3/25/2021 at 7:01 PM, adamstan said:

I just started PS2 version of Konneko. (Finished the rather short prologue)

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It's too early to tell where will it go, but the beginning was decent enough to make me continue ;)

 

And so, three weeks later I haven't made much progres... I advanced into the common route a bit, but last time I read it was almost two weeks ago. I seem to have similar problem that I had with Palette's Sakura Strasse - it's nice, I have fun when I read it, but it isn't engaging enough - as evidenced by the fact that I have no problem with putting it away for two weeks... At least here protagonist isn't as annoying as Harumi from SS ;)

I also find myself still thinking about and remembering various bits of Folklore Jam. I'm really torn on this. I rated it at 7/10, but actually the game was extremely enjoyable and kept me glued to the screen, eager to read what happened next for 95% of the time, and if not for that obnoxious h-scene at the end, it would easily get 8 or 8.5 from me. However, putting such ridiculous and obviously fanservicey scene right at the, uhm..., climax of the nice potentially nakigey true ending really soured the experience for me. I guess it became fandisservice for me :P That VN would really benefit from console/non-ero edition, since its h-scenes feel like the obligatory addition just because it's eroge - but it doesn't work well as eroge.

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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

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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.

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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: 

Spoiler

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It's a live2D hair strangulation horror scene. But hey! "You can touch the girls as much as you want" to hear her delicious moaning as she get constricted to death huzzah!

Oh btw, false advertising. Girl can only take so much touching punishment before the screen gets very red and she kicks the bucket and you get a gameover:

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*insert joke about that white hand icon hovering over her chest* :makina:

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Reading Rupekari https://vndb.org/v29383

At first, I barely played this game like only an hour a day as it wasn't gripping enough and I was also busy playing other games but now that I played it a lot longer, this game grips you a lot. Its my first time playing an Uguisu Kagura and i was wondering when will the Utsu part in the Utsuge may come and it came it was extremely, extremely good., I'm still not finished but I think I'm nearing the true end. This is not a story about the MC but about all the characters as flashbacks will be heavily used in a theatre format. I can't really formulate my thoughts well enough yet since the feeling is very fresh but it definitely deserves the score it has on VNDB

Update: While the formatting for the routes makes sense, it does kinda cheapen the experience for me. Technically the routes are bad ends except for one heroine, her route is basically part of the common route and it makes sense when it happens. I really didn't have any motivation to go through some other routes because well, they are like bad ends, every ending is depressing and the choice you have to make to get into those routes are essentially choices that makes you lie to yourself rather than face the truth, which is the recurring theme for the game. It was hard for me to do one of the girls routes even if I really did like her because, the choice you have to make to enter her route is for me really cruel. I guess I'll play through it once I reach the true end

Edited by Larxe1
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[Musicus!]

This week I'm playing Musicus! I think I only played one vn focused on music so far, so I'm really looking forward to it! :reasparkle:

First impressions

Positive

  • The writing flows so well! I don't know if it's because I've been reading "meh" VNs or what, but I could read this for hours and not feel tired.
  • The music AND THE SONGS, holy moly. I love the BGM, it fits so much and I was expecting actual songs, but I wasn't expecting to love them this much! I guess I'll be searching for them later on... :rinkosparkle:
  • The characters: so far they are pretty darn interesting and captivating! Eveyone has their own flavor and I'm especially intrigued by Hanai.
  • The VA wasn't bad, so I guess that counts as a positive. I wish more VNs had voices for the protagonists tho... sigh, but I guess I understand the reason as for why they don't.

Negative

  • The art is 50/50. I like some aspects of it, like the background art and the art for the protagonist and some girls, but most of them just look kinda derpy, especially those eyes lol

Act 1 (before Ozaki's route)

Oh boy... this vn is something special already. I love the flow, the characters, the writing, the songs, the philosophy aspects, everything! The art has grown on me, I admit. It made me smile, bang my head, cry my eyes out... It was the whole package.

