Rain and the Wolf

[b]Note:[/b] There are depictions of blood and such. Also, a free adult patch is available although I played the censored version, so my review will be based on it. [h1]What lies in the woods? :o[/h1] [h2]Introduction[/h2] [i]Rain and the Wolf[/i] is a yaoi visual novel with multiple endings developed and published by ebi-hime. You take on the role of Rain Bremen, the son of an apothecary who has nightmares over losing Ten, his best friend, who was attacked and subsequently, killed by a bandit when Rain was a child. As Rain is in the woods in search of herbs for his father, he ends up getting sidetracked and then caught up in the rain. Then he ends up hurting his ankle and getting unconscious, and that's when a mysterious stranger finds him. Who is this stranger and will he turn out to be friend (perhaps more) or foe? With the gameplay, numerous choices are presented throughout the story. Depending on the decisions you make, you can get one of seven endings. While most of the endings are bad, a couple of them are happy, and I'd even consider one of them to be the true ending. Plenty of CGs are shown as well as a varied soundtrack although no voice acting. Steam achievements are available, too, but they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "profile features limited". [h2]Review[/h2] It's probably no secret by now that I'm a fan of ebi-hime's visual novels. Although it took me a while to get around to playing [i]Rain and the Wolf[/i], I'm happy that I finally had a chance to do so and to share my thoughts. ^^ First, the story probably makes it obvious that it's a spin on [i]Little Red Riding Hood[/i]. Physically, Rain appears more on the feminine side, with his fair skin and hair and short stature. Also, he takes on more of his late mother's tasks, like cooking and cleaning. (Of course, plenty of guys nowadays do take on these tasks. XD) However, I'd like to focus on Rain's personality a bit. He isn't my favorite main character, what with the way he attacks a certain other character (whom I'll mention) at times and how he can be closed off. Still, it isn't to the point that he's unbearable, and I can understand why he behaves in that manner. As for Rain's possible romantic interest, Zero (who turns out to be a werewolf :o), I liked him more. I'll admit that I didn't like Zero's teasing side (then again, this may be a pet peeve of mine lol), but other than that, Zero is friendly and tries his best to help out Rain. Zero might be a bit overbearing when he becomes overly concerned about Rain's injured ankle, but I saw that as him wanting to be extra cautious. As for the story itself, I enjoyed reading it and witnessing the progressing relationship between the two. It's fairly obvious that Zero knows Rain from his past, but Rain has clearly forgotten about him. If you end up getting the true ending, of course, Rain does end up remembering Zero and he gets closure about Ten's death. The bad ends are quite painful, so yeah, if you're a completionist, it's best to brace yourself. :o After you get the true ending, when you replay the story from the beginning, I like that there's some backstory about Zero, and I can understand why it's not included when you initially start the story. As for the writing, it's brilliant as always. Ebi-hime does a wonderful job with narrating the story, which makes it a pleasure to read her visual novels. The pacing is good, and I only noticed one typo. With the gameplay, I didn't encounter any technical issues, and I was able to unlock all of the endings and achievements. Thankfully, there's a wonderful Steam user guide now available. ^^ With the art, the style is beautiful. The sprites and backgrounds are drawn and colored well. I especially like the colors, as they give off this pastel look that makes you feel like you're in a fairytale. Of course, the CGs are done very well. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3430336974 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3430337239 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3430337391 If you choose to play with the adult patch, you can imagine the uncensored images and whatnot, so I probably don't need to go into details. XD In regards to the music, the soundtrack is lovely to listen to. There's a good variety, with the tracks fitting well in their respective scenes. They totally give off that fairytale, storybook feel. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] Would I recommend [i]Rain and the Wolf[/i]? If you enjoy reading visual novels, are a fan of yaoi romance, and especially enjoy ebi-hime's works, then this is definite must read. I liked the story and the art is especially beautiful. For the asking price, it's worth getting, but you can wait to get it on sale and it's in a couple of Steam bundles, so you can save quite a bit. Finally, I want to give a thank you to ebi-hime for the free key, which I got through a random giveaway. Although it took me a while, I'm happy that I got around to experiencing this delightful story. ^^ [quote]For more detailed, fully complete, high quality reviews like this, please follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url], prioritizing heart and soul always. ^^[/quote]

Every time I was mean to Zero, a piece of my soul crumbled. Bad ending? More like [i] emotional scarring [/i]. 10/10 would cry, apologise to Zero, and cry again.

