Recent reviews by SwiftShadow

Pretty good VN considering that it's free.

The art is above average, the story itself is pretty predictable and some of the jokes can get repetitive (I liked the accountant jokes because it's my course), You can also finish the game in about 7-10 hours at a leisure pace which is to be expected from a free game.

First few hours of the VN pretty much got my attention. The premise was interesting, the MC has amnesia (ofc they always do) which means unsolved mysteries, and I pretty much already set my sights on Kat (the girl with purple eyes) the moment she was introduced.

Middle part of VN was somewhat of a slog since it got pretty repetitive and the romance was meh at best, except for a few honorable mentions.

The last part of the VN tho, things got interesting, although it was so predictable that pretty much anybody with at least 2 brain cells can piece together all the information, but it was still worth sticking around for since it's almost the end anyway.

All in all, the art personally carried the game for me, although the UI looked a bit blurry for me, the sprites and event CGs were pretty good and it was worth it to read through the slog just to see the accompanying CG. The ending rewards you since all of the choices have their own CG and Kat's CG is ofc the best.

Wow, just wow. I really liked nearly everything about this game, especially on Misaki's route, which is the last route I completed, and this immediately became my favorite VN as of posting this review.

The VN has lots of event CGs and they are all have a very high production value, and everything is really pleasing to the eyes, from the characters, the background, and the UI. The game has native 1440p which means unlike traditional VNs which are usually only 720p, there is no need for you to use upscaling tools like Magpie, which is buggy with Steam Link.
Suzumori's artstyle is really good, and the game accentuates their artstyle even more since the VN focuses on a sport that focuses on a person's form.

As for the story, the common route is really good, and while the other 3 routes didn't really offer much in terms of feels and romance, Misaki's route just blows every route out of the water, like holy hell, how is it so good, definitely not 100% biased here because Misaki is best girl.
Although I read the VN in the "Sandwich order" wherein you read Asuka's route first and then read Mashiro and Rika's route while saving Misaki's route for last, I wish I haven't done that, but at least I read Misaki's route last which is all that I really needed.

If you are planning to read this VN, here are my suggested route orders:

Most likely canon ending
1.) Rika (Doesn't solve common route's problems)
2.) Mashiro (Then Extra 1 right after, if you bought it)
3.) Misaki (Although best girl imo, let's face it, she's not the poster girl)
4.) Asuka (Poster girl, and most likely canon ending, even the anime ended with this ending)

EDIT: Just finished Extra 2 on May 29, and apparently, Misaki route is the canon route now due to Extra 2 being considered a "legitimate sequel not just for Misaki fans, but for every Aokana fan". W for us Misaki fans

I want to save the best for last (My personal recommendation)
1.) Rika
2.) Mashiro (Then Extra 1 right after, if you bought it)
3.) Asuka
4.) Misaki (Then Extra 2 after)

As for the soundtrack, it's really good and most of it is still stuck in my head, especially Infinite Sky, Wings of Courage ~ Sora wo Koete, and Crossing Way. You can listen to it for yourself through these links:

Wings of Courage ~ Sora wo Koete:
https://youtu.be/c74D_ug--K4

Infinite Sky:
https://youtu.be/pl6PPX4s5vg

Crossing Way:
https://youtu.be/sOzqjH_vvdY

And lastly, the game's main sport, Flying Circus, or FC for short, is really exhilarating, and will put you at the edge of your seat, even if the results are obvious, because most of the interesting stuff happens during the match itself. There is a huge development of character during these matches and I was even cheering best girl during her FC matches.

To conclude, this visual novel became my favorite for a reason. Once you let yourself be immersed in the game's story, the game becomes exponentially better, and there are lots of times where it is easy to be immersed, such as the moments where the club hangs out in the clubroom, the FC matches, and when the characters hang out with each other. For first time VN readers, this is a great VN to start with thanks to its lighthearted theme and its easiness to read.

And IIRC The company that created this VN has chosen to focus on visual novels with high production value, which can be a double edged sword for fans since it means that future games will be masterpieces like this one, but will take a very long time to create. An example of this is the gap between Extra 1(2017-06-30 JP) and Extra 2 (2022-05-27 JP). One minor thing that bugs me is how there's no Misaki emote for this game, which is just idk.

Literally have been waiting for the English version of this game for years and now it's finally here, and I'll explain why the game got a lot of praise ever since the JP version released.

- It's a Yuzusoft game and this one is their 9th entry. (They are known for high quality VNs)
- Kobuichi & Muririn God-tier art
- An actual story that's entertaining (Not the best but it's still good)
- Every dialogue has a voice line (Except for your character)
- Character changes faces while they are talking

The VN takes about 30-50 hours to finish according to VNDB. It's up to you to decide if it's worth it for the price.

