[h1] A sweet, tame experience backed by solid, experienced writing! (7.4/10) [/h1]
I’ve been slowly working my way through ebi-hime games and I keep liking them to various degrees. This one stood out to me because it’s hard to ignore a cute demon girl. This is also the latest(?) and only BxG VN during 2024 releases; and looking at the list of ebi’s BxGs, this is one of the few that I’d like to think is the most Universally-Palatable. Some of the rest might be “grim” or “seemingly-with problematic implications/premise” at first glance (which is rarely true and I wouldn’t mind them otherwise; it adds a spice of freshness to stories; but I’ll tackle at later dates). The only one that comes close in vibes with this is probably The Language of Love (TLoL), a previous BxG of ebi’s that might unnerve some people believing there’s a “gap” between MC and LI due to the art/premise (not true, anyway)
That said, it does seem that ebi is (rightfully) more interested in writing Queer Stories; and I feel like this lack of personal interest towards BxG VNs inadvertently appears in the writing too; while it’s enjoyable enough to recommend, this game isn’t one to linger much in my mind personally. At best, you think about it because Elisa is cute!
It still served its job well as a casual, funny and sweet VN, engaging during my first read and put a smile on my face.
[h3]Information:[/h3]
[b](•)Free R18 patch, but 100% tame softcore[/b]. TLoL’s art was more explicit. Both games also only has one scene lol. Thankfully, the writing here is a bit more interesting in comparison. The banter pokes fun at general R18 dialogues, so don’t expect too much indulgent lines like in TLoL!
I agree that seriously-intense R18 scenes elsewhere often have cringeworthy lines, which is probably the reason JP VNs might succeed at being pleasurable to the usual markets; while this VN is grounded in a flatter, fluffier reality of the act through a lens of a naive couple.
[b](•) Playtime: 7.4 hours personally[/b]. As usual, I think my pace is quite slow. I often proofread for typos and livepost to my friends while playing. Maybe ~6 hours on quick read?
[b](•) Kinetic Novel[/b].
[h3](+) Pros:[/h3]
[b](+) Solid Writing, 7.9/10.[/b] I highly respect ebi’s ability to write various genres & themes, and through years of practice, consistency pays off. I feel like the writing is a well-balanced between being vibrant and fresh, but not complicated. There’s always still all those parenthesized and em-dashed explanations out of nowhere to add extra context to lines instead of adding new entire lines, but still, compared to TLoL, it does feel like there’s an improvement in overall writing quality. The pacing is actually good too, in how MC sees the LI. Compared to TLoL which sometimes felt too “jumpy” between being too romantic and then suddenly too abashed/cold/angsty (maybe due to the timeskips), this one takes the cake in being a smooth ride from strangers to something more.
[b](+) Lovely art, 8/10.[/b] Not much to say, I love Elisa’s design, + Chiharu & Nene to some extent. A friend did point out and made me agree later that the grandparents look a bit out of place compared to the others due to art style discrepancies (maybe they’re cameos?), but the CGs, sprite & UI are lovely otherwise. I also heard (& later noticed) from dev posts that this VN uses dynamic lighting effects during some scenes and I appreciated it.
[b](+) Good Music: 8/10.[/b] Sets a nice vibe. 4/11 tracks are pretty oriental, for scenes that prominently feature the grandparents or just to generally affirm you’re staying at a JP countryside, but there’s also some energetic cheer in Elisa’s prominent theme (Strawberry Hibiscus) / Chiharu’s theme (Ceylon Orange).
[b](+) Decent Cast: 7/10.[/b] Pretty standard (part-distant) family, it’s fun to read them interacting with each other. The grandparents almost feel identical in purpose, but the siblings, including Reza, all serve well to drive the scenes where they should.
[h3](-) Cons:[/h3]
[b](-) 1. Slightly feels “overcorrected off problematic readings” on particular lines, causing new, funny problems.[/b] I’ll admit it, this happens across all ebi’s games for me; some games more than others. Context: I often livepost many screenshots from VNs I play on discord; and while [i]maybe I just want to joke around with friends at the end of the day[/i]; a common recurring theme is that I often could spot lines that I find particularly funny and weird, and I like to call them “eyebrow-raising”. [b]Sometimes there are lines that feel like they have addendums and clarifications that want to scream “There is nothing suspicious here! Things are normal!”[/b], and yet despite the literal text having that perceived intent, the implementation of the line itself makes it seem more suspicious than if it wasn’t there to begin with. Despite mostly being lines, little things like sprite/scene direction can also be weird enough to warrant an eyebrow-raise, too. [b]I do acknowledge that these are personal and subjective, and they are still funny when it happens so it’s not entirely a con[/b], and maybe my friends were just being polite whenever they echo “that is funny”. Maybe I have much higher expectations & bias against what an EVN’s tone should be like, or I’m just personally biased to fall for Tsundere types and hence I am just projecting my own desires with fictional sisters, but it doesn’t remove the fact that it might unnerve some, so I’m putting it out there.
Exhibit A:
“I say goodnight to my grandparents, stooping to give my grandma a kiss on the cheek, and bid a similar goodbye to Chiharu and Elisabeth, though of course, I don’t kiss them”
Feels like there is a lot to unpack here. I know it’s trying to solidify “of course you wouldn’t kiss your sister (Chiharu)” and it might also be trying to efficiently solidify the romance seeds of “you might want to kiss the LI (Elisabeth) but it’s too early for that”, but tbh, this line just reads weirdly due to cramming 3 different people in one. The fact that the possibility gets brushed on and presented, and for Chiharu to get swept along in the line with it; makes it slightly weirder than if it didn’t say “though of course, I don’t kiss them” to begin with. I can understand wanting to brush up a kiss possibility for the LI, but this is the crux of the issue; it’s too crammed. The following lines do elaborate the separation of intent & reason between Chiharu vs Elisa, but I still think the initial line should be split into two; with the latter simply “I also bid a simpler goodnight to Chiharu and Elisabeth”. If wanting to plant a focus on “kissing Elisa” alone, then she deserves a line of her own after that doesn’t mention Chiharu at all.
The word “similar” in the original line is also one of the main issues that puts the idea of the kiss on the table, which could’ve been entirely avoided with my suggested split.
I can also say that I’m not one of those people who would hate the game for leaving the window of problematic readings open (yes, I admit I’m a freak for siscontent and I should look elsewhere into JPVNs), but I’d like to think that the universal audience, outside of the vocal haters of “problematic anime stuff”, would also prefer less odd clarifications like this. Even my brother who barely knows VNs agrees that this first line is off; though I admit maybe he’s being polite. In the end, this reminds me of the “My human trafficking shirt” joke; sometimes doing less is more.
B: When MC ponders about “never having a relationship with another girl before”, it adds “except my mother and sister” and “(again, my sister doesn’t count)”. Good for him, but acknowledging the possibility twice? hm.
[h2] Review continued in comments (from bottom-up) due to character limit![/h2]
[h1]Despite being a bit hard to believe at times due to its flaws, would definitely still recommend if you’re looking for a short, wholesome, simple BxG VN to try![/h1]
