A Disturbance In Agustria

Ahhhhh she really is so cute though...~~~ When she first showed up I just had to have the protagonist go help her out, and then the story just unfolded so naturally I found myself on her route even though I was planning on doing Serika first...! But she's sooooo cute and polite and sweet and heartwarming and also she could beat Everyone up :DDDDD

It's kind of a rare character type for a heroine, I think? Usually the tomboyish types are more down to earth and friendly and familiar. Instead, Aoi is kind of shy (when she's not gushing about mixed martial arts) and doubts herself too much and is so very proper and formal and Follows The Rules and pure-hearted and Earnest...!! I really really like characters like that, especially when they're not a generic Main Heroine patient childhood friend type! And I also really like sporty and hot-blooded types who believe in all the sorts of things they say in shounen anime!!! So it's no wonder that I loved her so much :D (...come to think of it, doesn't everything in this paragraph describe Best Boy Kanzaki Souma, too...? <333)

And the romance felt really natural once we got into it, too!! The protagonist of this game has a lot more personality than I expected? And sometimes he can be pretty teasing or grouchy about school and the like rather than being purely just a nice person. (Though I don't mind protagonists like that!) He was clearly drawn to Aoi from the beginning, and he did have a little pre-existing interest in martial arts, and he wanted to support her and help her achieve her goals just as much as I did...!

It's also kinda funny to me that in a lot of ways he was basically her cheerleader? Or, like, the cute sports club manager type character...? I mean, he did end up training with her after a little while, but it's still very clear at the end that he's got a long way to go to beat her :'D But I thought it was interesting that in motivating her and trying to be sensible when she wants to train too hard and the like - stuff I more associate with female characters - she described him as being, like, Steady and Reliable: like her Rock. Very masculine!!! Not complaining: just thought it was an interesting thought, heh.

And it did capture well that overall sense of like... youth, and making bonds, and young love. :) It's entirely generic in its content, bar the surprise factor of this cute little kouhai being a mixed martial arts fanatic, but who cares?! Young love is a wonderful theme which deserves to be written about an eternity of times...! And this is a good example of it: mundane, and idealistic, and a little comedic at times, and impossibly sweet. <3

I also still really love the art style...! It really is immersive, the way they utilise the camera angles (but they're also not afraid to cut away or try more poetic shots from time to time) and it just - adds a bit more visual interest...? I think that's part of why I could concentrate on it so easily! They add a lot of nice lighting effects that really ramp up the idyllic atmosphere, but don't go overboard IMO! And I love how the eyes are so starry...~ And ahhh, Aoi's hair is such a perfect shade of periwinkle in the sunlight...!! <3

Next up, I should proooobably go back and do Serika properly, heh. (Even if I already feel bad at the prospect of not helping out Aoi... :( ) I don't think there's anyone in the cast I'm not at least somewhat looking forward to reading? I definitely want to check out Multi at some point - she seems to be the most iconic character from the game (and the easiest to find merch for!) but she's similar in several ways to Aoi so I want to mix it up a bit first. (And of course I totally veered around the really popular character to the not-so-popular one instead, ahah... n.n;;)

I really enjoyed the demo so I bought it :D

The original game was pretty much The trope codifier for multi-route VNs, apparently, and it definitely has a kind of... generic? look to it that could be either a good or a bad thing! I thought I'd find it boring since it is literally 'you're a high school boy getting to know different popular anime archetype girls. also there's cherry blossoms everywhere' The Game but there's something really refreshingly sincere about it? Just... sweet and earnest and determined to depict Young Love in a way that was new for its time!!!

And even if something doesn't do something Different, there can still be a value in seeing a standard thing done Really Well, y'know? And that's what I've gotten so far: it's just done really well to capture the shy but slightly bossy childhood friend, the bickering tomboyish friend, the unnervingly clingy half-American girl, etc. (And so far best girl, the autistic who almost never talks and just stares blankly into space except when she's wordlessly asking the MC if he wants a tarot reading. And he invariably goes along with it without calling her weird or pushing for Normal conversation topics. Frankly it's no wonder she'll fall for him like this :D)

sooooo doing that too <3

but ALSO it got me thinking about other vns I want to read now that I'm back in the zone. I made a list of ones I could think about trying... and then I remembered to make a list of the vns I'm partway through and want to get back to . and. it's a lot. :')))) including BokuTen (still regularly pick that up every few months), SubaHibi (uwagh... got to Looking Glass Insects yearrrrs ago so I might as well restart), Totono (I knoooow welp I did the black-haired girls route at least?!?), Flowers (I'm on the second game but the main route was so lovely... I'm just less interested in the teacher route. maybe I should just move on to the next game?), and Too Many More. (Like ATRI, which I bought earlier this year because I had to see the Neuro comparisons. And she really does remind me of Neuro-sama!!! though something about her sprite annoys me...)

AND ALSO. thinking about ToHeart and old vns/dating sims reminded me of TokiMemo!! god I loved TMGS2 back in the day~. And even when I started playing it last year or so for a while? The gameplay elements really add to the fun of it, and the TMGS2 guys are in my exact strike range of silliness heheh. (Muuuch less interested in the 3 and 4 guys overall.)

And more specifically, it reminded me of an old Let's Play I read yeaaaars ago on a forum that probably isn't available anymore, covering TokiMemo 2! And even if I only read the Let's Play and have never played that game - it's never had an English translation, but apparently as of *this year* someone is working on one!!! - that game has such fun characters, including Akai Homura, whose theme song Still gets stuck in my head now and then even today. :D From what I read, she's definitely up on my list of favourite heroines...!

anyway I found a different TM2 let's play so I'll probably read that too. <3