This is how I describe it. There are some amazing moments and there are some terrible moments. Sometimes the slice of life stuff will be the most boring scene you’ve ever read, and sometimes it’ll be a lot of fun. I really like some of the characters, and I really hate some of the other characters. It’s such a sporadic VN.
I still have fond memories of the ski trip arc though, as well as some of the big route moments. It’s easy to forget the boring stuff.
Well, I’m the kinda guy who wants all the background info and details to make sure I enjoy every part of a story to the max. But when it comes to recommending stuff, I have to weigh that info against the risk of people dropping the series before getting to the good part. It’s tricky 
As I probably mentioned somewhere, part of what makes D.C. II so great to me is the fact that almost every route is great, even if its heroine isn’t. Koko is overall pretty boring, sooo~ they made the route not just about her, but the trials of friendship. Minatsu is one of the most annoying characters ever, but I would never have expected so much character development! The only route - and character - who did let me down was Otome. She didn’t do much beyond what was expected from her trope, and despite being the main heroine, thus sharing her route with the main story, well, I just didn’t feel it. The tools were there, but the execution just wasn’t on the same level as the other routes. I also agree on the account that Wataru’s shift from best buddy ever in Koko’s route to grand douchelord in Nanaka’s was very sudden and didn’t feel consistent.
About best girl Anzu, there’s a kind of a tricky part to the conclusion of her route. In a rare turn of events, the H-scene that happens after Anzu receives her birthday present actually carried a lot of significance to the story. When it started, the first thing I thought was “dammit, they ruined the mood with porn again”. But after getting through it, I had some lingering doubts. The scene did feel like it had a meaning. So I asked around and sure enough, good guy @Takafumi explained it: H-scenes in Visual Novels: Opinions and discussion . Basically, Anzu had received the last push she needed to remember the protag when their relationship became “complete”. It’s an interesting logic and I do think it was well-executed in this case. By the way, I went into the game fully expecting Nanaka to be my favorite heroine (She is a Shirakawa and all…) But Anzu’s personality, some of her scenes and especially the ski trip were sooooo sweet that I had to admit I was being too hasty.
Ohh, this is something I gotta ask not only @machelmore, but everyone who’s played D.C. II: What do you think about the saddest CG of the game, after standing Yume up at her birthday party? Just remembering it hits me like a truck 
Yeah, I’m like that too. I at least was able to be pushed into reading D.C.2 after not liking the first one by you and Taka, though I can’t be sure that wasn’t because I already knew Circus could do good work, since I had already read Dal Segno. I can’t speak for whether I would’ve ever read D.C.2 if it hadn’t been for that, or the recommendations of you and Taka. It’s definitely tricky.
About Anzu’s route… From the moment the H-scene started I knew it would be relevant to getting her memories back, because I did remember their talk about the physical part of a relationship being important, but the scene where she actually does get her memories back is framed completely outside that of the H-scene. There was a bit of a time skip to show the two of them outside, and it was only as Yoshiyuki gave Anzu her present that her memories came back. The way it’s framed makes the two scenes seem like separate issues, and the timing is simply too convenient for my taste even if that is the entirety of the explanation.
In fact, simply by process of elimination, I’d have to give best route of the original four to Minatsu’s route. I thought Anzu’s was the best until, as I still maintain, they fucked up the ending. Nanaka’s ruined Wataru for me somewhat, who I really liked beforehand. Koko’s route I didn’t really like at all, mainly due to Koko herself. That just leaves Minatsu’s route, which, though it never reached the kind of peak Anzu’s route did, maintained a solid standard from beginning to end with a satisfying conclusion. And to be fair, I never particularly disliked Manatsu from the beginning or thought of her as annoying.
The ski trip in general was just unfair to Koko and Nanaka in how much better it was than the trial of courage.
They might have played her route a bit safe, sure, but it was solid all the way through with the best character theme (maybe behind Anzu’s), a bunch of good CGs, and without fucking up in any major way like they did in a number of the other routes.
It’s also cool to think about how the true route is framed as a retelling of Otome’s route, but if you just substitute a few minor scenes that have no impact on the greater narrative, it’s just as applicable to Yume’s route.
Overall Otome’s route might actually be my favourite barring the true route though. The
decision to kill the Everlasting Sakura Tree is such a harder thing to do than in Yume’s route, and it gets the original scene with Sakura and Yoshiyuki in the dream, which gave it a lot of points for me.
Speaking of Yume though, she might be my favourite heroine, and her route’s probably second only to Otome’s and the true route. She pulls of the light tsundere character almost perfectly, she actually manages to keep common sense in mind even when she gets emotional, and her character design might be my favourite too. She goes through some rough stuff and handles it so much better than Otome, I have to really give props to her character. If her route had the Sakura-Yoshiyuki scene/had been framed as the true route (and received the perks that go with it), it would undoubtedly be my favourite route behind Sakura’s version of the true route.
