Otome Game Review: Clock Zero ~Shuuen no Ichibyou~

The story is about a 12 year old girl Kurou Nadeshiko, who is the daughter of some wealthy high class members. She goes to a wealthy school with her childhood friend where other rich kids go to. She hopes of one day being a doctor and every night she seems to have dreams about being in another world. The world is full of ruins and she herself is 10 years older. One day a transfer student named Kaido Takato comes to her class and she gets involved in an after school extra-curricular club which they call “Clock Zero”. Anyway this is as much as I’m going to say here so major spoilers after the jump!

Kanou Riichirou – Rittan, as everyone calls him, is Nadeshiko’s childhood friend. As a little kid he’s always been a crybaby and Nadeshiko was pretty much the one to stand up for him. He’s also a kuudere so most of the time “it’s not like I CARED to wait for you” He tries to be away from loud and boisterous people and hates being involved in crazy shenanigans. Needless to say he’s not exactly thrilled when he has to participate in the special after school program by Akira sensei with loud people like Nakaba. Because he’s a wealthy family shota, he also is skilled in performing the tea ceremony which Nadeshiko often asks him to do for her. Nadeshiko says she wants to be childhood friends with him forever, even after they “find their special person”. (　´_ゝ`) Poor guy. Suddenly weird stuff begins happening and Nadeshiko starts seeing dreams of being in some ghetto ruined city and certain people start paying her “visits”. This cycle continues until one day the time is stopped and Nadeshiko is about to get abducted by a guy named Bishop. Suddenly an older version of Riichiro appears and saves her. She suddenly starts to realize that the entire scenario of her going to class every day and doing after school activities is all a dream and tells herself to wake up. She wakes up with an older Shuuya in bed with her. It turns out that she is now 10 years older, and is in the world that she thought she had “dreams” of. She has been abducted by an anarchist group to be used as blackmail in order to get demands from the government. Older Riichiro then shows up and explains to her that she was hit by a car at the age of 12 and was in a coma for 10 years. Four years prior to her waking up the world was destroyed by a huge explosion which is why everything was in ruins now.

After the explosion happened her body was missing from the hospital she was in, but they finally found it hidden in the back of some research lab. The “King” of this world, who is also in the government, was the one to go back in time and give Nadeshiko all those dreams. It was for the purpose of waking her up because apparently he has a weakness to her. By the time she woke up though, the rebels had taken her body which is where she is now. They let Riichiro stay at the rebel HQ if he followed their demands, even though he was a former government worker. Shuuya being the bro that he is, realized that the two of them obviously liked each other so he would often let them go out together and have some private raburabu time At one point Riichiro and Nadeshiko get teleported to a time slightly before Nadeshiko’s accident. It turns out that her accident is somehow inevitable. Even if there was no car accident, she is destined to go into this coma because of THE FORCE(tm). He tells her to go back to the ghetto world while he looks for a way to try and save her. He’s been trying to save her by using a special teleporter to go back in time but he’s failed every time – and he’s seen her get hit by the car so many times that his heart’s beyond shattered. They get caught in the rain and go to some abandoned shack and that’s where she realizes she likes him more than just a childhood friend. Before they can return to ghetto world present, she walks in right on the scene where her 12 year old self is hit by the car. When they finally return to the ghetto world angst ensues about how he’s in deep regret that he couldn’t save her and he finally admits that he likes her.

When they come back to the anarchist HQ everyone is raging saying they were trying to escape or some shit. (Right that’s why they came back…) The leader then tells Riichiro that they have made a deal and they will be giving Nadeshiko over to the government. Riichiro’s like wtf you tricked me you ass and he’s like “lol too bad so sad.” Riichiro gets captured as well but the day that Nadeshiko is to be handed over, he miraculously appears and grabs her hand and they run away together. They run to some room with a conveniently placed bed and make out ＼( ^o^)／ So anyway he then takes her to Shuuya’s old lab (poor Shuutan got captured) and he says he will send her back in time. He says that one day he will save her but he wants her to be safe till then, and in this world she would not be. In ending 1, she runs out of the lab and runs after Riichiro saying she wants to go back together with him. They go back to the old time together and live “separate” lives (pime taradox?) from their 12/y/o counter parts and are all raburabu and ichaicha together while they attend college. In the 2nd end, Nadeshiko is sent back in time but I guess only “spiritually” since she is back in her loli body. The car accident has magically been prevented and 10 years later, Riichiro gives her an engagement ring. (*´ω｀*) Lol I don’t even know wtf the justification was of this whole time travel crap but whatever, kissing, and cute CGs, let’s roll with it!

