Dear Mom: My Letter to You

This game is weird. I was thoroughly enjoying it until multiple hours in, when it decides to throw in possibly the worst and most careless depiction of sexual assault that I've experienced in a piece of media. Basically, 2/3rds of the way into the game, one of the main characters friends is drugged, with what is only described as an "aphrodisiac", and then proceeds to sexually assault the main character in a closet. Said friend gets expelled, and your task is to work on your stats so you can reconcile with her. The entire time I was extremely uncomfortable with the fact that my in-game goal was to basically make-up with the girl who just sexually assaulted me, and it's not until after doing so that you even find out she was drugged. This arc of the story kind of put me off of the entire experience. I don't really think I could recommend this game because of that alone. Sexual Assault is such a delicate topic, and to see it handled this poorly really made me lose faith in this games writing. I'm also pretty sure whoever wrote this game doesn't know what an aphrodisiac is.

I love this game. It was a love from the first sight, but the longer I play, the more I like it. I survived through some serious sucky time and thought I had no one to talk to but family, I see the protagonist dealing with the same type of issues, and I feel like I really can relate. The narrative doesn't dance around some really difficult and downright traumatic topics - all the while staying overall gentle and reminding what beacons of hope the human connections could be when you're losing yourself in the sea of despair. The overall writing quality in my opinion is comparable to some famous titles; the graphics style is unique but pleasant; the voice acting is professional and on-point (and somehow reminds me of English dub of Persona 5 a lot, which is great). There are some slightly wonky character animations, but I can tell that even those are done with a lot of love and care. The music is quite good, though I am spoiled by Elements Garden and somewhat of a composer myself, so it probably won't listen to the OST on its own (but who knows, maybe there will be a banger insert song somewhere in the middle). When I first heard about the game, I was slightly conflicted about the setting being Japan for an Original English Language Visual Novel, but after close examination I can tell that the authors actually cared about the setting and make it quite believable. ---I am yet to get any endings (if anything, it really feels like I'm just beginning the game, 3 hours in, and there's probably 50+ hours of content), but I can tell you for sure, it is hard to put the controller down when I play this game. Perhaps, I will fall in love with it even more.--- Edit: 10 hours later, I have finished the game and saw all the possible endings. It took me about 11.5 hours to get to the first good ending, and I was quite methodical at strategical levelling up and saving, so I finished all the other endings after just 13 hours. The game didn't feel too short, just about right, though I would not mind bonus chapters for the romance options, or extra slice of life episodes. All my previous remarks still apply. The art is cute, the music is very fitting, the gameplay is fun (who doesn't love choosing which points to level up?), and the writing made me laugh and cry every now and then. I wish there were more CGs... And that is my only regret. ... "Controller not supported, your review is fake", you say? Don't laugh, but I love visual novels so much I have a presentation clicker as my main gaming controller, okay! p.s. I updated the review as promised :)