I wasn’t ready. I knew it would be bad, but wow that was more than I was expecting. Easily one of my favourite CGs in the game. When looked at out of context, it’s by far the most impactful CG in the game. Personally though, the CG that hit me hardest when you take context and meaning into account is the one of Sakura crying. I forgot to mention this in my original post, but the scene where I cried was in Sakura’s route’s retelling of the scene where she tanks Yoshiyuki for living with her. I thought it was so sad that she had to feel so grateful for such a mundane happiness. Why should she have to thank her own son just for living with her? When I thought about that, it really got to me. I really like it when VNs explore relationships other than just boyfriend-girlfriend, so the true route of D.C.2 really got to me. Getting back to the CG, I also think it really holds a candle to the Yume one in that it’s able to portray just as much emotion - and it’s also really impressive that they’re able to make it so obviously Sakura despite the fact that she’s missing her major defining features - her clothing, her hair tie, and most importantly by far, her long blonde hair. So yeah, I personally think that CG was the saddest, but both CGs are amazing in both emotional impact and artistic quality. Very impressive.
Maybe we should make a Da Capo series or Circus discussion topic… There’s already been quite a bit of conversation about it here recently, and I don’t think I’m even burned out of D.C.2 discussion, let alone D.C.3 which I just started.
Pretty much following the conversation Naoki and I had, this would be my recommendation:
If you’re the kind of person who can keep reading something bad and continue to move on to its sequel purely on the recommendation of others, then you should totally read all of D.C. 1 first. However, if you know you’re not that kind of person, then it’s probably worth bailing on D.C. 1 completely in order to ensure you do end up reading D.C. 2 at all, considering how good it is.
Edit: @KaiMiang, right, I should be more specific. Nemu and Kotori’s routes give good backstory for D.C. 2, so you should probably read them. Other than that, there’s a brief true route after finishing the original routes, and you should probably read that. It’s fine to just skip through Moe’s and Mako’s routes. After the true route, there’s a bonus route for Miharu that you should read, but the other bonus route isn’t important.
Also, I totally didn’t reply to you just so I could excuse making a post to share this top quality meme:
(Da Capo 3 spoilers)
I was just reading through Himeno’s route of Da Capo 3 when I noticed Sakura casually sum up the Da Capo series in one sentence:
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Thank you very much!
There is almost nothing that would prevent me from reading D.C. 2 at this point. This said, there is the current feeling after finishing Sakura’s route that it’s probably not worth it to complete the game unless a route is truly helpful to understanding D.C. 2 or 3, I like the character, or I may really like the route (I have not really read any spoilers to this point). Thus, it may only be Kotori’s and Nemu’s route that get read at this point but it’s way too early to say.
Well it seems like I haven’t posted in awhile, and since It looks like we are still talking about circus games I’ll chime in again.
First off I have finished DCIII and have started DS (Io route done, started on Noeri) DS tbh feels like a big step backwards, I enjoyed Io’s route, but when I started doing Noeri, I feel like a lot of my motivation has gone away. I’ll finish it, but I’ve put it on the back burner for now.
DCIII I really liked overall. It was somewhat confusing or awkward at times, but I feel like I enjoyed it overall. The whole “reincarnation of each character” thing seemed kind of awkward. It felt a lot different from the other Da Capo in a good way. It was also just really long, I feel like DCII would of felt that way if I actually had the extended version. unfortunately DCII PC doesn’t have any TL. (This talks about the last side episode of DC III) It causes some awkwardness in the last side episode of DC III when they go back to DC II and some random girl shows up that you have no idea who she is acts like they are good buds.
Honestly when I first started reading the last side episode I was so happy they re-visited the DC II characters/timeline, it was this point I felt DC II had be crowned as my favorite. DC II was my favorite but I feel DC III was very close, Overall I enjoyed Da Capo as a whole quite a bit and will be keeping an eye on what circus makes. I would love it if Plus communication versions got translated, but honestly they probably won’t, it feels like it would be a bad marketing move. At least we got the best DC III. Oddly enough they did do some of the DC I fan discs so more da capo isn’t completely out of the question, just unlikely.
So, Dal Segno is 45% off on Steam which means… I’m installing it at this very moment.
I’ll be in touch, but do keep in mind that my progress will be… slow. @machelmore @KaiMiang
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Wow… less than a month ago, I never would have thought completing the Da Capo series would seem like a significant event to me. To be fair, I never thought it would be an event at all after reading the first one, because I had no intention of continuing. I feel the need to thank @Takafumi and @Naoki_Saten for convincing me to read the rest of the series despite the bad impression the original left on me. What a wild ride.
After reading through their main series’ games, I still have to give uncontested best to D.C.2. D.C.3 and D.S were both solid, but D.C.2 was just on another level. (And that’s enough about D.S from me - I’ve been overrating it too much.)
