If My Heart Had Wings General Discussion

[StarfishBender]

I’ll just be lazy and copy my post from the General VN discussion to here…

General Visual Novel Topic

I’ve been reading “If My Heart Had Wings”, and finished the common and Kotori routes so far. I’ve found it a pleasant read although as is my way some of the “blossoming romance” sections too long and sugary (just my personal tastes here). I like the use of the Soaring Club and glider as a symbol of independence, growth and freedom - though I might be overthinking it a bit!

The common route is very long and I didn’t get the first choice until some 9 hours of (slowish) reading, I was surprised when the intro movie cut in as it was so far into the VN I’d forgotten we hadn’t had one yet! I quite like Kotori although she doesn’t stand out much to me as a character compared to others in other games, the route is a little heavy on melodrama.

Bear in mind, I’m playing the unpatched Steam version; initially I didn’t see many translation issues but as the VN went on there were more and more silly errors which look like sloppiness and a lack of quality checking rather than weak translation (not that I’d know). E.G. a female character being referred to as ‘she’ in one sentence then ‘he’ in the next! A bit minor but annoying. I really did not want to mess about with the Restoration patch though (don’t need H-Scenes), so my bad.

Will say more when I’ve completed all the routes, but for now I’d put this below CLANNAD and Steins;Gate but well above Grisaia in my ratings. I don’t think this will have a lasting resonance.

General Visual Novel Topic

I’m going through Ageha’s route now, and it’s quite bizarre. I googled it to see if it was just me but it looks like it was largely rewritten for context because of the removal of the h-scenes. The translation and presentation of the story is (to me) odd. I guess this one really does benefit from the Restoration patch. It’s a bit unfortunate if that route is chosen first ahead of Kotori.

EDIT: I ended up skipping most of Ageha’s route in the end as it got too painful, nonetheless I think I did get the gist of what was going on but 10+ hours of it was too much for me. Trouble for me is that the glider story seems to be pushed back far too much - but saying that it does add a little to Ageha and Aoi’s back story if you chose or landed on Kotori’s route first.

EDIT #2

Asa & Yoru - could be considered a minor spoiler so identical twins and I found it a bit hard not to draw some parallels with the Ryou/Kyou love triangle this is quite a fun route though it doesn’t really add much to the overall story. There is a combination of the routes up to a point, we do go through some of the usual tropes, e.g. Polar Opposite Twins, Different as Night and Day, and I don’t know if the h-scenes go full on Twin Threesome Fantasy but it seems from hints on the Steam version it might end up that way!

General Visual Novel Topic

Completed Amane’s route so now finished the VN, and this one was was my favourite, it does a very nice job of completing the circle in terms of the story and we also get an insight into the VNs antagonist who was rather one dimensional villain until this route.

There is no “True ending” as such but for my part, Kotori (which has to be completed to open certain other routes) and Amane are the essential routes with the others more optional and Amane is best saved to last as it comes the closest IMO to a true ending.

Being still new to VNs I’m still feeling my way and as a n00b to this forum I have to point out I still find the teen romance elements for the most part a little dull - it takes I think some special story writing to engage my interest in the way that Tomoya/Nagisa and Steins;Gate spoiler Okabe and Kurisu, which helps to add such a cruel dilemma to the story and I did as usual find some parts of the routes went on too long.

I spent a fair time on MS Flight simulator in my past so I appreciated the inclusion of aerodynamics as I felt this helps the reader believe that High School students could achieve what they manage here. I understand that slight spoiler Gliders riding the Morning Glory really is a thing in Australia where the phenomenon is predictable.

It’s a pity that Ageha’s route seems to have been messed up in the Steam version ( bearing in mind I know nothing of the Japanese or Restoration versions) and that is the only downer objectively but it’s up to each prospective reader to decide if they want the full on eroge I guess.

It actually took me over 50 hours to complete all the routes, and as this is a lowish/mid price game on Steam, it’s good value. I’d definitely recommend it.