Warning: This blog deals with an 18+ h-game. Parts of this blog may contain Not Safe For Work screenshots but all images are linked and clearly labeled.
Funny how things work out. Yume Miru Kusuri aka A Drug That Makes You Dream is supposed to be an h-game. Actually it is my first h-game. They were clamoring about it in one of my forums posting screenshots of dialogue I thought was funny and at time witty. It also had fairly competent art as far as HCGs go it seemed like quality. So knowing it was more than an h-doujin of bing bang sex the end I got myself a copy upon their recommendation and hopped right into it. Man was my first h-game quite the experience. Totally not what I expected.
What started off slowly but funny with scenes of like the main character Kouhei calling his little sister a 20 year old (NSFW) when she was clearly a loli and excuses for not checking email like one’s computer catching AIDs (Safe). Turned pretty erotic with my path having Kouhei banging both the wonderfully endowed Student Council President Mizuki Kirimiya and the class outcast Shikari Aeka. Though eventually there came a point where I had to make my choice though I do not know where along the line it came but I ended up on a Aeka track and there were no more choices to be maid and the story track now decided presented me with a visual novel in all senses of the term.
The ride has been a bumpy one and I am about tor each it’s end and with Wikipedia spoiling it for me when I was simply looking up character names I might as well blog about it now. The game specifically the Aeka path I took is probably best described as a bittersweet melodrama. It is really quite sad but rarely have I read in visual novel or book such malice against a character whom you grow so attached to. The game soothes in irony where late in the track Kouhei compares his recent experiences to h-games his co-worker Tsubaki introdices him to:
[ Kouhei ]
(I don’t think this kind of dark situation ever appears in Tsubaki’s porn games.)Well there are sad events, certainly, but nothing like this, nothing involving pure malice.
If I told this to Tsubaki, I think he’d classify it as a ‘depression’ type game.
( ‘depression type game’ Screenshot (Safe) )
This “h-game”/visual novel is closer to a novel than any game but because of the visual nature you become really engrossed for not only do you read the events but you see and hear them almost as if watching a movie progress with ever mouse click / tap of the enter key. Because of the engrossing nature of the format never before have I felt like I have playing this ‘game’. Aeka’s story line is very bittersweet possibly more bitter than sweet for most of the way. She is practically abused by her classmates and no one is willing to do anything for her in fear of attracting attention to themselves. What starts with petty things such as stealing her books and ripping pages out of sections before she has to read in front of the class progressively grows worse and worse. At one point the girls in the class forced her to undress (possible NSFW) and unable to head home naked she spends the night on the roof of the school stranded. Later on the girl behind her brings a freaking stun gun to school and shocks her during class, with the teacher hearing her shrieks of pain but unable to determine (or to damn complacent) to find out why. Finally and possibly the last straw for the main character in a botched attempt to cut all her hair the leader of group mistreating Aeka attempts to freaking stab Aeka with a pair of scissors (Safe)!
I was cringing most of the time as if their were kicking a dead horse I came to both feel sorry for her and later admire her strength as you find out WHY she puts up with such abuse. Aeka comes from a household is in turmoil. Her father was recently layed off and her monthly tuition alone is more than her mother makes in two part time jobs. With such economic pressure her parents then take their frustrations out each other. Wither her mother trying so hard to send her to school Aeka shows great personal strength in endures all her hardships her classmates put her through. At times I wanted to cry and another I was punching my desk in frustration as my character Kouhei could do nothing about it. The story was simply fantastic. Here love is not something that happens overnight or upon first sight but rather an impossible to explain feeling that develops over time. There is little fairy tale endings in this game for depending on your path Kouhei has to deal with very real downright and dirty issues from dropping out of school, using contraceptives, having a kid, to helping a friend recover from substance abuse.
Really for what I at first considered to be an h-game this is truly not the experience I expected. Rather than the rooftop orgies (Safe) and erotocism I expected I got attempted suicides (possible NSFW) and depressions. Damn fine game for h-games aren’t particularly known for strong stories, great music, and good art. Quire the first experience.