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I took a big break but it's still pretty fun.
Beniyuri is woken by a message: "the kaleidoscope is in the manor"
Yeah, I already kinda assumed that, mysterious sms sender
SIGH guess I can be glad it took this long for heterosexuality to raise it's ugly head. Karasuba is kinda skeezy to Beniyuri and she politely pretends not to notice (or is too dumb to realise, it's still too early to tell which way she falls on the otome heroine cluelessness scale). Then he trolls Yamato who nearly decks him before Kagiya gets them to calm down.
A basket of food has mysteriously been left in the kitchen! They should watch to see how that happens.
ooh turns out everyone got the same message this time!
Hikage: Hey, where you going? It's dangerous out there!
Yamato: You guys can sit around talking about kaleidoscopes but I'm going to find an escape route.
Beniyuri, grabbing him: Noooooo
For a second he looked so angry I thought he'd hit her but then he just looks sad.
Yamato: I just...have this feeling it's important I get back.
Aww. I like that Hikage is tsunderly protective of the dudes too.
One group of dudes goes left and the other goes right.
me: Hmm, guess a choice is coming up. I'll pick ri-
Beniyuri: Right!
Me: Hey, don't I get a say in this?
I wrote the next bit when I was sick or something and it was all half sentences full of typos but I THINK I remember the gist.
They walk down long corridors full of locked doors. Finally they find an unlocked door, inside is a room full of expensive objects, all jumbled together.
In a box Beniyuri finds a carefully wrapped plate that shines like mother of pearl.
Suddenly someone arrives at the door: a little girl in a rabbit mask. She says that is the cover to the kaleidoscope they seek and the master of the house told her to help the ones who found it.
When asked her name she trembles and says she's not important enough for that so Beniyuri calls her "Usagi" (The Japanese for rabbit).
Usagi: If I say too much I'll get in trouble. The shards of the kaleidoscope have been scattered across the manor, the monsters are attracted to them so the shards must be retrieved by force. Your weapon is the power of thought.
Everyone: Uh...
Usagi: Oh, it's raining, it will be night soon
Beniyuri: It rains at night?
Usagi: Yes, that's the sort of place this is. The monsters are active at night too so you should return too.
And then she walks through the door and is gone.
Back at the base, the other two have found the kaleidoscope tube. Beniuyuri puts it together with the cap and then it absorbs the shard she found and displays strange mandalas on the wall. Beniyuri feels her soul transported, and then the image fades.
Everyones phone beeps with a new message: "a reward". There's an attachment, Beniyuri sees a photo of what seems to be a father and two sisters.
Beniyuri: is that me?
She has a sudden memory of telling her little sister Haruka that she was going to meet someone important.
Everyone else had similar experiences. Karasuba seems especially upset.
Lying in bed, Beniyuri is overcome by her situation and starts to cry. Kagiha knocks on the door with a warm cup of cocoa.
HMM. I MEAN IT'S NOT TEA, BUT I HAVE MY EYE ON YOU, GENTLE OLDER DUDE OFFERING HOT DRINKS.
Beniyuri: I'm not crying! I...got dust in my eyes while cleaning!!
Generally when an otome heroine is sad the guys are all "Put on a smile!!" but he says "It's important to let tears fall when they want to come, so you can smile later".
So she cries, and then calms down and smiles.
Kagiha: You have a cute smile
Beniyuri: Cute?
Kagiha: UH. Sorry, I've been spending too much time around Karasuba, I didn't meant to be flirtatious.
Beniyuri: Ha yes he does joke around a lot
Kagiha: I wasn't joking. The way you smile, and the way you cry, you're, uh...so I've noticed you seem guarded around me?
Beniyuri: Oh, now that you mention it...I guess you seem older. You're like a big brother.
YES OK OTOMATE I SEE THE YANDERE FLAGS (...and I'm into it >.>)
Hikaru: Uh. Why are you hanging around Beniyuri's room?
Kagiha: I made cocoa ^_^
Hikaru: Hmm. Anyway, I want to talk to you...
Game: The adjacent short episode can be unlocked with points. Clear to proceed to the next.
Me: What?
Game: *complex flowchart*
Me: What??
Game: Shoot butterflies to see cute boys.
Me: oh :/ Hmm, I'm only at 100/296? Oh well, let's do one minigame round and see if it helps.
*shoots butterflies*
Me: Ooh I got a B this time!