This was a lovely experience! It's a very sweet and heartfelt VN with love and care oozing from every single facet of it, and it's very easy to recommend it! So, to briefly explain the story... Dear Mom is a VN/statsim hybrid which (funnily enough) reminds me first and foremost of the Persona series. Though there's no dungeon crawling here, it's structured somewhat similarly. In Dear Mom you assume the role of Ayame, whose mother has recently died. You experience one year of her life in high school, and the story is broken into four main chapters with story beats scattered across each chapter. In-between these story beats, which range from a light-hearted trip to the beach to more emotional scenes, such as your grandfather reminiscing with you about your newly deceased mother, you get periods of time where you can choose what you want to do. Ayame has four potential love interests (three of them are women) and five stats to build. Each love interest has their own isolated little mini story which you can play through while experiencing the overarching main story, but you can only progress in your love interests' stories if you've raised enough affection points with them (either through random events, such as them calling you up on the weekends and asking to hang out, or by picking the correct dialogue options during their hang out scenes), or if you have the requires stats needed to speak to them (Miami, the bookish student council president, won't want to speak to you unless your knowledge is at a certain level, for example). I had fun planning out Ayame's social life, choosing when to hang out with her friends (who are only available on certain dates) and when to raise stats. It was a nice departure from your usual VN, where you just click through text, and it made it feel more interactive. As for the story itself, it gets quite dark. Though the overall tone is quite hopeful, and there's a lot of silly slice of life scenes and comedy segments, it doesn't shy away from depicting Ayame's struggles after her mother's death. The story opens with Ayame going back to school after taking a year off to wallow in her beravement induced Misery Cave, and the reason she has no friends at the start of the game and you need to grind those stats to make yousrelf more likeable to your peers is because, after her mother's death, she fell into such a deep depression she pushed all of her old friends away. Ayame's old friends, fed up with her behaviour, cut ties with her - but don't worry! You can befriend them again over the course of the game, and there are some pretty heartfelt emotional conversations between Ayame and her friends about why they parted ways. The game does a good job at exploring grief from both sides: how Ayame is (obviously) hurt after her mother's death, and how she lashes out at her friends in her grief, but it doesn't 100% absolve her of her behaviour. Though the story is very sympathetic to Ayame, it is equally sympathetic to her friends. I really enjoyed how the game didn't frame Ayame's friends as being villains for leavng her during such a difficult period in her life, and gave them the opportunity to work things through with Ayame. Forgiveness seems to be a pretty big message here, and the characters are pretty nuanced: nobody is purely evil (uh, apart from a couple of stock bully side characters and One Particular Jerk whose storyline I didn't much care for lol) I didn't enjoy every aspect of the story, but I think the sensitive subjects were handled well, on the whole. Ayame's relationships with her friends, both new and old, are explored in a lot of detail, and Ayame's father and brother are also pretty important characters who she spends a decent chunk of time with. It's sweet seeing Ayame's dad and brother work so hard to look after her, and it's equally sweet to see Ayame slowly realise, throughout the course of the story, that they're hurting too after the death of her mother, and they also need help. As for the presentation, I enjoyed it a lot. There are several different art styles going on here (the sprites are clearly done by a different artist to the CGs, and I think the BGs are by 3 or 4 different artists), but it still looks cohesive thanks to the cute, colourful UI (the UI in this game is really nice btw), and the character designs are consistent throughout. Though the sprites look a little rough around the edges, they have a lot of expressions, and though Live2D isn't used, they're very animated. The sprites bounce about onscreen a lot to express emotions in a way which doesn't feel excessive, and they have a lot of animated emotes like anger marks and sweatdrops. The characters are always in motion, despite being static sprites, and the VN in general is a treat to look at. I was almost impressed by how many backgrounds there are in this: there must be at least 30, which feels like an impressive number for an indie VN which is being sold at such a low price. I haven't even touched on how all the characters are voice acted (it's only partial VA, but the most important scenes are fully voiced), or how broad the OST is, with how many pleasant songs are on there. There's a lot to say about this VN, and it's mostly very positive, but I'm afraid I've written too much already so I'll stop here. I will say, however, that this VN is a real gem, and it's well worth picking up. So much love went into it, and it's clear it was a huge passion project. I enjoyed spending my time with these characters immensely, and it was both a fun and thoughtful experience. I'm really glad I gave this one a shot!

I think this visual novel is very worth giving a go for fans of slice of life with a bit of emotional exploration. The story is moving, and the themes were handled with sensitivity and care. I think the writer managed to make it quite believable in as much as the main character is clearly struggling and has personality flaws, but not so much so that she becomes intolerable. You end up rooting for her to succeed and develop; which is all in the end you can really want from a protagonist. The art of the characters I felt was competent, although not exactly stand out. The backgrounds though were really lovely and well made so thumbs up for those. As for the voice acting I think it ranged from enjoyable to a few voices that are actually a little painful to listen to, but I personally feel that might have been subjective taste. I cannot comment on the music since that is not something I personally pay too much attention to in visual novels. Unless, that is the music is absolutely incredible. In this it felt more just gentle and in the background. The characters were all really engaging and not too extreme, but I will admit none of them were a stand out for me. I think this is a story where the romance aspect really is only a minor element. I will probably edit this review once I have had more time to let it sit and think about it, but I wanted to leave a positive review because I honestly feel this Visual Novel deserves some credit and exposure.

Dear Mom: My Letter to You is a Visual Novel/Stat Raising Hybrid that follows the story of Ayame, a 17 year old who is recovering from a traumatic event that occurred 1 year ago from the start of the game. Throughout the game it is our job not only to follow her journey but to also hep Ayame grow to her full potential, which includes making new friends and mending burnt bridges. This game is set in her 2nd year and is divided into 5 chapters. Now again this game has stat raising gameplay. Ayame has 5 attributes she can increase throughout the game and they are increased through school stuff, hanging out with friends and also doing certain activities at home. Also there are no multiple routes and is mostly linear but there are checkpoints in the game where Ayame needs to have some attributes to a certain level to push through or suffer a 'bad end'. Furthermore some actions and some events with her friends/LIs require her attributes to be on a certain level as well for them to proceed. The game walks your hand through it all so you don't have to worry about pulling your hair that much here. If I was to describe this game. I'd describe it as a game about healing. A game about acceptance of a tragedy at how you can only move forward. It's also about forgiving yourself while at the same time owning up to your mistakes and fixing them. Ayame while a wonderful character has a lot of issues that we see makes her slip and lash out. It was nice to see her try to reconnect with her old friends and also grow to be more confident and assured. The love interests and Ayame's family are also wonderfully written and while there are no multiple routes for the LIs after completing their events they do alter the story to acknowledge their relationship so you can look forward to that. Overall I do recommend this VN.

