DesperaDrops

Despera Drops is an action/suspense/romance Otome about a college girl Mika who has the power to read emotions, thoughts and memories of anyone she holds with her hand and thanks to a series of events, gets accused of a murder she did not commit and is grouped up with 6 other groups of criminals). The story focuses on Mika and her new 'friends' escaping around Europe as fugitives trying to deal with the people hunting after them and possibly exposing an underlying plot happening in Europe. This game was fun, I really enjoyed the group's dynamic. The slow but steady development of them starting as a bunch of strangers forced to work together (as it was safer than being a fugitive alone) to a group of teammates friends who would risk their lives to help one another. It was one of the highlights for this game to me. Mika herself, I found her to be a nice MC. In the beginning she starts of as being naive and too focused on wanting to not be a criminal a lot of the common route (well the game in general) is her learning to adapt and remove her naive beleifs while still wanting to do good at the same time. I enjoyed her, also loved her for being another MC with a set name that is said by the cast) and is voiced! Each of the love interests are complex and has a nice personal plotline. The romance in each route was nice and well paced, my personal favourite were Hamiel, Gib and Ash. but I sincerely loved all 6 routes, and including the true end route. The game has a long common route spanning 12 chapters and 4 chapters for the love interests. Each LI only route can take 3-4 hours long (depending on your reading speed). It has a nice flowchart that tracks your read scenes in the game, I liked that, the UI is also simple and easy to use. If you love comradery/misfits becoming a solid friendship/unit with action and romance then you will likely enjoy this game, if you loved bustafellows then you would also likely love this game. I sincerely wish this game can get a fandisk/sequel in the future.

吉村莉莉卡女神 他们都夸你这部剧本写得正常了进步了，但我还是更喜欢你发癫的样子T T 打之前 我只对封面那个粉色双马尾感兴趣，但因为我真的很喜欢吉村的《共生丘比特》和《茉莉花之炯》，所以还是买了。 打之后 诶 这真的是吉村写的吗，好热血王道的公路逃亡爱情片啊，主角团你们明明是逃犯为什么却喊着友情羁绊的就冲上来了，he健全的不行 全员改过自新甚至还有自首进橘子的，be也没有期待的发癫剧情，好失望（不是），并且所有个线结尾都是全员到齐，大家一起把事情解决，谁懂 我只要看见你们几个在一起就很安心TOT~~~事已至此 我也赞同你们七个人一起把日子过好！ 全篇一共六条线+一条真结局，我这里只说一下Sally线（上面提到的那个粉色双马尾） ！！有剧透 谨慎观看： 在日乙里妄想有百合线我真的错了，游戏刚开始 我就被这个一口一个姐姐的粉色小蛋糕迷了眼，进线后果不其然心选妹变成心选弟，虽然我共通线就知道他是男娘了，但是女主不知道啊 就这样还进线了，嗯 所以 女主你差点就可以当拉拉了呀 好可惜 都怪吉村吧！[spoiler] 不过Sally女装也不是他个人xp，而是因为自己间接导致了妹妹死亡，无法原谅自己 认为自己才是该死的那个，所以心理崩溃把自己幻想成了已故的妹妹，在发现自己其实是哥哥之后更是崩溃到要自杀，还好女主拦住了，啊 这太惨了，如果没走他的线而是等他自己发现事实之后要怎么办啊，不敢想... [/spoiler]

The story is so engaging! The characters are all different. Love all the different backgrounds, and the music. I recommend this game! ^ 3 ^ especially if you enjoyed Bustafellows.