Game: You are at 100/889
Me: WHAT. THAT's...Ohhhhhhh. *spends 100 of my 889 points to unlock the scene*
I wonder if that's an artefact of the right to left Japanese UI.
Hikaru kept shouting at me in untranslated Japanese during the minigame and it was very distracting. I like to THINK it was encouragements...
The unlocked scene:
A memory of Ai (Benyuri) getting ready for highschool (boo, I was hoping she was older) Her dad makes bacon and eggs and apologises for not making the sort of proper Japanese breakfast Ai's mother did before she died. Beniyuri is waiting for a male friend who I bet is one of the LIs. I think she described him as light hearted, so maybe Karasuba?
Ooh, found the dialogue log, I've been working from memory. You have to mouse over the top of the screen?? That's really not very intuitive.
(I took a break for a month here to finish more of Mystic Messenger)
Oh man all the food talk was making me hungry and then I unlocked a random scene to the side of the main timeline and it's ALL ABOUT COOKING CURRY. *takes a break to make myself spiced apple cake*
Oh no, there's no curry powder! But wait, there's a recipe, and individual spices...
Beniyuri: Cumin, cardamon, turmeric, ginger, red pepper- I've never heard of any of these!
Really. Beniyuri? You've never heard of GINGER, one of the primary flavours in TERIYAKI?
Now I'm wondering if Japanese people don't use the first three so much, though. I tend to assume everywhere is less whitebread than Australia when it comes to spices but I guess they're not really a big part of Japanese cooking?
Turns out Yamato is the only one who has any instinct for cooking, but everyone works together. Hikage approaches exact spice measurement like it's a life or death mission, it's pretty cute.
Here's the current state of the flowchart:
There's eight of those "short episode"s off to the side, seven of them can be unlocked for 150 points, but the one on the bottom right has TWO locks on it and can't be currently unlocked at all, and is apparently a Yamato hidden scene. I wonder how it unlocks!
In general I find it interesting how the actual story has had basically zero interactivity so far, but the player still interacts via the minigame and choosing what to unlock etc. Which at least makes it more involving than a totally kinetic novel (a visual novel with no interactivity at all), I tend to drift off during those.
Anyway, time to move on to Chapter 2!
I took a big break but it's still pretty fun.
Beniyuri is woken by a message: "the kaleidoscope is in the manor"
Yeah, I already kinda assumed that, mysterious sms sender
SIGH guess I can be glad it took this long for heterosexuality to raise it's ugly head. Karasuba is kinda skeezy to Beniyuri and she politely pretends not to notice (or is too dumb to realise, it's still too early to tell which way she falls on the otome heroine cluelessness scale). Then he trolls Yamato who nearly decks him before Kagiya gets them to calm down.
A basket of food has mysteriously been left in the kitchen! They should watch to see how that happens.
ooh turns out everyone got the same message this time!
Hikage: Hey, where you going? It's dangerous out there!
Yamato: You guys can sit around talking about kaleidoscopes but I'm going to find an escape route.
Beniyuri, grabbing him: Noooooo
For a second he looked so angry I thought he'd hit her but then he just looks sad.
Yamato: I just...have this feeling it's important I get back.
Aww. I like that Hikage is tsunderly protective of the dudes too.
One group of dudes goes left and the other goes right.
me: Hmm, guess a choice is coming up. I'll pick ri-
Beniyuri: Right!
Me: Hey, don't I get a say in this?
I wrote the next bit when I was sick or something and it was all half sentences full of typos but I THINK I remember the gist.
They walk down long corridors full of locked doors. Finally they find an unlocked door, inside is a room full of expensive objects, all jumbled together.
In a box Beniyuri finds a carefully wrapped plate that shines like mother of pearl.
Suddenly someone arrives at the door: a little girl in a rabbit mask. She says that is the cover to the kaleidoscope they seek and the master of the house told her to help the ones who found it.
When asked her name she trembles and says she's not important enough for that so Beniyuri calls her "Usagi" (The Japanese for rabbit).
Usagi: If I say too much I'll get in trouble. The shards of the kaleidoscope have been scattered across the manor, the monsters are attracted to them so the shards must be retrieved by force. Your weapon is the power of thought.
Everyone: Uh...
Usagi: Oh, it's raining, it will be night soon
Beniyuri: It rains at night?
Usagi: Yes, that's the sort of place this is. The monsters are active at night too so you should return too.
