I’d like it more if it wasn’t for the 36 achievements related to it.
This is an issue. It was the most annoying thing about 1st beat, and I was really hoping they’d hold back this time.
I get having chieves for high scores and whatnot, but the titles are absurd. And #49 requires you to go through the ping pong tutorial but decline the actual game; it’s so arbitrary.
I don’t think the trial changed my opinion of the heroines. They’ve been marketed to hell and I follow all of that stuff manically. Nomiki and the bros were more the highlight. Writing-wise, the welcome party was my favorite scene. The ping pong was a lot more fair and rewarding than batting practice.
My biggest problem was the exposition and foreshadowing. It’s all very immediate and in-your-face; it’s a slog. Obviously can’t say if all the foreshadowing will turn out as I think, but if it does then the game is just Kanon in summer. That would be less than ideal. They’ll also frequently say things twice in quick succession making it very repetitive.
Finally, Hairi is a super weird protagonist. In his head, he constantly gets stuck in depressing thoughts. I think he empathizes with broken inanimate objects 3 times in the first day alone.
Kyouko: I’m sorry the room’s so dusty. It was a storage for a long time.
Hairi: “It’s okay. It matches my mental state.”
Christ! He says shit like this constantly. But then he’s super outward and goes along with like every joke; he’s barely sarcastic at all. A group of kids grab his shirt as it’s drying. They say it’s a treasure and he its guardian, and Hairi just gets in character and plays with them.
