#and the buildup for taku and rei's routes...

[5-pp-man]

as much as i like rei it feels really weird to just go and do another route after going through all that with taku. it feels wrong its like im cheating. and it feels especially wrong knowing that all that shit is still happening to taku while towa is off doing shit w someone else. makes me wonder what the hell rei had going on during my other playthrough...

[foxstens]

been playing slow damage and must rant (spoilers)

so far i have finished two routes, namely rei and taku, in that order.

the game is seriously impressive in some parts, like the setting and the production values and some of the character writing - it really feels like a lot of love was put into it. and honestly, it has some of the best written h-scenes i've seen, at least outside of the bad endings. but boy does it fumble hard, in my opinion

first of all, the system fucking sucks. the exploration and psychology parts are mostly unvoiced and they really just serve as a distraction, at least to me. the psychology parts especially are so annoying, and literally all of them so far have felt completely pointless - they don't do anything that couldn't be resolved in normal dialogue dgjlksgfkfd

i mostly loved rei's route, i found it interesting and engaging and well-executed. loved the overall premise, the side characters, the romance, and rei himself. i didn't love that he changed his way of speaking towards the end but that's more of a personal preference thing, it was explained and it did make sense for his character.

his bad ending however. i don't get disturbed easily, like there's very little i can't read with a straight face in fiction, but this bad ending was fucking horrifying. it threw the crux of his character and his relationship with towa out the window and made no sense considering the route as a whole. like, yea, bad endings are supposed to be bad but i still like them to be well-written or something. i can't really put into words why i thought it was genuinely terrible but i just did not like it.

taku's route was kind of pointless. i did pay attention the entire time but just barely, and i didn't have a great time. i just don't feel like i learned a lot from this route, i don't feel like it contributes to the overall story, and i definitely don't feel like i have a handle on taku's personality or thoughts even now.

i do not understand him as a person therefore i do not know if i like him. the romance buildup is non-existent and it also doesn't do a lot for towa's character - most of the stuff that happens to him really has no reason to be in there and due to the romance being like that i didn't feel much development from him. it kind of makes an effort to set you up for the next routes probably, but the side characters were nowhere near as strong as the ones in rei's route

taku's bad ending is also strangely similar to rei's and i hate it. since i don't have a firm handle on taku's personality i can't say if it was OOC but holy shit was it horrifying. i just feel like the bad endings should be more interesting and thought-provoking and believable rather than just shock value. but that's just my opinion

but yea it's definitely a good game, i am having a good time and i'm very interested in the next routes - i hope i'll get to see good things happening to towa one day maybe :(