To be honest, I expected only to come for the yuri and then, er, come for the yuri, if you catch my drift. But despite my misgivings regarding potential fanservice and to-the-point meet-'n'-flick that all of the news sites seemed to expect of Steam's first uncensored game of "frank depictions of sex", this visual novel turned out to tackle issues related to struggling romance, including but not limited to struggling with sexuality, age gaps, and the idea of valuing other close relationships against romance, not to mention a social and fairly deep discussion on what it means to feel love. It is superbly well written and, at times, poignantly heartfelt; some of the dialogue comes off as awkward in a realistic way, in the scope of anime and manga, but it rarely ever feels cheesy. None of the referenced (meaning named and drawn) characters are cookie-cutter personalities; no obvious tsundere, dandere, yandere, whatever. Rather, they are all multifaceted, organic creations, and the underlying theme regarding the main character almost perfectly fits an Uncle Iroh quote: "Sometimes the best way to solve your own problems is to help someone else." I surprised myself by becoming very emotionally involved with the characters and their stories, and ended up reading through this VN twice consecutively, and plan to listen to the drama CDs (by which I mean read the subtitles) when #4 is subbed and when they go on sale. Honestly, the explicit scenes are definitely not the end goal; they're nice to have and certainly demonstrate the different levels of experience, clumsiness, and passion between the different couples, but ultimately I found myself wanting to know more about the relationships themselves. There are uplifting and embarassing moments, heated and heartbreaking moments, funny and eye-rolling moments.

The technical side is also very charming and fitting with the theme of high school romance. Only the more important scenes are voiced, which is a feature I tend to like since it gives an enhanced sense of emotion and climax to certain story arcs. Each main story arc has a number of side story arcs focusing on the individual couples intersecting it. In this case, the planner approach is a stroke of genius. My one complaint on this end would probably be the difficulty in attaining the extra scenes, which are unlocked after completing the game and through selecting different choices throughout the game (the choices are very minor and only affect these extra scenes and some immediate dialogue; the story itself is linear). The music, though somewhat limited in choice and looped a little poorly, is tasteful for the different emotional stings throughout the game, from simple and melancholic to upbeat and driving. My two personal favorites are "Together", played during pivotal scenes in each relationship, with its melody seeming to display a collapse of willpower and the sort of heartthrob one gets from a perfect relationship, and "My Territory", which is a somewhat cheeky tune without any particularly distinct mood that plays a lot during important character-building scenes involving the main character at home.

In short, Kindred Spirits on the Roof is a well-written game that deals with relationships, longing, and the sort of struggles that arise because of each character's unique dealings and personal hurdles. It's a little expensive at $35, but I believe it to be well worth the price.

My personal relationship ranking: Yuna x Hina > Sasa x Umi > Sachi x Megumi > Seina x Miki > Tsukuyo x Kiri > Youka x Aki > Matsuri x Miyu. Although, I have to say, it's pretty hard choosing.

Edit: I write this at the end of my third time through the main story. Right now, I think my personal relationship ranking has changed to: Yuna > Seina > Megumi > Aki > Sasa > Kiri > Miyu, but it's still damn hard choosing an order.

Edit 2: My, oh, my, the extras. I've played through the story three times now, but it's currently 2 in the morning because I've spent the last ten or so hours(!) playing through all of the extra scenes. In my previous two playthroughs, I thought I played them all, but apparently that was not the case. The extra scenes add multiple layers of depth to every character, and they tie the entirety of the story back together in satisfying and emotional ways, sometimes heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking.

That being said, this was the first time I encountered the 30-minute freezing glitch/bug. It certainly is annoying, but I did not seek a fix. I imagine you could uninstall and reinstall the files to try to fix it, but it's not something that bothered me that much.

To be honest, I expected only to come for the yuri and then, er, [i]come[/i] for the yuri, if you catch my drift. But despite my misgivings regarding potential fanservice and to-the-point meet-'n'-flick that all of the news sites seemed to expect of Steam's first uncensored game of "frank depictions of sex", this visual novel turned out to tackle issues related to struggling romance, including but not limited to struggling with sexuality, age gaps, and the idea of valuing other close relationships against romance, not to mention a social and fairly deep discussion on what it means to feel love. It is superbly well written and, at times, poignantly heartfelt; some of the dialogue comes off as awkward in a realistic way, in the scope of anime and manga, but it rarely ever feels cheesy. None of the referenced (meaning named and drawn) characters are cookie-cutter personalities; no obvious tsundere, dandere, yandere, whatever. Rather, they are all multifaceted, organic creations, and the underlying theme regarding the main character almost perfectly fits an Uncle Iroh quote: [spoiler]"Sometimes the best way to solve your own problems is to help someone else."[/spoiler] I surprised myself by becoming very emotionally involved with the characters and their stories, and ended up reading through this VN twice consecutively, and plan to listen to the drama CDs (by which I mean read the subtitles) when #4 is subbed and when they go on sale. Honestly, the explicit scenes are definitely not the end goal; they're nice to have and certainly demonstrate the different levels of experience, clumsiness, and passion between the different couples, but ultimately I found myself wanting to know more about the relationships themselves. There are uplifting and embarassing moments, heated and heartbreaking moments, funny and eye-rolling moments. The technical side is also very charming and fitting with the theme of high school romance. Only the more important scenes are voiced, which is a feature I tend to like since it gives an enhanced sense of emotion and climax to certain story arcs. Each main story arc has a number of side story arcs focusing on the individual couples intersecting it. In this case, the planner approach is a stroke of genius. My one complaint on this end would probably be the difficulty in attaining the extra scenes, which are unlocked after completing the game and through selecting different choices throughout the game (the choices are very minor and only affect these extra scenes and some immediate dialogue; the story itself is linear). The music, though somewhat limited in choice and looped a little poorly, is tasteful for the different emotional stings throughout the game, from simple and melancholic to upbeat and driving. My two personal favorites are "Together", played during pivotal scenes in each relationship, with its melody seeming to display a collapse of willpower and the sort of heartthrob one gets from a perfect relationship, and "My Territory", which is a somewhat cheeky tune without any particularly distinct mood that plays a lot during important character-building scenes involving the main character at home. In short, [i]Kindred Spirits on the Roof[/i] is a well-written game that deals with relationships, longing, and the sort of struggles that arise because of each character's unique dealings and personal hurdles. It's a little expensive at $35, but I believe it to be well worth the price. My personal relationship ranking: [spoiler]Yuna x Hina > Sasa x Umi > Sachi x Megumi > Seina x Miki > Tsukuyo x Kiri > Youka x Aki > Matsuri x Miyu[/spoiler]. Although, I have to say, it's pretty hard choosing. Edit: I write this at the end of my third time through the main story. Right now, I think my personal relationship ranking has changed to: [spoiler]Yuna > Seina > Megumi > Aki > Sasa > Kiri > Miyu[/spoiler], but it's still damn hard choosing an order. Edit 2: My, oh, my, the extras. I've played through the story three times now, but it's currently 2 in the morning because I've spent the last ten or so hours(!) playing through all of the extra scenes. In my previous two playthroughs, I thought I played them all, but apparently that was not the case. The extra scenes add multiple layers of depth to every character, and they tie the entirety of the story back together in satisfying and emotional ways, sometimes heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking. That being said, this was the first time I encountered the 30-minute freezing glitch/bug. It certainly is annoying, but I did not seek a fix. I imagine you could uninstall and reinstall the files to try to fix it, but it's not something that bothered me that much.