D.C.3, to me, suffered from several of the problems that made the original so bad (though again, that’s not to say D.C.3 is itself bad). The main issue: it just dragged on and on, despite not a whole lot happening in the end. At least, unlike the original, it managed to be entertaining when doing so, but it’s still a pretty big flaw to me.
It’s pretty weird that they were so daring in the concept for this one, but they played the actual heroine routes unbelievably safe. Despite them dragging on so much, nothing really happens and nothing is resolved in any of them. I realise that it’s an unfortunate side-effect of the overarching story, but it’s not unavoidable. Sara’s route - of the original four - managed to pull it off, and for that reason ended up being by far my favourite, even though I didn’t like Sara herself as much as Charles or Ricca.
The way the story was written was unbelievably messy… How it was fragmented during the prologue followed by a complete shift where everything introduced in the prologue becomes all but pointless fluff, and then they revisit the original setting for thirty seconds at the end… it was just too random to be cogent.
The amount of fan service or whatever the fuck you want to call it was unbelievable, especially near the beginning. I’m glad they toned it down, but for the love of god… And the main character’s incompetence and lack of self control didn’t help either.
As for the characters, Himeno pulled the same passive-aggressive bullshit act that Nemu from the original was all about, so there was never any chance of me liking her. Sara was pretty inconsistent, she got better at times, like in the mid-late parts of her route, but for a lot of the time she was just being a bitch for no reason. I liked Charles I suppose, but she kind of felt like a caricature rather than a real character. I feel like more could have been done with Ricca, but I can’t really complain about her, so she’d be my favourite of the heroines. Aoi was by far the most developed, but she didn’t really have much of a personality, so she doesn’t quite reach Ricca’s level despite that, for me. As far as characters go though, the best were the supporting cast. Mary, Ian, Mikoto, etc.
Aoi’s route and the following true route, while not anything special, were solid enough to carry the rest of the VN a bit. They still fail to really resolve/conclude a lot of stuff previously introduced, but it was still the best part of the main story.
The side episodes were pretty pointless, aside from the last one with the D.C.2 characters. In fact, I wish I hadn’t read the first one, because it just ruined my impressions of Sara and Himeno more, and didn’t do wonders for Kousuke either. I guess it built Ricca’s character a little though.
The last side episode was by far the most outstanding part of D.C.3. The welcoming party for Sakura turned into the perfect farewell party for the Da Capo series. Even after being left feeling a little disappointed after the other side episodes, I was at least able to send of the series with a smile after that.
Still, once all is said and done, it was fun, and a little different… Ultimately, I’d have to give it a pretty good score, even if it wasn’t on the level of D.C.2, that by no means makes it bad. Something like 8/10.
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Glad you enjoyed it so much. Da Capo 2 is a real touchstone VN, and when I first played it, it felt like a defining moment. My entire love for VNs came from the mid-2000’s titles, where DC2 (along with Shuffle, Clannad, and To Heart 2) were the romance VNs. The formula was so appealing, I was less a VN fan and more a fan of (sometimes trashy) romance games.
It’s nice to hear that, even though so many VNs have taken the DC2 formula since then, it hasn’t suffered from the Seinfeld effect. I was worried with all the Dal Segno talk that DC2 wouldn’t hold up, or that it’d be outclassed. It’d be kinda sad if the game was dethroned in the kingdom it created.
Also I’m glad to see people still hate Nemu. The only time I liked seeing Nemu was in DCIF.
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Yeah I have to admit it as well, the prologue was really weird. I was so set that the prologue was going to be a big tie in or something really important towards the end, however it felt so tacked on. I feel like that two sets of character are slightly different from each other, so it makes it even more awkward. It isn’t a surprise either because if you read DC 2 you know that Sakura ends up in London. It also confuses the shit out of me that their last names change and family is shuffled around. The prologue felt very different too, the level of fan service seemed very out of line compared to the rest of the game. It felt like some weird sub game Da Capo 2.9 or something.
Yeah I totally loved that last side episode too. It really felt like a good way to end it.
I am slowly reading DS. I am just a bit burned out on Circus/da capo like games for now, so I’ve been playing other things mainly.
I’ve been busy with VNs over the past month or so. Aside from Da Capo 2 and 3, I also finished Princess Evangile and W/Happiness, Eden of Grisaia, Corona Blossom and Shuffle. So, I’ll write a bit about each here.
Princess Evangile and W/Happiness
The art and soundtrack are both pretty good. Concept is pretty standard, which has its ups and downs, but basically means it’s relatively simple. Surprisingly, it actually knows what would be over the top with fan service, but there’s a different aspect to infuriate people instead. Namely, all the characters are fucking retarded. (<-Coming from Mr. No Definition of Intelligence himself.) But seriously, I just can’t quite figure out what’s going through their minds. I remember when I first finished the book Treasure Island, I summarised it as “How To Do Stupid Shit And Get Away With It”, and Evangile is pretty similar in a way. It goes for every character really, but the protag especially so. Evangile kind of gave me a new hatred for incompetent protagonists. I’m exaggerating a bit here, but that kind of thing really pisses me off. Still, I managed to finish the whole of both VNs despite that, so hopefully that says something.
