Iwakura Aria

A badly-written, cheap romance novel that likes to pretend to be a mystery game. The "main mystery" and basically all the answers are given away not even halfway through the story. The narrative is full of holes, contradictions, rushed explanations, and dark moments or "plot twists" that come out of nowhere just so the story can pretend to be edgier than it actually is. Don't expect any meaningful action or development from characters that aren't the two leads, they're basically just there as ornaments. The side stories are just there to try to cram in last minute revelations that the writers couldn't fit in the main story because it would get in the way of the two lead's relationship. If ALL you want is romance (and not even a good one at that), then this game is for you. Otherwise, there are plenty of much, much better VNs out there, whether you want mystery or a love story.

I purchased the game for roughly $50 CAD and got roughly 18 hours of content out of it, plus an additional day or so of digesting the content after the fact. I will probably keep thinking about this game in the days to come. I recommend this game to people who are looking for a good book to read and don't have too much free time in their day to day, and enjoy dramas and mysteries. However, people who are coming in who have previously read [i]The House of Fata Morgana [/i] should seriously temper their expectations for what this novel will accomplish in the short time it is given. It's a tightly written story, with good characterisation and writing. I would hesitate to recommend this title to diehard yuri fans - not because it has a bad ending, but because it's side content can leave a sour taste in a person's mouth and ruin the story if that's *all* you're here for.

I liked the writing here and the art is gorgeous. I frequently found myself staring at the character sprites taking in all the details as I listened to the dialogue. It's also pretty unique in that female bodily autonomy is one of the main themes of the game, and the viewpoint character Ichiko is interesting in her distrust of men and feminism. It's not something I often see in Japanese media.

Well, that was really traumatic lesbodrama. Very good story and it's very sad that horny kids are ruining it's rating just because it ends not how they wanted. So, yeah, if you expect some hardcore rampage of the "scissors" - nope, nothing like this here. But let me make a step back and start from afar. Visuals - stunning. Absolutely stunning. But this is something that you can see yourself. Music - great as well. Perfectly sets the mood and overal atmosphere. Characters and voiceacting. I put them together because they fit each other perfectly and It would be wrong to evaluate them separately. I would even say that voiceacting is greatly shaping their personality and reflects emotions, intentions and change of mood. Now let's talk about the story. And it's... complicated. Dark. Disturbing. Cruel. Violent. Unpleasant. Unfair. [b]Wrong[/b]. But it also tells us, that even among total darkness, there is still light. That struggle is not hopeless. That even if you think that everything is over - there is still something to care and fight for. That if you have enough resolve - you can still reach your goal. And eventually it ends how it ends. Call it cruel. But it totally fits the story we were told. And look, of course I read negative reviews. It was very tempting to read them asap, but I'm glad that I avoided them for a while and checked only after I 100%ed the story. About that so called "plot twist". Pray forgive me, but if you were an attentive reader, how is it possible that it became totally unexpected for you? During the whole game we were getting more than enough hints that something like this may strike back at the very end. I will not pretent that I realised absolutely everything midgame, but I was given enough insight to expect something similar. The story totally prepared me for the ending. If you visited all the locations, payed attention to all the conversations, photos, descriptions, etc - there is no way that you could just shrug this off like some filler info. Now about the essenсe of so called twist. Look, it's not like you were watching some Sunday cartoons for kids and suddenly "this" thing popped up. It's rated 18+ for a reason. What's even more hilarious in this situation, if not to say idiotic, that during the whole game we will witness atrociously violent things. Totally wild. Unholy if you want. But somehow critics are totally ok with it, lol. But they are not ok with that endgame piece of information. Absolutely ridiculous. Sure, it's wrong, but it's literally dust, compared to what we've seen before. Some [b]real[/b] critique? - Of course! About choices, the endings and how you affect the story. Well... you don't. Yeah, sure, you can make a lot of choices and there are 10 endings. The problem is - there is only 1 true ending. And those choices actually do not change the main story, they are just a "fast-travel" to the alternative ending, which will happen in 10 mins of reading at best. Roughly half of these ending is just a variation of a "GAME OVER". Also, after few of such endings you will understand which of your choices are right and which are leading to "fake" ending even before you actually reach it. Next, about those "choices". They are very vague and weird. For example, you have a choice 1) to check you shopping list or 2) to check the money at the bottom of your purse. What will you choose? In one case, the main story will proceed further, while in another one - you will be heavily beaten to death. Of course later on the game will show you how this or that choice led to certain consequences, but at the very moment when you make such choice, you can only guess. And most choices are like this. To go to the fountain or to go to the kitchen? To grab a person by the collar or to hit with a fist? To confess that you hate onions or to lie that you like them? Will the wrong choice kill you or both of them do not matter? You can't know if you don't try. Some more minor critique. Side stories are not actually stories, but more like just few paragraphs of text and that's it, lol. Sure, they are critical for the story but nevertheless. Also, such characters as Akari and Sohsuke played very important role in the story but they do not have their own sprites, while Sui, who is not [b]that[/b] important for the [b]main[/b] story - has one. Don't get me wrong, Sui is charming character and so on, but priorities seem kinda strange to me... Conclusions. Of course I recommend it. But here are few advices. Make a save every time you making a choice (for different endings). Make a save each time you visit the rooms (in case you miss important condition for the side story). Do not read reviews. Do not read discussions. Do not visit community hub. Or you will catch a spoiler.

If you are looking for a gothic lesbian romance in a mysterious mansion, you won't find it here. If you want media with similar vibes, go read "Fingersmith" or watch it's korean movie adaptation "The Handmaiden" What you will find here is a visual novel visually prettier than most. Hyakunen's illustrations are really doing the heavy lifting here. The story bored me to death most of the time with some moments of trepidation in between. I sussed out "The twist at the last minute" around halfway through, so that kinda flattened the whole experience as well.

This is a good yuri visual novel, and does an especially good job creating an otherworldly and eerie atmosphere. The art is also stunning. I was left disappointed by the pacing, though. The game's biggest mystery is revealed way too early and lessens the punch of everything else, and I felt the chemistry between Aria and Ichiko was forced at times.

百合悬疑，但是只能勉强好评。 最大的优点就是油画一样的画风，以及超乎想象的百合程度，最后直接明示啪啪啪的百合。 但是问题其实不少，很多章节不少内容都很平淡，很难说是引人入胜，所以买了之后花了好久才通关。 最后高潮的展开，却是各种看似路人的宗介和明里来推动剧情。本来应该负责辅助解说剧情的side story却一样遮遮掩掩不愿意把故事说清楚。 最终评价远不如最近几年的百合佳作，比如リルナツ和まのさば。

Well, I voted this game in the Steam Awards for the "Outstanding Visual Style Award", because it's the best looking game I've seen in years, but also I like the artistic direction; using portrait close-ups for intimate discussion, and using manga-style panels for gently animating scenes. I really hope we see more from this artist in the future, and other VNs using these techniques. I still haven't finished reading the story yet. It's very good but I need to steel my nerves for some of this content. This gets pretty dark!

高度経済成長を遂げた1966年の夏 社会から取り残された少女と、社会から切り離された少女が閉ざされた屋敷で出会う。 極上の百合サスペンス。 24年6月にSwitchで発売されて、25年8月にSteam版が発売されました。 絵柄と百合が嫌いじゃなければオススメしたい。 全実績に10時間といったところでした。 [h1]レビュー動画 [/h1] https://youtu.be/JRMSgcPhZfw

sidestory看完，只能说很符合我对日本人的刻板印象