Spoiler

At first, I didn't like Hanai-san; the same goes for his sister, Mika. They both grew on me in their own ways, but Hanai-san was the one who grabbed my heart and destroyed it. His voice was totally amazing but his view on music was something else. I feel like I should disagree with him, but I like to think that what he says is also true. Everything we hear may be a trick, but it's real for us, and personally, that's what matters. I'll gladly be fooled if that means I'll have music in my life. After his death... oh gods, I felt so empty for a whole hour. I wasn't expecting that at all, but I guess you never do, huh. That scene of them playing at their funeral had me in tears, ugh. :yuzusad: 

After that, it was tough for me (as it was for Kei, I imagine) to return to that school life period. I was feeling just like Kei, and for a narrative to make me feel that I think it's an amazing thing. After that and his time with Pteranodon, he meets his father and has that whole talk. I don't have some big opinions on that, but I think having a degree is important if you either need it for your job or if you just need it to work in general, as it often happens where I live, sadly. I kinda had this existential crisis last year, before dropping out of uni because of stress and anxiety, but I do love my time there and even tho the week I took to make that decision was hell, I'm glad I took that time to think about what means to live my life: I want my life to be meaningful. That doesn't mean being a doctor or having a lot of money imo; for me, it means going to the countryside, where my mental health can improve, and dedicate my life to work on the land with my grandparents, in a little village. That's just my example, but I think everyone should do a little check-up to see where they are in life and what they really want to do if they have that privilege. Just like Kei's father said, we're all a result of our genes and environment - I'm not denying that. I do agree we can choose our own life, as long as it's within our grasp and limits. This just means we should lower our expectations and try to humble ourselves, I think. Anyway, I stopped in that part where they are discussing Pteranodon breaking up and I'm glad I'm reading this vn, I really am!

P.S.: Guess who's addicted to Gura Gura now :mare:

-------------

Next week I'll be talking about Ozaki's route! :kanpai:

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1 hour ago, Fujoneko said:

P.S.: Guess who's addicted to Gura Gura now

Honestly, I think this is the first song in Japanese that I've genuinely liked to the point where I could see myself listening to it outside of the game.

In case anyone wants to know what it sounds like, here it is:
 

 

Edited by Seraphim
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Finished Meikei no Lupercalia/Rupekari. It is a 9.5/10 and I rarely give that score. Even if I haven't read a lot of novels this year, this will be definitely on one of the top ten of what I read this year. It's that good.

If you're looking for a focus on acting, something like act-age, it's not that. Their acting skills aren't the focus. The focus is on the theatre of the characters shroud their lives in. The lies they envelop themselves in just to live. How far should you go for theatre, how far did theatre ruin their lives. How deep the characters themselves shroud themselves in their own lives. This isn't a down to earth experience, expect something like Clannad where there is some sort of KEY magic going on.

First, I'll discuss the more negative parts that I didn't like, and it's not that many.

First, the art itself. While the character designs were fine, their poses are simply strange. The proportions feel off and for such a high quality story, such flaws become more and more apparent. While I'm not an expert in art and honestly, I really don't give much care for it, but it is much more noticeable in such a quality story. Some CG's were absolutely beautiful though and I saved it on my pc as it was just that good.

The beginning is kind of weak. When they do plays, the voice-acting and atmosphere carries the scene through a whole new level but the SoL parts in the beginning were kind of standard fare. I was kinda sick of SoL at that time, so I barely played Rupekari like I only played an hour every day or whenever I remember. However, when they reach the point in which they start readying for theatre, it gets a lot better trust me.

The flashbacks are a double-edged sword, It is also a positive for me in characterization, but sometimes it throws off the pacing of what's going on. And sometimes it can get a bit dreary reading too many flashbacks.

Also, for an MC with that much of a personal history and since this is about theatre, it would have been better if he was voiced but its probably budget constraints or something and I understand that.