Quite frankly, I am a tad baffled by the positive reviews. The first two thirds of the game are fine. But when the writing goes off the rails, it REALLY goes off the rails. First things first, I feel like I should address a massive elephant in the room that it seems like one review has addressed? There is just a straight-up sexual assault scene in the game, and it gets played off as harmless drama. A love interest is drugged by a late-arc villain (for reasons that frankly make no sense) and said love interest assaults the protagonist in a closet. She is caught, expelled, and then your goal is to prevent said interest from leaping off of her balcony to her death by...unconditionally forgiving her with no knowledge at the time that she was drugged. Beyond this, the intended plan was for both girls to be drugged, which would have resulted in...I guess both characters being assaulted because neither could consent under the circumstances? But this also doesn't make much sense; why would this be a means of getting back at a girl for not dating you? Beyond that...I don't really think the author has any clue how aphrodisiacs work. To be clear: an aphrodisiac substance will not force you to uncontrollably jump on top of the nearest person to you while *actively saying you don't want to do that*. I can only suspend my disbelief so far. Also, why does a high school kid have access to what is essentially a magic r*pe drug that hard-overrides a victim's brain with raw horny? Again, this makes no sense. I wish I could say the writing improves from here, but frankly the last arc is just a mess. Our plucky protagonist spends much of the game struggling with grief, which is entire fair. Her anxiety attacks and panic over not being able to move on are relatable. And the dream sequences of her feeling like her mother is beckoning are reasonable. The last arc or two, though, Flanderize her grief to an uncomfortable degree. Many of the character strides she makes in the first few arcs turn out to largely not matter as we approach the end. Stakes are constantly being ratcheted up, which means characters must behave in more and more over-the-top ways to keep up with said stakes. By the time the third "chapter" ends, characters are basically cartoon villains. Some examples: One character has a deadbeat dad who steals money from charity and uses his kid's desire to know him as a means of getting easy money. This ends with a pithy "haha I don't need him!" and is never mentioned again. This also is never a plot point unless you date said character. Our brother drops a bomb that he actually has largely given up on college and that he had to leave to keep the lights on *and is not entirely okay with this!* His girlfriend even knows this and generally responds "this is why I love him! :^)" to the entire situation. He gets a "man that sucks I'm so sorry" from the rest of the family and that's...kinda it? Everyone just goes "yeah but ayame is pretty messed up rn so like sorry dude" It is never mentioned again. Ayame's dad either hits her, or comes really close to slapping the taste out of her mouth. I can't quite remember because the plotline was so inane and easily solved that it had no weight. Ayame destroys her father's most recent work during a fit, and her dad loses it. He lost a work of art he dedicated to the loss of the woman he loved AND to the kids said love gave him. Said kid then destroys said work and books it out the door. This is resolved with a speech, a hug, and like a two-line apology. And then is never ever mentioned again. There is a theme here! In order to keep the plot revolving around Ayame, characters have to behave in more and more insane ways. Bullying has to get more and more over the top. Transgressions from Ayame have to get worse. But no matter what, the game *must* return to the status quo: "Ayame is sad and everyone understands and gives her a hug" because frankly the plot can't work unless this is the status quo. But the only way to keep this status quo functioning is to turn everyone else's rapidly-spiraling issues into things Ayane can fix Steven Universe style: by crying out an apology. And if that can't fix things, the plot line must be abandoned. This works in Persona 5 (where, frankly, much of the game gets its inspiration from re: social relationships) well enough because P5 has a McGuffin built into the game. Yeah, horrible behavior from horrible people goes away because the perpetrators are being functionally brainwashed into being Compliant Good People (TM) when their desires are stolen. In other words, of COURSE characters' turnarounds make no sense! They're supernatural, and characters all acknowledge that it's kinda messed up! Dear Mom doesn't have this luxury. Its only option is to pray the reader simply ignores plot threads being tied up neatly with a simple apology and the desire to not see one of the handful of "someone else killed themselves and factory-reset Ayame's depression/Ayame herself" endings. The worst part? The characters pre-Flanderization are interesting! Miso is a neat take on the spunky friend! The first timed bad end is an interesting take on snowballing consequences! Miamo could have been a neat deconstruction of the Distant Friend archetype! The story thread about Ayame's brother actually had some potential! Perrine actually had a point about feeling abandoned, and her response was actually neat (though my GOD I got sick of the over-performance of her lines). The bullies arc wasn't perfect, but it was heartfelt and reasonably written. There's a reason I dumped 20+ hours into this game. But by the end, all the goodwill the first half builds just gets squandered. All in all, it's just disappointing, man. I really wanted to root for this game. I wanted to root for Ayame. But honestly? It reads like middle/high school NaNoWriMo fiction. All stakes, no resolution, all development happens when you cry. Also: if the writer is reading this. You are talented! You have to be to finish a VN! *Please* learn to write a SA scene before trying your hand at another one. How you handled Miamo was frankly depressing.

