crossposted

Errrrrrrrr well.......... I guess I'd sorta recommend it. Not really at the price. Get it on sale.
I'm mixed, I actually purchased this thinking illustrator Itou Hachi was involved in it, but she apparently just did the manga adaptation. Anyways,

I see a lot of reviews talking about how "realistic" the relationships progress in this game, but I really dont find this to be true. I think it might be realistic to..... overly moe slice of life tropes? But these play out and progress in such bombastic ways. The different relationships here are cute and fun in their own right, but really don't scratch the "realism" itch as well as something like Aoi Hana or Yuzumori San. Which, no, media does't have to be realistic to be enjoyable. Not everything has to be rooted in reality or straight faced. Schlocky-ness and overacting has its appeal and I don't tend to prioritize "realistic" dialogue and interactions in a visual novel, but I wouldn't be fooled by the prospect that there's some all girls school in japan where girls act like this and progress relationships in this way. It's over the top, it's kinda dumb, it's clearly unrealistic, but it's fun because of that.

The general set up is pretty great as far as VNs go. Playing cupid for two ghosts who otherwise can't interact with those they look out for is a great start. The main character is blank slate enough to where it's not jarringly different from any projected player personality, but not so boring that she's emotionless and a chore to read the dialogue of. The characters have cute moments but are pretty one dimensional sometimes. There's a few characters that are guilty of being able to be described in a single sentence: their one or two quirks and their appearance. A lot of anime media is guilty of this, but I think the appeal of Visual Novels is they kind of seek to remedy that.. Which this one finds difficult to do. The girl's interactions range from extremely mundane to........ well, less mundane more enjoyable none the less. The saving grace for what would otherwise be kinda stale interactions is the different perspectives you get to see in a non linear fashion. It's nice to see what people were thinking during certain past scenes, and to see their interpretations of events.

Voice acting is a mixed bag as well. You have a bunch of these over the top squeaky moe characters who just can't stop over acting placed alongside otherwise restrained and pleasant voice acting. Three of the characters have this sorta annoying "s" sound that keeps popping out and I can't tell if it's a lisp or just... bad mixing. Speaking of mixing...
THE MUSIC oughhhh.... I've had enough of these three basic school life tracks hahaha. They're not particularly good, not nearly ambient enough. They keep trying to throw in this pop rocky riff and chanting over everyday life dialogue and it's not only loud but just painfully unfitting. It's a 2 minute song loop that demands attention away from dialogue that already isn't that thrilling. It got on my nerves extremely fast...Maybe it wouldn't be so jarring if there were more tracks for these scenarios, but there arent.

It's cute, it's got a charming setup, but its execution feels really rough around the edges. For 35 dollars (45 with DLC) I feel sorta let down, but I'm not disliking it or anything. It has overwhelmingly positive reviews on steam but I'd be cautious.