So following that review... first things first - game has no bugs on win98, all icons are in order - everything is perfect. But since the game can't run install on newer Windows, we indeed have to copy contents to the disk folder, launch reg file (need to edit it to change cd drive letter) and speech volume up tool. The full guide is here ( 2 ). Just in case - the link for the volume up tool is ( 3 ). So the only little inconvenience that we need to tolerate on newer Windows is that icons get messed up. It's not that much of a deal, right?
NO.
As a result the icons for SAVE and GHOST functions get exchanged. It's very easy to get acquainted with saving on ghost icon, we play as a ghost, anyway. But this way SAVE icon gets absolutely forgotten. This icon stays crossed out for 99.99% of time, but this is absolutely the most important icon in the game, because it gets active in 0.01% of time at the most crucial moments in the game. If I knew that from the start, I would not have to tear my hair out while redoing all the routes of all the characters over and over and each time either getting somewhat awkward endings or failing to set the flags for a girl. I followed three different walkthrough VERY diligently and each time had a failure as a result. By the way, the best walkthrough with all the choices and very comfortable table outlook is here ( 4 ).
So here's the deal. One of such most crucial moments is on the screen. In this scene we finally get all the flags for the girl and enter the first love event marked with a heart on the map. In this event Minamo is sleeping... that's pretty much it. But... her skirt gets a bit wrinkled so that pants are seen just a little bit. Trust me, this is the most crucial event of the route. So hero enjoys the peaceful view when two boys approach, share the joyful news with each other and take out a digital camera while looking for the most beneficial angle... There are no options, nothing. Just as any other event that we've seen before so far. So hero cries out of helplessness since he's a ghost and can't really help Minamo. Boys get the photo and run away happily. Minamo continues to sleep happily. A weird event, but it's ok. The problem is that after the event Minamo absolutely disappears. We just pass days aimlessly and fly to the skies on the 49th day. Game over. I could not understand what was going on for a long time trying different approaches prior to the even. But I only understood it while skipping scenes on Win98. There is a ghost icon in place of SAVE there and during skipping the scene it suddenly stops in the middle of the scene, just at the spot the screenshot is. Why would a game stop skipping the text in the middle of text scene? The answer is that there are moments when main character Shiro needs to concentrate his psychic power in order to manipulate objects in physical reality. When we click this icon at this very moment, Shiro fixes the skirt, boys run away and Minamo wakes up noticing Shiro who hurriedly explains the situation in order not to be blamed for it. And later on Minamo admits that she understood that Shiro loved her exactly at the moment when he fixed that skirt expression his care and desire to protect this way. So with this hint all the routes finally become a piece of cake.
Now to the contents. I give the game 8/10, it's that good. It could easily be 9/10, but the sectional voicing and a bit of fault in the system affect the impression. There are four heroines for capture - kendo club osanajimi Akira, shy diligent student who is afraid of ghosts Wakaba, merry single Psychic Sience club member Minamo and a ghost girl who supposedly ended her life by hanging - Yuzu. The game tries to follow To Heart structure, so that we get up, go to school and constantly get on a map of the school in the morning, noon and evening with girl figures at different sections of the school. Clicking on each girl triggers an event. And majority of those events are funny ones. There are also some events that we don't need to choose. What I mean is that such structure allows to pump the game with a great number of cool funny small stories and in that the game excels. For the biggest part of the game it's a comedy, but the very end is not so funny - hero dies. Well, I mean he was dead from the start, but on 49th day (35th day in game time since Shiro only regains consciousness 2 weeks after initial death) the soul link with the body finally disappears and the soul has to fly to the skies. We get to know about the time limit on the 45th day (31st day in game time). So what's the drama? Hero has to fly away. But that was known from the start. Hero is dead before we even start reading. We can guess he'll have to go eventually. But we still feel sad when we're said so on the 45th day and when we actually have to do it on the 49th day. So I don't consider this game to be a nakige in any way. Someone wants a happy end with a girl and a ghost living together and dying in one day? That's weird. Hero must resurrect? Well, it's not some fantasy, and furthermore the body is wrecked and buried over two weeks ago. So it's not a conflict, not a drama, we just see the story to the end and the girls who got attached to Shiro saying him farewell. And all the girls do so with a smile and gratitude. Futhermore, Shiro is promissed to be reincarnated and in some epilogues we actually get a hint of our grown-up girls feeling something very familiar in that young school boy... but it's not that kind of a game. Moreover, there is a ghost girl Yuzu and we get a perfectly happy ending with her. Two ghosts find a way to be eternally happy. But for my video walkthrough I chose Minamo. That girl is too cute and cool to miss. Moreover, we actually get to see three personalities of her. Her usual ghosbuster genki self, a cursed doll gentle personality (don't ask, better see for yourself) and the cat-girl personality that can't leave anyone indifferent. Don't get me wrong, other girls routes are very good and touching as well, but those are tilt towards nakige a bit more. Game's very nice. Give it a chance, and you'll like it.
do you plan to upload other routes to youtube ? i'm always interesting in Purple games but old games are a bit intimidating for me to play. btw: welcome back from the dead man
As a rule for charage without the true route I'm only doing one route to avoid all the backtracking and redoing common route over and over. Here I only attentively read Yuzu route since sacredge0 especially noted that he could not flag Yuzu route. Other routes I cntrled and attentively read only the ending scene. For me the most important part in any game is common route which is mostly the same for all the characters, save that you hang out at kendo club/library/cherry tree instead of corridor and camp. But still recording only flagged heroine routes is not right since there are a lot of heroine specific events while flagging. I'm not even sure someone would seriously watch this one route since the game is too obscure. All depends on the feedback.
how long does one route take ? I'm not familiar with games back then but modern vns tend to have really long character routes, sometimes it could be longer than common route. If it's not too long can you make a compilation video of those routes, that is edited from the branching point ? i'm sorry if i'm asking for too much though.
One route takes 5 hours. Some statistics: Minamo route was watched 19 times for 40 seconds on average with the overall duration of 13 minutes in three days! The calculation is very simple - noone needs it, and I spend much more time recording it. My ambition is to get to 2008 at least, and I've already started recording another game Treating2U from January 2000. There's no way I can record all the routes of all the games I like. I will probably record one route of each such game and hold a poll which game deserves videos of the rest of the routes. That's how I see it now.
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