That's it for the negative parts for me.

Now for the positive parts.

The music, they didn't have a lot of pieces to play like there were only 26 BGMs in total, but they actually used them quite well, and I never felt much need for more BGMs, what they had been perfect, and it always fit the scenes. I'm not an expert in music too, and I can't delve too much into it, but I know a well-executed sound design when I hear one.

The story and the characters. I'll be discussing them both together as the story and the characters and intertwined. This is a story driven by its characters, not the other way around. All the characters are extensively developed. A certain scene will end up with you hating a certain character, but the more you get to know him through his interactions with others and his flashbacks, his personality, his motivations, all are warped, but you can still see where he is coming from. He is just a human, and I didn't expect the guy I hated at first to be one of the characters to make me cry at the end of his character arc. Moments like that are many in this novel, everyone is flawed just like real humans are. Those flaws will irritate you to no end. They will make mistakes but in the end, you will understand them. They have their virtues, all of them are trying to get want in their own way. However, their virtues don't cancel out their flaws, but that's just being human. All the characters are written well and by the end, you'll be loving them all. 

The flashbacks form something like a third of the story and that's a lot but all of them contribute to the story and make you get to know all the characters. All the characters have their purpose in the story, and getting to know them immerses you more and more in the theatres they play, and their character arc becomes more and more tragic and beautiful. Every side character had their own life, their own mistakes, their regrets, their dreams. 

All of them dream to stand in the theatre, however life is not that pretty, and it reflects well on the writing. Theatre isn't some all-encompassing good thing, it destroyed some actors themselves, the sacrifices they make that chip at their soul, the ugliness of reality is in full display, however whenever they perform on the theatre, you find yourself enchanted. Maybe all those sacrifices were worth it in the end for this piece of art, and the characters themselves often ask those questions to. 

"Why do I love theatre? Did I really love theatre? Am I happy now?" All the characters have their own answers, all of them pursue theatre for their own reasons, some of them are just there because that's what they thought that they were born to do.

As you get to know the characters, the more you will immerse yourself into the setting and get attached to the characters, and when despair hits them, you'll find yourself despairing as much as they do. The circumstances in which they are in are cruel. It isn't because of what they did or what they are, that's just how life is. This story is not pretty, and often you'll find yourself gripped by the despair of what's happening.

There are a lot of separate character arcs happening on screen, and they're brought to their conclusion in their own arcs. In each arc, you'll get to know the character themselves, what lie are they living in, what are they trying to get away from, and how will stand against the ugly truth. The routes themselves are in a way bad ends, and it is obvious why it is. They are bad ends with a story that will let you get to know the characters. The format is branching routes, and it's hard to do a route because the choices you need to do is sometimes morally disgusting. You know it is wrong, but you do it because it's a comfortable lie, but a life built by lies will collapse on its own, and you can never be truly happy. While I liked Meguri's character the most, the choice to go into her route is... Well, I can't stomach it since it feels so wrong. But you know destroying her world of lies will thrust her into the despair of reality, and they show her despair when you make that choice to destroy her lies.

Sewa Tamaki, the main character is as much as important as a character than everyone else. He is not the focus of the story, all of them are. While he maybe the main POV of the game, there will be a lot of moments where you play the VN as the POV of another character. I don't have much to say about him without being too spoiler-y.

Also, while this is a title that will make you cry, it is not an Utsuge as I have previously mentioned. While the despair and hopelessness will make you feel sad, the ending itself is a hopeful one and an earned happy ending. It's a fitting conclusion although while I may hate open-ended endings, this novel did it good and it made me feel satisfied as this is not a story about romance, but how all of the characters move on from the painful reality and face tomorrow head-on. 

I highly recommend people to try this. BTW MEGURI NO.1

I wrote this on the fly after reading the VN's while my thoughts are fresh but not that organized. I'll probably edit this to add more and construct my thoughts better.

 

 

Edited by Larxe1
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