Executive Summary: If, unlike me, you can put up with characters doing unbelievably stupid shit for no reason, then you’ll probably like it decently enough.
Eden ofGrisaia
Meh.
It concludes the story, and… that’s pretty much it. I’d already seen the anime, so maybe that has something to do with it, but it was underwhelming. The anime might’ve been better, to be frank. Grisaia was never anything special, but at least the first two games could be entertaining if you switched your brain off. Eden didn’t really even have that much.
Executive Summary: Easily the worst Grisaia game.
Corona Blossom
It’s shit.
Executive Summary: It’s shit.
Shuffle
Shuffle could’ve been something great. But I do respect the attempt. I see what they were going for, and I think they had a bunch of good ideas, but the execution was… “bad” or “poor” wouldn’t be right, because what was there was pretty good, but maybe “lazy” would suit it better. I’m still not quite happy with that, but it’s the best I can do. I don’t know what the steam version is like, but the version I got had stiff translation that ruined it a bit, but that’s not the VNs fault. The writing itself was pretty decent, and the climax scenes were actually written very well too, surprisingly, considering that tends to be the hardest part. But the overly casual storytelling of skipping days at a time and only showing the bare minimum was unpalatable.
It’s not quite up there with the greats, but I respect it.
Executive Summary: A for effort.
I don’t believe I’ve stated this on Kazamatsuri previously so I will do so now: Steins;Gate has been my favorite VN ever since I read it roughly a year ago. Despite this, I never had especially high expectations for its sequel, Steins;Gate 0. While I was nonetheless excited about there being a sequel to my favorite piece of fiction, I highly doubted that it would live up to its predecessor and I was of the firm mindset that it couldn’t possibly surpass Steins;Gate in any way shape or form.
However, upon reading the Steam release of Steins;Gate 0, I was positively surprised. From beginning to end, I enjoyed every single moment of Steins;Gate 0, naïvely wishing that it would never end. While it’s nowhere near flawless, I ended up enjoying it even more than the orginal Steins;Gate.
(Steins;Gate 0 spoilers) Initially, I was expecting Steins;Gate 0 to be structured similaly to its predecessor, so my mind was completely blown away when I discovered that on the contrary, the story branches off into two main paths. These two paths then branch off into three distinct endings each. Out of the six different endings, my favorite was without a doubt Promised Rinascimento. I could never imagined beforehand that a certain self-proclaimed mad scientist once again donning his white lab coat would be able to move me to tears.
I firmly believe that anyone who enjoyed the original Steins;Gate will most likely enjoy Steins;Gate 0 as well. While it’s in many ways different from its predecessor, it’s still essentially about prevailing after countless failed attempts. And whoever named this Steam emoticon evidently knows their stuff.
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Just finished eden* after a leisurely 11 hours (not the plus+mosaic add-on). I’m still a bit averse to reading/playing VNs that are labelled as romantic but although this is a love story it’s not exactly a conventional one and also a tale of compassion and redemption and all done in a touching and beautiful way.
The first half of the story fills in the background to “the end of the world as we know it”, without which the second half would really be rather meaningless. The VA and art is top quality all accompanied by some lovely music too. There is no interactivity and no choices, which is fine to me. I’m very glad I chose to spend my money on it and would definitely recommend it, with a personal score of 8.5/10. I shall look out for Minori releases in the future
This is my favourite music track, the picture doesn’t spoil anything…
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I was wishing ef would get an all ages version on Steam but what with the whole debacle of VNs on Steam nowadays, I guess that’s never gonna happen grumblegrumble
I’m not gonna spend a bunch of money getting ef on Mangagamer
I’m not gonna spend a bunch of money getting ef on Mangagamer
I’m not gonna spend a bunch of money getting ef on Mangagamer
HNNNNNNNNG—
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I hear good things about ef, I see we have Supipara being released in 5 parts - maybe if we all buy that and it’s a success…
What with the long gaps between releases of Higurashi chapters, and a certain series of books started some 20 years ago overtaken by a TV series, I get a bit reluctant to buy works unless they are already finished completely.
At least I have Symphonic Rain and Subarashiki Hibi: Furenzoku Sonzai still to play in my library.
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Well my copy of Higurashi on the switch came on tuesday! I just finished rereading the ‘new’ Hou arcs and I’m so glad to hear certain parts voiced aaaaahhh.
Well guess I’m going to reread Higurashi in full soon…
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Oh right!!! I always wanted to play Iwaihime! Did anyone take on the translation? Is is any good?
At long last, I have completed Dal Segno.
I shall share my own impressions first, then reread and adress some of the comments earlier in this topic.
