this vn has triggering themes > vndb
That intro made me sentimental. Perhaps the situation where individuals with mental disabilities are often under the care of their parents or other relatives from a long span of their life, and the thought of those guardians dying in the future, leaving them to this world that is cruel a lot of times with those who have difficulty 'integrating normally' as those in society want, is painful. What happens to them? Who takes care of them? Who guides them? What can they do when they're mistrated by those who are 'normal' in society's terms? What is the last thought of their guardian before they die? It's a thought that torments me, and perhaps that introduction felt more painful that it should've been.

The world (or at least the town our characters live in) is destroyed by an earthquake, leaving debris and everything in shambles. Tsukasa is our first narrator, a young man whose social skills is clear during the introduction--he goes inside a house where he meets Aroe, a girl who is autistic. Tsukasa is left to take care of her before they leave to go to a safe place. Eventually they get to a church which is suitable enough, and they meet Tanomura, a guy who seems too relaxed for the situation and very friendly. Later, our three last narrators arrive-- Yuka, Hibari and Takuma, who know each other from college (although Takuma is not close enough to them).

The story shifts between narrators throughout the game. Tsukasa is the protagonist, though.

The mood of this post-apocalyptic world gets dark quickly, even in the first part of the game. Despite our characters being in fun chatter to light the mood, the impeding doom feels like a stain that doesn't go away, and our characters realize this. Even after changing scenery or meeting other survivors, there's no assurance of feeling safe. This hopelessness persists from the start to the end, and I found that interesting. It didn't feel 'edgy' or 'forced,' how their characters were handled and their conflicts weren't *that* bad introduced.

The relationship between our protagonists felt organic too. Although you expect how they're going to end up with. Some characters are left in this limbo where they don't achieve a change of some sorts or felt like they stayed on the same place--in this regard, you can notice that the writer gave attention to certain characters more and neglected some others.

There are some things from the story that aren't explained, like the man who talked to taeko about an earthquake happening soon--i thought we would've seen help coming at some point, but nothing was ever mentioned again. i guess the writer wasn't focused on this aspect of the narrative, since its attention was all on how the characters moved the plot forward. i was interested, though, but ok lol

Talking of leaving characters in a limbo, Tanomura being the reliable guy who naturally is chosen to be the one to lead the group and just going with the flow...

spoilers for tanomura

and he kept being that. Maybe he's supposed to be the human who wasn't tainted by 'humanity has no rules now' thing... either way, his death hurt :'C him not expecting a shotgun to the head, from takuma (who was not going to make a second mistake with tanomura), to tsukasa looking for him to be met with a gruesome scene felt so hopeless. i don't know if it's me trying to write narratives for a while, but i noticed how well the writer set up tanomura's scene with him turning on music, hiding to eventually going out to fight tanomura to then cutting the aftermath and making tsukasa's journey to investigate while describing the smell, tsukasa's anxiety and eventually finding tanomura... i think it's one of the best scenes of the game, despite the nature of it. the description being so vague about tanomura's state was haunting too.

Tsukasa's archetype is one I like a lot sorry not sorry; doesn't know how to 'correctly' act in society, doesn't understand social cues but despite it, he tries to do the right thing to do. He doesn't react strongly (perhaps he was written like this to be an 'avatar' for the player), but in moments of tension it's clear he understands fear and tries to be assertive. He can be annoying if you don't like his type of personality, though, and it's understandable.

I teared up during the end, when he is the most sure about what he wants to do despite everyone and everything being gone. his monologue, the contrast from yuka's, showed a resolve he found after losing everything he wanted to achieve his useless dream with. arriving to the church, realizing aroe is dead but her masterpiece finished--an image of hope that means nothing, and his next words, showing how proud he is for aoe and his resilience:

"I don't care about God's child. This is a piece of stone that my dead friend diligently built with her small hands. I'm so proud of it, so I have to stand this up. And I'm going to show it to the bright sun."