If you like ridiculous heist movies about super-talented criminals pulling off extremely improbable stunts, this visual novel is for you. I would not call DesperaDrops a literary masterpiece but if you go in knowing what to expect and with a healthy suspension of disbelief (especially where disguises are concerned), you will have a good time. The pacing is fast, the action is plentiful and most of the character dynamics are pretty fun. I also quite enjoyed having a voiced heroine for once. However, there are some recommendations that should be followed for the best experience. Firstly, this is the kind of visual novel where each route is meant to reveal a piece of the greater puzzle, until it all comes together for a "True Route" in the end, so make sure to read all of them (or skim if you have to, I admittedly did that for Camu's route), ideally in the order of Sally->Hamiel->Gib->Camu->Ram->Ash->True. And secondly, binge as much as possible, do not take major breaks within a single route. The pace of this game works best when it is not being played piecemeal. In terms of actual criticisms, I'd mainly say that Mika is too much of a stock otome protagonist in terms of personality and it hampered both the plot and the romances for me at times. She works relatively fine with characters like Sally or Ram, but when paired with the more conventional types of love interests for the genre, it just really hit me that I've seen this exact dynamic a hundred times before, and the same is true for her "character development" (aside from her becoming increasingly more okay with crime, I guess). That being said, I am fairly satisfied with my purchase and do recommend trying DesperaDrops for yourself. Just set your expectations correctly.

Boring! Despera Drops is so, so boring. It moves at a glacial pace, and it sets up mysteries with extremely lackluster reveals. And in Despera Drops, it feels like it takes forever for nothing to happen. The story follows Mika Amamine, a Japanese university student studying in Italy. At the end of the spring semester, her friend texts her to invite her to dinner, but when she arrives, it's not Mika's friend there, but a wealthy-looking old man who somehow knows about her power to read people's memories and emotions through hand-to-hand contact. Also, during their dinner, that man is murdered in front of Mika, and she is falsely accused of his murder. After her arrest, she is placed on a prisoner transport van with six other fugitives, but during their trip, the van is knocked off the road, and the seven of them make their escape. From there, the fugitives are pursued by various organizations—local police, international police, the media, and mysterious men-in-black—while Mika tries to understand what role she has in everything. Unfortunately, any insight into Mika's role, her false accusation, her powers, or anything at all, is trickled out painfully slowly. Most of Despera Drops's long common route is the fugitives somehow finding a place to stay,—even though their faces are plastered all over the news—do something completely unrelated to making a more permanent escape, finally getting caught in a few days (even though it should have happened sooner because they made no attempt to be covert), escaping by an act of God (because they had no back-up/escape plan at the ready), and fleeing to another city to repeat the process all over again, and again, and again. The common route does dole out some hints about why Mika is being targeted, but they take forever to pay off,—usually at a pace of about once every other route—and have some of the dullest payoffs I've ever seen. Like, [spoiler]during the common route, Mika receives texts from a mysterious sender called Bishop that help her and the fugitives escape, and it takes until the true route to reveal who it is,—the main antagonist's split personality (What the ♥♥♥♥?)—and has no impact on the true ending.[/spoiler] Really, Despera Drops is more of a character-focused drama masquerading as a mystery-thriller. Each of the character routes almost completely swerve away from the on-the-run thrills and intrigue of the common route to focus on some trauma or emotional conflict that route's character has been struggling with. All of a sudden, their pursuers are much less of a threat, giving Mika and one of the heroes ample time to connect and make each other better people. Even looking at Despera Drops through the lens of a character drama, though, it's not great. Ramie and Sally's routes are the standouts, bits and pieces of Ash's route are good, but at best the routes are good, and most of them are just as dull as the common route. The worst is Hamiel's route: he's [spoiler]racist against Japanese people because he thinks his Japanese mother abandoned him[/spoiler], a flaw which Mika immediately ignores with "[spoiler]well, it's only all other Japanese people he hates, not me[/spoiler]." Still, as a whole, I can't ignore that the character routes ignore so much of what the common route had been building towards. That is a massive flaw with Despera Drops's structure. The true route makes an attempt to save the story, but ultimately fails. It finally provides some answers,—although many of them are just as bad as the aforementioned spoiler-tagged one—and it actually puts attention on how Mika and the fugitives will make a permanent escape from their pursuers, but it's too little, too late, and is not without its own flaws. There are plenty of corny, "together we are Despera Drops"-type moments, many of which made me realize just how often the main characters escape not through their own planning, will, strength, or smarts, but through the intervention of some third party they could not possibly have known was coming to save them. Despera Drops's story has deus ex machina galore. Overall, I can't put it any other way: Despera Drops is just boring. Its story moves at a snail's pace, it sets up plot points and mysteries that either go nowhere or have disappointing payoffs that also go nowhere, and the characters are significantly more reactive than proactive and are saved by third parties in most conflicts. Do not read Despera Drops if you want a story that respects your time and investment. 4/10

