Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirito
Bear with me if I ask you this. I don't know if you posted something regarding what I'm about to ask you and if you did, I apologize just bear with me. So there an L(ove) and H(appy) route for each heroine, that I know, but what does it necessarily mean? Is one focused on romance and the other is gaining affections and trust from the heroines...? Or is it two sides of the same coin?
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It's more of the latter. Either on L or H route, there's only one same good end on which Maeda finally gets in relationship with the girl, but the overall atmosphere of the route and how Maeda's approaching to the girl are different. I'm bad at explaining so I'll use example.
Spoiler for For example on Haruka story:
Just as we can read on Sweet Snap, L route deals with how they (mainly Haruka though
) are trying to fix up their bonds and childhood past. While on the H route, Haruka is still trying to get close to him too but there's also other (comedical) plot where the Photography Club baptism Haruka as Miss Photogenic and plans to take many pictures of her for the school festival event, and Maeda as one of the member is appointed the bait since he has one huge advantage of being a childhood friend. Although he is done his part as a bait, he is also shielding Haruka from other member's attempt to take too erotic picture of her and constant events of those become the main focus of the story and thus making them gets closer again. Although there's still the drama where the girls of the class are gossiping them just like on the L route and he makes distance with Haruka again.
So yeah, basically it's like that for other girl's story too. L route takes more personal/close approach with the girl while H route more or less the same but it's feels lighter since it's filled/handled with comedy that in the end leads to the same ending, Maeda finally gets a girlfriend.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirito
A deadline to raise affection levels...interesting and it looks challenging from a noobie VN player standpoint (ie me ). I like challenging scenarios and it seems that you could also go from girl to girl depending on your mood or interests.
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Why it's challenging (and at some point frustrating) is you don't know which girl will show up when you choose a location. So even if, say you're aiming for Nonoka, and you think she will be at school's field on the afternoon (since she's on baseball club), sometimes other girl will appear instead so you waste one opportunity, of course unless you saved beforehand and then you load the game.
Other challenge are choosing which topic to talk with the girl that can increase her affection level. A topic can result with heart icon or note icon, too many note icon will resulting the girl dropped into the friend zone, yet the relationship level will keep increase. Too long the girl stays in the friend zone, you won't be able to invite her to the school's festival which is the finish line of the game.
There's a development progress you can see each night. For illustration, this is mine when I first play the game and on the deadline day.
Spoiler for screencap:
There's 6 columns representing the level of relationship of each girl. The objective is of course to make the girl stay on the up (love relationship) through out the game, or maybe at least in the end/level 6 (I always try to make the girl I target each play through to always stay up so I'm not sure. Abusing 'load game' FTW
).
If on one level you get more heart icons than the note icons, the girl will be on top on this chart. If on next level you gets more note icons instead, the girl will move to the middle. Just like that.
The 7th columns means you already invite the girl(s) on it to the school's festival. Yes, you can invite more than one girl but you can only submit a picture of one girl. The girl whose picture you submit will be your end girl while another you didn't choose will appear before the ending to get (really) mad at you. If you do this (invite more than one girl), you won't be able to see the epilogue of the girl you end up with. Even on the game, there's a consequence being a douche to a girl XD
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirito
Does choosing the photography or photo club affect the routes in anyway shape or form? Seems like it since most games that are based on decisions do this often.
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Yes, choosing Photo Club will make you go to L route and Photography Club will make you go to H route. L route makes you easier to gain a heart icon on daily event, like when you greet a girl in the morning; while H route makes you easier to gain note icon. So I guess that makes H route some sort of hard mode for this game
Other choice that appears during the event sometimes don't mean anything (only give different line, for example the choice of nick name for Rina I posted before) but sometimes it can give you more heart or note icon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirito
Anti-climatic features in romance really just kills the aspect of the genre, at least to me. Rina's arc looks really cute and she strikes me as a nervous wreck who gets worked up easily, but in a shy sense, makes sense because of her character. Why was the kiss scene initiated? Did one of them make the move or was it done in a situation that set the tone for that moment, ie confession under a sunset or walking home at together at night etc.
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It's like Amagami anime. The climax happens just before the story really ends while the epilogue show the future of them that usually anti-climatic. Takes Ai route for example, the climax was when she's confessing to Junichi on the hotspring, wasn't it? While the epilogue with them on the beach feels more anti-climatic to show their future that they were finally together and happy.
It's kinda like that for Rina, and most of PK heroines, too. Best if I just put it behind spoiler tag.
Spoiler for PK climax scene:
It's one of the weakest point of Photo Kano, basically the end scene for all the girls are just the same. Maeda invite the girl to the booth of his club (Photo Club or Photography Club, whichever you choose at the beginning). For different reason in the end the girl wanted to save Maeda's picture for the last so they came late where other visitors on the booth are already gone so it's just Maeda and the girl. Maeda showed the girl the picture he submitted, which was the picture of said girl on her best. After that Maeda asked the girl to come see him after the school festival ends because he wanted to say something to that girl. The place is different for each girl, but in the end Maeda confessed that he likes the girl, the girl is happy because she also like Maeda after all they've been through and want to be Maeda's girlfriend too, and they kissed. It's all like that for each girls!
But of course the lines are different for each girl and if you play from the beginning, by itself it was not bad at all.
As for Rina's end scene it's still just like what I wrote above basically, but yet it's still interesting and nice.
On her L route, before Maeda can confess, Rina informs her happily that there's two 1st year girls that wants to make Himawari Burger (a burger created by Rina, submitted to a food contest so her cooking club will gain popularity; the idea to participate in the contest as well as base idea of the burger were thought by Maeda) and join the cooking club. Rina thanks Maeda for all he has done for her, and she confesses to him first. Maeda says to her that she is cruel and Rina apologizes, thinking Maeda doesn't feel the same way and her confession's bothering him. Maeda says it's not the case. He then asks had she thought that the reason of him to meet her is to confess to her, and she admits she thought about that and is happy if that's really the case. "If you had thought about that, then didn't your confession just now ruined the whole thing?", Rina then realizes her mistake and apologizes for her clumsiness. Maeda then said it's okay, because her clumsiness is also one of the reason why he likes her so much. They then hug, call each other by name, kiss, both saying 'I love you'. Credit rolls.
On her H route, instead of thinking to participate on food contest, Maeda takes Rina to darts cafe to play dart and billiard to cheer her up when she was feeling down and give her idea to put a photo of her cooking to the school's website to promote the cooking club. After their date on the theme park, Maeda give another idea to promote the cooking club, that is a Bento Day on school festival. Anyone can bring bento, any kind of bento, and everyone who participate will eat together just like they're having a picnic. All heroines participated and the event are big success, as two 1st year girls also participate and say that they want to join the cooking club after they saw her cooking picture on the school's website. After that, it's Rina turn to visit Photography Club booth to see Maeda's picture (of her). It's the same where Maeda then asks her too meet him after school festival ends. Rina's thanking Maeda for all he has done for her but this time Maeda confess first. Rina accepts and says that she wants to do more things again together with Maeda. Hug, call each other by name, kiss, both saying 'I love you', credit rolls