This is a game that almost makes use of the full potential of VR (Everything except full body tracking) plus the regional pricing is amazing (Got this for about 12 USD)

The game has a nice balance between combat and puzzles and both are equally fun thanks to the game's physics. Some of the puzzles can be completed in multiple ways plus the game is fully playable from start to finish and has an interesting story that most VR games are missing.

One of the cons (for now since the devs are already working on a solution) is the lack of a save system. You need to finish a map in order for your progress to be saved and each map takes about 80 minutes at leisure pace so if you don't have a lot of time, it's not a good idea to play this game.

However, I still think that this game is the pioneer of the next generation of VR games.
It's simply a must-have for anybody with a VR headset.

This is a really good eroge with actual gameplay that is fun to play. I am mostly playing using VR Mode so YMMV

If you played the Japanese version, you can support the developers by buying this game through here or directly through their website.

BUT the Steam version only offers the R12 version of the game which means that anything obscene is removed which is like 60% of the entire game.
You can buy the patch from their website for $5 but it's a huge pain in the ass to purchase (Paypal ToS forbids using their service for digital erotic content like these so you're gonna need a credit card to purchase the patch) or you can just buy the Nutaku version with no regional pricing for $40 which comes with the patch pre-installed. (They have other options besides credit card)

From my experience, the transaction for the patch always failed even with a working credit card. I just got lucky when it finally decided to work. But hey, the patch has no DRM so I'm pretty sure the files are floating on the internet right now.

People have been complaining about the privacy issue when purchasing the patch. If you're out of the loop, purchasing the patch from their website shows up on your billing statement as "SCOURT TOSHIMA JP" which can be easily searched on Google. I get why some people are turned off from purchasing the game with that privacy issue, but if you're purchasing this game like me, there's no dignity to destroy anymore so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They are definitely gonna use their website again if they are going to localize their DLCs which will happen, so unless you are fine with said privacy issues, I can't recommend this game to you.

Once you get through the entire purchasing process, the game is actually pretty fun. It's a simulator where you try to make profit to pay off a debt using your maids and facilities. You can go do the wholesome route which includes SFW activities to earn money if you want to. The character creation is also one of the best in the entire industry. The only thing that could possibly rival it is Koikatsu party. The base game is already good as is but with mods, there's potential for you sinking hundreds of hours to this game.

The artstyle is also probably the best at portraying anime in a 3D format. It's enough to make even make 3DPD weebs appreciate the 3D maids. The characters can be very pleasant to the eyes if you customize them properly, and the clothes that you can give to them aren't just limited to skimpy outfits. There are lots of proper uniforms that you can purchase in the game and most of them are extremely detailed and are eye-candy.

I'll be honest and say that the translation for this game is pretty bad. It's definitely not translated by machine but it's certainly not translated by someone fluent in English either. Most of the mistakes you will see are grammar errors and typos. You can still understand the story if you try.

For VR mode, the dialogue sections of the game will sometimes teleport you to the exterior of your mansion without any warning so you might have no idea what is going on. This is due to some of the scenes where the male character imagines or looks up at the sky. For pancake gamers, it looks like a generic VN scene. But for VR gamers, it's gonna be confusing so you better get used to getting teleported randomly during dialogue.

The controls for VR mode could be better. Most of the dialogue sections use the touchpad for controls which is awkward. But a few rebinds will fix that issue.

There are a few bugs as well which include mirrored controllers (Similar to Mr. Youseeks from the Rick and Morty VR game), having your hands very far behind you, or they sometimes just become invisible for no reason. A simple restart of the game fixes these issues but they shouldn't even exist in the first place. I am using an unsupported VR headset (WMR) so I understand why these bugs appear and I don't blame them for it. (Unless they officially support WMR but the bugs are still there)

Overall, this game is a must have if you are a weeb with a VR headset. The interactions are really well done and there's just so much to do in this game even if you don't have a VR headset, the game is still really fun to play although you might be missing out on some of the "gameplay" elements. The regional pricing is really good for this game which is a plus.

I doubt that you'll learn a lot of stuff with this game. But then again, they did advertise this game as a way of expanding your vocabulary, and not to learn how to form basic sentences.

If you're expecting to at least be decent in a language after playing this, you will be disappointed because most of the items that you will learn about are just common household items which isn't really important during conversations plus there are literally free lessons on the internet if you want to expand your vocabulary, and they do it better than this game.

If you want to actually learn a language, it's better to just pay for lessons irl rather than depending on this game because after playing, it just feels like a glorified version of flash cards; So if you actually learn stuff better with this method, then go ahead and purchase the game, but if flash cards don't exactly do anything for you, then don't even bother buying this game.

Another "game" sh@ out by Ubisoft. IDK how products like these still manage to be on Steam.

