v nice as a postscript to hello charlotte, giving a fresh perspective and deeper focus on the trio at the heart of it. because of this, despite framing itself as an au, it honestly feels more like the reality of these characters that informs the universe of the rest of the series. its very depressing but its not too dour towards making this impression either, if anything it being removed from the intensity of emotions the series led up to, while relying on prior knowledge of it, gives a clearer and less obfuscated picture of how much etherane can pack into these characters' relationships.

the diary (which you can read if you get the paid version, please get the paid version) is such a great final note; it's not just as anri's view of things but also invoking charles's preoccupations within their narratives from their views on anri and possibly themself AND also feels to me, potentially?, like one of the more directly personal things the author has shared. a constant series of narrativizing btwn character and creator and audience. think theres a v clear bridge btwn hello charlotte and tomorrow wont come to be found in how heaven's gate brings this obsession in ane's work, on humans blindly seeing themselves in others, to such a level of legibility that it seems like it was readymade to be worked into the core of twc.

the stark, battered grief that hangs over hg gets expanded on nicely by twc too, and it also feels fitting that it comes after the anger and melodrama and anger ABOUT the melodrama of the series that came before. the arc of these games' development is like seeing someone develop their own self over time, trying to figure out what they honestly believe and what they mean to express. even this technically unnecessary side story vn to a larger rpgmaker series has a place in that bigger picture--one that i admittedly, ironically, am creating for myself. but im ok with believing in it, because this search is what affects me most in etherane's work: its not that the author has hard conclusive answers for the problems they present, but like they are still trying to understand and rigorously interrogate their view of the world in ways i can relate to v much, as if we are doing it together.

i will tell you something about how my ADHD works basically if my arousal (level of stimulation) is less than the ideal measure im gonna be distracted by anything and everything around me if its more than the ideal measure im gonna get overstimulated and dissociate like hell

so you might ask whats the ideal measure for me well most of the times i can say that videogames stimulate me a good bunch with hearing touching and watching but thats not always the case which is also funny when you look at me playing turn based rpgs because i would just spam A instead of being left with doing nothing THAT BEING SAID reading a book is too little stimulation which is why i put music while i read which is also why i dont read shocker in the other end if im at a lunch with people and everybodys talking at the same time im probably gonna get overstimulated and not talk for like 2 hours minimum

that being said this game has no music so you can only imagine how hard it was for me to not get distracted every 3 seconds I LOVE visual novels also because I can't really read books so they're a nice compromise but and even if they don't have voice acting I can follow the storyline if there's some kind of auditory stimulation like music or sound effects but here it was HARD it was so fucking HARD to follow the storyline you won't believe

ok this whole premise was to say that when I could not take it anymore I Googled lofi piano and the game ended after 5 minutes :) very cool

hello charlotte is still something that i cant really put my hands on but i still decided it was time to explore this visual novel and SOMEHOW i actually managed to make some connections between the charlotte world and the charles world incredible what happened but still i think it would be better to replay all the installments with the knowledge that i have right now about the series but im probably not gonna do that because i care for my mental health

that being said the presentation of this visual novel FUCKS its sososososo good its incredible if you ask me the art direction was always some of etheranes greatest assets and im glad that they managed to translate it almost seamlessly into the VN media all the characters are beautifully drawn expressively animated and still have some type of connections to the designs you see in the trilogy its honestly amazing if you ask me . the backgrounds are those stack images that you can find online with those blur filters but WHO CARES when the portraits are THIS GOOD

story is probably my favorite part of this and while i again dont understand as much as a true hello charlotte fan would i genuinely loved every single second of this actually getting to know the real charles and vincent and anri piece by piece was a breath of fresh air and while i still dont have an entire clue of what this was all about since most of the plot twists or character revelations are pretty implicit exploring another chunk of hello charlotte lore was pretty interesting

vincent is probably the most interesting character of the bunch and someone with the thickest backstory in the entire cast everything he says hurts me to an infinite extent i can FEEL the sadness through the screen and i cannot believe how tightly written he is for a visual novel that clocks in at around 1 hour literally the pure highlight of the entire game and still seeing charles and anri dealing with their issues and struggle through adolescence was also pretty incredible i have no idea how they managed to make this feel so personal and intimate but thats something that i always felt in all the other installments but since this is actually on a more SoL side of things instead of the absolute fucking hysteric mess that is the hello charlotte trilogy thematically plot wise and visually going through all the stages of grief in a grotesque and hellish environment the down to earth and relatable environment of humble houses and schools really makes this such a gem to close the HC hellhole

im pretty said there wasnt even a single track in the game apart from my ADHD but also for an emotional sense theres a lot of sad story beats in here and they NEEDED a good ost to bring the sorrow forward but if youre me you can duck tape an emotional piano on youtube in the background and call it a day

so ughhhhhhhhh not a lot else to say i liked the runtime of this series and maybe i will come back to it sometime in the future maybe after reading an infodump on what this story is really about so i can stop not understanding what the fuck is happening but even if i didnt this is such a good rpgmaker series that everyone should play just for the vibes . ABSOLUTELY UNMATCHED EXECUTION etherane must be making these games on LSD i know you boo dont lie to me

side note im in love with the little vertical illustrations that pop up sometimes like theyre CGs for storytelling purposes etherane bending the medium whats new