[h1] Old man lovers rejoice [/h1] Short and sweet. If you are like me and desperately starved of a good ossan route in otomes/dating sims, This game is absolutely worth it for Gib's route. I'm not sure about all the rest but finishing Gib's route has me kicking my feet and giggling. [h2] Initial thoughts [/h2] I was a bit cautious getting this game because I've heard some stuff online about how it was lacking in romance. But I love Kozaki's artwork and Gib was super cute and just my type so I decided to have a go for it anyways. My expectations were low because my type (the older dudes) are usually the route that's a bit neglected or done dirty compared to the rest in these games. Normally i accept it because i'm glad just one in the game in the first place. So an otome game with a older guy option designed by Kozaki was something I couldn't pass on even with the bit of trepidation. But WOW was I surprised at how well this game delivered Gib's route. I don't know about the others, but I can safely say that in my opinion with Gib's route I was FINALLY FED the ossan romance of my dreams [h2] Common Route [/h2] This is what gives the game it's current bit of negative reputation. It was a really long common route with it taking up 12/16 of the game's chapters. Leaving you only 4 with the route split. Theres quite a few chapters getting into the groove of the plot and how Mike (MC) gets into this situation. She goes from being very annoying and objecting to everything as an innocent framed for murder and now having to work with 6 criminals to survive, into a very capable young woman willing to stand up for her the group of convicts she now calls friends, with the potential for one to be much more. I think the fact she annoyed me so much in the start really made me like her growth that much more by the end of the common route and the game in general. Each character has a chapter in the common route that's more focused on them in particular with that chapter giving you specific affection choices and a CG. Not all chapters are created equal though as some are either shorter or just don't give as many moments with Mika to establish their bond and chemistry. So I do get where some people say that it's lacking in romance as outside of these dedicated chapters on the common route you need to select the character specific choices to get certain scenes and build the relationship. Hemiel in particular doesn't really have much focus on "his" chapter of the main route and instead the biggest impactful moment is the character selected for a certain choice. NOT an issue with Gib though, his dedicated chapter was VERY well done and even has a call back to it in the Good Ending, Showing his and Mika's growth as people and as a couple compared to the start. This plus the other moments where I chose to spend that time with Gib in particular gave me a very satisfying "slow burn" and build up of their relationship. So by the time the route split happened it felt that they were already well on their way to having deep feelings for each other. The "missions" do feel a bit clunky. But they're fun in their own way and really takes full advantage of the cast's abilities and personalities. One of the best thing about the common route being so long was spending so much time with everyone and getting a sort of "found family" dynamic with everyone going from strangers forced to be together, to friends willing to risk it all for each other's sakes. [h2] Gib's Route [/h2] This is what I came here for and let me tell you, even though it was only 4 chapters it felt incredibly well done and made the most of it. The dynamic was already there and built up by the common route and when you get to the route split it just goes full throttle in a way that feels well paced. It was giving me action, It was giving me drama. It was giving me comedy, It was giving me TONS of romance. With several scenes being classics and scenarios I enjoy as guilty pleasures. I'm not going to give spoilers, but it was great and I was living and finally being well fed. Whoever wrote Gib's route knows the appeal he has and capitalizes on it in the best of ways. He's everything I ever wanted when I bought this game. They even handled his ex-wife in a great way that most games with that sort of history fumble, where she was relevant but it didn't diminish his relationship and chemistry with the heroine at all, and it was dealt with very well. My only complaint is honestly a pretty decent sized plot hole. [spoiler] They kinda just forgot about the kid that they ended the common route so eager to save?? I mean I guess she gave MC reassurance that she was going to be okay. But it's still wild how she's not even mentioned once in his route and apparently a couple of others. I think it's cause they wanted her to be a focus in the true route since that one doesn't have romance and the individual routes are short enough as is. I like to think she's okay though as Gib and MC/MIka are living their best lives. [/spoiler]

