It’s Time to Settle Down: Review of [160930] Kanojo Step

Foreword: It’s been far too long without a review! I definitely have my schoolwork, employment, and other hobbies to blame, and even thought about quitting this site purely because of how little I was able to read VNs.

On the other hand, critiquing and reading VNs is one of the hobbies that I find unique about myself, so I just can’t really blow it off. It’s admittedly quite fun, especially when I get to talk trash about a title I hate. Why do you think I read bad VNs, you nerds?

However, I ultimately decided to swallow my pride and start DROPPING games. I generally had a very negative connotation about players dropping games in the first place (and still do, don’t get me wrong), but when one doesn’t have enough time to spend on a title as myself, this is pretty much the only option available since there’s way too many titles that’s dragging my time and not worth reading when in the end I’ll be complaining about how shitty it is anyways.

My biggest critique about players dropping games for whatever reason is that said reason is never expressed and doesn’t provide the player’s impressions on that game. This is why even if I do end up dropping games, I plan on mentioning them as well as my reason for dropping them. Whether I’ll do this as a monthly post or along with other reviews, this’ll be from trial-and-error, so please bear with me in that aspect.

Onto this title though, Kanojo Step! To be honest, I was actually quite surprised I completely forgot about this title; primarily because Smee is a company I find favorable especially with their writers specializing in intricate but silly humor. Overall though, I found this title was pretty much a copy-paste of another dating sim I found to be good, Lovely x Cation 2, so that was something I didn’t appreciate.

Let’s get on with the review!

P.S. After reading my review after writing it, it sounds pretty cringey, so I apologize in advance. I guess I forgot how2write during the long break.

Title: カノジョ＊ステップ (Kanojo * Step)
Producers: Smee
Release Date: September 30, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v19347
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=903610
Game Type: Comedy Dating Sim

Summary: Aki has never belonged anywhere due to his parents always moving around from one place to another, he was never able to make friends or form a deep relationship with anyone. With his parent’s death, his older sister takes him in and brings him to the countryside, where she promises would be the last “relocation”, and encourages him to form relationships here.

While Aki hates many things about the countryside including bugs or the lack of convenience stores, he is still grateful to his older sister for bringing him here, and genuinely decides to foster relationships he thought he wouldn’t be able to form during his school years. Perhaps that it’s time for him to settle down.

No Shiina, you can’t settle down on that bench

Summer is a Season of Fun and Happiness! Review of [130830]Aozora Stripe

Foreword: A long time without a review! Most of my life is filled with MMOs nowadays, considering I’ve spent 60 bucks to purchase the Founder’s Pack for a game called “Revelation Online”, so that’s going to occupy me for quite a while. Newer releases haven’t really been tickling my fancy either, and I’m really just going through backlog unless there’s a request for a review for a specific game.

I actually thought quite hard about what I should do with Irotoridori Sekai, and ultimately decided to drop the game. I’ve already finished Kana’s story and thought it was deep and complex, but was put off with the excessive ambiguity, length, and inability to become immersed in the story. I MAY come back to it when I have time in the future (which I don’t see happening, quite unfortunately), but considering the bone-carving pain I’ve had with Astral Air in the past, all Irotori is giving me is that same impression which is biasing me anyways.

On to the review of this title! Quite a fun and light-hearted charage, it was on my backlog for quite a while and something I really needed since it was suitable to be played alongside my MMOs. Story was surprisingly well written as a charage, which threw me off in the beginning, but I’ll make sure to explain both the goods and bads of this game in the review.

Title: あおぞらストライプ (Aozora Stripe)
Producers: Astronauts
Release Date: August 30, 2013
VNDB Link: http://vndb.org/v12604
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=773551
Game Type: Fanservice Harem Charage

Summary: Shinya is an assistant cook at a hidden restaurant called “dens”, where he was pursuing his dream as a chef by learning from his master. One day, he is informed that his master’s friend has been injured and was unable to operate her own restaurant over by the beach called “Aqua”, and as a test for his skills, Shinya is sent to that restaurant to work as a chef and see how much he has improved.

Heading over, he immediately meets Kotone, the daughter of the restaurant owner who creates a lasting impression on him, and his new relationships will include Misato, Sakura, Sumire, as well as Satsuki who follows him to this new environment.

The Summer’s Harvest! Review of [150529]Natsuiro Recipe

Foreword: Omigosh, I am so sorry! It’s been over a month without any kind of posts from me, and I really did not play any games to actually write a review about. Like, the entirety of last month was either nukige or MMOs for me, and now that school’s starting back up for me, I’m expecting even less time for review writing.

A bad news is that I am genuinely contemplating on stopping the writing of reviews because of how busy everything would be, and just enjoy the releases like a normal player, but then there would be no fun in ranting about the bad games or praising the good ones!

Alright, right onto this title, called “Natsuiro Recipe”. To be perfectly honest, I came here for the food (like what most of us do when there’s an organization meeting at your college). As a competent cook myself, I was curious to know how the game would incorporate the themes “summer”, “food”, and “romance” into a single game.

In short, they did do a very decent job at this fusion of themes, but they also missed out critical portions and being the asshole of a critic I am, I’m here to thoroughly exploit that and hopefully get the readers to laugh as well.

Title: なついろレシピ (Natsuiro Recipe) [Summer-colored Recipe]
Producers: Pulltop Air
Release Date: May 29th, 2015
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v16515
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=842088
Game Type: Romance Novel with themes of “Food” and “Summertime”

Summary: Takefumi is a boy who never thought he belonged anywhere; he was always being dragged around by his dad and frankly getting tired of it. As he had nothing to do after graduating college, a letter addressed to his father in Hong Kong arrives at his home.

The letter is written by a girl who claims to be the hidden daughter of Takefumi’s father. Takefumi, who is already aware of his father’s bad habits of hooking up with random women, takes this to heart and decides to visit this girl in the rural countryside to apologize and do whatever he can.

This strange, beautiful, but lonely girl has no one to trust, but with Takefumi’s support, she starts smiling again. Despite this, Takefumi decides to take a step further, and to re-establish the restaurant of Yuzu’s now-deceased grandmother, which was extraordinarily important to the young girl.

The restaurant’s special fried rice! Most of the beginning scenes show Yuzu and Takefumi trying to replicate this popular recipe, but having something missing each time.