Hello Chalotte: Heaven's Gate é uma dlc do hello charlotte 3 em formato de visual novel de curta duração que vem pra complementar a história desse jogo dando mais foco e desenvolvimento pra alguns personagens como o Charles, Vincent e a Warhol. E já de antemão queria falar aqui que eu tava plenamente satisfeito com o hello charlotte 3, inclusive com esses personagens que foram citados anteriormente, então eu basicamente fui jogar essa dlc por curiosidade pra saber o que ia acontecer, e eu achei bom, ver com profundidade mais do charles e da psiquê dele foi bem interessante, sendo possível perceber muitos dos maneirismos que falam pra gente que ele tinha no charlotte 3 que infelizmente não tiveram muito tempo de tela. Além disso, eu penso que essa é a maior força desse jogo, a atenção pra detalhes, a etharane faz com o máximo de cuidado e carinho cada cena de diálogo do jogo sem deixar esses personagens se tornarem caricatos e sim reais, o jeito que a warhol inicialmente é timida e vai se tornando mais confiante conforme o relacionamento dela com o charles melhora, o vincent se tornando mais "alegre" quanto mais tempo passa na história e a maneira que o charles evita se tornar tão próximo das pessoas que estão no convivio dele são ótimos momentos que mostram e exemplificam o quão bem a função dessa dlc é executada, infelizmente essa também é a minha maior crítica a essa dlc, a etharane não tinha planos grandiosos pra essa dlc, então ela é bem simples, não há música nem mesmo atmosférica, va ou coisas assim, o jogo só quer cumprir o papel dele e nada mais, não há uma ambição como no próprio hello charlotte 3 em questão de produção, e essa simplicade da história resulta em heaven's gate, apesar de ser curto, ser maçante, mesmo com uma duração menor do que uma hora inteira eu não consegui zerar esse jogo em uma seção só, sendo a única parte da franquia em que isso me ocorreu (zerei todos os jogos de hello charlotte no mesmo dia que eu comecei) porque o leitor basicamente tá vendo personagens em seus dia-a-dia sem nada atmosférico ou algo do gênero pra te prender, fica chato, e ser chato não é um problema, o problema que eu to falando é que a falta de ambição dessa dlc resultou em um jogo maçante de se jogar e fez essa experiência mais dificil de ser digerida, isso pode ser resolvido colocando sons pra deixar no fundo enquanto você joga claro, inclusive foi só assim que eu consegui zerar o jogo, mas isso é algo que VOCÊ tem que fazer pra não ficar entediado com o formato de VN slice of life com uma pitada de tragicidade na última parte. Em conclusão, essa dlc de fato cumpriu o papel narrativo dela e fez com que os personagens que tiveram destaque aqui ganhassem mais profundidade, a custo de uma experiência entediante em sua maior parte devido a falta de ambição da autora, principalmente no quesito sonoro, mas que tirando isso não tem nenhuma grande falha, no máximo uma discussão sobre o quão pesado viver é que eu achei um pouco forçado, e fecha essa franquia em uma nota positiva.

My favorite out of all of them and i will probably be thinking about it for a very long time. It's a very sincere and heartbreaking love/coming of age story.

Its very hard to put into words but i feel very personally attached to this game and many elements seen in Childhood's End. Very specific bits and pieces that feel too real to me, past experiences, feelings, memories. I relate too much. This series is very much about leaving things to interpretation and these last two games did a number on my brain. Thanks etherane.

Also i dunno if the fact that theres no music on this one is intentional. I listened to melancholic game BGM while playing and also some songs from EP 1. It added a lot to the experience for me.

It's hard to write a cohesive piece about the entirety of Hello Charlotte and its stupidly interesting overarching (meta)narrative- so I won't, for the time being, as I wait for my thoughts to crystalize into something coherent.
That said, I am decently confident in calling Heaven's Gate, the final entry in the series, an excellent addendum and extension of HC.
Unlike the "mainline" episodes, which continuously recontextualize themselves in order to expand the scope of the broader story and its themes, Heaven's Gate works off the subtext the same mainline games already provided and "simply" fleshes out the characters' lives and relationships further. This brief read contains a lot of emotionally impactful and thoughtful dialogue, even without taking the rest of the series into consideration.
This emotional maturity and self-awareness the characters showcase is, sometimes, almost excessive- but I think it is a very intentional affirmation of the author's own journey, which is a common theme in this deeply personal and unique series. Said journey is, and will never be, truly over - something this bittersweet story directly acknowledges through Vincent's characterization and the ending - but it's always important to remember how far you've come.
Shame about the lack of music, though.

I regret reading heavens gate this late, why didnt I open it after finishing hello charlotte ep3 with fresh memories of the game. enjoyed this one more from the other installments. feels real and grounded with comprehensible writing and I agreed to some of the thoughts of the characters. gives you more ways to look at what transpires in some parts of ep3 and strenghthens the experience of the trilogy.

there is no music or sfx so dont think is something wrong and try to check your volume settings like I did. though I dont know if thats a bad thing for heavens gate, for me it helped to focus more while reading it. would not work on other visual novels or games as their ost's adds so much to the general experince.

Os jogos da série de hello charlotte são provavelmente meus favoritos de rpg maker e talvez os meus jogos favoritos da vida, e com Heaven's gate não é nem um pouco diferente, mesmo tendo apenas 40 minutos de jogo isso foi o suficiente para me cativar ainda mais com todos os personagens(e se tem uma coisa que a etherane faz com maestria é saber criar ótimos personagens). Me deixa triste ser um jogo tão curto, já que eu sempre quero poder ver mais do universo de hello charlotte, mas ao mesmo assim, tudo que acontece nesses pequenos 40 minutos foram o suficiente para fazer esse jogo se tornar facilmente o meu favorito.