[h1] Enjoyable and immersive Yuri Romance that leaves little room for wanting! (8.7/10) [/h1]
As I slowly worked through my (Yuri) bundle of various ebi-hime games, I decided that jumping to a new one was a wise choice after playing one of the most popular (Blackberry Honey). And I’m almost confident that this game, slightly through virtue of being new, is probably among the greatest of the bunch, and her games are already good and enjoyable 3 for 3 with me.
Even as a mostly slice-of-life slow burn, it rarely ever makes me feel like any scene drags on for too long, or repeats similar ideas and intents too often. The variance of how the relationship with the cool nurse progresses, interspersed with Ann’s daily life and musings when working as the assistant teacher in Miss Kayano’s 4th grade class, on top of dealing with Ann’s unique and lively best friend (Runa), all hold the game together in such a wonderful way that there’s not much to complain about; else if you hold a scrutinizing lens like I often do for all the games I review.
Overall, it has equally charming and fun to read banter dialogue, but it’s truly capable of pulling your heartstrings taut with suspense when it really wants to. I may not cry as hard as I could have with other games, but I’m sure the tears that welled up in what may feel like the penultimate scene cannot be attributed to just music.
[h3]Information:[/h3]
[b](•)Patch? [/b] Well. I just say when you’re really [url=https://ebihime.itch.io/fragile-feelings#:~:text=The%C2%A0adult-,patch,-for%20the%20Steam]itching[/url] for something, you might find something interesting. Let me muse: Whatever could exist for this would be a beautiful addition to the experience that doesn’t distract from the plot; (as is the case for all ebi-hime games, surely). And yet I could say that while the first scene might satisfy me due to the beautiful descriptions and potential art variants, somehow the other 3 leaves me wanting, in visual terms. The descriptions are still wonderful, but the angles and the lack of variants, so to speak; in juices, jolting expressions, or just in the fact that a maid could connect mouth-to-mouth and somehow this was described-but-not-depicted; are quite flaws. The latter very much so when I reminisce about Blackberry Honey and how it differs in seemingly having more visual variance with the trade-off for slightly quality-crude CGs, if memory serves. I do understand that there’s some budget issues that would come with expanding upon this though, so I would enjoy them and recommend them for what they are regardless.
[b](•)Playtime: 16* hours 40 mins[/b]. But I can admit that I probably read 2.5x slower than normal. As usual, I’m not only basically screenshotting everything, but also sharing snippets of it around to friends and commenting on what happens, all the while compiling any potential typos and lines that might need improvements in a neat document. Wanting to share my experience around is quite a testament to how interesting the lines themselves could be; more so when you’re reading between them, or hunt and joke about the innocuous descriptions that has suggestive words (there’s plenty of this if you try).
[b](•)Kinetic VN, no VA[/b] So yeah. Don’t expect choices. Again, I still think it’s fine, but maybe I do need to play more of the medium.
[b](•)Ages?[/b] MC is 20, LI is 28. Earlier parts of the story has a short pre-birthday section for both, but relevant intimacy happens after. I think no one should get up in arms about such trivial “problematic” things in fiction, but here it is if you were curious.
[h3](+) Pros:[/h3]
[b](+) Immaculate Writing.[/b] There’s not much to say except I love it so much? I never would imagine that some of the best lines describe how a sandwich seemingly struggles to hold what it contains, or the fact that Runa’s imposing dad is intimidating enough that Ann finally felt her lungs deflating after he leaves the vicinity. It’s all very descriptive and fun to read (with style that sometimes makes me wonder if some grammatical rules have been broken), but generally I could understand the point of everything quite vividly and liken these to things I’ve experienced. God knows this is probably me being traumatized by my junior high Native English teacher, but I’ve met a man like him before.
[b](+) Really high quality art and CGs.[/b] I don’t want to put down other VNs from early careers, both of other devs or ebi-hime in the past, but for the latter case, but this does seem to stand out among the rest visually, even from a glance at the store pages alone. The sprites are all really cute, though I do have some gripe on one aspect for later. I know it’s probably just budgeting and commissioning different artists, of course, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t appreciate the style on display here.
[b](+) Lovely MC.[/b] Ann is quite the typical shy, but you can almost always root for her. That’s not to say that one particular plot point doesn’t constantly make me go [i]”girl you’re a dumb*ss”[/i] (I did), but she’s still someone I respect and I can understand her struggles. It’s easy to fall into writing shy wrecks that seem nauseating to even describe, but that’s not quite the case here.
[b](+) Very nice characters in general.[/b] The LI, Kohaku, has a really fun personality that plays off Ann really well, tempering her into growth and activity, while also being respectfully aware of boundaries and often tenderly checks in with what Ann thinks and feels. While some of her compliments could use some expansive descriptions like the ones in narration, this fact is acknowledged by both characters in dialogue, coming in varied enough ways to keep it fresh.
On the other hand, other characters like the gentle Miss Kayano and pouty, lively Runa might seem stereotypically average; but as a whole, they are great additions to the story. I’ll take the mundane in SOLs any day, over characters that are pompously overbearing.
[b](+) A beautiful plot about self-worth, intimacy, and forgiveness.[/b] On top of the fact that Ann slowly but surely learns to grow as a person, these themes are woven in the game in general. Not only is she relatable to a potentially targeted audience of insecure readers (me, lol), I think it makes for a fascinating read.
[h3](-) Cons:[/h3]
[b](-) One sprite is lacking.[/b] Ann has a good expression that shows shocking despair; however I don’t feel like it fits to use this to show that she is crying after whatever upset her. And yet it happens, quite a few times I think. I feel like actually having a general sprite that has tears and less of the blue-faced pale shock that exists here would serve the game well, but alas. At least there’s a crying CG where it counts, but I think it’s slightly different.
[b](-) Some things are repeated a little too often to my liking.[/b] The game is still varied enough in most aspects and tries to differentiate the context and the lines that follows, but Kohaku calling Ann “cute”, and Ann describing various parts of her life as a “fishbowl”; relatable as it may be, somewhat loses its charm after the 5th time. It felt like each of these happened around 7-10 times.
[b](-) The writing for the big plot is on the wall.[/b] This is arguably fine; I’m still of the belief that stories can be good despite predictability. But by the first one-third of the game, you can see Runa complaining about something seemingly minuscule in an exaggerated, almost comical way. And generally, what seems to be the repeated struggle for Ann revolves around her. I just think there could be more substance and reason before this drama, but it is pretty realistic how teens could create problems out of nothing but themselves. To be fair, it ends with managing to make me feel for both characters, and it proves the story succeeded.
(additional con comments)
[h1]Conclusively, it’s a rather perfect work that is worth experiencing, despite my scrutiny![/h1]