And then she walks through the door and is gone.
Back at the base, the other two have found the kaleidoscope tube. Beniuyuri puts it together with the cap and then it absorbs the shard she found and displays strange mandalas on the wall. Beniyuri feels her soul transported, and then the image fades.
Everyones phone beeps with a new message: "a reward". There's an attachment, Beniyuri sees a photo of what seems to be a father and two sisters.
Beniyuri: is that me?
She has a sudden memory of telling her little sister Haruka that she was going to meet someone important.
Everyone else had similar experiences. Karasuba seems especially upset.
Lying in bed, Beniyuri is overcome by her situation and starts to cry. Kagiha knocks on the door with a warm cup of cocoa.
HMM. I MEAN IT'S NOT TEA, BUT I HAVE MY EYE ON YOU, GENTLE OLDER DUDE OFFERING HOT DRINKS.
Beniyuri: I'm not crying! I...got dust in my eyes while cleaning!!
Generally when an otome heroine is sad the guys are all "Put on a smile!!" but he says "It's important to let tears fall when they want to come, so you can smile later".
So she cries, and then calms down and smiles.
Kagiha: You have a cute smile
Beniyuri: Cute?
Kagiha: UH. Sorry, I've been spending too much time around Karasuba, I didn't meant to be flirtatious.
Beniyuri: Ha yes he does joke around a lot
Kagiha: I wasn't joking. The way you smile, and the way you cry, you're, uh...so I've noticed you seem guarded around me?
Beniyuri: Oh, now that you mention it...I guess you seem older. You're like a big brother.
YES OK OTOMATE I SEE THE YANDERE FLAGS (...and I'm into it >.>)
Hikaru: Uh. Why are you hanging around Beniyuri's room?
Kagiha: I made cocoa ^_^
Hikaru: Hmm. Anyway, I want to talk to you...
Game: The adjacent short episode can be unlocked with points. Clear to proceed to the next.
Me: What?
Game: *complex flowchart*
Me: What??
Game: Shoot butterflies to see cute boys.
Me: oh :/ Hmm, I'm only at 100/296? Oh well, let's do one minigame round and see if it helps.
*shoots butterflies*
Me: Ooh I got a B this time!
Game: You are at 100/889
Me: WHAT. THAT's...Ohhhhhhh. *spends 100 of my 889 points to unlock the scene*
I wonder if that's an artefact of the right to left Japanese UI.
Hikaru kept shouting at me in untranslated Japanese during the minigame and it was very distracting. I like to THINK it was encouragements...
The unlocked scene:
A memory of Ai (Benyuri) getting ready for highschool (boo, I was hoping she was older) Her dad makes bacon and eggs and apologises for not making the sort of proper Japanese breakfast Ai's mother did before she died. Beniyuri is waiting for a male friend who I bet is one of the LIs. I think she described him as light hearted, so maybe Karasuba?
Ooh, found the dialogue log, I've been working from memory. You have to mouse over the top of the screen?? That's really not very intuitive.
(I took a break for a month here to finish more of Mystic Messenger)
Oh man all the food talk was making me hungry and then I unlocked a random scene to the side of the main timeline and it's ALL ABOUT COOKING CURRY. *takes a break to make myself spiced apple cake*
Oh no, there's no curry powder! But wait, there's a recipe, and individual spices...
Beniyuri: Cumin, cardamon, turmeric, ginger, red pepper- I've never heard of any of these!
Really. Beniyuri? You've never heard of GINGER, one of the primary flavours in TERIYAKI?
Now I'm wondering if Japanese people don't use the first three so much, though. I tend to assume everywhere is less whitebread than Australia when it comes to spices but I guess they're not really a big part of Japanese cooking?
Turns out Yamato is the only one who has any instinct for cooking, but everyone works together. Hikage approaches exact spice measurement like it's a life or death mission, it's pretty cute.
Here's the current state of the flowchart:
There's eight of those "short episode"s off to the side, seven of them can be unlocked for 150 points, but the one on the bottom right has TWO locks on it and can't be currently unlocked at all, and is apparently a Yamato hidden scene. I wonder how it unlocks!
In general I find it interesting how the actual story has had basically zero interactivity so far, but the player still interacts via the minigame and choosing what to unlock etc. Which at least makes it more involving than a totally kinetic novel (a visual novel with no interactivity at all), I tend to drift off during those.
Anyway, time to move on to Chapter 2!
