How has this game aged?

[JellybeanStreamz]

I'm interested in playing this but curious how it falls by today's standards. I'm curious whether it handles disability representation with empathy and respect rather than from a savior complex perspective. Could someone give me an honest perspective?

[Katatonik]

I'm sure they gonna leave it as is. They already make it good to represent disabilities IMO

[Dan Is Human]

Its a very very good game. It treats its premise with respect and does the story really well. 10/10, probs gonna 100% it again. Especially if theres achievements

[Howe-itzer!]

It does a really good job treating the characters with disabilities with respect.

[Asthma_Spray]

The fact this game could've so easily been handled that way is what makes the game so special. It does play with some of those ideas, either as the focus of certain stories or as complements to the main narratives, but it's always in a meaningful way. The representation of dissabilities is well done, sometimes you even forget about them sometimes.

Maybe some things could feel a bit outdated if you look at them with enough scrutany, but none of it outshines the rest of the game.

[xenilla]

The standards that this game adheres to are way more universal than the times they were made in. There's no savior complex, either; it's a fact that the very character you play as, Hisao, has a rather crippling disability of his own. You don't accuse someone of having a "savior complex" for helping people with normal problems, and eventually settling down with the person they helped. That's literally just Life 101. You invest your time, effort, and joy in the person you love, helping them to become a better person as they do so for you, too.

Ironically, this game better represents a healthy relationship (in some of the routes, at least) than it does anything regarding disabled people. The disabilities are simply the setting. The characters and their personalities are the bulk of the story.

[JellybeanStreamz]

Originally posted by xenilla:

The standards that this game adheres to are way more universal than the times they were made in. There's no savior complex, either; it's a fact that the very character you play as, Hisao, has a rather crippling disability of his own. You don't accuse someone of having a "savior complex" for helping people with normal problems, and eventually settling down with the person they helped. That's literally just Life 101. You invest your time, effort, and joy in the person you love, helping them to become a better person as they do so for you, too.

Ironically, this game better represents a healthy relationship (in some of the routes, at least) than it does anything regarding disabled people. The disabilities are simply the setting. The characters and their personalities are the bulk of the story.

Thank you, that is good to know. I'm glad this game is presented in the way you describe and not as characters that need to be fixed or saved. I'll definitely give it a try.

[Stripey]

"Savior complex"

You have a disability too though

[Grayest]

inb4 the zoomers cancel KS

[daerian.dragon]

Originally posted by JellybeanStreamz:

Thank you, that is good to know. I'm glad this game is presented in the way you describe and not as characters that need to be fixed or saved. I'll definitely give it a try.

I would add two things to the post above: each route is written by different person, so if you don't like the specific route framing still try different ones too. I personally disliked two routes, while I consider three other ones among best VN stories (and stories with persons with disabilities) I have read.

Second, one of the routes directly plays with concept of "saviour complex" behaviour, so don't be surprised if you see suspicious options to choose from. Following the "saviour complex" behavior in this route will explicitly lead to failing to connect emotionally in meaningful way with heroine of this route. Personally I love how author did this.

[Howe-itzer!]

Originally posted by daerian.dragon:

Originally posted by JellybeanStreamz:

Thank you, that is good to know. I'm glad this game is presented in the way you describe and not as characters that need to be fixed or saved. I'll definitely give it a try.

I would add two things to the post above: each route is written by different person, so if you don't like the specific route framing still try different ones too. I personally disliked two routes, while I consider three other ones among best VN stories (and stories with persons with disabilities) I have read.

Second, one of the routes directly plays with concept of "saviour complex" behaviour, so don't be surprised if you see suspicious options to choose from. Following the "saviour complex" behavior in this route will explicitly lead to failing to connect emotionally in meaningful way with heroine of this route. Personally I love how author did this.

Out of curiosity: which routes did you not like and why, without going too deep into spoilers?

[daerian.dragon]

Originally posted by Howe-itzer!:

Out of curiosity: which routes did you not like and why, without going too deep into spoilers?

I loved Emi, Rin and Hanako routes.