Tokita Shuuya – My first impression of Shuuya was “are you high?” In the beginning of the game he just felt completely out of it, he wouldn’t remember the names of either his classmates or anyone in the Clock Zero afterschool group. Even though he’s “11″ he’s already a child model. He talks like an old geezer so Nakaba gives him the nickname “Tono”. His mother is ill and spends most of her time in the hospital. When Nadeshiko goes to his house she finds an album of him and it appears that he’s lying about his age and that he is actually 14 years old. This would explain why he looks so much “older” than he claims he really is. Anyway skipping to 10 years later after Nadeshiko wakes up – she finds out that the reason his hair is like blondish in the future is that’s his real hair color. He had is dyed purpleish because the stylist requested it to be that way. There’s a cute scene of him spoon feeding her when her body’s too petrified to move after her initial awakening. Turns out Shuuya’s mission was to teleport his “mind” into the Shuuya in 2010. He basically teleported him “self” into the baby born from that mother. His real self has a different mother in this other world which means that his existence is basically split into 2. Unfortunately the device they used is a fake one, not the one the government has and so it has errors. During the transportation, due to bugs, the 2010 Shuuya lost a lot of his memories and his general mind capacity got screwed up. This explains why he had trouble remembering anything.

The reason he’s young but also talks like an old fart is in actuality he’s been a 24 year old stuck in a kid’s body for 14 years He lied about his age so he could be closer to Nadeshiko. At the Anarchist HQ he kisses her on the forehead and tells her that he’ll protect her because she is his number one priority. He visits his real mother and tells her that he wants to protect her as well but that would also make him “betray” the anarchy group. Nadeshiko in the meantime is starting to forget her 2010 memories but Shuuya is determined to send her back to 2010. He also says that pretty soon he will lose all his memories as well and he wants to send her back before this happens. Kaede acts like the bro in this route and gives the 2 of them some time alone. While they’re waking around the ruins where the main explosion took place she says she likes him and doesn’t want to go back to 2010 alone. He says that if she stays here, he will someday forget about her and before that happens he wants her to return and therefore forget about him. So then the government people come to take her away and while Tora fights with Bishop, Kaede helps her escape. Tora finds them and rages saying he’ll kill them all. Shuuya is barely able to stand up at this point because his body is getting weaker and he begs Tora to spare Nadeshiko. Tora’s got a soft spot for Shuutan so he says fine whatever and leaves. Kaede and Nadeshiko carry Shuuya to his mom’s place. He lies there half dead for a few days and then admits that he loves her.

While she’s taking care of him, he asks her to give him some water – mouth to mouth ⊂((〃／⊥＼〃))⊃いやーん I guess this is their first kiss too (*´д｀*)ﾊｧﾊｧ After that Shuuya loses consciousness and the doctor who comes says the only way to bring him back is to “connect to his mind” and go inside of his subconscious. They do this and if you don’t pick a choice in 8 seconds, you get a bad end where Shuuya wakes up with no memories left. If you pick the science room or whatever she finds him sleeping there. He says he waits for everyone to come but everytime nobody comes. Nadeshiko drags him out of there and then he wakes up. He decides to return her to 2010 and transfer his body once more. It works and there they remember everything. He later explains to her that their 2020 memories will be erased in 1 month but he proposes to her on the spot and says he will never forget her. All the other shotas are watching in jealousy So then 10 years later he’s a famous model and Nadeshiko is jealous of all the hoes who hit on him. He tells her he only thinks of them as vegetables and that she’s the only one for him. When they go to his house he pounces on her and calls her his waifu (〃ﾉﾉ). In the 2nd ending he wakes up but is in a weakened state. He sleeps a lot and one day falls asleep for a while and when Nadeshiko comes to him she says she will wait for him forever, he magically wakes up. He then pounces on her pt 2 and she’s like but Kaede and your mom are like outside listening..and they really were ( ・∀・)むふふ♪ No CG for this end but it was still cute. I did enjoy Shuuya’s cute moments but a lot of his route was a repeat of Riichiro, and there was just more plotty dialogue than romantic interaction so me and some viewers were starting to really fall asleep (´･ω･`；).

