While I generally enjoy Yuri Genre visual novels, and had good things about Kindred Spirits on the Roof, I wasn't sure that it was worth the price tag, but picked it up when it was on sale for 50% off and didn't regret that decision in the slightest.
The plot involves two ghosts asking a girl named Yuna to help various lesbian couples get together. In the process, Yuna meets young women in love and ends up growing significantly as a person.
Kindred Spirits is a Linear Visual Novel, meaning that there's only one route and your dialogue choices only change a few lines of dialogue. Unusually for the genre, every time you complete a month of the game, you get the chance to play scenes from other characters' POV. This provides a nice way to shed light on other characters' perspectives and see events Yuna wasn't present for. Unfortunately, these scenes sometimes come off as a bit redundant, since many are reruns of Yuna's scenes(for example, she witnesses a key incident involving Maki in its entirety), which happens more often later on in the story.
The characters are generally diverse and well-done. Each couple has certain issues that they must overcome, from coming to terms with their lesbianism to keeping their relationship secret that are generally portrayed realistically and compellingly. Being teenagers, they make their share of bad decisions, but they have understandable reasons for those choices, so it's difficult to fault them too much. While some VN protagonists might come off as Vanilla Protagonists that the players can project themselves onto, Yuna has an interesting backstory and a good character arc, making her a good protagonist.
Of course, I should point out that one of the couples is a Teacher/Student Romance. It's relatively tasteful compared to most examples- the age gap is relatively narrow(24 and 16), the student is the one who asks the teacher out and the taboo nature of the relationship is openly discussed- but many people will likely be uncomfortable with it.
The game is relatively expensive for a VN, at around $35 on Steam, so I'd recommend getting it on sale(which, granted, is common sense). That said, it's also quite long for a VN, with the main story lasting about 15 hours and six months in-universe. After you complete the game, you can unlock several hours' worth of extra scenes at various points in the story. This adds quite a bit of value to the game, but I'd hoped that there would be more scenes that take place after the final story event on October 31.
The soundtrack is decent, and has a good variety of tunes, although sometimes, the BGM doesn't quite fit the mood of a scene as well as it could. The art is generally well-done, with fairly good character designs, detailed backgrounds and memorable CG images for key moments.
Kindred Spirits isn't perfect(although most of my complaints are relatively minor), but it's a stellar example of a yuri visual novel that's well worth checking out for any fan of the genre.
VisualNovel Excellent Yuri VN
While I generally enjoy Yuri Genre visual novels, and had good things about Kindred Spirits on the Roof, I wasn't sure that it was worth the price tag, but picked it up when it was on sale for 50% off and didn't regret that decision in the slightest.
The plot involves two ghosts asking a girl named Yuna to help various lesbian couples get together. In the process, Yuna meets young women in love and ends up growing significantly as a person.
Kindred Spirits is a Linear Visual Novel, meaning that there's only one route and your dialogue choices only change a few lines of dialogue. Unusually for the genre, every time you complete a month of the game, you get the chance to play scenes from other characters' POV. This provides a nice way to shed light on other characters' perspectives and see events Yuna wasn't present for. Unfortunately, these scenes sometimes come off as a bit redundant, since many are reruns of Yuna's scenes(for example, she witnesses a key incident involving Maki in its entirety), which happens more often later on in the story.
The characters are generally diverse and well-done. Each couple has certain issues that they must overcome, from coming to terms with their lesbianism to keeping their relationship secret that are generally portrayed realistically and compellingly. Being teenagers, they make their share of bad decisions, but they have understandable reasons for those choices, so it's difficult to fault them too much. While some VN protagonists might come off as Vanilla Protagonists that the players can project themselves onto, Yuna has an interesting backstory and a good character arc, making her a good protagonist.
Of course, I should point out that one of the couples is a Teacher/Student Romance. It's relatively tasteful compared to most examples- the age gap is relatively narrow(24 and 16), the student is the one who asks the teacher out and the taboo nature of the relationship is openly discussed- but many people will likely be uncomfortable with it.
The game is relatively expensive for a VN, at around $35 on Steam, so I'd recommend getting it on sale(which, granted, is common sense). That said, it's also quite long for a VN, with the main story lasting about 15 hours and six months in-universe. After you complete the game, you can unlock several hours' worth of extra scenes at various points in the story. This adds quite a bit of value to the game, but I'd hoped that there would be more scenes that take place after the final story event on October 31.
The soundtrack is decent, and has a good variety of tunes, although sometimes, the BGM doesn't quite fit the mood of a scene as well as it could. The art is generally well-done, with fairly good character designs, detailed backgrounds and memorable CG images for key moments.
Kindred Spirits isn't perfect(although most of my complaints are relatively minor), but it's a stellar example of a yuri visual novel that's well worth checking out for any fan of the genre.