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Fuwa VN Reading Club: April - Deardrops


Fred the Barber

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Finally got around reading more. I've been spoiled by books so much lately that I managed to read 5 books in the time I spent thinking when to continue with Deardrops.

Anyways. Yayoi's route was pretty weird that it's made just like a cop-out side-route (short, skims around the main story/themes), but despite these it wasn't that bad. The drama was interesting enough that I almost forgot they should still have a band and the ending was really cool. 

Kanade's route seems pretty good. I really like how Kanade itself narrates about half of her route (so far), makes it feels like it's actually her story too. But it also makes me wish even more that Shoichi would have more personality. He already drowns under others during group scenes, partly due to not being voiced and not having enough presence because of that. Contrasting that with Kanade makes it even more obvious.

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Just finished Kanade's route and got started on Riho's route (not looking like I'm going to finish the whole game by April, but I'm going to try!). I'll echo Turnip's comments that Kanade narrating so much of it really helps the route feel more complete. In general, I'm a fan of VNs that let the heroines narrate for a while (the longer the better, almost), especially when that means you see the protagonist from their perspective, so I'm hoping that Riho's route will deliver more of that. I also liked a couple of the new characters who appeared in her route, especially Megumi and Johann, both of whom ended up being much more interesting than they looked at first blush.

The story arc was solid and well-resolved, and felt both thematically appropriate for the game (in contrast to Rimu's or Yayoi's route) and quite different from anything I'd seen so far in the common route. Kanade hadn't really been properly shown off elsewhere, and it was pleasant getting to see her really shine. Also, I feel like the CG artist really loved Kanade; every last CG of her looks stunning. The sprite artist, well, not so much (though her secondary sprite is kind of cute, I suppose).

On to Riho's route!

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FYI, to give folks more time to finish Deardrops, we're intentionally not starting next month's reading club just yet, since it seems like a lot of people (including me!) still aren't done, and we want to give people a chance to finish and talk more.

 

Now, that said, it seems like enough people have finished or at least made substantial progress that I figured I'd offer up a few discussion prompts to get the ball rolling, so without further ado (even if you reply, don't feel obligated to answer all of them unless you really want to):

  • What's your favorite aspect of the game so far?
  • Anything you don't like?
  • Who's your side favorite character (i.e., outside of the heroines, Shouichi, and Gonda), and why?
  • What do you think of the way the text forcibly goes to auto-mode in certain concert scenes? Does it make it more immersive? Less?
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8 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:
  • What's your favorite aspect of the game so far?

The music. By that I mean thrice the bgm, the actual songs and how "music" is basically the seventh main character in and of itself.

Most visual novels (or stories in general for that matter) have a theme, be it coming of age, redemption or plain old revenge and use various settings like highschool demon fighting or getting into a band as vehicles to drive the plot along.

Deardrops however, is about music more than anything else. Music goes through every fiber of the writing and I love it. Music is the setting, plot and tone, everything else is along for the ride.

8 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:
  • Anything you don't like?

Not having an enforced play order actually; Not reading Riho last will feel very underwhelming. And while Kanade's and even Yayoi's stories gave more things about universe and plot away, Rimu's route is pretty pointless? I didn't even like it as a fun "side-dish", like the Majikoi side routes for the boys. 

If I was put on the spot on what to improve immediately about this VN? Rimu's route. 

8 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:
  • Who's your side favorite character (i.e., outside of the heroines, Shouichi, and Gonda), and why?

I adore jaded, cynical adult figures, especially when they come in the body of a 9 year old girl. 

nIySMxM.png

8 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:
  • What do you think of the way the text forcibly goes to auto-mode in certain concert scenes? Does it make it more immersive? Less?

I would say it's immersive for first time readers, because it forces you to follow along with the music (even more so for japanese readers, since they can actually understand the lyrics). People who are rereading Deardrops however, are most likely annoyed. 

 

... Oh wait, I'm not a member. Who cares, I love rattling on about Deardrops. Just in case anyone reading this thinks about going for the fandisk afterwards: Don't bother unless you've read Kira*Kira. You'll be utterly lost.

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11 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Now, that said, it seems like enough people have finished or at least made substantial progress that I figured I'd offer up a few discussion prompts to get the ball rolling, so without further ado (even if you reply, don't feel obligated to answer all of them unless you really want to):

  • What's your favorite aspect of the game so far?
  • Anything you don't like?
  • Who's your side favorite character (i.e., outside of the heroines, Shouichi, and Gonda), and why?
  • What do you think of the way the text forcibly goes to auto-mode in certain concert scenes? Does it make it more immersive? Less?