Saionji Toranosuke – Toranosuke is the local “badass” and a closet yandere. Voiced by Sugiyama at first all I could hear was Sasuke lol…especially when he sounded identical in his child AND adult forms (´ε｀；). His eyes are different colors so when he’s 12 he hides one of them with an eyepatch and at age 22 he hides the other with his hair. The biggest annoyance about Tora’s route was the fact that a lot of the choices during the shota arc required you to make a decision in 8 seconds. The most horrible situation was when one of the choices gave you an 8 second count down and in the last 2 seconds, the choices changed and you had to pick the 2nd one or you wouldn’t get it right. Y U DO DIS OTOMATE Щ(･｀ω´･Щ) Anyway even at age 12 he often gets into fights and even when the other delinquents bring more against him, he still kicks their asses. Since he’s a delinquent himself, he never really comes to school so the entire after school program you basically spend with the Hanabusa brothers. So anyway skip to 10 years later she’s being held captive and they decide to “torture” her to threaten the King for their demands. So with this Tora cuts off a chunk of her long hair and they mail it to the King who rages about it. Basically their demands are to trade Nadeshiko for the wife of their leader, aka Tora’s mom who was captured by the government many years ago.

Nadeshiko is afraid of worse things being done to her so she fools some guards by acting like she was the leaders’ guest and manages to run away. Apparently the town is in so much ruins there’s some weird laws set by the government and people are now barcoded as well (See Code Geass lol.) She runs into an older Nakaba who she only knows as the “informationist” and before the government guards catch her, Tora finds her and helps her hide. They go back to their yakuza house since not like she has anywhere else to go to. She says that Tora is not the Tora she knew when she was 12 and he rages at her saying she doesn’t know shit and she slaps him. YEA YOU GO GIRL lol. Sadly he pins her down on the bed and says he will “defile” her as she wishes. She cries and resists but yea he loves her too much to do that so he licks her tears and then leaves her alone in her room. She realizes that it’s true that Tora has indeed changed and he is not the one she knew before. So then some government dudes come to take her and there’s a fight and Tora gets stabbed protecting her. She nurses him back to health which includes helping him change his badnages – cue nakedness and awkwardness (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ. So then government guys come to get her again (or Kaede tricks her or something) and Tora has to save her yet again so they run off to some ghetto shack where he does some foot foreplay licks the blood off some wound on her foot.

They eventually come back to the yakuza house because that’s the only place where Shuuya can bring her back to her world, which Tora knows she wants more than anything. She also finds out from Tora that his dad hates him because his mom loved her kids and gave them more attention. Also because of Tora’s eyes and anger management issues he caused a lot of trouble to the family so pretty much nobody in the family likes him lol. So then the dad comes in raging and insulting his son as usual but Nadeshiko stands up and tells him that she is not in love with 12 year old Tora, she wants the Tora that’s right in front of her now. m9(　ﾟдﾟ)ﾋﾞｼｯ!! So then they run off together again (I kinda lost track on why they kept running out back & forth) and he kisses her at ground zero saying he wants her to give himself to him~ ｲﾔ—–(*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)—–ﾝ!!!! If you choose to tell him you like him you get ending 1. In ending 1 Nadeshiko makes the decision to go back to the past and Tora says he will go with her because he doesn’t trust his 12 year old self to handle her. Shuuya warns him not to “do that thing” that may cause a time paradox but Tora goes anyway. Nadeshiko wakes up in the past and suddenly the time has stopped. She runs around looking for Tora but can’t find him or anyone else for that matter. Suddenly everything goes back to normal and as she heads to class she asks one of her classmates if she’s seen Takato or Akira sensei. The classmate says she has no idea who either of those are – so it’s as if their existence has been erased.