Emi route because of Emi herself, I just find her very compelling character. I love how she continues with her passion of sport even when living with her disability. As additional bonus, I think she suits main character the most.

Rin because her route was very interesting and I personally headcanon Rin as autistic person outside of her her physical disability, which I find very interesting in storytelling and representation sense.

Hanako because of her passion, her interests and because her route discusses "saviour complex" behaviour so much, taking clear stance against it and showing how bad it really is.

I disliked Lilly and Shizune routes.

Shizune I will admit that it was mostly because I just don't like her character. She is good character, in writing sense, just the one I dislike, because I really dislike people being too controlling of others.

Lilly route is in my opinion worst written one. For me it has highest amount of plot contrivances and characters doing very stupid things and making bad decisions to further plot and create tension and problems to solve, instead of these happening organically.

[Howe-itzer!]

Originally posted by daerian.dragon:

Originally posted by Howe-itzer!:

Out of curiosity: which routes did you not like and why, without going too deep into spoilers?

I loved Emi, Rin and Hanako routes.

Emi route because of Emi herself, I just find her very compelling character. I love how she continues with her passion of sport even when living with her disability. As additional bonus, I think she suits main character the most.

Rin because her route was very interesting and I personally headcanon Rin as autistic person outside of her her physical disability, which I find very interesting in storytelling and representation sense.

Hanako because of her passion, her interests and because her route discusses "saviour complex" behaviour so much, taking clear stance against it and showing how bad it really is.

I disliked Lilly and Shizune routes.

Shizune I will admit that it was mostly because I just don't like her character. She is good character, in writing sense, just the one I dislike, because I really dislike people being too controlling of others.

Lilly route is in my opinion worst written one. For me it has highest amount of plot contrivances and characters doing very stupid things and making bad decisions to further plot and create tension and problems to solve, instead of these happening organically.

Interesting take. Ive only heard great things concerning Lilly's route, and as someone thats just on his fourth route (Hanako's), Im kinda looking forward to it. I'll have to see how good or bad it is then for myself.

[daerian.dragon]

Originally posted by Howe-itzer!:

Interesting take. Ive only heard great things concerning Lilly's route, and as someone thats just on his fourth route (Hanako's), Im kinda looking forward to it. I'll have to see how good or bad it is then for myself.

Lilly route is, to be honest, most standard romance VN route and uses highest amount of tropes popular in romance VNs and japanese school romances overall. Lilly herself is also most standard romance VN heroine.
While usage of tropes by itself is not bad, my problem is that not only I find her story least interesting because of that, but as soon as story started preparing its dramatic moment I just knew what is going to happen almost perfectly. Because it was rather obvious and was obviously very bad idea for the possibility of the thing that happened happening.

But on the other hand, she is very nice person with loving and warm personality, it's not surprising she is popular. I like her character, I dislike her story.

[Howe-itzer!]

Originally posted by daerian.dragon:

Originally posted by Howe-itzer!:

Interesting take. Ive only heard great things concerning Lilly's route, and as someone thats just on his fourth route (Hanako's), Im kinda looking forward to it. I'll have to see how good or bad it is then for myself.

Lilly route is, to be honest, most standard romance VN route and uses highest amount of tropes popular in romance VNs and japanese school romances overall. Lilly herself is also most standard romance VN heroine.
While usage of tropes by itself is not bad, my problem is that not only I find her story least interesting because of that, but as soon as story started preparing its dramatic moment I just knew what is going to happen almost perfectly. Because it was rather obvious and was obviously very bad idea for the possibility of the thing that happened happening.

But on the other hand, she is very nice person with loving and warm personality, it's not surprising she is popular. I like her character, I dislike her story.

Gotcha gotcha. I doubt she'll be my most disliked tbh, since thats reserved for Shizune (her story really didnt leave much of an impression on me). I hope at least the tropes are done well in Lilly's route.

[moonwalktiger]

I think it aged very gracefully. It handles the subject very maturely: never feels like it's talking down to the player or shows people being entirely defined by their disability. I highly recommend it.