My overall impression of the game is 70% disappointment and 30% pleasant surprises. Note that disappointment is directly connected to expectations. If all you want is a game of having fun with cute girls, there is nothing to complain about and you should be hitting that “buy” button right now. The art is beautiful, the characters are likeable and the carefree everyday scenes are well-written.
But if you, like me, have picked up D.S. because it’s somewhat of a successor to the Da Capo Series, or if you wish to enjoy an engaging plot and consistent writing, you’re probably in for some frustration. And even this statement is somewhat misleading, which is why I’ll go into detail later.
That is not to say, however, that the game is not worth your time and money. I definitely think you should give it a try. Despite the many unexpected inconsistencies in the overall quality, I have very much enjoyed this VN. No regrets.
So, what exactly is the problem? It’s the writing, but not in a way that the common complaint of “not as good as the Da Capo series” may suggest. For example, you will notice early on that there is a lot of time-skipping. What the author describes is not a life, but a series of its fragments and that what reading through this game feels like. You get a scene with girl 1, then a scene with side character 1. If you’re lucky, you may get a scene with girl 2 and then it’s already the next day. Reading through this feels really choppy. Sometimes, you’ll only get an average of 1-2 scenes per day. I think I only got used to this by the time I was on my 4th route.
But the most important problem with the writing is that every time a mystery is involved, its presentation and explanation is horrible. I remember @machelmore saying that the protagonist (Atsuya) is really bad at explaining stuff. But putting it that way implies that there’s still a chance of the author deliberately making it that way. However, the problem is more fundamental than that. The author himself is just really really bad with Mystery in a weird way. There IS foreshadowing and the story does drop hints concerning the oncoming conflict. But they are laid out in a way that makes it really hard for the reader to connect the dots. And even when the conflict is nearing resolution, you get all the puzzle pieces laid out before you and the protag explains the situation, it may still not make sense. This is problematic because the main conflict is also the peak of a route’s emotional delivery. And when you get there, you can tell this is all very emotional, but you’re still confused about why and how this is happening, thus you`re not enjoying it as much as you’re supposed to.
Another complaint of mine, albeit one more related to personal preference, is that I think D.S. mostly makes the wrong choices when it comes to which elements of the Da Capo series to include and which not to.
First of all, the common route is straightforward and you only make the bare minimum of choices. No setting your alarm clock to choose one out of three morning events for the day, no listening to the radio or making phone calls in the evening, no choosing which place to go and which character to meet at a given time of the day. That means the common route has zero replayability. To get onto a different route, you’ll only have 2 new scenes to watch. That’s it. It’s a shame, because I really liked those parts of Da Capo, because they made it feel more like a game, added replayability and depth to the common route, the characters and the setting.
On the other hand, they’re including some familiar elements that I think should’ve been changed up rather than copied from Da Capo. Dal Segno is taking place on a special island, the common route ends with a christmas party that includes a beauty pageant.
The protagonist has a little sister that belongs to the same strict and scary type as the Da Capo’s Nemu, Yume and Himeno. While I think Circus is really good with those types of characters, why do it over and over again? Well, the imouto this time is not a heroine, so it’s only a minor complaint.
Then we have the wingman Yamato, who’s basically a clone of D.C. II and III Suginami’s and, as hinted in the story a student of one. Then again, this “Suginami” is an actual wingman and way more involved, which made my initial annoyance turn into appreciation. In the end, I do consider a reliable wingman “Suginami” an upgrade.
Phew. So much text and I haven’t even gotten to the routes… I shall continue this at a later time.
Part 2
Onto the heroine routes. I played them in the following order:
Hazuki -> Himari -> Noeri -> Io -> the rest
Hazuki route
I started with Hazuki because she seemed like the most bland heroine at first and her story seemed predictable too, though she did get more depth through her two common route scenes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t enjoying the first half of her route. It felt like a chore. Maybe because I still didn’t get used to the time-skipping scene structure or maybe I just wasn’t invested in Hazuki as a character despite my initial impression of her having improved a lot.
The first pleasant surprise was, very surprisingly, the H-scenes. Though the first one still happened a bit too soon for my taste, they didn’t feel unnatural or tacked on like most H-scenes I’ve seen. They were very much part of the story and did contribute to the character development of both participants. And most of all, it was taken seriously. Because upon noticing they did not have protection on their first attempt, they decided to stop and call it a day. That added a lot of respect points to the writer and the protag. Most eroge don’t bother with realism there.
It got really interesting when the conflict began… but also very confusing. The overall plot was great, don’t get me wrong. It was actually more deep, emotional and complicated than what I had expected from D.S. And it had defied my predictions. But it felt like I have never fully understood what had happened prior to the resolution, which impaired my enjoyment. Sometimes, Atsuya could see the number, sometimes he couldn’t. The girl at night was giving different answers concerning her identity on different days. So did she sometimes come as a projection and sometimes with her mind taken over? Nowhere else did the Island’s system do something like that. In the first place, the system’s capabilities seem to go far beyond what should be possible with just science… And yet, the protag did arrive at all the correct answers. Weird.
