One is a bad visual novel. I carried a lot of excitement going into this with my love for Jun Maeda and the beautiful art, but this has easily been one of the worst experiences I have had with a visual novel ever. It checks all the boxes of a cliche and boring visual novel: poorly developed and archetypical heroines, boring main character with a vague attempt at character depth, short routes that end before they feel like they've accomplished anything. The Nagamori route is one of the most baffling parts of a work I have experienced, the incoherence behind Kohei's character is in full display as he alternates between a Kotarou-esque goofball to an abomination. Never before have I desperate wished for the heroines to stay as far away from a main character as possible because he was such a piece of shit. It makes Maeda's later works all the more impressive seeing just how low his start was with the routes he worked on. Misaki was the best part of the game and maybe the only route which I would consider quality. I lean towards the positive side of the spectrum with Akane's as well, as Kohei is at his best (for his standards) there. Mio's route was a bore that had potential but ultimately contented itself with mediocrity and Nanase's was about the same. I reached my breaking point with the unbearable slog that was Shiina's route. Why we needed a route with a crybaby child-minded middle schooler who has weird romantic implications with Kohei is beyond me. I'm still kind of shellshocked by how bad this was, genuinely an absolutely miserable experience.

The core to this game is pretty solid. I found myself quickly intrigued in the mystery, some of the mechanics surrounding it really were interesting. My biggest complaint is in the pacing, as it takes a nosedive in the middle and is overall pretty inconsistent at holding moment to moment interest. The characters also hold very simple roles in the story, solely existing to fill their purposes in the mystery. This concept is novel and could probably create something great but I definitely found myself wishing there was more there for the main two characters at least, it would've helped a lot with some of the pacing issues. Overall The Sekimeiya is a really cool visual novel just held back by a few things keeping it short from great status

All around its better than the first game. There are a lot more towns, the variety in areas feels greater, and it tries a bit harder to be a cohesive narrative. However, at the same time Ys II fumbles with some of these new additions. The magic system has some cool features but making almost every boss designed to only be damaged through it is really tedious,. The final dungeon having so much back tracking and leaving and coming back despite its cool aesthetic took me out of the moment a lot. The music was great just like Ys I and there is definitely a charm that it has.