Suddenly Tora comes over to her, his hands covered in blood. He’s basically killed Takato and Akira because they are an existence that caused Nadeshiko’s car accident and he said he couldn’t think of an “easier way” to eliminate it ((ﾟДﾟ；))ｶﾞﾀｶﾞﾀ. He tells her that he loved her and suddenly epilogue. In the epilogue we get ye older memory reset and Nadeshiko’s pretty much forgotten everything that happened with them in the time she spent in the future and the incident regarding Takato and Akira sensei. She just lives this blissful life with Tora as her b/f. In the 2nd ending, if you pick that “you want” Tora basically Nadeshiko doesn’t go back to the past and stays in the future with him. He forms his own yakuza and he’s pretty clingy (like a typical yandere) and of course when she goes and talks to older Nakaba or tries to get info to get Tora’s mom back he gets pissed. He only wants her all to himself and practically has to rape his way to it – until of course she reassures him that she only wants him as well lol. (Well at least she has the balls where it’s needed （ಠ_ಠ）). Honestly, what the fuck otomate? Second ending aside, Y U DO DIS. It felt more like a bad end to me but honestly I wish the game just ended there. I wish that stupid college 10 years later memory loss shit wasn’t added. Felt like one huge copout or something. I really liked Tora’s romance scenes cause he was deliciously naughty (ear biting anyone?) but those endings…….. :;:;:;:;ガ―｛´_｀゜|||｝─ン;:;:;:;

Hanabusa Madoka – Madoka is the oniichanko. He follows his brother Nakaba around like a shadow. Because Madoka is adopted he also feels that in order to keep his place in the Hanabusa family he has to support Nakaba in every way possible. During the test phase of the game Madoka refuses to pair up unless Nakaba is there so most of the time Nadeshiko does all her activities with the 2 of them together. While Nakaba’s hobby is baking pastries, Madoka’s hobby is making jewelry/accessories. After the special after school program ends Akira sensei is suddenly gone. After the whole time-stop battle, this time Nadeshiko ends up in the hands of the government – and she wakes up in a room at Clock Zero. Rain, in human form, is there and explains that he used the bunny mascot to communicate into her subconscious. He explains that they telerported her “soul” from her 12 year old self to her 22 year old body in the future. The reason she had “dreams” of the future was the effect of synchronizing between bodies. Madoka is there as well and she is shocked at how much he’s changed. He went from being a demure shota to a smartass tsundere pimp

She finally meets King who immediately says he loves her and made this world just for her. He explained that he started a research lab to mess around with time when he was in middle school after Nadeshiko’s accident. This is the lab where Nadeshiko’s body was as I mentioned in one of the other routes. They weren’t able to successfully do soul transmission because something was missing and I guess that something and repeated experiments caused a huge explosion 4 years prior. This explosion destroyed the world and so the research scientists with Takato formed a “government” and Takato became King because his father didn’t know much about all this science stuff. He tells Nadeshiko he wants to live in a “happy world” with her and by this point she’s shocked that such a cute shota could have turned into such a creeper! Most of the route Nadeshiko spends tsuntsuning in her room while Madoka spends tsundereing time with her too lol. He tells her it’s annoying for him that she keeps rejecting Takato’s advanced and it gives him and the other staff a headache. One day when they go outside she sees the government staff bullying one of the people. It turns out Takato’s “idea” of a happy world is controlling people’s lives left and right. She’s shocked and terrified at this and continues avoiding him and instead spending time with Madoka.