Ahaha, most of my answers will probably be the same as TexasDice's... Oh well, here goes. My favorite aspect of the game is the music. Much like TexasDice stated above, music is what the VN is about so it's very important that it's done right here. But apart from that, the VN carried a very distinct aesthetic, and the music is a big part of it. It's an incredibly stylish VN as a whole. The art has a sort of "pop" to it and looks very bright and colorful without being overbearing. The music's instrumentation and general tone is similarly striking and suitable. On a side note, the H scene track is genuinely one of my favorite tracks and I wish it was used more outside of H scenes.

Spoiler

 

I didn't love how several routes felt sort of tacked on. It's not awful, but there's a distinct gap in quality between the Riho route and the rest that almost makes me feel as though the VN would be better linear (though, I think I'm the minority in preferring mostly linear VNs, so make of that what you will). I also didn't love the character of Kanade. I generally dislike the childhood friend archetype; they're an incredibly lazy way to make a heroine come with a prepackaged affection for the MC. For the most part she was fine, but I really wish her being in love with Shouichi wasn't so obvious from the outset. I think that these things are much better if developed during the VN itself...

My favorite side character was probably Megumi, the stripper who served as a friend to Kanade. She only showed up in Kanade's route, but she was really funny and charming in her own right. She wasn't complex at all, but she did everything she needed to do and was fun to listen to. Honorable mention goes to the cat. <3

Spoiler

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As for the forced auto-text during the concert scenes, I wouldn't change it if I could (even though 9 times out of 10 forced auto-mode drives me insane). There's a certain magic to the concert scenes that makes them incredibly powerful and evocative, and I think that's part of it. It's almost as though you're experiencing things in real-time with the characters.

Edited by akaritan
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I finished Kanade's route a few days ago and thought it was definitely much better than the Rimu and Yayoi routes since it didn't feel tacked on in comparison to those. I really like how the narration changed frequently between Kanade and Shoichi because I thought it was really interesting to see things from both character's perspectives. I hope to see perspective changes in Riho's route as well; I think it would be cool to see things through Riho's eyes. Some of the drama in this route felt really awkward and strange like Kanade's various reasons for not being able to sing and the Johann stuff, but there were other parts of the route that were really good that made up for some of the awkwardness. My favourite parts of her route was the concert near the end as well as Shoichi playing in the street. :) I'm hoping to reading/finish Riho's route soon since she is still my favourite heroine so far :P 

I'll get to the questions in a bit since I want to think about them for a little while before responding.

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Fitting for a music themed story, the music has been my favorite part too. Especially how it isn't just about playing music, but how music plays a big role in someones life. Music shapes who the characters are. 
The concerts and performances are the pinnacle of that. They are not just performances to show good music, but more about the feelings the music evokes in the performers and listeners. More often than not the performances are the conclusion of a story ark or a character development, where they bare their feelings, dissolve their doubts, anything through songs. Music ties everything together and it works so well. I'm pretty sure all of the major performance so far have managed to move me in some way, which is actually really cool and something I really didn't expect. Kanade's route especially was full of such powerful scenes.  

The autoplay in concert scenes is really nice, mostly because I read way too fast for what's intended. Being "forced" to listen through the whole song at least for me makes it easier to concentrate on it, and so enjoying it more.

But more after I'm done with Riho's route.

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Finished Rimu's route and about to entering Kanade's once again. As for my comment, I think Rimu was one victim of the divorce causing her to afraid that the guy who love her will leave Rimu all alone, just like Shoichi near the end of her route (Shoichi couldn't refuse ie was forced to leave Rimu actually). Also quite literal minded because at the beginning she left Deardrops just because she love Shoichi, just because the word 'No romance between band member'. For the route, let's just said that it was not focusing on the music like back at Yayoi's route (And more so compared to both of Kanade and Riho). Not much to say here other than the end was remind me of DD's end (From Chrono Clock), except with suitable cloth for Rimu.

