Narumi Nitpicks: Yumeutsutsu Remaster
Long winded story for a surprisingly grounded and realistic depiction of work life and workplace romance. My Japanese skills is as I mentioned countless times before, inadequate and weak, so I got through a lot of the game with minimal understanding and may misinterpret the plot.
Yumeutsutsu Remaster (henceforth Yurimaster) is tiring and boring at times, but it's worth it to get to the true route which is surprisingly very different from the other routes but one that at least makes use of some early foreshadowing and actually ties into the themes of the whole game and even down to the title. However, the existence of a true route pretty much invalidates the existence of the other routes, making them feel like side routes by comparison. The side routes are written by different authors to the common and true route, further highlighting this discrepancy. This also has the effect of characters acting differently in different routes. Kokoro for instance is a horrible control freak in Saki's route, but otherwise surprisingly understanding in Marie's route for instance. Some thoughts on each individual route:
Saki: Surprisingly realistic depiction of terrible bosses and bad workplace environment. Can get pretty uncomfortable at times because of this.
Nana: Written by the author of flowers, so I knew what to expect but still ended up disappointed. If you have any experience with flowers printemps or automne or even kudan no folklore you know how this goes.
Marie: For once a route that isn't long winded and actually easy to read. However since I was rushing through this (I have a flight tomorrow), I skimmed through a lot of potentially important details. Though overall I wasn't too impressed by the route, but I did like the Bad End variant.
Kokoro: The true route which requires all other routes to even unlock. My personal favourite since it resolves a lot of mysteries established early on in the VN and itself being incredibly sweet and cute. It's also the most interesting of the bunch. It's the longest route of the bunch and is pretty long winded though.
Overall, a decent VN with gorgeous art and a decent soundtrack (but one that tires out quickly) and a fairly interesting true route story.
6/10
Postscript: Compared to Kogado's other works, I'm glad it doesn't do the "Pair the Spares" thing if you pursue other routes.
Yumeutsutsu Remaster (henceforth Yurimaster) is tiring and boring at times, but it's worth it to get to the true route which is surprisingly very different from the other routes but one that at least makes use of some early foreshadowing and actually ties into the themes of the whole game and even down to the title. However, the existence of a true route pretty much invalidates the existence of the other routes, making them feel like side routes by comparison. The side routes are written by different authors to the common and true route, further highlighting this discrepancy. This also has the effect of characters acting differently in different routes. Kokoro for instance is a horrible control freak in Saki's route, but otherwise surprisingly understanding in Marie's route for instance. Some thoughts on each individual route:
Saki: Surprisingly realistic depiction of terrible bosses and bad workplace environment. Can get pretty uncomfortable at times because of this.
Nana: Written by the author of flowers, so I knew what to expect but still ended up disappointed. If you have any experience with flowers printemps or automne or even kudan no folklore you know how this goes.
Marie: For once a route that isn't long winded and actually easy to read. However since I was rushing through this (I have a flight tomorrow), I skimmed through a lot of potentially important details. Though overall I wasn't too impressed by the route, but I did like the Bad End variant.
Kokoro: The true route which requires all other routes to even unlock. My personal favourite since it resolves a lot of mysteries established early on in the VN and itself being incredibly sweet and cute. It's also the most interesting of the bunch. It's the longest route of the bunch and is pretty long winded though.
Overall, a decent VN with gorgeous art and a decent soundtrack (but one that tires out quickly) and a fairly interesting true route story.
6/10
Postscript: Compared to Kogado's other works, I'm glad it doesn't do the "Pair the Spares" thing if you pursue other routes.
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