#especially if it's smth over 50 hrs long u know

[foxstens]

it’s over and i must talk

so let’s start with the most important thing: the routes and the boys. i’d rank them like this

1. kent

2. shin

3. ikki

4. toma

starting with toma’s route was very interesting, because it showed me from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be as fluffy and romance-focused as i had thought, and that there’d definitely be things about it i wouldn’t like. the interesting part tho is that it changed my perspective of toma in the other routes. like whenever he’d show up i’d just side-eye him and wait for him to show his true colors, which ultimately only happened in shin’s route. (and briefly in ukyo’s route)

but i guess there’s no right way to experience toma’s entire thing. bc according to reddit shin’s route should definitely be either the first or the last; if it’s the first it shows you very clearly that there’s more to toma than just ‘nice older brother figure’ and thus you go into his route expecting that

however if it’s last you’ve already experienced toma’s route so you might end up even suspecting him as the culprit because you know that there’s more to him, and that there’s no way he wouldn’t play a part in this route. so it’s a weird thing

but i don’t regret starting with his route. i don’t hate the route itself, i think it’s very effective and does exactly what it sets out to do, it’s just that it has so many negatives for me. starting from the color combination to toma’s entire character and design. eh. but it’s a good starting point i think, even if it wasn’t intended that way.

then there’s ikki’s route. which is..... fine?? i kind of spent half the game wishing death on him bc.... idk why, but then i kind of warmed up to him, and i got really happy whenever he showed up in the other routes. so i can’t say there’s a lot i absolutely hate about the route, but there also isn’t much i absolutely love?

as for shin.... story-wise i really love his route, however romance-wise... i didn’t hate it but i would’ve liked it more if the mc had a personality. lmao. shin himself is pretty easy to love, he’s a pretty good example of ‘jerk with a heart of gold’ and he definitely has the best design and the best cg’s in the entire game period. 

then there’s my favourite boy. an absolute cinnamon roll i would die and kill for. kent. i found him hilarious and kind of hard to deal with at first, with his methodical and logical thinking, or sometimes overthinking even, but then as it went on i noticed that he had an actual character arc going on, and my god wasn’t it just delightful. and i guess that’s what made the romance so compelling as well, because there wasn’t really an overarching plot, i got to spend a month with this boy, seeing him put effort into this relationship, seeing him struggle and fail sometimes but still keep trying. 

he’s also probably the one that treats the mc the best, because even if he initially goes into the entire relationship with a sort of experimental mindset, and with the mc kind of hating him, he isn’t afraid to admit his faults and to apologize when necessary, even if it happens a month too late. it felt so real and relatable so much so that every single end made me cry in some way. :’)

ukyo is in a different category for obvious reasons. his route i’d put maybe on the same level as shin’s. there were some things i loved about it and some i didn’t. i do think it does a good job of wrapping up everything and explaining stuff and seeing all the characters together all happy and shit was a lot of fun. i wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance overall but it was SO FREAKING SAD it still touched my heart.

i didn’t bother going through all the choices and memories and short stories bc i’m just not that big of a completionist in this particular case, but i did read kent’s memories section and his short story and they were pretty great. altho the fact that we never got to see the mc’s dog is wack. and according to this particular short story (and shin’s route) the mc did in fact have a personality which we never got to see and that’s also wack.

the art is mostly to my liking. i really love most of the character designs and the backgrounds, while on the simpler side, really fit the overall tone of the story. basically the only complaint i have is that the characters’ fingers are as long as their faces. it’s just. why. it just takes me out of a serious scene every time i see a hand on screen ashgngjnd. i did really like the drawing style cards or whatever that showed up before every new day.

the music is....romantic visual novel music i guess. i wouldn’t say any of it is outstanding or something i’d listen to all the time on its own, but i didn’t hate either. it always fit the mood and it is pretty good overall, just not my favourite. as for the voice acting, absolutely no complaints. the voice actors were all fitting for the roles and they did their absolute best. highlights include akira ishida aka kent whose voice is flat and even except when it’s not.

then there’s stuff like the interface and the gameplay or whatever which are both fine. not too complex easy to navigate although the skipping function doesn’t work the way it does in fsn and that’s annoying. and the fact that it doesn’t tell me how long i’ve been playing is also annoying. or maybe it does i just didn’t look for it in the right place eh. and the op plays every time you open the game, which i guess would be a nice thing for some ppl but i didn’t much care for it.

that’s about all i have to say. 

7/10 might change once i read more otome vns tho 

(orion is the absolute bestest boy tho. he should’ve had a route. or better yet. he should’ve been the protagonist. lmfao) (waka best boy #2)