By the way, I noticed the comparison between Kira Kira and Deardrops. It maybe so obvious here, but I think Kira Kira was definitely darker compared to Deardrops. The comparison goes like:

As for Rimu and Chie, both of them were the drummer of the respective band. While Rimu at least get foster father who at least put a lot of effort to be loved by Rimu and loving mother, the same couldn't be say for Chie because

Spoiler

Chie's mother was keep asking money from her husband which caused Chie to be so bitter with her mother. Also Chie's mother was not remarry to another man. Oh, both of them was the victim of divorce just in case it isn't clear.

Same goes for Sarina and Yayoi (As guitarist), in which back at Kira Kira Sarina was orphan because her father was committed suicide because Sarina's mom wad dead iirc, and her grandfather was confined him at home

Spoiler

(Also forbid her to play guitar, because her father was also play guitar in the past). Although the reason for Sarina's confinement was understandable though, namely because she was a sick girl.

While Yayoi here was at least had approval from her parents to play guitar (Not shown there admittedly), although they still mad at her for leaving the university entrance exam in order to retrieve her lost guitar at Nagoya. 

That's all for what I could write for now.

PS - As for Rimu's seiyuu, her name was Igarashi Hiromi who also casted as Someya Yuzu from Koiken Otome, Ichimonji Sayaka from Dengeki Stryker, and Wakamatsu Minamo from Bokuten.

Edited by littleshogun
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I wrapped up Riho's route (my last one left), which was indeed head and shoulders above the rest, including Kanade's route, just as promised.

I've decided that, honestly, more games should have those scenes that force you to read at the game's pace. It's a pain, but it really does work. I felt like they abused it a little bit with the very last one in Riho's route, which honestly seemed like a kind of silly scene to me (I think they probably could've timed it better for a little more dramatic ending by chopping off most of the last ~15 minutes), but all the previous ones worked really well for forcing me into the rhythm and mood the game wanted me to experience.

I also want to comment on and generalize one thing a lot of people have brought up: the fact that music, and all the characters' passion for music, is at the heart of this story is what makes it tick. I deeply enjoy stories revolving around a characters' shared passion. In that regard, I think this game is actually very similar to KonoSora/If My Heart Had Wings, and I honestly can't call to mind any other VN like that (though I'm sure there are others; it's not like I've played all that many, in the grand scheme of things). I suspect that same angle is why I like a fair amount of sports anime (Chihayafuru, anyone?). VNs often revolve around romance or conflict, which is fine, but these rare few stories that set up an aspirational, challenging, shared passion as the centerpiece of the story appeal to me on a really deep level. These people live and breathe music (just like the characters in KonoSora live and breathe gliders), and it's immensely satisfying to watch them achieve their dreams together.

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17 hours ago, littleshogun said:

By the way, I noticed the comparison between Kira Kira and Deardrops. It maybe so obvious here, but I think Kira Kira was definitely darker compared to Deardrops. The comparison goes like:

->

On 10/12/2015 at 7:48 PM, TexasDice said:

Deardrops is a story about music with characters in it. The band experience is the main point of VN and the characters are here to move it into the goal. Granted, most characters like Shouichi, Eiji or even Kanade have very deep personal stories; But at the core, they all relate to music. 

The reverse is true for the other game. KiraKira is a story (or, more accurately, stories) about characters, which also has music in it. The band thing is "just" here to make these characters move along the script. Kira☆Kira could've been a VN about soccer, astronomy, cooking or even giving stray dogs weird haircuts; It's just framework to hang these characters and the drama onto. 

Oh boy, it's been a while huh?

Yeah, Kira☆Kira is definitely darker than Deardrops. Most likely because of the subject matter (Deardrops is about convening the spirit of music, while Kira☆Kira is about a bunch of kids leaving their childhood behind in a last, bright spark). They play out in the same universe, and have the music thing, but both VNs are vastly differing in tone and themes.

10 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

I wrapped up Riho's route (my last one left), which was indeed head and shoulders above the rest, including Kanade's route, just as promised.

I've decided that, honestly, more games should have those scenes that force you to read at the game's pace. It's a pain, but it really does work. I felt like they abused it a little bit with the very last one in Riho's route, which honestly seemed like a kind of silly scene to me (I think they probably could've timed it better for a little more dramatic ending by chopping off most of the last ~15 minutes), but all the previous ones worked really well for forcing me into the rhythm and mood the game wanted me to experience.

Awh, really? The ending for Riho's route is my favorite part of it. It's one of those open endings that would normally make people go "wait, what happened to them afterwards?", but all I could think and feel was that they'll be alright. 