Overall evaluation: Great ideas, poor execution.
Himari route
Having finally gotten through Hazuki’s route, I needed something more enjoyable and consistent and I knew exactly where to find it: Himari’s route.
How did I know? Because Himari bears a considerable resemblance to Da Capo I and II heroines of the Shirakawa family, (Kotori and Nanaka) in both looks and behavior. I associate the following traits with a Shirakawa heroine: Red-ish long hair, blue eyes, outstanding looks that are repeatedly pointed out in-game, Sociable and nice personality, quick to fall for the protagonist, main conflict related to both her love and her main-plot-related special power.
While these traits make the routes of Shirakawa routes somewhat predictable, both the girls and their stories always boast a consistent, above average quality. I usually put them pretty high up on my favorites lists, Himari being my #2 in this game.
Having gotten my hopes up, I dove into the route and got just about what I had expected… mostly. The chemistry between the protagonist and Himari was absolutely perfect. Their dialogues are enjoyable and Himari’s voice is outstandingly pleasant. I enjoyed the carefree everyday scenes a lot.
Now, to be perfectly fair, this part wasn’t even all that different from Hazuki’s route, yet the difference in my enjoyment was like night and day. My investment in Himari must’ve been a big part of it, but I still think there must be some kind of difference in quality that I can’t quite put a finger on.
There is something I want to complain about, though: I often got the impression that Himari’s talking hat, Iris, had been completely forgotten. It was clear as day that she would be a very relevant part of Himari’s personality, backstory and plot. So why was she barely ever brought up and almost never joined the conversations? And even before that, during the common route, how the heck did Atsuya just up and accept the existence of a talking hat without even questioning it? Sure, we are in the Da Capo universe where magic is a thing, but that’s supposed to be a secret. And now that I’m already complaining, I felt a discrepancy between Himari’s personality and the fact that she’s supposed to be bad with people. Because she got along with sprited characters pretty smoothly. Even with excentrics like Io, whom others were unsure how to approach.
The H-scenes in this route, too, were a valuable contribution. They felt natural, as they were showing a pair of lovers trying to take their relationship to the next stage. And once again, Atsuya shows off his trademark thoughtfullness by stopping midway through upon realising his girl wasn’t comfortable.
Again, although there’s been foreshadowing, the plot, as always had taken a pretty sharp turn when things got serious. And once again, the confusion began. The protagonist had the problem figured out step by step, yet the reader got left behind. Where do I even start?
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In the common route, Ame said she can’t explain why Atsuya could see the happiness numbers. Or help him getting rid of them. Yet now, it’s blatantly stated that the necklace is the cause of it and Atsuya doesn’t even comment on that.
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After seeing the numbers, Himari developed the ability to influence them. This is a complete mess in many ways. First of all, it’s a magical ability that’s magically connected to Himari’s magical hat, Iris, and not at all connected to the system that produces the numbers. A conclusion that the protagonist easily arrives at. Secondly… are the concepts of “happiness” and “luck” expressed with the same word in Japanese? I know they are in German, but it’s still weird to treat these two things as one and the same like the game does. When Himari increases Atsuya’s happiness, he somehow gets lucky and wins lotteries.
In the end, we get a dramatic farewell from Iris, although the game didn’t give her enough screen time previously to make clear just how important she was to Himari in an emotional way - and most importantly - getting the reader emotionally attached to Iris. There’s a deep message of going out there, growing up and facing one’s fears. But its impact is once again obscured by how confusing it was to get to this point.
Overall evaluation: Great heroine, good romance, confusing resolution.
Noeri route
Since I wanted to save the best for last, I had to get into the route of my least favorite heroine next: Noeri.
I don’t even have all that much to say about this route, since I think it can be easily summed up with the following quote:
“I’m so stupid… ahahaha…”
~ Noeri
Not being the sharpest tool in the shed, Noeri always failed to comprehend why Atsuya got annoyed by her behavior right at the very first step. Or did she never even try? Her own obession with her cousin had confused her over what kind of relationship she actually wanted to have with him. While being adamant about being his imouto, she also really wanted to get into his pants, which, sadly, is all the H-scenes amounted to. But it didn’t stop there. While her fear of losing Atsuya in case of a failed romance is understandable to me, the notion of crippling herself and making him the central and only thing in her inner universe is not. Maybe it would’ve been if she was a yandere or a similarly obsessed kind of character. She desired to be more than a lover and had arrived at the conclusion that “sister” is the position needed for that, but isn’t trying to be THE sister pretty inconsiderate to both Atsuya and his real sister Mei whom she seemed to get along with just fine?
To be fair, the interactions with Noeri were usually pretty funny. I also admire her courage in confessing her love in front of the entire school with a mic in hand. Her desire to be taken seriously is understandable, considering how obviously she had displayed her love. And visually, I find her “gal” look rather appealing. But, not gonna lie, I’m pretty biased here.
