The Art is absolutely beautiful. CGs, sprites and backgrounds (I LOVE the animated backgrounds and CGs) it’s all just so pretty and well made and the ones where bad things are happening are HAUNTING. They have truly outdone themselves here. Also all the characters are pretty. Tokyo rider when he moves his glasses down is just *MMM*

The everlasting summer references are so great, i love " everlasting reference" so much. it makes me cry.

The music is similarly incredible. Like there’s not even much I can say. It’s all fantastic and fits the tone of scenes really well.

A big part about how it does this is not ever really solving any mystery, we don’t know what the project was or is, and we never really properly learn who ordered the deaths of his parents (though there is at least suggestions that it was either Kobayashi Jun or Mrs. Winters.

And that’s great because Nick was really thrown into this whole thing, and why would he care about the project? And how would he ever really find out about his parents’ death? He does feel like a fairly normal person being thrust into a role usually some badass main character who will take down the corporation or whatever would be, and I love that.

Speaking of Nick, I love him. Really, like every character he has tons of flaws but they do all feel natural and he does honestly get better over time while still staying Nick. Nick isn’t initially friendly with pretty much anyone and tends to dismiss people he doesn’t already know but on multiple routes I think he does grow to care about certain people more, he’s still unsociable to most people but he does stop distancing himself from his friends. But he keeps his flaws, one very consistent thing that I really like is the fact it feels like he rarely blames anyone else for things. Like when Ellie takes a bunch of cocaine he ends up blaming himself, whether it be for not loving her enough or whatever other excuse he gives. And in general, this leads to him taking matters into his own hands often, like forcing a conversation with Kobayashi Jun on Kagome’s route, all the stuff he does on Himitsus route.

And for the other characters:

Catherine, I love Catherine. Her route is possibly my favourite, she is a very flawed person, not being able to talk to Nick about big things leading to the fallout, I mean he could have read the letter but given the state he was in I can’t exactly blame him for not doing so. But I like how she tries to reach out to him (to her own detriment at times) in the ways she *can* What Himitsu did to her was horrible, her hatred, towards Himitsu is *very* understandable.

Himitsu, Himitsu is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ monster. Though not everything she does is fully intended she still treats Nick like dirt for her sick view of love. Like, telling Mrs Winters about Catherine just so she could get rid of her… Truly one of the actions of all time. And then basically taking advantage of Nick by treating him in a motherly way, while that part I don’t think she was thinking “Oh damn I will take care of Nick, so he grows a dependence on me and loves me” I do feel like that was her intention. And it’s truly something. This gets expanded on in one of Catherines bad endings where after Catherine goes missing, she VERY MUCH takes advantage of nicks situation by letting him drink until he doesn’t really have control of what he’s doing despite earlier on being like “oh Nick you shouldn’t drink so much.” I guess him getting back together with Catherine was really the final straw for her. At least she seems better in her ending? Maybe? I don’t like her. But hell, I do love how she’s written, and all the little things you can read into her behaviour after you’ve done the Catherine route and learn what she did.

Kagome, Somehow significantly more a monster than Himitsu and she’s such a great character for it. Capturing Elizabeth (who, let’s be fair has barely done anything wrong) and forcing Nick to be her accomplice is truly something. I’m convinced on the ending that you free Ellie that either, Ellie blabs about Nick being there but says he freed her, but Kobayashi Jun doesn’t care anyways, or Kagome uses her position as his granddaughter to pin it all on Nick and get him buried in the forest, or a bit of both. Still Kagome’s fault regardless. And then somehow Nick starts to love her (He does really have a taste for toxic women) but even then, she chooses to go back to Kobayashi Jun and the two only get to love each other again because of nicks almost suicdal plan. And then on the bad ending for Ellies route she literally pretends to love Nick and even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to him and kiss him and such out of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spite to Ellie and him, which I have to say is a pretty impressive grudge. I wasn’t even expecting her to be that spiteful and petty but, no she straight up is. Truly impressive. (Though I will admit that CG of her standing over Nick with that *look* she gives really makes me feel things.) I love her as a character because on one hand you can sort of understand but she goes WAY WAYYYY too far with her spite. And I’m glad Nick never really tries to justify her actions. All the way through the Kagome route he talks about how bad capturing Ellie was ( though in classic Nick fashion he blames himself again) and I like how the game doesn’t just, forget events that happened. Also its funny that In the Kagome route the doorbell keeps happening, every single time I was like “who the hell could it be now”.

Ellie, oh how much I love Ellie. It’s nice that she’s not the “redeemed rich girl” trope because she just, isn’t ever really a bad person. The worst she does is fall into bad crowds but because of her status its difficult for her to find better friends. I love that everyone around nick treats her like some sort of angel while Nick is just like “wow this girl is just a girl” because he doesn’t tend to care about status. People are just people to him. I love how she has the most obvious crush on Nick. Like it does feel like every scene with them she’s blushing and ends up forgiving him for way more than she really has too (Nick, don’t spy on people swimming my dude.) The band scenes are pretty great, Tokyo rider is just a delight in every scene he’s in. He truly is the ultimate wingman ( I am convinced he broke the bass players arm *somehow*) Also, either Ellie didn’t invite the other bandmates to the ball or they rejected because they knew Nick would want to go with her alone. It definitely feels like Nick (and Ellie) are using that as a, fairly flimsy, excuse.

Side Characters

Michael is a little btch and I love to hate him. I do like how he thinks “tactically” so to speak. Honestly the funniest scene is him talking to catherine where Catherine is like “ Nick has nothing to do with this” and then Michael proceeds to just say “I am going to talk to nick” and then he does later to get his “blessing” it’s very funny how terrible he is with Catherine. Less funny is him basically reporting Nick and Catherine but ynno. He sucks.

Kyosuke is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sweetheart, and he deserves better than Nick, he is truly loyal and honestly is one of the only characters who doesn’t really do anything wrong? He blabs a lot and doesn’t *necessarily* have the best opinions of women but hey, what can you do.

Side Side characters

Okay these are all very good and funny.

Sara (Sarah? The game says both) is truly my favourite of these. Her just saying to nick “Damn bro you gotta ♥♥♥ Ellie she’s stressed” is one of the funniest scenes in the game. I wish she came back at least once but hey.

Anime man (I do not know if he has a name and I also do not care) is very funny. Truly the most immigrant supportive person, “ live in Japan, Japanese” and it leads to one of my favourite Nick lines in “And swim in sea – fish.”

All in all I love this game so very much.