I can definitely recommend this! The reader should definitely take the content warnings seriously. The whole game is about healing from the trauma of CONTENT WARNING including multiple nightmares about them. At the same time, it really is a life-affirming game. The protagonist has serious flaws and her past actions have caused real hurt, some of which can never be reversed. But she, with the player's help, becomes a better and better version of herself over the game, able to do a lot of good, too. Is the story perfect? Probably not, but I cried a lot in the final chapter and epilogue and wanted to become a better person in my real life from reading this VN. The writing is strong overall, and the VN is a complete package: strong art, music, some animations, many hours of game play (my play through was 16 hours), and even a stats building component with interactive maps. The stats building was pretty forgiving where regular play can get you what you need before it's important. There was only one story with a friend where I needed two of my stats to be a certain level to help her. After learning that, I leveled them up in a few days but was never offered the chance to help my friend again. I don't know if this is the design (I was too late?) or a bug. I even tried to replay and couldn't quite level up in time. So, in just a few places, you really do need some optimal stat raising so that nothing is wasted... but you won't know what or where until you've already played. The romance is solid, but it is the sub-plot to the main story of healing for the protag and her family. I spent several episodes with my LI and moved to girlfriend status. After that, you can't spend tooo much time with her because you have to heal all your other friendships and level up, basically you have to follow the main plotline. You will get some references to how your LI is your girlfriend, and in the latter parts of the VN, she joins some of the main scenes openly as your girlfriend. While the game treats bullying as a major issue and plot, the VN seems to be a homophobia-free zone, which I appreciated. (There was this odd tiny line of dialogue where the VN had me sit around with my GF talking about the hot husbandos in manga. I guess the MC and that LI are both bi, but it seemed a little off.... But still pretty good wholesome yuri!) Overall, I recommend for a nice combination of slice of life and healing, with a side of romance.

Would give this a mixed review if that were an option. I think I lean on not enjoying my experience and it definitely made me cry but MAN did some things bring me out of the experience. First off, I'm really sorry but I did not like Perrine's voice actress. It definitely sounded like cheesy 2000's anime voice acting which if she was doing it on purpose congrats you successfully rage baited me into turning her voice off. Never done that before even when I didn't like the voice acting. Secondly, I think the writing in general was all over the place. I think story wise it was ok and I definitely cannot help but feel bad for some of the stories in this game but the dialogue often felt really unnatural, cheesy, and annoying to read through. Minor gripe but this game also really needs a section in the profile page where it tells you how far along you are in a stat. It would also be nice if it told you what the max stat was just so you didn't waste your time leveling it. The good thing about this game is that the stories around the love interests are compelling but you definitely do not get nearly enough time with them. Mia-Nee for example on her 5th introduces a lot of her troubles but doesn't really explore them on the 6th time you talk to her. You kind of do by just talking about it I guess but nothing happens with it beyond that. This is one of those games that I enjoyed because I love yuri/GL content but I wouldn't recommend to anyone who wants quality in the game they play.

Very good. Glad I backed it!

Dear Mom may be a game that's easy to overlook and dismiss based on it's cover and premise, but underneath the rough edges lies a hidden gem and a heartfelt experience that will make you laugh, make you cry and surprise you in many ways. Visual Novels have always been a niche genre that's been hard to pick up, but even from within the classics that everyone knows and loves, without external recommendation - every title feels like a risk to try. In that sense, Dear Mom is no different. It is a loving homage to all the classic Japanese romance games that I used to play, and I could feel the passion and enthusiasm bursting from within. The stats building made me feel like I was always progressing and that my choices felt impactful. The background locations and the visual effects always made me feel immersed. All the characters are brimming with personality, yet have more dimension and depth to them than initially expected. All the character arcs feel real and human, relatable. It all wraps up neatly towards the end in this package full of genuine heart. There are some rough edges to be sure, but I think it is extremely easy to overlook once you're in the thick of it and pretty soon you'll be having a good time. I really recommend playing this game.