Admittedly, I haven’t played a lot of boys love visual novels in general and thus, I decided it would be worth a shot checking out Hashihime of the Old Book Town which doesn’t only cover the yaoi genre but also mystery with time loops. As someone who thinks that sci-fi and romance go just well together, I was especially eager to finally be able to start this game. Sadly, while this visual novel kept me interested, especially in the first portions of the game, I wasn’t really satisfied with every part of this game. That being said, while Hashihime of the Old Book Town does a lot of things really well, ultimately, other portions of it fell flat.

The story takes place in the Taisho Era of Japan in 1922 and revolves around Tamamori whose dream is to become a famous writer. Being so occupied with his writing, he didn’t manage to pass the entrance exam of the Imperial University in Tokyo and thus, he started to work and live in a book store while continuing to pursue his dream. He is, however, not alone since he has his childhood friends with him to get through his everyday life. One day, mysterious deaths befall his friends and after falling into a puddle, he realizes that he went back in time and is repeating the same three days over and over again while trying to save his friends.

The first playthrough of Hashihime of the Old Book Town works as a kinetic novel without any choices available at all. In the end, you will still get into a character’s route and after completing it, choices will be available as you restart the game. Only one choice is enough to get into another character’s route and the branch takes place pretty early so there is plenty of content to go through. Something I really enjoyed here is that each route is different from each other and after getting to the branching point the story begins to change. In total there are five different routes you can pursue and a complete playthrough takes up to 40 hours.

Although the same three days always get repeated for around ten times per playthrough and Tamamori always experiences the same story with small differences, it never feels repetitive but I was rather looking forward to how much the story might change with each time loop. Some days end faster and some are presented a little bit longer but there are always new insights when you go through the story for the very first time. It also didn’t feel like any of the days were too short or too draggy as it feels like every time jump only has the purpose of revealing bits and pieces of the story so it will make sense in the end. This, however, only applies to the first playthrough as some small scenes get repeated in other routes only with small changes.

The mystery in Hashihime of the Old Book Town got me engaged until the end of the first playthrough, however, I didn’t feel satisfied with the outcome and couldn’t even believe that that’s it. I have to admit that some reveals really shocked me and were really fitting, yet a lot of mysteries felt out of nowhere for me as if the writer decided to write the story and forgot that he still has to solve the secrets of this game in the end, so he adds them in the last parts. While everything gets revealed, I’m not really convinced with the result and although the mystery started very strong, it didn’t quite meet my expectations. Something which slightly annoyed me as well was that the same secrets get revealed in other routes over and over again so not only it does feel draggy but you can’t skip the text either as the story got altered so it seems like there is new content available when the secrets just get repeated.

Not only the mysteries fell flat in the end, but the romance also disappointed me. When there isn’t a hint of romance, Tamamori suddenly gets together with a guy in the very end and to highlight it, there is always an NSFW scene right before the story ends. I didn’t find the romance story very convincing as it relies on the mystery part way too much. And here again, it feels as if the writer forgot that he had to include romance options so he added them in the end. Sadly, in romance, development is incredibly important to me which was missing here although those who are interested in a few boys love scenes without real depth might still be able to enjoy the mature scenes.

Although Hashishime of the Old Book Town includes 18+ scenes, they’re not really explicit and the act itself feels surprisingly sweet instead of awkward. I often have the problem with mature scenes being absolutely embarrassing due to the non-stop moaning and exposing, but I liked the way it was presented in this game. After all, I feel like subtle scenes make the reader crave for more instead than revealing everything in an overdone way. That being said, Hashihime of the Old Book Town is completely uncensored on Steam although it’s possible to ignore these scenes as well as they only serve as fan-service in this case.

At first, I felt quite conflicted when it comes to the art style. I found the style very unique and it took me some time to get used to it but in the end, it was a pleasant presentation. While the game seems quite colorful at first, a lot of CGs are very dark and just give off a sad vibe, especially in the latter part of the game which I found very fitting as the overall theme of this game is really depressing and mysterious. Additionally, the voice acting was high-quality and the soundtracks were so suitable that it probably was the only thing that somewhat managed to cheer the reader up in the few light-hearted moments.

Although I had my problems with this game here and there, it was an enjoyable experience overall. It’s a challenge to not make games repetitive when it comes to rewinding the same days over and over again which Hashihime of the Old Book Town really does well, yet other routes, on the other hand, feel very draggy due to the early branch and story repetitions. While the mystery and romance feel out of place, this visual novel still has a lot of charming points regardless and I found the presentation interesting and refreshing with the unique artwork. That being said, Hashihime of the Old Book Town is probably worth a try if you enjoy high-quality mystery visual novels with a few boys love scenes if you don’t expect a very in-depth story and romance.