big ass spoiler with taeko

you may not believe me. i can't believe it myself as i got to the plot twist and i'm writing this. somehow while i was doing the normal route and tsukasa got stuck in the temple, i said: you know what, these two kind of look alike. their hair color look similar: they look like siblings or something.

hours later... i was right. LOL. so, mother wanted them to have a child as a way to get tsukasa back as her child instead of saying just 'i'm your real mom'? LMFAO. or maybe this was just included to appeal the brocons/siscons because otherwise their mom having this wild reasoning feels absurd lol

I went through a roll caster of emotions with Takuma. I don't want to give away anything but damn. Takuma is the one who goes into a huge development in a steady peace--he realizes long before that he is an 'extra' even in his life, but at some point wants to change even if change is scary and a hard thing to do. There's a point where I started to root for him since I enjoyed his monologues despite being the 'gamer loser' trope like his monologue when he's drunk in the 'coming out age' day. that was the start of the end i realized lmao. but the shift, as for me, suddenly punched me in the face. Maybe I'm not as familiarized with these characters tropes, but I found his development well done, although him turning to be a rapist felt quite drastic? but i'll elaborate below

spoilers for takuma

BUT THEN. after the moment the vigilante group are lured to exchange their prisioners and instead get attacked, takuma doesn't even get scared of his own thoughts to take advantage of the woman prisioner in their hold. that left me in shock. it's then that i realized there was no coming back for him--his ideals, as strong and 'righteous' they were at first, got corrupted, perhaps by the adrenaline of having control as a 'ordinary person' or by the belief that whwat he was doing was the right thing to do just because of him thinking that the other side was wrong and death and violence, to all of them, was justified.

his relationship with nozomi felt as if he would have had strong ideals that would have blinded him with hate (as it was hapening with the religious fanatics) but would've still not be that of an extremist nor could've lacked some sort of empathy... but goddamn. i didn't expect him turning out to be the main reason of everything turning to hell. i mean, when he killed the policeman i was expecting a shift but not a literal demon >>.

him being literally on fire but not even reacting to it maybe was a symbolism of him becoming a demon who abandoned his humanity. at some point i got nauseous >_>

Despite not liking the tsundere archetype at all, I started to like Hibari a lot as the story advanced. She found answers in her own way despite not understanding what was going on or why others did what they did; the endearing relationship with Aroe, how she tries to understand and being the only one who maybe realized how Aroe saw the world and navigated in it. Although she suffered a bit from the negligence from the writer, I liked her a lot.

Yuka had a great reasoning behind her character, which I didn't expect at all. She's kind and seen as this 'sweet girl,' but there's so much behind her yet I didn't feel as if it was explored or handled well enough. She brought an interesting perspective once we see the story through her, but it felt repetitive at times. Either way, her being a contrast of Tsukasa's final moments, where she hates the world and everything in it because the most pure person in the world is alive while she, who feel apathy for everything, is alive, is not fair. Why, I, someone who dislikes life, is alive, when the person who lives freely in every step she takes, is gone in such cruel way? How is that fair? Why am I alive, hating life, while others who loved it, die? Yuka, you were a nice surprise.

I found the group's conflicts a reflection of how countries' leaders operate--taking everything before the other can, realizing that there are other groups which you can 'conquer' and take everything they have while taking advantage of the vulnerable there. There's no mercy in war; when someone has no way to feel 'full' or 'complete,' there will never be an end to his greed. There was this monologue said by takuma which made me think of the aforementioned... Are we really doomed to follow those steps of greed despite having good intentions at first? Am I doom to fail when I consider my punishment to be the resolve the situation needs? Who knows. Morality is handled differently by each individual. What is wrong or right when the situation needs it?

The normal ending, for me, it's the true one. It's so depressing, cruel but with a 'goodbye' full of hope. It was heart-wrenching after everything you went through with these characters. Our adventure started and ended in the church, with a completed work of art, just ready to be welcomed by that who had his resolve. There's a good ending, which I considered to be a band-aid for those who suffered through the normal ending. It serves its purpose to imagine what could've been, but its impact is not the same.

A story with its ups and downs, but I consider it to be good for what it wants to show.

17 aug 2026