A Butterfly in the District of Dreams

This was a great visual novel. The concept is clever. It took a little while for it all to come together and the second half is much lighter and funnier than the first half. There are three paths to choose - I only followed one to the end (so there are probably another 3-4 hours of content to pick through) - and it was a strange place to end even though there was a "rightness" about it. Definitely recommend this. The art is great. The voiceover work is good. The translation apart from the first 20 minutes or so (which is a bit bumpy) is excellent too.

+rep

Русскоязычных обзоров в Steam на эту игру я не увидел, так что скорее всего я буду первым. Да и в рунете я нашёл всего 1 сайт по этой новелле. Купил я эту игру со скидкой за 124 р. Перед первым запуском я поискал в гугле русификатор, но на единственные 2 сайта, что я нашёл, меня не пустил Dr. Web. Буду считать, что русификатора не существует в природе. Проходил(на момент написания обзора я прошёл её не до конца) я эту новеллу, используя гугл-переводчик на каждом незнакомом слове(и использовал его довольно редко) Сама новелла сделана довольно качественно: рисовка персонажей, их озвучка, но есть и несколько минусов, о них ниже: 1) Если посмотреть историю диалогов, то диалог, показанный ранее на экране, исчезнет, и если вы его не дочитали, придётся снова открывать историю(перед этим прочесть следующую "страницу" диалога, иначе она тоже исчезнет) Дальше пойдёт субъективщина: 2) Когда появляется белый экран, трудно читать белый текст и в целом смотреть в монитор х_х 3) Лично мне не понравилось меню игры, а именно расположение кнопок в нём. 4) Ещё мне не понравились задние фоны в игре, они какие-то размытые, что ли. По мере прохождения новеллы постараюсь дополнять обзор. Может также поработаю над русификатором(если это случится, здесь появится ссылка на него) На любые интересующие вопросы я с радостью отвечу в комментариях)

[h1]It's more of an 'average' rating - too much weirdness. Some parts are enjoyable.[/h1] As VNs go, this one struck me as a bit... miserable. Setting the scene: a boy is living a pretty dull life, worried about his weak sister, almost always hospitalised, not particularly serious about his schooling, and cooking and looking after relatives with unusual working hours. He gets dragged to a dinner by his childhood friend, Ai, doesn't realise the time so ends up rushing to try to catch the last train. Before you know it they get transported to another world. I only went the one romance route - with Ai, as it seemed the most natural. My experience did not want me to play the others, so I cannot speak for them, but some of the themes that crop up can be a bit disgusting. I suppose it's only natural to expect this type of thing from VNs these days, but I find myself asking if it's really necessary. The first problem is the 'sis-con' theme. Is it just commonplace in Japanese culture or are there just more weirdos than I realise in the world? I have a sister in real life and every time I read some rubbish in VNs about the protagonist or his friends teasing him about 'sis-con' it turns my stomach. It's utterly gross! Including this type of content in a story does nothing to make me like it or enjoy it more. Even when your supposed 'older' sister asks you to have a bath together and the guy eventually agrees in a room full of people... ok, yeah, because that is normal. /endsarcasm Not just that, but the protagonist is stupid. There is no other word for it. I'm no expert on relationships - I've been single all my life - but following the path of Ai, there are so many hints dropped in his face, and he never gets it. It's painful to read how stupid he is. When a girl has to scream in your face 'I love you!' and you're still clueless, you lose all hope for good storytelling. Good storytelling is being able to suspend the reader's disbelief - no way is it believable someone could be this dense. If I were lucky enough to have a girl childhood friend this long, and one that would deliberately fail tests just to go to the same not-as-good uni as me, I think I'd sit up and pay attention. I'm impressed there is voiced characters, but the art is pretty tame - especially backgrounds - and the gallery unlocks don't seem to be anything special either. The 'regular world' backgrounds are like looking through a car window getting rained on too - if it weren't for the characters themselves I swear I'd think I was going blind. So I came up with my own ending, I like my version better. I spoiler tag it because by you knowing this isn't what happens, you can infer what does happen:- [spoiler]Stupid boy stays dense for the whole story, eventually Ai gives up hope on him, so the alternate world collapses in on itself and they end up returning to the real world without confessing to each other. She stops trying, he doesn't even notice, they all go on being miserable and alone in their lives. This actually is a feel-good ending because then us gamers can all recognise the fact that everyone is alone in life, not just us, and that the struggle is real.[/spoiler]

This was a nice, but sad in parts, visual novel. The basic premise is that the MC (Yumesaki Haruki) and his friend Tsukibane Ai end up in another world that seems to be in a continuous loop (like Groundhog Day, but a lot nicer). They meet a propieter named Yurika and a bouncing bundle of energy named Riko, and they end up at the coffeehouse run by Yurika. Through a series of choices you can end up with one of these three girls. The paths are interesting, and the one that seems to be the true path is a bit... sad. Anyway, it is worth the read.

