finding in each other kindred spirits, wanting to become equals, changing together, being true to oneself, or the simple desire to protect and heal—these are the kinds of love mashifoni sets out to portray.
from its opening line mashifoni maintains a strong sense of thematic throughout its script, each distinct route building on each other to paint a fuller picture of its interpretation of love. the game's narrative cohesion and polish is particularly driven by its protagonist, whose strong sense of personality (faults and all) sells the relationships he holds with the heroines and the supporting cast (which is distinctly important for a moege)
the quality in mashifoni's characters isn't limited to just the protagonist. the whole cast's charm permeates in and past the common, with other heroines and secondary characters being very present and lovable supporting cast members all the way through each character route. the routes vary slightly in quality, but i don't think any are strictly bad. my personal rating of these is airi>>ange>(sana>)sakuno>miu.
presentation is great as expected for a 2024 remake, and the original's beautiful cgs and notably good ost shine even brighter. shiravune's localization is putrid, though
its combination of virtues let mashifoni sit comfortably and inoffensively among moege greats. fun ride
from its opening line mashifoni maintains a strong sense of thematic throughout its script, each distinct route building on each other to paint a fuller picture of its interpretation of love. the game's narrative cohesion and polish is particularly driven by its protagonist, whose strong sense of personality (faults and all) sells the relationships he holds with the heroines and the supporting cast (which is distinctly important for a moege)
the quality in mashifoni's characters isn't limited to just the protagonist. the whole cast's charm permeates in and past the common, with other heroines and secondary characters being very present and lovable supporting cast members all the way through each character route. the routes vary slightly in quality, but i don't think any are strictly bad. my personal rating of these is airi>>ange>(sana>)sakuno>miu.
presentation is great as expected for a 2024 remake, and the original's beautiful cgs and notably good ost shine even brighter. shiravune's localization is putrid, though
its combination of virtues let mashifoni sit comfortably and inoffensively among moege greats. fun ride
Normally I'd do a typical "long essay" review... but I literally got this game (actually read through Johren) just to read quirky maid Ange's route and I got what I wanted. Ange is easily the best character in the game and carries the slice of life scenes with her wholesome helpful nice personality and funny unpredictable antics.
Ange's route was definitely weird as I'd expected, having an actual master/maid romantic relationship was certainly something unique and interesting. That said this game REALLY overly plays up the "first time H scene magic" to the point of going almost an hour of just building up to it. Thankfully Ange's development around being a maid was decent enough otherwise.
As for the rest of the game... common route was fairly short, making a classic tsundere (Airi) relatively tolerable, but not enough for me to care to do her route. Sakuno is fine but I don't care for step sibling romance so I passed. Miu is decent mature senpai... but then I'd have to deal with Sana who's easily my least favorite character. I don't care if she's supposedly the most popular, I hate extreme gap moe tsundere, no amount of supposedly good character development can make me forgive obnoxious repetitive misandry comments.
TLDR only get this game if there's a particular character archetype you like (especially for weirdos like Ange or tsunderes like Airi/Sana) and don't mind very slow build up romance + H scene.
Ange's route was definitely weird as I'd expected, having an actual master/maid romantic relationship was certainly something unique and interesting. That said this game REALLY overly plays up the "first time H scene magic" to the point of going almost an hour of just building up to it. Thankfully Ange's development around being a maid was decent enough otherwise.
As for the rest of the game... common route was fairly short, making a classic tsundere (Airi) relatively tolerable, but not enough for me to care to do her route. Sakuno is fine but I don't care for step sibling romance so I passed. Miu is decent mature senpai... but then I'd have to deal with Sana who's easily my least favorite character. I don't care if she's supposedly the most popular, I hate extreme gap moe tsundere, no amount of supposedly good character development can make me forgive obnoxious repetitive misandry comments.
TLDR only get this game if there's a particular character archetype you like (especially for weirdos like Ange or tsunderes like Airi/Sana) and don't mind very slow build up romance + H scene.