Another thing on the positive side is that the delivery of the main conflict was simpler and not as confusing as in the previous two routes.
Overall evaluation: I don’t like the girl, but there’s less confusion.
Io route
Finally, it was time to get on the route I’ve been looking forward to the entire time. Io is not just a tropey chuuni character or a teenager going through a phase. She’s not just weird for the sake of being funny.
Early on in her route, it has been made clear that this is what she is and how she lives her life. Rather than acting out a role, she puts a tremendous amount of effort into being exactly what she wants to be - by sewing her extravagant clothes herself, forgoing comfort and practicality for the sake of style and consistency - and never breaking character unless explicitly asked to. And I fully agree with Atsuya - that this makes her life exceedingly more colorful, interesting and exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed her elegant manner of speech and her frequent use of metaphors.
In terms of creating a heroine, everything about Io has been done right. Props for that. And did I mention that she’s super cute??
What impressed me the most in this route was not something grand and dramatical. It was Io’s reaction to her loss in the beauty pageant. “The demons are always defeated, one way or another. The hero has absolute, infallible power.” It displays a maturity one might not expect of a funnily dressed short girl. She did not construct a persona which, within her setting, is the best, greatest, or strongest. Even in her own world, there will be people she will inevitably lose to. Not only chuuni kids, but also many successful otaku authors could learn a thing or two from her.
And in the end, what she aimed to win the most were not the hearts of hundreds of potential followers in the audience, but that of a single boy right in front of her, which she spectacularly succeeded at.
Despite what her small frame may suggest, Io was always in the lead, always had the initiative. She decided to take part in the beauty pageant without being asked and she kept promoting Atsuya, thus establishing their relationship. All of their activities were decided by her. Io always got her thoughts across while also remaining mysterious enough to not let Atsuya be 100% sure. Atsuya, on the other hand, did not behave like the considerate gentleman he was in Himari’s and Hazuki’s routes, turning instead into a lecherous horndog whose shenanigans Io had reacted to with angelic patience and a generous amount of trust. On the other hand, when he did try to be helpful, he was a bit too pushy.
One of the big complaints I have about this route is directed to the translator. While I think Io’s everyday scenes have been translated just fine (I mean, I’m not good enough to say for sure, but her speech flowed well and made sense, which surely wasn’t an easy feat considering the vocabulary she used), I think the translation had messed up where it mattered most.
The first mistranslation concerns Io’s persona. She calls herself “Maou no musume”, meaning “Demon Lord’s daughter”. But it was translated as “Daughter of Darkness” instead. This is vital for her character and backstory, showcasing that her father is a very important existence to her and her identity.
The second one is the final title she had given Atsuya to signify their special relationship: “Zadusevnyj Drug”. It’s too obscure to realize the romance of the moment and literally nobody knows what it means. “Drug” makes little sense, as he’s supposed to be a companion, a peson to always remain by her side, not something to consume. “Zadusevnyj” sounded pretty Russian, but when I tried reading it (it’s tricky due to different alphabets), the translation that first popped up in my mind was “the strangled one”. It turned out to be russian after all (thanks, google), originating from one of Pushkin’s countless works. I didn’t do much research beyond that, but from what I can tell, “zadusevnyj”, literally translated, means something like “beyond soul.” In my opinion, rather than making sure the word remains something Atsuya would be confused over, it would’ve been better to make the word not more obscure but more understandable to the reader instead. I believe the point here is that Io desired a deeper relationship than that of a mere couple.
EDIT: I only just realized that “drug” was most likely not referring to the english word that means “intoxicating substance”, but the russian word for “friend”. “Zadusevnyj Drug” therefore means “Friend beyond soul”, to which “Soul friend” is a close approximation, a term that Atsuya used at some point in the game without indicating that he had done some research on Io’s formulation. Like… are you serious, Mr. Translator??? Not only do you use terms from other languages nobody is familiar with, but also one that invites misunderstandings badly enough to even confuse native speakers??
My last complaint considering the translation is a minor one, but still… when Io took out her tablet on the beach instead of frolicking in the water, Atsuya commented it with “you’re such a millenial”. This strongly reminds me of the bickering between two generations in a certain country, which I would very much prefer to be kept the hell out of my games, thank you very much.
Now for the main conflict. Again, most of the necessary info was given beforehand, I’d say even more so than in the other routes, but I wouldn’t call that foreshadowing. The big trouble still happened too suddenly and the most important piece of information was not presented well enough: namely how important Io’s father was to her. As a result, the fact that she was about to die just to cling to his memory had come as a total surprise. And yet, despite that being the case, rescuing her - that is, convincing her to live and move on - had proven to be surprisingly easy. Atsuya just scooped her up after a short talk, without even having to fight a boss enemy.
Overall evaluation: Subjectively best girl, great character concept, another finale impaired by confusion.
