This review will be divided into 7 sections, each with their own topic.
While reading this VN I felt the great urge to provide anyone who's interested with my personal opinion about this VN. Only the section about the individual routes will contain spoilers, but I'll mark them as such! So, here it goes..
1) General:
Overall I really enjoyed this VN. There were many occasions I had to laugh a lot. Some might think that the common route is a drag, but I didn't feel this way.
The characters were mostly well written with one huge HICKUP! The 5 routes were so and so... 3 of them really got me hooked, 1 felt just entirely off and the last one was just not my case.
2) Back to the huge HICKUP - the MC:
I'd like you to read my comment on him in the section "About protag personality". Here is the link post #9...
During the common route I started to feel strangely off when it came to certain lines of his, and it got worse and worse. Specially while on the different routes... Yeah, no... that guy... really made me mad as hell.
I'll refrain from writing anything else here. Please read my comment in the section mentioned above.
3) Heroines:
During the common route the reader gets to know all the heroines and parts of their personality as well as glimpses into their individual pasts and everyday troubles. Like in any other VN as well. Therefore, I really came to like 4 of them. It is not like I dislike the 5th per se, she is just not my case.
>> Ayame: I like the "big sis" role she is playing at first, she kinda keeps that up as well. The fact, that the voice actress of Amane in the Grisaia Series is also voicing her made her even more enjoyable for me.
She is my second best heroine in the game.
>> Hitomi: The kouhai heroine. She has a bright mind, is nearly always in a good mood. She is a genius as she invents different types of things. It was really hard for me to cope with her voice and that played a big part why she is placed 5th on my list. I don't really like characters with personalities like hers.
>> Kana: The "untouchable, cold as a stone, never smiling" senpai heroine. She basically has no idea what love feels like and is therefore rather clumsy in that field. Other than that she is capable of achieving anything, due to her status and is very dependable. She is voiced by the same VA as Kazuki in the Grisaia series. I liked her, just not as much as others, therefore she is placed 4th on my list.
>> Maiki: The "strange" one. She seems cold as well. But anyhow, she plays more than just one important role during different routes. She starts off acting very distant but soon finds herself circled by people she starts to call friends. I placed her 3rd.
>> Rin: My all time favourite heroine. A number of facts were the reason why she is my #1 in this VN. She is a tsundere, and I have to admit, in most games I like the tsundere type heroines. This one is no exception. She opens up to the protag and the others very slowly, but she does. Another reason is that I felt that she is the only one who is able to put a halt to the protag's crap in more than one way.
Her route was just awesome for me, by far the most enjoyable one which contributes to her being my #1.
I can't help myself, but even from an objective point of view I feel like her route could be considered the "true route". As for why.. let's head over to the routes.
4) Routes in order of personal preference (Spoilers!):
Rin's route is about her being an idol and her relationship with her father, specially after her mother's death. She is interested in love and asks the protag "for help". Therefore, they slowly fall in love with each other. She is supposed to play Olivia in the school's anually play but she hurts her ankle and therefore has to step down as the play's second lead character and has to act as a side character.
Other reasons why I felt like her route being the true route:
Her route is one of the longer routes. Her second H-Scene is the longest in the game. At the end of here route all actors from the school's play perform again but in this instance she is then performing as Olivia, as it originally should have been. That's why I had the feeling she is the true end. But that's just me.
Ayame's route is about family again. She is a manga author held in high regards by her fans, friends and father. Her mother had a different opinion on the whole topic and thus divorced her father after not accepting Ayame's wish to become a princess and keep working as a manga author. Ayame later on learns this while listening in on a conversation between her mother and the protag's mother. Then she feels responsible for her family's break-up after which she also lost all contact to her little brother.
The end of this route really warmed my heart.
Maiki's route is about friendship and having dreams, protecting those and working towards fulfilling these dreams. Her parents are well-known actors and therefore, she hardly ever sees them as they travel all year long. First she is opposed to participate in the school's play but after Rin's accident she steps in as Olivia. Therefore, she rediscoveres the joys of acting. After that she works towards her acting career with the support of the protag.
Kana's route is about discovering love and everything what come hand in hand with it. She gets jealous easily but is just as forgiving. Her father is against her dating the protag. He fears the dissolution of the family conglomerate and forces her back to overtake the business in the near future. She then gets "saved" by the protag and her friends after which she can stay with the protag for a week during which the conglomerate will try everything to retake Kana. The final showdown occurs between the protag and her private buttler as a karate fight. That is why that route felt really off for me, unfortunately.
Lastly, Hitomi's route. Her route is again about family and her genius when it comes to program robots and things like that. Her best invention, the robot Chloe, is a close friend of hers and is Maikis personal maid. Afterwards she invents a mechanical flying broom to become more like a mage. Due to her genius her parents always stuff her schedule full of work leaving her nearly no free time to enjoy herself or being with a boyfriend. After her parents learn the reason behind her delayed work results they arrange a marriage for her daughter. She refuses and therefore gets disowned by her parents. In the end everything works out fine. Her parents really pissed me off and I am a huge opponent of arranged marriages. That is why I put her route last.
5) Supportive characters:
I liked all of them. The warm and healthy atmosphere in the Kanamori household is really heart-warming.
Some characters are only introduced on the individual heroine's route.
I really have to mentione two specific characters here:
> Tororin - awesome! :3
> Renai Nishinomiya her voice is another one from the Grisaia series, Yumiko.
I didn't feel like any character was misplaced. Just Chloe annoyed me quite soon due to her one slight speaking malfunction.
6) Music:
It didn't feel like there were many songs. While some were played really often, others came up only few times and remained being played only shortly. Still, it didn't feel repetitive at all. I really have to say that I really enjoyed the music.
7) Personal verdict:
7/10 points. Two routes being not as enjoyable as the other three and the fact that the MC is dumbass, man that dude pisses me off!!!!, reduce the score by 3. (-1 for the routes, -2 for the MC)
I read quite a number of VNs and never before have I felt so bad about the MC.
That's it for my review. I'd really appreciate any thoughts of your's! Have I missed anything?
EDIT:
I originally posted this as a thread on the VN's discussion board before reviews were implemented.
Therefore, I wanted to post it again in the review section.
No content was changed, only a couple of typpos.
The opening line was fitting back then, but not anymore. I just left it there.