She realizes that Madoka is only the “dog” for the government because he was captured and forced to work there. He is also only staying there because Takato promised he’d find his family. Madoka is still afraid of dogs and while they are outside some fight breaks out and she’s taken to a safe area by Nakaba. When she finds out it’s Nakaba she’s excited that it’s finally someone she knows. Just then Madoka shows up and the 2 brothers start arguing without realizing who they are until Nadeshiko tells them to stfu lol. Madoka is so happy he finally found his brother that he intends to leave Clock Zero. He tells Nadeshiko he’s the reason she got into the accident and tells her to forget about him. After he leaves, Nadeshiko finds out from Takato that he KNEW where Madoka’s family was but didn’t tell him. He wanted to use him for his dirty deeds because he felt Madoka deserved to be punished for causing Nadeshiko’s accident. Turns out Madoka’s family was threatened and they’d be harmed if he hadn’t called Nadeshiko out on that one fateful day. If you chose to go back to the past, King suddenly decides he will marry Nadeshiko. Madoka isn’t happy about this and Nakaba tells him to stop being a pansy and so Madoka goes and gets her outta there. They finally admit their feelings to each other (by making out ) after being incredibly tsundere. (omg its like tsundere x 2….) Madoka gives her a bracelet he made for her and they break back into CZ HQ to use their soul transporting capsules.

Just as she gets into the capsule she cries and feels regret and she hears Takato come into the lab saying he will not allow this, then a punch is heard and next moment she wakes up in the hospital. 11 year old Madoka is there and explains that she, Takato and Riichiro all passed out but the other 2 recovered quickly while she was sleeping for a while. Nadeshiko thinks this isn’t the Madoka she fell in love with and remembers that she’d forget all her memories with the 21 year old Madoka in about a month. She is upset but as the 11 year old Madoka starts talking, she realizes that it’s really the same Madoka and she cries. AND OH MY GOD I CRIED ｡･ﾟ･(ﾉД`)･ﾟ･｡ うえええん. First time I cried the entire game goddamnit ｡ﾟ(*ﾉДﾉ)ﾟ｡わ～ん. He stays by her side and wipes her tears. 10 years later Nakaba is running the Hayabusa Pastry shop. He tells her she should quit Madoka and go for him instead until a jealous Madoka shows up and rages at his brother to stop hitting on his girlfriend He gives her a bracelet which is identical to the one future Madoka had given her before. Madoka is now jealous of “whoever that guy that gave her the bracelet is” He’s so jealous he kisses her in front of everyone at the restaurant XD In the 2nd ending if you stay in the future, they basically just end up being on the run from the government. They have another “married couple fight” and Nakaba’s like (#´_ゝ`) so they finally kiss and make up….as Nakaba walks in on them lol. Madoka’s like “omg go away I’m busy now” Well it was cute but the first ending felt more like the true end XD Gah I was really annoyed with Madoka at first (and his really thin eyes and fur pimp coat bug the hell out of me) but ugh I cried and laughed so much at the end. I am so weak to tsunderes (〃ﾉﾉ)

Kaido Takato – As expected Takato’s route filled up most of the gaps in the story and answered a lot of questions about the game. Takato is at first the transfer student into Nadeshiko’s class. He’s really bad at cooking, but he’s one of those genius kids because instead he does crazy biology experiments/dissection etc even though he’s only 12 years old. He says sometimes he feels he’s not “child like” enough and while he’s good at a lot of stuff he doesn’t particularly have any “goals” or “dreams”. He comes over her house to learn how to make cookies since on his own he just blows up the oven. One day some crazy gunman runs into his parents’ building and goes on a rampage but he’s okay and he takes the opportunity to invite her over to his pad. His room is in an office building where his parents’ company is. She went to poke his fishtank and it exploded on her and cut her. It’s then and there that Takato realized that what he does for a living (?) is a pretty dangerous hobby – and he never thought of his own safety but now he thought of Nadeshiko. Anyway stuff happens let’s jump to 10 years later, Nadeshiko wakes up in the future world past the explosion. Takato’s pretty much lost all his marbles at age 22 because all he can see is Nadeshiko in front of him and nothing else – like a horse with blinders on. He doesn’t care that he’s being selfish to the people left in the world because all he wants to do is frolic in the flower fields with Nadeshiko to the sound of music.