I also loved the entire setup with the location, the whole "I shouldn't be able to hear, but I do"-thing and the song itself is my favorite track in the entire game. I actually still listen to Noisy Sweet Home casually, almost two years after finishing DearDrops.

 

But I'm glad you liked it and I'm happy to see that you weren't disappointed by how much I and select others have hyped Riho up as the "finale" of this VN. I most likely would not like Deardrops as much as I do now, had I read Riho first or second.

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10 minutes ago, TexasDice said:

It's one of those open endings that would normally make people go "wait, what happened to them afterwards?", but all I could think and feel was that they'll be alright.

I was fine with that side of it, and in fact I really liked that angle. That was a great way to end the story. I just didn't need that last performance; the one before it was everything I wanted from the game.

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1 hour ago, Fred the Barber said:

I've decided that, honestly, more games should have those scenes that force you to read at the game's pace. It's a pain, but it really does work.

I'm too lazy to comment on the other pointers you provided, but I'll say that I didn't like the forced text progression employed at certain points. It may be because my text settings were too fast, which probably affects the speed at which the game advances the text in those scenes as well (actually, I checked with a slower message speed now, and it doesn't seem like they are affected after all), but they felt a bit rushed to me. Even if that wasn't the case, I greatly enjoy the ability to read a VN at my own pace and pause when needed to process new information, further develop some of the ideas presented, re-read a well-written line, etc. Taking this away lessens the experience for me.

At the same time, these scenes probably wouldn't benefit as much as some others from having control over text progression, so it likely didn't take away much either.

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Finishing Kanade's and it's quite different from previous two routes. The music theme here was playing a major part here, compared to Rimu's route where it's mostly getting Rimu's overcame her trauma over male. It's quite hard to describe here, but basically we had Kanade was scouted to became the major musician and Shoichi trying to make peace with his past. As for Kira Kira comparison, I compared this with Kirari's normal end and the lighter one should be very obvious.

Spoiler

The hint was that nobody dead in Kanade's route. I still remember that Kirari's dead at the end of her normal route, even though I played Kira Kira back at 2010.

Although this route was quite dramatic itself though. As for the music theme, it's basically fun vs serious.

Spoiler

Basically we had serious one like Johann (Shoichi's rival) who so broken by his perfectionist attitude that he suffer slump, and near the end he stabbed Shoichi because he couldn't handle that Johann's teacher favor Shoichi over him. While for Kanade herself, she was just want to have fun with singing but the circumstances for her to be very serious so much that she force herself (Not to mention that her producer forced to take dirty way to help her, something that Kanade dislike very much), and after all circumstance Kanade was finally gone temporarily deaf. In the end, I think it's more leaning toward fun though looking at the resolution imo because in the end what could help Shoichi to play her violin again was the fun for playing it (Also with Kanade's singing).

In the end, what I could say here that it's quite interesting that we had Kanade POV occasionally, allowing us to understand her feeling. That's all that I could write for now, and for next route I'll play Riho's.

PS - Kanade's seiyuu (And also probably Chika's considering that I gotten familiar with her way of speaking) was Aoba Ringo aka Ringorin who voiced Benkei from Eiyuu Senki, Nagamitsu Maya from Noble Works, Shihodou Narika from Beat Blade Haruka, Hirasaka Keiko from Hapymaher (Ironically, her iconic item was guitar while in here Kanade was only playing guitar at the beginning), Manaka Nemu from euphoria, and Atori Riku from Sorcery Joker. 

Edited by littleshogun
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12 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

Jesus christ dude, why are you spoiling important plot points in KiraKira for me and anybody else here who hasn't read it?

As for that matter, I deeply apologize in regard of that. I forgot to set the spoiler earlier there, and thanks for the warning there.

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I will likely not make it to the end of this by the time the next vn voting begins...whatever I'll be reading this and the next one at the same time. Summer is almost upon us and I have some vacation time.

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Finally got around finishing Riho's route. And what a way to end my time with Deardrops it was!

The concert scenes were probably the best in the game and the passion for music and the different forms it takes was really intense. Too bad the auto-play scenes went little too close to being excessive near the end, but otherwise I'm very satisfied. Can't see any other way it could have ended. 

On the whole I'm not too sure how I feel about Deardrops, but it's certain that I don't regret reading it. The amazing concert scenes and passion for music alone was worth it. And I think it's best I leave it at that.