Admittedly, I haven’t played a lot of boys love visual novels in general and thus, I decided it would be worth a shot checking out Hashihime of the Old Book Town which doesn’t only cover the yaoi genre but also mystery with time loops. As someone who thinks that sci-fi and romance go just well together, I was especially eager to finally be able to start this game. Sadly, while this visual novel kept me interested, especially in the first portions of the game, I wasn’t really satisfied with every part of this game. That being said, while Hashihime of the Old Book Town does a lot of things really well, ultimately, other portions of it fell flat. The story takes place in the Taisho Era of Japan in 1922 and revolves around Tamamori whose dream is to become a famous writer. Being so occupied with his writing, he didn’t manage to pass the entrance exam of the Imperial University in Tokyo and thus, he started to work and live in a book store while continuing to pursue his dream. He is, however, not alone since he has his childhood friends with him to get through his everyday life. One day, mysterious deaths befall his friends and after falling into a puddle, he realizes that he went back in time and is repeating the same three days over and over again while trying to save his friends. The first playthrough of Hashihime of the Old Book Town works as a kinetic novel without any choices available at all. In the end, you will still get into a character’s route and after completing it, choices will be available as you restart the game. Only one choice is enough to get into another character’s route and the branch takes place pretty early so there is plenty of content to go through. Something I really enjoyed here is that each route is different from each other and after getting to the branching point the story begins to change. In total there are five different routes you can pursue and a complete playthrough takes up to 40 hours. Although the same three days always get repeated for around ten times per playthrough and Tamamori always experiences the same story with small differences, it never feels repetitive but I was rather looking forward to how much the story might change with each time loop. Some days end faster and some are presented a little bit longer but there are always new insights when you go through the story for the very first time. It also didn’t feel like any of the days were too short or too draggy as it feels like every time jump only has the purpose of revealing bits and pieces of the story so it will make sense in the end. This, however, only applies to the first playthrough as some small scenes get repeated in other routes only with small changes. The mystery in Hashihime of the Old Book Town got me engaged until the end of the first playthrough, however, I didn’t feel satisfied with the outcome and couldn’t even believe that that’s it. I have to admit that some reveals really shocked me and were really fitting, yet a lot of mysteries felt out of nowhere for me as if the writer decided to write the story and forgot that he still has to solve the secrets of this game in the end, so he adds them in the last parts. While everything gets revealed, I’m not really convinced with the result and although the mystery started very strong, it didn’t quite meet my expectations. Something which slightly annoyed me as well was that the same secrets get revealed in other routes over and over again so not only it does feel draggy but you can’t skip the text either as the story got altered so it seems like there is new content available when the secrets just get repeated. Not only the mysteries fell flat in the end, but the romance also disappointed me. When there isn’t a hint of romance, Tamamori suddenly gets together with a guy in the very end and to highlight it, there is always an NSFW scene right before the story ends. I didn’t find the romance story very convincing as it relies on the mystery part way too much. And here again, it feels as if the writer forgot that he had to include romance options so he added them in the end. Sadly, in romance, development is incredibly important to me which was missing here although those who are interested in a few boys love scenes without real depth might still be able to enjoy the mature scenes. Although Hashishime of the Old Book Town includes 18+ scenes, they’re not really explicit and the act itself feels surprisingly sweet instead of awkward. I often have the problem with mature scenes being absolutely embarrassing due to the non-stop moaning and exposing, but I liked the way it was presented in this game. After all, I feel like subtle scenes make the reader crave for more instead than revealing everything in an overdone way. That being said, Hashihime of the Old Book Town is completely uncensored on Steam although it’s possible to ignore these scenes as well as they only serve as fan-service in this case. At first, I felt quite conflicted when it comes to the art style. I found the style very unique and it took me some time to get used to it but in the end, it was a pleasant presentation. While the game seems quite colorful at first, a lot of CGs are very dark and just give off a sad vibe, especially in the latter part of the game which I found very fitting as the overall theme of this game is really depressing and mysterious. Additionally, the voice acting was high-quality and the soundtracks were so suitable that it probably was the only thing that somewhat managed to cheer the reader up in the few light-hearted moments. Although I had my problems with this game here and there, it was an enjoyable experience overall. It’s a challenge to not make games repetitive when it comes to rewinding the same days over and over again which Hashihime of the Old Book Town really does well, yet other routes, on the other hand, feel very draggy due to the early branch and story repetitions. While the mystery and romance feel out of place, this visual novel still has a lot of charming points regardless and I found the presentation interesting and refreshing with the unique artwork. That being said, Hashihime of the Old Book Town is probably worth a try if you enjoy high-quality mystery visual novels with a few boys love scenes if you don’t expect a very in-depth story and romance. [code]𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐲 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34470115/]𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞[/url] 𝐚𝐧𝐝 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/5413792/]𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬[/url] 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬!