WARMTH LIKE HOME UNAWARES

So, I can't remember if I had hard decided on this in the last post, but I'm going through the 4 Girl's Side games to romance all the 'brainy' guys and see who is the best.

I've done Morimura (1) long ago (in college, eep), and I had a failed run at getting Hikami (2)'s reversal ending recently... then I got Honda (4)'s true ending, which I talked about in the last post... so the only one I hadn't seen at all was Konno (3). In fact, I hadn't even played Girl's Side 3rd, so this was an entirely new experience for me.

Konno-senpai was... definitely the most disappointing of the brains. ( spoilers )

As for the game... it's suppsoed to be the best game in the series, but a lot of that opinion was solidified before the 4th game came out and the English-speaking fandom never latched onto 4th because unlike the first three, it doesn't have a fan translation, being on the Switch instead of the DS. After playing both 3rd and 4th, I feel like 3rd is more like a prototype of 4th, which improves on all its systems in every way. But that's just first impressions -- there's still some stuff I haven't gotten to play around with yet in 3rd. I did enter a triangle (the throuple system) in my first game with Kou-kun and Ruka-kun, but it didn't go much anywhere, and I didn't escalate it to PVP. So I have no idea what all that is like -- but the Marie Garden feature with friendship groups seems like more refined version of this system.

I do love the idea of poly relationships in games, but maybe it's some kind of internalized polyphobia or something, but it just feels so... awkward or unnatural for all these high school boys too all come up with the same idea of doubling up to date the same girl lol. I guess 3rd just takes place in a very poly-normative society...??? Hahahahaha.

I did accidentally get the triangle ending #1 for Kou-kun and Ruka-kun my first playthrough (I messed up my stats and had to replay to get Konno-senpai's proper ending T_T) and it was basically the three of us being besties and hanging out. But the triangle ending #2 is much harder to get -- you basically have to enter a triangle AND get both guys to fall for you, meeting their individual ending requirements. But stay in the triangle...? IDK lol.

Anyway, next up is a revenge run of 2nd to try to get Hikami-kun's ending. I was going to try again to get the reversal ending, but it's super hard and I'm just trying to get through the 4 brains right now, so I think I'm just gonna do a normal run for him and go for all his stills.

I'm not sure if I should go for his normal ending or accidental kiss ending -- they're both the exact same requirements, just one of them you have to get his accidental kiss at the beginning of the game. So there's no save-scumming to get both easily, you have to do the exact same playthrough TWICE lmao.

Actually I think if you go for someone's reverse ending and DON'T dump the 'backup' guy, you'll get their normal (non-kiss) ending, so I should go for the kiss ending first, then I can use him as the 'secondary' for a reversal ending later and get that ending then. OK, it's settled! Accidental kiss with Hikami-kun and then aim for all his stills!!

Also, a ramble about nicknames: ( Read more... )