Nadeshiko thinks he’s a mad scientist so she confides with Rain saying she wants to stop him. Rain says he doesn’t give a damn what Takato does because he hates this world as well. (　´_ゝ`) Takato also informs Nadeshiko that her spirit has actually aged while she was having all those dreams so she’s not a 12 year old in a 22 year body – she’s properly 22. He says he’s been waiting years and years to “touch her” (we made jokes that he fapped to her comatose body every night) and so he demands that she kiss him. In return he said he will allow her to go out on her own until 4PM. She then is taken by Rain to Riichiro and Tora who say that they have plans to overthrow the government and to kill the King. Nadeshiko is upset and she wants to try to change him as quickly as possible so that his life is saved. She finds out that he took the burden of King knowing that he would be hunted down some day and possibly killed. Some time later Takato informs her they found the guy who ran her over. He was hired by someone but didn’t have details on who. Takato was so shocked he just couldn’t hate the guy despite the guy hurting Nadeshiko. He begs her not to leave him, and that she can hate him, as long as she is by his side. In the mean time Rain lets some spies from the rebellion group sneak into the castle. Takato also explained to Nadeshiko that he doesn’t want to “give up” his position because (as a mad scientist) he prefers a controlled environment where nothing will ever hurt her again because he literally cannot live without her.

So here’s the major spoiler of the game (also taken from Rain’s special ending thing.) Rain knew about Takato being a genius child, and he came from America at the age of 15 to meet him. Rain’s younger sister Rachel, was killed in an accident as well and being the stereotypical siscon that he is, he wanted to bring her back to life. When he met up with 12 year old Takato and told him he wanted to research bringing people back to life, Takato refused to cooperate. He said he had no interested and he felt that it was immoral anyway. Rain raged at how dare this brat not do as I say! He then asked Takato if there was a girl that he liked. He came to Takato’s school one day and bumped into Nadeshiko. He pretended to be this gaijin who doesn’t speak English (even though he was fluent in Japanese) and asked her “What is your name? Do you believe in God?” Nadeshiko was like （ಠ_ಠ） wut? So then Rain basically created the scenario – he called Madoka threatening his family and told him to call out Nadeshiko on that fateful day. That fateful day, Nadeshiko was supposed to go to the aquarium with Riichiro and Takato but she had some time before hand so she went to meet Madoka. She got hit by the car and the next time those 2 saw her, was in a vegetable state at the hospital. Takato then swore that he would bring her back to life and that’s when he joined forces with Rain and the rest is history. So anyway back to the route – the rebel guys invade Clock Zero and one of them captures Nadeshiko and brings her at gun point to Takato. She realizes that the guy intends to actually kill Takato, and not her and so when Takato gets close to them, she screams for him to watch out.

She gets loose and jumps in the way and takes the bullet instead. Takato is about to go insane part deux but Nadeshiko begs him not to go crazy, not to do anymore experiments and that she will always be by his side. Takato decides to keep his promise with her and he lets Madoka and some CZ workers do the surgery on her to save her life. This pisses Rain off to no end and Takato then finds out Rain was behind it all. He is pissed and shocked on why Rain would do this and Rain said “I just wanted to make the greatest scientist out of you.” The surgery is a success and Takato is so happy he hugs her so hard that Madoka yells at him for not being careful and that he might open her wounds by accident lol. Nadeshiko thene tells Takato that she likes him and he’s so shocked he turns to stone. She’s like “uh…hello….?” Takato is so happy he asks one more time and she repeats her confession and then he asks to kiss her for real this time stating that other time was a “no count” (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ. For safety reasons, Nadeshiko ends up staying in his room. One day there’s a huge explosion. The rebels have invaded CZ again and set most of the building on fire. Nadeshiko runs to look for Takato and bumps into Rain. Rain tells her that she reminded him of his sister and tells her where Takato is. Takato of course plans to sink with the ship but Nadeshiko rages and says she can’t live without him and forces him to escape with her. You go girl!　m9(　ﾟдﾟ)ﾋﾞｼｯ!! 3 months pass and basically the government is dispelled and everything’s in chaos. There are rumors that the King died in the fire with the castle. Takato runs into some loli who gives him a flower ring and tells him to not hate the King because he gave them food and these flowers.