I really wanted to love this game. I thought the story was engaging and made me want to keep reading. However, as a Swiss person, I could not get past chapter 5. I can assure you we do not have a problem of starving children who pickpocket tourists in Thun. And we definitely do not have orphanages that "run out of money". I am BEGGING whoever wrote this to do their research in the future. We have real societal issues here that could have been used for plot instead.

some dude named hamiel keeps dunking on you and the rest of the cast is that supposed to happen

Sorry but I found DesperaDrops to be incredibly boring.. I'm so happy I got this game on sale because €50 was not worth it for me but I will start with what I DID enjoy; ★ Gib꒰Ex-Cop꒱ enjoy his story the most. In my opinion, he was the most tolerable LI in the entire game. Their first kiss was adorable <3 ★ Ash꒰lone-wolf꒱ I liked his story more than I expected. The character development was *chefs kiss* [nonchalent, prickly guy slowly opening up & actually being sensitive, what can I say, I'm a sucker for it hehe] . ★ The voice acting?! Hello?! The VAs did amazing. Gibs VA was my favourite, obviously., ★ The art? Whoever did the art needs to hit me up for commissions because holy.. 10/10 ★ I liked the MC & the dialogue options you get to choose from. Thank you for not making the MC completely useless, the fact she tries to do something to help every chance she could was refreshing. ︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶ Didn't enjoy: ☆ Ramie ꒰pickpocket꒱ He was my first love interest(LI) & I was pretty disapointed. I wasn't a fan of the MC running after Ramie like a lost pup most of the story ngl & the kiss was SO random, it made no sense for it to happen when it did; they talked about how they would work slow on conquering his fear of being touched & then proceed to make out like RIGHT after it. Annoying. ☆ Sally꒰Hacker꒱ to be honest, I don't have much to say about her story other than I found her to be overwhelming & half way through, I just wanted it to be done. :') ☆ Hamiel ꒰Con artist꒱ He's just rude to you 85% of the storyline. His story is sad, yes but I still found him intolerable. When you unlock his romance chapters, he slowly shows that he's alot more shy than you'd expect from a conman but by the time we get there, I already borderline can't stand him. Sorry ☆ Camu ꒰bomber꒱ he made me so uncomfortable.. I started his story but stopped like 10-15% through because I had absolutely no interest in him. I dislike this game more for the lack of originality.. Alot of things in this game is a blatant copy of persona & you can tell when they add their own spin to it because it changes vibe drastically & not for the better either.. To be quite honest, with the amount of plot holes there was, I found it hard for me to actually care about alot of the story. I came out with more questions than answers & maybe it's because I didn't finish Camu's story but I find that hard to believe...

因为一场莫须有的谋杀案与六人在押运车相遇，开启横跨欧洲大逃亡群像故事。 大家来自不同的国家、背负不同的罪，从一开始各不配合、单打独斗到后来一起面对困难、珍惜彼此。女主Mika心理由无罪转向犯罪的转变：最初被大家嫌弃是拖累，宁愿挨饿也不愿吃偷来的面包到为了洗刷冤屈，保护同伴而共同犯罪...每个人都在逃亡中成长，温暖大群像。 UI设计得非常惊艳——菜单界面是一幅世界地图，随着剧情推进，坐标会移动，每个章节剧情节点都做了流程图，标注了时间和地点；词典通过角色对话介绍地点，名称；场景图精细，意大利、瑞士、西班牙...根据分线不同，做了超多场景！！真是欧洲游了（笑） 好感：Gib=Hamiel 客观上说每条线都写得很好，一点都不敷衍ww，没有特别雷的点，因为身处环境不同推动了犯罪原因吧...感情抓取得很细腻，莉莉卡我将拥护你 我们7 Drops要一直在一起！！