一开始是看打折为了背景买的，但是这个游戏真的很棒

I play this game and it bested my expectation of what i had exspected it would be. I play each of the three route. Its very hard to put it into word. Each story was unique and I was amazied how they chance each ending with little tweak with the character and story they did with It make me wish for more. I wish i could explain how it better how amazing this visual novel is and the emotion I felt after reading it. It is definitely a story worth it's in gold 11 for 10

7/10. An interesting story with interesting characters and interesting themes is hindered by a weak protagonist and seriously stunted by an incomplete ending. Presentation: Character art is good in my opinion. Backgrounds aren't particularly interesting. In "the real world," the backgrounds are simply fuzzy real-world pictures, while in Oriibugai they're proper drawn art. It's a nice contrast. I like the soundtrack; it's mostly piano which I'm a fan of. There are a few audio issues, though: I had to turn the BGM way down to hear the characters, and sometimes a character will have a couple lines that are far quieter than normal, or they're missing completely. Mechanics: The VN shakes things up ever-so-slightly here. There's a universal "common route," then there's a section where you can pick between one of the three heroines to see an "episode" or vignette surrounding them. After enough of these, you'll wind up on her route. In addition to this there are two distinct dialog choice moments, but neither matters very much in comparison. It's mostly picking a heroine to focus on, and then just reading the scene. Story: The store page isn't very clear here, so here's the premise: Haruki lives a bleary life, taking care of his ailing grandmother, visiting his hospital-bound sister, and doing all of the housekeeping while his parents are away at work. A series of events involving a childhood friend finds them both on a mysterious train that takes them to Oriibugai, an otherworldly town where the main street runs for kilometers. With no way back home, the two of them settle into life there, and Haruki finds himself spending more and more time with three heroines, with the chance to develop a deeper relationship with one of them. The main characters are Haru, his sister Anzu, the three heroines (Ai, Yurika, and Riko), another guy named Ren, and a Japanese god (who's also a young girl near Haru's age) named Sayuka who inhabits a shrine. All of them are pretty unique. Anzu is frail but always happy to see her younger brother. Ai is particularly interesting, in that she seems like she's on the spectrum: she's almost always expressionless, speaks largely emotionlessly and during an early scene when someone tells her to "smile more," Haru thinks something like "It's not like she won't, more like she can't." Yurika is the proprieter of Kochouran (a coffee shop Haru finds himself working for), upbeat yet business-conscious. Riko is a young girl, hyper and loud, and honestly a little obnoxious at times (as a child can be). Ren is mechanically inclined and fiercely devoted to Kochouran: he skirts the edge of "tsundere" occasionally, but is honestly a bit too harsh for that. And Sayuka is quirky and carefree, cooking up schemes to get people to pay for charms or prayers while also being a largely benevolent influence. They bounce off of each other well. Sayuka's pretty close to the star of the show in my eyes; her voice itself is a little goofy-sounding, she'll randomly drop into English for an idiom or two, and whenever she appears a characteristic (and characteristically quirky sounding) track begins to play. The origins of this "otherworldly town" are not immediately clear. There are a few other differences in terms of realities (like the idea that time doesn't flow here), and there's a little bit of discussion on the logistics of these differences, but it takes a backseat to the main experience of the VN. The heroine episodes tend to follow a gentle progression (stronger for the later ones), but a number of them are self-contained slice-of-life moments that deal as much with the coffee shop and associated hijinks as the individual heroine (one of them sees Riko building a bug collection, with the bugs escaping and terrorizing a certain other member of the group who hates bugs). Where there is a progression in the episodes, it's largely tailored to a heroine. Riko's scenes for example deal with her being overly childish, with the rest of the group trying to settle her down. Ai's tend to be related to her attraction for Haru and getting him to see that (you know, the childhood friend trope). Yurika's largely self-actualized already so her scenes don't necessarily involve growth on her part (and it's a strength of the VN that she's still interesting despite this). The individual heroine routes are where things get interesting. I'll avoid spoilers, but the "otherworldly nature" of the town becomes a main focus again as stakes start to increase. If I were to rank them I'd say Riko<Ai<Yurika. Setting aside the squick factor, Riko's route does okay leading up to the ending, but the ending feels like a bit of a cop-out, quite frankly. Ai's route reveals more details about the town, but otherwise is fairly standard. Yurika's is arguably the "true route" and unquestionably the most interesting: the stakes eclipse those in the other routes completely, and a character who previously seemed genuinely good or well-meaning reveals a more troublesome nature. It has a problem however, one that's made all the more egregious by it's status as the "true route": it's incomplete. It ends with a great twist, but then the story ends with "To be continued in [name of the sequel]." The story ends with that character halfway through their arc, and with the nature of the town not completely elucidated. It wouldn't be so bad if the sequel were available, but it's not on Steam, and I don't see anything online about it being translated. This VN came out in 2017, so there's been plenty of time for the sequel to be picked up. There's one big criticism I've left out. Haru is the densest idiot in the world. The childhood friend is the most obvious example: before the VN she deliberately failed a test for a prestigious university to enroll in the same one as him, but he has no clue why. During the VN there are plenty of scenes where she does something to get closer to him (like insist that she can't go down the stairs while wearing boots, so she needs to hold his hands) but he totally misses the meaning. At one point, Yurika says, "There's a limit to being dense. It has to be a crime for someone to be this dense. You deserve to be punished for this." The lampshading is humorous, but when it's played straight it gets old. One scene (direct quotes): [quote]Heroine: "I like you, Haruki! I love you!! I love you!" ..... ... Haruki (thinking): Like? Who? Who's she talking about?[/quote] Yeah, it's bad. I've avoided talking about the themes of the VN, because they aren't immediately obvious and I don't want to spoil them. However, the story does a good job introducing them, mostly at the beginning during the common route then near the end with the heroine routes. Yurika's route in particular brings one most strongly into focus, though again it's hindered by being arguably incomplete. Was this a good read? Definitely yes. But I hesitate to recommend it with no strings attached. The fact that a sequel is really required to finish the story means you might be better off waiting. On the other hand, lackluster sales here might prevent a sequel from ever appearing...at the very least, know that two out of three routes may not be as good as the final one is (or could be were it finished) but are complete and enjoyable experiences.

I absolutely love this game! Looking forward to playing the sequel! :) Yes, this is a well hidden game and I highly recommend this game!!!!

I forgot when I bought this.