In the second ending, Nadeshiko decides not rely on Rain cause she realizes he’s a wacky tabacki too so at the end during the fire scene – Takato takes her down to the lab with the capsules. He tells her that in this world she will be in danger and he just cannot live in a world without her. He wants her to be safe to he puts her in a capsule and sends her spirit back in time. She wakes up at the school and sees a passed out 12 year old Takato. She panics and cries but then Takato wakes up and she glomps him. 11 years later Takato becomes a teacher for the school and he’s happily raburabu with Nadeshiko. It turns out that Takato actually saved her life on the day of the accident. The reason is because Takato’s future self, Akira sensei, gave him a letter which listed the day, time and place of Nadeshiko’s accident. He also told Takato to stop all his research immediately – this way he would never catch Rain’s eye. Because of all of this, Nadeshiko’s accident was avoided, her life saved and the world prevented from destruction. I was confused about the whole first half of the game whether it was real or a dream but actually both Takato and Nadeshiko remembered their “after school” program so older Takato really did pose as “Akira sensei” and go back in time. A lot of the activities were kinda related to the story and it really did happen. I guess some stuff got mixed up like her time with Madoka – since she stated she never met him until her parents’ rich people parties. At least the fact that she did those activities with Riichiro and Takato is confirmed. This is probably the only weird plot hole I caught. Overall Takato’s route was really sweet but I guess because he was so obsessed with her (those kerraaazy Cancers!) I still couldn’t really pick him over Riichiro, despite me not knowing who da fk voiced Rittan and me being obsessed with Namikawa Daisuke

My final thoughts section has turned into a complaint section but let’s roll with it The biggest complaint are the STUPID TESTS. Okay fine, they’re part of the game I have no problem but Y U MAKE ME TYPE OUT ANSWER IN KATAKANA. Considering this is a PS2 game too I have to scroll around and pick the letters so I can’t even “type” it out through my keyboard. Additionally those answers aren’t always easy so the easiest way is to just press “A”, get wrong answer, go to Rain and have him give you the “choices” to pick the right answer. If you’re gonna do that just GIVE US THE CHOICES TO BEGIN WITH DAMNIT. （ノ ﾟДﾟ）ノ　＝＝＝＝＝＝＝　┻━━┻　This fact alone really lowered my enjoyment level of the game （ಠ_ಠ）. The 2nd half of the game (past the tests) was actually really interesting and I didn’t understand why we had to become frustrated to the point of flipping tables just to be able to enjoy the damn game. The positives was that Nadeshiko was a pretty strong willed and awesome heroine. Rather than crying for prince charming to save her or being quite and reserved when he rejected her – she’d be like NO YOU’RE MINE BEECH ( ಠ益ಠ ). There were “bonus tracks” which were like extra scenarios for each guy – but it was just text. At least in Death Connection they actually had voices and sprites but here I felt like I was just reading some fanfic. The character interviews (old & young) were nice as well as the “gouhoubi ” pictures XD.　There were some scenes where you had to pick a choice in 8 seconds. Okay short but doable. Then there was one scene in Toranosuke’s route where you had to wait until 2 seconds remaining – then the 2 options would CHANGE – and you had to pick it in literally 1 second. Dafuq? Does Otomate think trolling its players is funny? ヽ(｀Д´#)ﾉ

After Madoka’s route I REALLY wished that Otomate would make a fandisk for this game. Need a route for Nakaba SO BADLY it’s not even funny. Regarding play order I recommend playing it in the order I listed the characters above. This is what one of the guides I used recommended and everything felt just right as far as “revealing” things here & there. Despite Takato being the main character though, I still like Riichiro the most. It’s funny since in Starry Sky the childhood friend story was dumb as hell but here I think they did it really well. I guess rather than the stereotype cliche being bad, it’s how you use the cliche that matters in the end. Overall while there were a few draggy scenes and some stuff made no sense, I think it’s definitely a game worth playing. If you were a fan of the Back to the Future movies then even more so. (*´ω｀*)