the best visual novel of all time? maybe not, but how this game includes the player (literally YOU. yourself.) is mind blowing.

totone is a video game based on a love triangle, with multiple, multiple irrelevant endings.

the way the game is designed, is to mostly end up in the end either not dating either of them or to be dating miyuki, who is the black haired character.

the other person involved in the love triangle, aoi, is potrayed as a weirdo from the very beginning. shes the weird girl, completely delusional and still involved in childish roleplaying, referred to as chuunibyou. her chuunibyou fantasy involves herself believing she lives in a game world, where she is just a character. she has literally no social skills and no self awareness over her appearance either.

to cut the review short and to the point, the game also contains super super r18 sexual scenes. though these are optional, unfortunately, they are very important to the plot. not because the player is meant to enjoy them (most weirdos who enjoy visual novels will enjoy them anyway), but it shows the lengths YOU as a player went to date the weird girl over miyuki.

to explain, the only way to not end the game in an ending where you are with miyuki, and instead with aoi, you as a player must make super fucked up decisions. like, super fucked up.

to summarize the worst, ending up with aoi involves CUCKING yourself by watching her fuck other dudes, literally eating their cum out of her, being turned on by that, and having your own turn.

though this was not fun to watch, its purposely an event you must choose to go through to show the extent you would go to not date miyuki (who, by the way, is the perfect, sporty, good looking popular girl in the game) and rather choose aoi (never seen a hair comb in her life, zero social skills, no friends etc.).

this is where the REAL plot of the game starts. as you have probably played through and ended up with miyukis endings multiple times, as hers are more likely and rational to get, you've had multiple times where you've "promised" to miyuki to always love her. again, this just happens at the end of playthroughs, and every playthrough is a fresh start.

however the plot point is that once you manage to somehow end up with aoi with your fucked up decisions, miyuki confronts you over it. not just the character you are playing, but YOU as a player. from this point on, miyuki becomes a terrifying character, does terrible things (animal abuse and murder etc). she is seemingly conscious that she is in the visual novel that YOU, the player, are playing, and she is also aware she is just a character in a video game.

its a lot better in the game than explained, but the fourth wall breaking is incredible. afaik, there is no media that involves the player themselves as a plot point like totone. i wouldn't consider DDLC one because it is more of a clone of this game. its a pretty cool concept and if you can get past the hard-to-watch r18 scenes, you'll be surpised at how cool this game as a concept is.

i also loved that when i finished the game, i realized, the title of the game: You and Me and Her, refers to me (miyuki), her (aoi), and you being YOU, not the character/protagonist (shinichi) that you play as in the game.