I enjoyed this game a lot, unsurprisingly:) Though I didn't expect MC to piss me off so much ⋋_⋌ It really hurt to choose options obviously leading to bad outcomes. Poor werewolf didn't deserve to be treated that way, it's astonishing that that's how the roles were distributed :D Looking at cute little protagonist and a big scary wolf quite the opposite kind of interaction is initially envisioned. And that's the reason after all that verbal abuse and cruelty that 'bad bad gruesome' ending which the author even gave the chance to omit by the players not to be greatly disturbed O_o for me personally felt awesome! Even the most patient ppl can snap after a long period of maltreatment. The endings where MC realized how wrong he was were especially healing but I've suffered a lot with the wolf. It's funny how self-association may work in the novels :) Though the story was sometimes shown through wolf's eyes and there were even choices to choose by him not MC. So, as the title of the game has two names in it, one can argue who is the very main character here :) Anyway, all endings were emotional, I llove how diverse that experience was for a rather short novel. Some plot twists were startling, art is gorgeous, the story is well-written, I can't possibly demand more from the visual novels :) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3346518532 [u]Praises[/u]: +Art is incredibly gorgeous! +Captivating, immersive story with many (for this length) different endings for all tastes. +Well-written \o/ I hope one day I'll read ebi-hime's novels without saving looots of screenshots with new vocabulary. No other novel ever was that educational and useful for practising a foreign language. I'm grateful! <3 +free adult patch, at the beginning of the game players can choose to omit rape scenes. [u]Complaints[/u]: --Mooooore save slots pleeaaase T_T I want to save all the choices, plus all the new chapters to enjoy their names, six pages is not nearly enough :( --To have that blurry censorship on such beautiful art felt almost sacrilegious :( --some typos. For me it was a real pleasure. I feel like replaying it some time again but I can understand that for some players it may be a bit extreme. I've typed it and thought about 'Sweet Pool' again. The author mentioned this game in her notes. I guess after some novels you reach a point of no return, and find some twisted pleasure in weirdest, unacceptable in reality things, honestly astonished what some ppl can find disturbing. Though a couple disgusting things from other ebi-hime's novels emerged in my memory where I was kinda accused in the comments of being too sensitive, lol. I guess it's always personal what kind of ♥♥♥♥ you actually find comfortable yourself with :) This novel was almost perfect, even unbearable Rain was vital for the story development, both bad and happy endings wouldn't be so powerful & unforgettable without him. I was about to stop here when I recollected the author's notes stating how it was obvious the story was about defining monster/man personalities. I didn't even dwell on it too much, lol. From the beginning judging by their actions it was crystal clear that Rain with his foul mouth treating his savior like filth because of stupid stereotypes was a real monster there ⋋_⋌ The only possibly monstrous part about the werewolf seemed to be his khm male organ but alas I have to trust the text description here due to mosaic censorship (｀□′)╯┴┴ [table] [tr] [th]More thoughts about the game in a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/readingnook/discussions/0/7027393439966026454/] Reading Nook [/url][/th] [/tr] [/table]

Heavily recommend this one for any BL lover out there! While the story might have a bit too much dialogue here and there for my liking, the story itself is really lovely the two boys involved have great chemistry in their personalities, specially as the main character starts to soften up for the love intresst, SOOO CUTE😳. All in all i think this is a great lil game that can maybe run you for 5 to 6 hours if you aim to unlock everything, so i'll say its well worth the price. The only real complaint i do have is the lack of graphic scenes, i was hoping there would be more nudity within the game but most of it is pretty tasteful all things considered, so if you prefer something thats more story focused as opposed to being super rauncy then this might be down your alley(you still see shiny shirtless man though)👍🏼 "It's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings" - Kurt Cobain🔥🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️

Rain and the Wolf is a rare branching VN from ebi-hime, and there's lots of fun(?) variety with the different endings you can get! They range from sweet, fairytale endings to much darker endings reminiscent of Nitro+ BL stuff. It's not particularly difficult to figure out which choices will lead you towards the good vs. the bad endings, so you won't be surprised by a bad end seemingly out of nowhere, but it is a bit tricky to get some of the more 'neutral endings'. I actually liked the love interest, Zero, way more than I liked the protagonist Rain LMAO but I think they are suited to one another in the good endings! Some of Rain's tsundere tendencies border on the malicious, but his standoffishness makes sense given the tragedies he's endured and the bigotry against werewolves that goes beyond just Rain's individual feelings. Zero continues to care for him despite this, and the more tender moments that they share on the good paths are really sweet. And on the other hand, if you want to see Rain punished for his cruelty.... >:) The art in this VN is beautiful and has a fun style - again, very Japanese BL VN -core, haha, which suits this story quite well. There's a large number of nice CGs, and even the sprites have lots of variations, too! I really like Zero's sprite in particular (his wolf tail and ears are just toooo cute LMAO). Rain is also gorgeous to look at - as is his dad???? [strike]Kind of a dilf tbh[/strike] This VN is definitely a worthwhile purchase if you're a BL fan; particularly if you like ♥♥♥♥♥♥-up bad endings, but if you're just in it for the fluff, those endings can be avoided easily in favor of the honey-sweet good endings! ^_^