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I finally got around to reading Riho's route and completing Deardrops! I'm sadly finishing this WAY later than I wanted to due to numerous things getting in the way (health issues, my wedding/honeymoon this month, and then my tablet with the game deciding to start having fits when trying to play the game right near the end of Riho's route...I was really worried I wasn't able to see the end but managed to get it to hang in there just long enough to finish), but I did it! I'm really glad I listened to everyone's advice and read Riho's route last since it was much, much better than any of the other routes. I can understand all of the jokes about her route also being Gonda's route as well, although I'm definitely glad to see there was a route that went more in-depth with Gonda after not seeing that in the common route. I also really liked that the game forced you to read at a certain pace during the concert scenes. I tend to read pretty fast, so having the game set the pace helped me slow down and really enjoy the music; thanks to that, the concert scenes were able to have a lot more of an impact on me. I'm a bit sad it's all over since I enjoyed my time with all of the characters and seeing what was going on in their lives. I definitely want to read the fan disc now!

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Finished Riho's route, and let's just said that it was right that people call it as the main route of Deardrops because the focus was not only to Riho herself, but to the band as well. It's quite long as well by the way and it's definitely had the most epic moments here, although there's some down though. As for my overall impression, I think for now I favored Deardrops over Kira Kira although just slightly here. The reason was because the main route itselves, which back at Kira Kira I'd found that it was quite lacking in regard of relationship between Kirari and Shikanosuke (By the way, Kirari made a cameo here). Other than that, I think both of those two were good music VNs.

Edited by littleshogun
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  • 2 weeks later...

Pretty late here I knew, but let me answer Fred's question here right now. Here comes my answers:

On 5/3/2017 at 9:46 PM, Fred the Barber said:

What's your favorite aspect of the game so far?

It's the story here. Yes, I said story even though I knew that for this VN music should be the main aspect here. It might be sounds silly here, but actually Deardrops here was the VN the story that's focused on the music as the theme, while if I talk about musical aspect here it would be BGM and vocal songs because Deardrops here was actually tell the story of how the indie band was tried to survive the entertainment industry here. As for the other aspects, the art was just usual VN here (Serviceable) while the characters was good enough but not as developed as Kira Kira in regard of their backstory.

As for the story, this VN was as expected did a good job in regard of telling the story surrounding the music here. Although I did said that it was did a good job, unfortunately one route here was didn't do enough good job here because it didn't even had some connection to the music or even the foreshadowing to Riho's route (I look at you, Rimu). Nevertheless, what done is done and I'd found that Deardrops did a good job to exploring the music theme even though I did said that it's a story of how indie band survive the industry.

On 5/3/2017 at 9:46 PM, Fred the Barber said:
  • Anything you don't like?

Well, I did already said it indirectly here. If I might said it directly, it would be Rimu's route because to tell the truth her route had little to none musical element there. Granted, her route did had all-girl band, but it was only tell that there's another band which is not enough. Besides, her route was had her leave the Deardrops causing the band was dissolve because her ridiculous reason which is that she felt in love with Shou and decided to leave Deardrops because she felt that the romance between band member was forbidden (Granted, in Riho's route there's a reason of why romance between band members was forbidden, but still). Also it was the route that the theme of music wasn't explored enough because from what I experienced even Yayoi's route was had some exploration in music, although most of it was in form of guitar reparation though. Other than that, I think it's fine enough to me.

On 5/3/2017 at 9:46 PM, Fred the Barber said:
  • Who's your side favorite character (i.e., outside of the heroines, Shouichi, and Gonda), and why?

Quite hard to chose here to tell the truth, but for now I chose Kanade's producer (Gotou Ryouko) because it's quite interesting that she will did anything to make Kanade to became famous no matter what. Besides she did what she had to do out of concern for Kanade, and it's good to me (To tell the truth, I cheer for Kanade more than Deardrops in her route, although maybe it was because Kanade was deuteragonist alongside Shoichi).

On 5/3/2017 at 9:46 PM, Fred the Barber said:
  • What do you think of the way the text forcibly goes to auto-mode in certain concert scenes? Does it make it more immersive? Less?

I'm pretty much okay with that, and besides it's not that often anyway so it's okay. If anything, I was disappointed that we didn't get autoplay at Kanade's route because I think that she and Riho was quite equal if we talk about talent. Although it might be annoying though if one replaying all routes, because you'll be forced to autoplay at least once.

I think that's all for my answer now.

Edited by littleshogun
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