English
3.0
Overall this was a very short but decent experience
The gameplay is very simple and repetitive but that's to be expected with these types of games
At least they give you an option to manually speed it up a little
However I have some issues with two of the endings (Spoilers after this line)
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Or generally the entire part of the game after the "choose for him" choice
I don't have any issues with Cross dressing if the person wants to cross dress
But Nao doesn't seem to want to cross dress
In fact there are *several* scenes dedicated to the fact that he does not want to cross dress.
And also the fact the Protag immediately thought of making him cross dress and made him cross dress without even bothering to ask if he'd want to or if he's okay with that prior to forcing him to do so is just very gross to me.
Trying to take photos of someone without their permission especially when they've shown they do not want you to take photos of them is also extremely cruel and inconsiderate and it made me dislike the protagonist a fair bit to be honest.
Now
Moving on to the actual endings
First off
The "Dark Side" ending
Initially this ending seems really realistic
After being essentially used and manipulated by what Nao perceives as his only friend he shuts himself in and starts missing school.
I felt really bad for him during the intital mid-dialogues before the one with the full image
And then he... Pins the Protag down to the floor while talking about how he's a "man"
Which
Ew
Ew
Ew
It doesn't explicitly show what happens after that but whatever its implying I DO NOT LIKE IT
This also just comes out of literally f###### nowhere
You could argue the Arrogant ending also comes out of nowhere but that one at least has some reasoning (The fact he got exposed to positive attention from women by acting like this, which he didn't have before + his pre-existing notion that men like Ryota are popular with women which was established before on multiple occasions)
This? Has no reason to happen whatsoever
Why not just have a (still bad) ending where Nao becomes depressed after being used by the Protag and as such drops out of the contest, but is still willing to give the Protag a second chance even if what she's done heavily damaged his trust of her and strained their relationship?
Or idk just something that ISN'T THIS?!
I get that SEEC has some darker themes sometimes but this just seems like pointless shock value that came out of nowhere.
Now for the other ending
The "Princess" ending
Which is treated as if it were a good ending
Which just...
The fact that one of the good endings is achieved by using Nao and lying to him (judging by the phrasing of the choice, this is canonically Protag lying to Nao) is just lovely /s
If this was a story about a person with manipulative tendencies then this'd be fine but the Protag has never acted like this either before in the story or in different routes so what the f###???
The scene with Ryota mistaking crossdressing Nao for a girl and then having it revealed it was Nao during the contest was meant to be funny
And I guess it was
But it's not funny enough to make me enjoy the ending
The most screwed up part was at the very end of this ending when Protag starts referring to Nao with she/her pronouns?
Which just
What
The
F###
WHY
I'm hoping this is some error in the translation from Japanese to English because if it isn't this is extremely gross.
If this story had something implying Nao wanted to be more feminine or wished to be a girl or something
Like literally anything
Then maybe I could understand it partially
But the story consistently and continously implies the EXACT OPPOSITE so what the hell.
What is the reason for using she/her?
He's not a trans woman and he explicitly says he wants to be perceived as a man multiple times on multiple routes
He's crossdressing. This is said multiple times.
Those are completely different things.
In fact I'd argue they're the exact opposites.
So this whole ending was just really disgusting to me
What doesn't help is the fact I got the endings in order of Arrogant -> Prince -> Dark Side -> Princess
So after Prince everything started going downhill essentially and it left a pretty bad taste in my mouth
And like
We could've easily avoided the whole manipulation, lying and misgendering thing while still keeping the exploring Nao's more feminine aspect as the point of those endings so why did they have to do this.
Or just... Have Nao be okay with Crossdressing or actually enjoy it a little prior to Protag lying to him if you REALLY wanted the Crossdressing
But well overall
Nao is still cute
Even when he's crossdressing but it'd be much cuter if he wasn't forced to crossdress by the Protag
And for the remainder of the endings and the parts before the endings his progression feels pretty real to me and I like him as a character
I don't really like the Protag in the dark side and princess endings because I don't like people who use others for their personal enjoyment (+ in the princess ending specifically are also liars)
In the other endings she's also likeable though
I can't really say the story is good if I didn't like half the endings on objective points
But overall
The story is just ok
Everything else was good
(Also this isn't related to the rating whatsoever but the first version of Nao is the cutest actually don't @ me)
More Reviews of This Game More
HaruchiV
4.8Doesn't take up much memory, I like this. The storyline and gameplay are also great. Simple and casual. The development of Nao's character is also interesting. Great job! Anw, this game can be played offline! Last, NAO-CHAN YOU'RE SO CUTE SHSHHSSH.
Yuna Hanako
5.0This is so amazing~[色色] The storyline is great. I like that there 4 endings[開心] Ps: Nao-can,you so cute!![開心]