Rain and The Wolf was a highly enjoyable visual novel with lots of choices and endings. The story follows Rain, a man who is grieving both his mother and his lost childhood friend who is presumed dead. One day he wanders into the woods to find some special flowers for his apothecary father, but the weather makes a turn for the worse and Rain slips, falls and knocks himself unconscious. When he wakes up, he discovers that he has been rescued by a man that looks suspiciously like his childhood friend, except... he has wolf ears and a tail and claims that he doesn't know what Rain is talking about?? Is The Wolf (Zero) as kind hearted as he claims to be, or does he have something nefarious planned for Rain? I enjoyed how many endings this visual novel had. One in particular was a LOT darker than the others, and was quite extensive. I like horrifying, awful endings, but it might be a bit much if you were expecting it to be on par with the lovely, cute, fluffy endings. If you want the story to be a bit lighter, it's possible to toggle off this ending. There were some great twists and turns and completing all the endings fleshes out the characters a lot. I did find Rain to be a bit of a ♥♥♥♥ at times, but I guess having to live with a monster might make you a bit like that. I dunno, ultimately I found him to be likeable enough and his cuteness definitely helps, but he's VERY sassy and rude to Zero, so don't be fooled by his pretty boy facade haha The art in this was great, especially the CGs. They were suuuppperrr sweet! And while I wouldn't say that the music was extremely memorable, it was very pleasant and always fit the scenes. I sometimes left the game on my screen while I went about housework, because it had such a happy vibe. My only complaint is that the story felt a little static and slow. A lot of it is fluffy cute slice of life stuff. I think people in general really enjoy that sort of content in a romance, but I'm pretty new to this genre, so I haven't quite acquired a massive taste for it. Overall I wouldn't say that this story is groundbreaking, or will change your life, but it was pretty fun and I would absolutely recommend it. ___________________________________________________________________ Original mini review: This VN has beautiful artwork and the story is great so far! I'm excited to see what happens next. I'll update this review once I'm finished with the game, but so far I highly recommend it :D Also, there is a free spicy content patch on the internet, so look it up if you're interested :)

画风精美，文笔还不错的小甜饼游戏，大概是忠犬偏执攻v傲娇毒舌受，含微量替身元素（攻替），除了有两三句话带有性别刻板印象外（列：别把我当女人看待，我不是柔弱的女人类似），其他方面都挺不错的，可品尝

A pleasant combination of coziness and angst. EDIT: oh my god. if you start a new save after getting all the endings, there's new writing. incredible. maybe you just need one of the good endings to unlock this. i wouldn't know.

While out foraging in the woods, Rain hurts himself and falls unconscious; (un?)luckily for him, Zero happened upon his body and begins to nurse him back to health. Rain and the Wolf is mostly about how Rain handles being somewhat of a prisoner to a seemingly benevolent, albeit monstrous, jailer. There are a number of choices in the story that lead to several different endings, both good and bad. I did enjoy the story overall, but the endings all felt a bit rushed to me. The mosaic-censored, externally downloaded patch render the few H-scenes impotent, as mosaics are wont to do, but the dialog was fine during them. If you're like me, the censorship is simply distracting and diminishes the overall experience; I've always felt no nudity is significantly better than censored nudity -- I'd rather 'censorship' be implemented such that their lower halves are under the sheets or something. I did like Rain and the Wolf and enjoyed the narrative well enough but keep in mind that without the patch, it feels like something is missing, but with the patch, it has censorship and is distracting. *Externally downloaded patch contains mosaic-censored H-scenes.

While it's not in my toppest of the top (this place is coveted by Blackberry Honey), for the time being Rain and the Wolf is pretty up there when it comes to the ebi-verse. The dynamic between the main pair is very nicely encapsulated by the underlying tension stemming from their experiences and of course the precarious situation they found each other in. It's a forbidden romance that tackles the "forbidden" part from several angles, which gives the sexy moments that nice emotional build-up. Ebi has a penchant for writing "sassy midgets", "pathetic losers" or mix of both as main characters, and Rain is in my opinion one of better representatives in this "genre". He is outspoken and snappy to a fault, but his relationship with his dad and trauma he is still dealing with give this endearing balance to it. Zero on the other hand is nuanced enough to not be "just another seme" - you can feel his desperation and the ever-going balancing act between trying to keep his humanity and his primal urges. He is trying to oversell his kindness and good intentions to the point of uneasiness, so it's easy to get behind the bad endings, as the whole situation does feel unnatural. Still, the prose is good at explaining the motivations of the characters: the main reveal is a little on "yeah, right" side, but it's elaborated on and placed in the story in such a firm way, it's believable and it doesn't destroy the suspension of disbelief. The art is beautiful - I thought I might be put off by the overly feminine and "perky" character models, but nope, their sugary attributes compliment the fairytale-esque atmosphere of the story perfectly. The music is also great - I especially liked the song playing during the tense scenes, as it has a very interesting build-up that starts solemnly and dreamy, and then the DANGER drops, it's awesome. The UI is a killer, which seems to be a staple since bunch of titles back from ebihime. If I had to point out one con to this game is that I think the sex scenes have too much talking in it, ha ha. I understand that it's a big moment for the characters, but when all of the scenes are becoming a therapy session, it's kinda too much. It's a minor thing though, and if you are playing the all ages version, you won't even notice. Anyway! I love Klaus, cute BL story with underlying darker tones, go and buy it, it's good.