A triumph of what video games are capable of with regards to forming connections with virtual characters. The game puts you into the mindspace of the main character Ao effortlessly, with excellent writing and enough player agency to offset feeling disconnected from her. All of the relationships are so thoughtful and given so much care, no character is a weakpoint, they are all given appropriate time and attention.
The game's structure fully facilitates this kind of storytelling, with a plethora of side content in the "dates", where there is over 100 unique events, all giving either genuinely funny comedy or extremely heartfelt bonding. A lot of the nuanced writing is seen here, too. It's inspiring seeing Ao navigate these relationships with so much sincerity; she wants to empathize with them and is extremely self aware. I am jealous of her ability to be so effortlessly intimate with other people.
The overall plot and the main themes of the game are definitely nothing you haven't seen before, but it's told with so much earnestness that I never felt it was hackneyed or trite. Though it has an amazing canon lesbian relationship, which is certainly unique and it's probably my favorite part of the game.
I should also mention that the music in this game is incredible. Unlike BR 1, the music perfectly fits into the game and is used really well. Sadly it has no massive songs like Sayonara but it more than makes up for it with beautiful ambient and exciting dnb battle tracks. I loved how all the kokorotope music reflects it, like the bittersweet tones of Rena's kokorotope theme.
My favorite game of 2021. 2 days late but I will say it counts. (also i couldn't find a place to put my thoughts on the combat systems but basically they're good but the game's balancing is too easy on normal, i am sure the NG+ difficulties bring out how fun the combat system can be though).
The game's structure fully facilitates this kind of storytelling, with a plethora of side content in the "dates", where there is over 100 unique events, all giving either genuinely funny comedy or extremely heartfelt bonding. A lot of the nuanced writing is seen here, too. It's inspiring seeing Ao navigate these relationships with so much sincerity; she wants to empathize with them and is extremely self aware. I am jealous of her ability to be so effortlessly intimate with other people.
The overall plot and the main themes of the game are definitely nothing you haven't seen before, but it's told with so much earnestness that I never felt it was hackneyed or trite. Though it has an amazing canon lesbian relationship, which is certainly unique and it's probably my favorite part of the game.
I should also mention that the music in this game is incredible. Unlike BR 1, the music perfectly fits into the game and is used really well. Sadly it has no massive songs like Sayonara but it more than makes up for it with beautiful ambient and exciting dnb battle tracks. I loved how all the kokorotope music reflects it, like the bittersweet tones of Rena's kokorotope theme.
My favorite game of 2021. 2 days late but I will say it counts. (also i couldn't find a place to put my thoughts on the combat systems but basically they're good but the game's balancing is too easy on normal, i am sure the NG+ difficulties bring out how fun the combat system can be though).