First of all, the game doesn't even work for some people (especially those with Windows 10). I was lucky enough to have it working on my pc but damn, it's still terrible. The settings are pretty much useless because once you launch the campaign, it hovers at around 8-12fps. For reference, my graphics card is a GTX1070 paired with an i7-7700hq so I was expecting a game from 2010 to run without problems.
I even tried to lower the settings and all it did was make the game look worse and gave me 1 extra fps. Definitely not recommended to buy this floating turd of a game because to even play the game, you need to be a computer science major while also learning how to tinker with the game's files which shouldn't even be happening since this is a paid game.

If you are looking at this review right now and wondering if you should pay for this game, the answer is a big fat NO. Games like these don't deserve money and instead deserve to be pirated because there is literally no support from the devs and multiplayer is almost dead anyway.

I went and completed all the achievements before making this review so that there would be no loose ends.

First of all, I'll say that this visual novel is a hidden gem. The only reason I even found this is because of Steam's 2018 Summer Sale.

The gameplay is actually not as deep as it looks because you can only move the text in the white boxes and you can't place it before the first black box and after the last black box. Gameplay is not really an important thing in visual novels unless the game is designed to be played like something similar to Danganronpa or Neptunia and gameplay isn't really a deciding factor if you're looking for a good story. They did forget one thing though and that is the ability to read what a character previously said so if you accidentally pressed continue, you pretty much need to restart from a previous save file just to get the opportunity to see the dialogue again. This problem isn't really noticeable in the letters but some scenes of the game take place on your home and when someone finishes talking, you can't see what they said ever again unless like what I said earlier, you load a previous save. This can get pretty annoying for others but it didn't really affect me that much.

Regarding story, this game features a story where you control what happens to the people in the game. If you alter their past even in just a minor way, it may have a huge impact on another person's life. This is known as the butterfly effect. The game warns of it in the tutorial and I love that they actually used that effect in the game. I'm not gonna spoil what event affects what because that would just ruin the experience for you (If you still haven't played the game) but I can safely say that you may need to change what you previously did in order to unlock another letter.

If you're looking for a funny story, I wouldn't recommend this game to you. Sure, it has some funny moments but the main theme of this visual novel is about dark things. Who would pray to a God about something minor like forgetting their homework? Of course, most prayers are gonna be about some disturbing things and if you don't like them, don't get this game because it's full of it. If you are looking for a story with realistic situations where plot armor doesn't exist, then you are in for a good ride.

The game also features sad moments but in my entire playthrough, I didn't really feel any sympathy for the characters except for the last character that appears. Again, I'm not gonna spoil any further because it would be better to play without any knowledge on the story. But just like what the other reviews stated, It has a huge chance of making you cry or at least sad with the ending.

Now for the art and sound, Most of the music is reused and none of it was really memorable but the opening theme (Ω2π∀) was pretty good. The characters in the game have different nationalities. Others are Chinese while others are from Mexico. A cool little thing that they included in the game is that when they send you a letter, they actually pray to you in their language. For example, when a Japanese character prays to you, he actually speaks in Japanese. I can confirm that what they say is actually accurate. (Just Japanese and Spanish. Not sure about the others.)

The art resembles anime so if you're someone who automatically hates anything that looks like anime, you'll be missing out on a great game. The CG in the game feels pretty limited and most of the time, the background would just be the silhouette of the letter's sender. They sometimes move their body or their hair but that's pretty much it. The art isn't appalling though and it actually looks decent but it could be better.

Regarding bugs, in my entire playthrough, the only bug I ever encountered was that I couldn't proceed with the dialogue on scenes inside the house. I had to wait a few seconds before I could continue into the next sentence but that's pretty much all I ever encountered.

In conclusion, I would rate this game an 8.5/10 which is a pretty good score because I rate things like I rate anime on MyAnimeList. If you're looking to learn something new from this game, You would most likely be learning new things about gruesome torture methods or gun models. If you're looking for a life lesson, you found the right game. If you're looking for feels, you've definitely found the right game.

TL;DR : Is it worth full price? I'd say yes. Is the soundtrack worth it? I'd say no.

This is one of the best visual novels of all time.

Story - 10/10

The story is about time travel. Not a lot of novels manage to pull off a story about time travel without including plot holes in them but Steins;Gate managed to tell a story without any plot holes that are noticable.

Art - 10/10

I saw a lot of comments about how the visual novel's art looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ than the anime's artstyle but it was made that way to show signs of mystery and to give thrill.

Characters - 10/10

The story of time travel allows for a unique way of developing relationships with each character. Each of the character in this visual novel feels like they could get their own anime adaptation and still be good

Sound - 10/10

The music oozes with mystery and Imai Asami is part of the cast. Nuff said

Better than the first game in pretty much everything. Even though I already know katakana, the game is still useful to me since it also shows the proper stroke order, which I haven't really studied.

The game is also friendly to people who havent played the first game (Hiragana) so there's no need to buy the first game when you buy this one

Even though you bought this game without any clue about the Japanese language, you can still learn the katakana alphabet without any problems.