Main route and the rest
I’m writing way too much, but I’ve long missed my chance to stop, so the only way left is forward.
stuff
- I will once again praise Yamato for being such a great wingman. He’s always there when you need him and he gets shit done. Perfect qualifications. What I never understood, however, is how the heck he got so attached to Atsuya. Was it love on first sight? Our protagonist, on the other hand, never really did anything for Yamato, did he? In fact he didn’t even seem to regard Yamato as an actual friend in the common route.
- Remember how I have compared Himari to heroines of Da Capo’s Kotori and Nanaka? This is too random to even be called speculation, but since Himari is an orphan, there is a non-zero chance of her actually being related to a Shirakawa, right?
This is probably the right moment to talk about the common route bad ending, which the steam guide refers to as “secret route”. The part of thinking about Yamato is kinda funny, but expected. The unexpected part is that you end up meeting not him but the otherwise uninvolved imouto Mei. And this is something I like a lot about Dal Segno: they aren’t stingy with the sprites and CGs. They allowed Mei to make an actual appearance like a full-fledged side character despite her otherwise only being a voice on the phone. Heck, have you seen the CG menu? You can view alllll the sprites there, too, and there’s A LOT of them!
Ame Route
Alright, what do we know so far?
The happiness numbers Atsuya can see are deceptive. Sometimes, they are correct, but other times, they may rise even though the person in question is actually in real trouble. Because happiness is a comlicated thing and not quantifiable.
The paradise System is super powerful and super scary. It monitors the entire island and everyone on it 24/7 and it can even measure brain waves. It allows certain individuals, chosen by its caretaker Ame, to wield a part of its power in form of a wish. It’s capable of messing with one’s memories, trapping people in their dreams, therefore putting them in a coma and endangering their lives, and it can even awaken an alternative personality that takes control of the body to, say, get a young girl to the brink of getting deflowered while she thinks it’s all a dream.
In the center of all that is Ame, whose visual design is perfect, by the way. She was created by one Professor Amakase - a name you should be familiar with from the Da Capo series - the creator of android girls goes by the same name, so we can safely assume this one belongs to the same family of inventors.
Ame’s route is the story of a non-human girl with human emotions who eventually even falls in love. It’s by no means a new idea, but nonetheless a deep and solid topic. Unfortunately, Ame is to pay for this experience with her life, which again, is not new, but a pretty damn good story material. Rather than trying to prevent the tragedy by denying their feelings and separating (like what other girls tried in their routes), Atsuya and Ame decide to maintain their relationship.
And it’s a beautiful relationship indeed, because they cannot touch. A connection that is purely emotional. Which leads me to the thing that completely ruined it for me: the goddamn H-scene!! See, this is why I hate 99% of those! Because they are disruptive to the scenario and the mood, making uncharacteristic things happen. Sure, let’s break apart this beautiful concept because this is an eroge and every girl must have H-scenes. ARGH!
But apart from that, I really don’t have any complaints about this route. There is no mismanaged mystery, the romance is great, the girl is cute, the story is wonderful and emotional (although It didn’t really feel all that intense it for some reason), the deep concept of “happiness”, which is central to this very game, is explored, the overall setting is part of the plot and the ending is bitter-bitter-sweet.
Overall evaluation: The highlight of the game, as it should be.
???
D.S.
This is where we find the very meaning of this visual novel. Or for some players: the answer to “Why did Ame have to die?” A new caretaker of the paradise takes Ame’s place. While she looks a lot like her, she also seems much more mature and she implements the things that her predecessor has learned. For example, the happiness numbers are no more - because as we have learned, those numbers are not reliable.
So what exactly does this mean? It means we have moved on. Not to something completely new, but we have made progress, we have learned something. This is the difference between Dal Segno and Da Capo.
According to my brief research, “Da Capo Al Fine” is a command in music scores which means to start from the beginning of the song and play it up to the part that says “fine”. The concept of the Da Capo games is perpetual repetition. Repetition around a certain constant. It’s a circle of sorts. If you’ve read through the Da Capo series, you know what I mean.
“Dal Segno” is similar. But unlike “Da Capo”, you don’t restart the music piece from the very beginning, but from a certain designated point. In other words, we don’t start from zero. That’s why the character in the middle of it all, Ame, had been succeeded by a different one.
Props for that concept that compares the two series and allows us to appreciate them more.
In the end, while the inconsistencies in quality do waste some of the game’s potential, the good things outweigh the bad. While it’s not on the same level as Da Capo, I expect this series to keep approaching it. And if they get to iron out the problematic parts, we may just be in for something amazing when D.S. III is realeased.
Final thoughts: Good. Not on the level of Da Capo, but good. No matter how much I complain, this is definitely a worhtwhile experience.
Alright, now all that’s left to do is to adress the other posts…
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Higurashi Chapter 6 ‘Tsumihoroboshi’ out with 10% off the price promotion on Steam for 1 week only. I’m waiting still for the whole answer arc to come out before I play it…
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