DEARDROPS (OVERDRIVE)

Yay, another childhood friend-hater! High five! You know, I wouldn't hate Kanade so much, if it wasn't for the fact that on my current route, she's constantly a sideline presence to the actual plot, yet they just keep rubbing her into my face. Can it! I don't want to hear how super-special she is, and I don't give a damm how obviously she's been in love with Shoichi years before the game even started. In fact, I'd just like to ignore her, if you'd be please so kind to let me.

BTW, I decided to give up on the liveblog, since no one was reading it and it was starting to interfere with my enjoyment of the story.

Anyhow, I think I got pretty far into Riho's route, but I'm starting to feel that the game is overstaying it's welcome a bit. There have been several points where I thought 'This would be a nice open ending', but the story decides it wants to go on and on and on. FYI, Shoichi and Leo just declared open warfare.

Honestly, I'm getting a little tired of it. You don't just keep on piling crisis after crisis to be resolved in yet another dramatic crescendo. The audience (me) will eventually grow jaded if you repeat that cycle too often. Well, at least this arc has a bit of a Final Boss feel to it, so I'm sure my suffering won't last much longer.

Oh, and H-scenes are decidedly unsexy. Not that I am that disappointed, but it felt like they weren't even trying, making the whoele thing just embarrassing. Well, at least they are rare.

Other than that, nice story. Loved the part where Goda leaves the band. Didn't expect something like that to come along.

edited 27th May '12 9:12:26 AM by Kayeka

I'm currently on Kanade's route. Riho's route is reserved for last.

Hm... well. I don't really hate Kanade as a character much. She still has a couple of those really annoying stereotypical childhood love interest traits. But her confession scene was well done and she does seem to be a fairly capable person. Shifted dangerously close to Mary Sue territory because the story tells me she's amazingly good while refusing to show me any of her effort, but she's practicing a little now so it's not that egregious.

My main issue with her right now is the fact that the focus of the story shifts away from the band. It's kind of inevitable since she isn't a band member and has already started being independently produced but I'm irked nevertheless because I really liked the band in the common route. She's probably one of the better childhood love interests I've seen but the fact is that she can't hold up the whole story by herself.

As for multiple big developments... I'm actually a huge sucker for them. As long as the story doesn't get boring, I can get easily carried away by the drama. And one of the easier ways for me to not get bored of the story is when developments don't get dragged out, coming and going with a bang. Throw in a bit of variety in the conflicts and I'm hooked. So far, DEARDROPS has never had a dull moment. Its premature to say anything about the story as a whole but currently, I'd say I haven't enjoyed myself as much in almost every other visual novels I've played so far.

Oh yeah, and Kanako is obviously the best character. Where did she go? ;_;

edited 27th May '12 10:15:56 AM by Thrombin

Oh, I'm certainly enjoying this as well. It just won't top my charts, so to speak.

Oh course, getting tired of the never ending plot might be because I tend to marathon these type of games. I should have probably taken a break once it started dragging.

Of course, that too would be easier if they weren't constantly baiting me by hinting 'The ending is only ten minutes ahead!' multiple times in a row.

edited 27th May '12 10:09:16 AM by Kayeka

If the story manages to keep up a similar pace, it might actually be among my top VNs. Some VNs have lukewarm buildup, piddling about in banal slice-of-life before the powerful, memorable payoffs hit. Those moments make the read worth it from the sheer carthasis and are what gives them high scores despite them sometimes having really big flaws.

Pacing, endings, contrivances, philosophical anvils and conflicts. Any number of those are often clumsily molested along the way of an otherwise amazing story. Yes, I'm referring to Muv Luv Alternative. From what I've seen, I'm not going to be especially moved or roused by any of DEARDROP's climaxes but unlike a lot of visual novels, it's consistently great and entertaining. In a way, I think that's what makes it memorable even if it doesn't have any memorable moments.

edited 27th May '12 10:42:13 AM by Thrombin

Aaaaand finished the Riho route. Well, that was certainly sweet.

Now, I'd love totake on the other routes to see what those got to offer, but it appears that my habit of only using quicksaves messed up the 'skip read text' option. Which means I'd have to go through everything on normal speed, or risk missing all kinds of new lines I missed last time.

Eh, forget it.

You can hold down the control button to skip it can't you?

Mind you, I only read the Riho route myself. I started reading Rimu's and realized I didn't care about her problems.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that Riho was the main attraction here. I don't really think there's much of a point to go back and do another route, since two of those are hanger-ons and the third one I hate. Well, that's what you get for picking the options that would make the most narrative sense.

Still had a good time, though.

Finished Riho's route.

It's perhaps shallow of me to say this, but I was very disappointed at the dearth of affection in the chemistry between Shoichi and Riho. Yes, yes, they support each other and all, but their everyday interactions... don't feel as if the relationship has progressed much beyond good friends. I can't even remember when Shoichi ever offhandedly thought that he was in love with Riho. And Riho... is this really her first time falling in love? Is it really mundane enough to be so apathetic about? What happened to your proclamation about how emotional falling in love was? So yeah. They don't feel like lovers at all. Except for when they have sex. Then, well. It can't be helped.

I guess this is what you'd call true noble confidants.

Other than that, I was also rather disappointed at how the conflict with Leo was settled. It's set up to be a big showdown with a seemingly insurmountable enemy... but then our heroes decide to not to face him after all, go off to a rubbish dump and use that as their venue. The rising conflict was completely dodged, avoided, ignored and forgotten. The battle was with a pile of scrap metal and the weather. Zero tension, zero catharsis. Which was a little unexpected. From experience, the standoffish oujous usually get really dramatic stuff in their routes.

Still, I liked most of the story, especially the common route, and the band members hit off well. Kanade's route was full of cliches towards the end but it did build up something competently and the couple were actually, clearly in love with each other. And Shoichi was an above-average protagonist, if still surprisingly love-dense at times. I'd give this visual novel a solid 7.

edited 28th May '12 12:04:08 PM by Thrombin

This thread reminds me that I still need to get around finishing Riho's route (every single other route done). It's been sitting in my desktop for who-knows-how-long (not as bad as Steins;Gate, though, but I'm saving that one for the summer)

I liked a lot of things, but sadly, I think I still prefer Kira Kira in overall terms (except for the artwork, I just can't bring myself to like those ears from the artist of both Edelweiss and Kira Kira). Who knows? Maybe the Riho's route will make me reconsider that

Oh, but the songs are amazing, maybe even more so than its spiritual predecessor. Even the song from the main menu is awesome

Having gone to this game straight from G Senjou No Maou, where the suffering poverty can cause even the most resolute human spirit was a major theme, I really can't help wondering about Shoichi and Riho's future given the huge debt to his dad they took on to buy back his violin.

Wasn't it just one million yen? That's about twelve grand to the Yankees. Considering that the couple doesn't have to support an ailing mother, the debtor isn't Gonzou and Shoichi is going back to the violin, I think it really isn't much of an issue

He said it was at least a few million yen. Salaries for orchestra members vary a lot, but I would guess that Shoichi's salary wasn't particularly great on grounds that he doesn't seem to have any significant savings after doing it for several years. He's probably earning more than at the live house, but Riho probably isn't earning much at all.

I have no idea if the audio worked, but this is the first arc I'm keen on finishing and randomly recording bits of it.

edited 29th Jul '13 5:49:43 AM by TheTomatoFairy

cool,Mangagamer announced the crossover with Kira Kira fandisc