Oh yea I sure love it when the opening movie features naked 2D mans in the rain! 😂

Our heroine Inori has been randomly falling asleep at random times all her life and when she falls asleep she has foreseeing dreams. They are bits & pieces of what happens in the future so she takes notes and tries to act upon them if she can. In the town of Sakrada, California, there’s a drug war going on with a drug called Lip Code. One day at a diner, Inori has a dream where she sees a truck slam through the window of the cafe by a drugged driver. She warns everyone to move away and after they do, moments later the truck comes smashing through. It turns out the group whose lives she saved are a detective team called “Sidekicks” at the Sakrada Police Department and they recruit her to join them to help solve cases. The one big case they are trying to solve is to catch a serial murderer named “Rain Killer” who is involved with murdering those involved with the Lip Code drug.

Chika – Chika is Mr. Tsundere who is always yelling and getting angry but is secretly a nice guy who saves homeless puppies. 😂 For some reason someone puts a bounty on his life for $10,000 so a bunch of people try to kill him. He gets hit on the head with a glass bottle and is knocked out. When he wakes up he suddenly becomes incredibly nice and gentle and everyone thinks it’s weird. Honestly, I thought it was way better and sadly it didn’t last long because eventually another bounty hunter came, smacked him in the head, and turned him back to normal. 😂 Chika apparently was an orphan who lived in an orphanage church but now the entire place has been abandoned and shut down. He struggles with his past for 2 reasons: 1 he killed a person when he was a rookie cop but it was a criminal and he shot the guy as he was told. The 2nd is his old childhood friend from the orphanage, Maki, has been committing crimes but Chika can’t bear to arrest his friend and has let him go twice already. When he runs into Chika, he just calls Chika a murderer because while Maki has “hurt” people he never “killed” anyone like Chika did (but of course this is stupid reasoning because Chika was doing his job while Maki is a fucking criminal but anyway.)

After ranting at Inori for a while the tsun runs out and he gets all dere, takes her to his house, tells her about his past and they confess their feelings to each other. (ﾉ´∀｀*) After this Maki ends up coming to the police station offering info about a dude he buried alive in exchange to “letting him go”. After Chika talks to him he admits where the guy is and basically Maki’s motives have been revenge on all the agencies that have allowed homeless kids to be kicked out of orphanages, shut down orphanages and force those kids to become drug dealers to survive. Maki is eventually arrested and Chika also then ousts the dude on live TV for allowing orphaned kids to end up the way they did. They also discovered that the person who put a bounty on Chika was the sister of the guy he shot back in the day. After this everyone pokes fun at Chika when they find out he and Inori are dating. After the credits, Chika takes it easy and takes some selfies with Inori in his apartment on their day off.  In the bad end, Chika gets into an argument with Maki and accidentally shoots and kills him.

Hibari – Hibari is the flirty guy who is a psychology professional and is able to read people’s thoughts & actions during interrogations. He once used to be a counselor for a girl named Shion that Inori runs into on the street. Inori then finds out that her mother divorced her father and then remarried and the step dad abused her. Then one day, Shion’s real father burst in and killed both the mom and the step dad. Shion was rescued from the horror and adopted by her aunt Yabuki. She then decided to return back to Sakrada to go to high school despite her aunt’s worries that she might get ptsd. Around this time Hibari starts putting the moves on Inori and kissing her saying he likes her. However when Inori asks him if he no longer feels lonely by kissing her he apologizes and stops touching her again. After he gets drunk and insults her saying he just kissed her for no reason, Inori ditches his sorry ass and that’s when he comes crawling back, apologizing and confessing his love to her. 😈

A few days later Shion nearly kills Inori after confessing that her step dad beat his mom to death and then Shion stabbed and killed the step dad. She then called her real dad to take the blame for the murder cause she was mad at him for leaving her alone to get child abused by a drunken fuck face. She had also planned to kill her aunt who wanted to prove the dad’s innocence cause she hated him. Her mom ignored all the abuse so Shion didn’t care that she died. Just then Hibari burst into the room trying to stop her and she grabs his gun and shoots him instead. Suddenly the dad and the rest of the Sidekicks burst in and the dad takes the gun from her telling them to put the shooting blame on him. Turns out this was all an act and Hibari faked his death with fake blood 🤣🤣. The gun was fake too and this was to get Shion to admit that she was the murderer. Hibari had blamed himself for this because he stopped being her counselor and left her to sit there boiling internal ptsd for years. And so they get a lawyer for the father and Shion and case closed. After this Hibari comes over to Inori’s place for sexy timez. Hibari aside I honestly feel sorry for Shion and tbh the ppl who died because of her fucking deserved it anyway. 🖕 In the bad end Hibari bangs Inori, then quits sidekicks and moves to take a different job in Washington.

Rico – Rico is the “I’m a shota but I’m really 19 years old tehepero” template with a screeching voice that I wish I never have to hear again. Rico also has a twin brother who has been hospitalized in a coma after getting involved in the explosion incident at the police station. Rico has a skill to remember everything after only seeing it once. Because of this he can never forget the time his parents were killed in front of him while he and his brother hid in the closet. Because of his memory he can never forget horrible things. They then get involved in a case where a boy’s father is badly injured and nearly killed like Rico’s. Because of this Inori spends a lot of time with him and when she invites him over her place to cook dinner he gets all horned up, pushes her on the floor and kisses her. He confesses his love for her and starts slipping his hand on her thigh but because he’s a shitty shota stereotype he falls asleep lmfao 😂😂😂.

A few days later guy who killed the boy’s parents tricks Inori into letting him into her house. He then kidnaps Inori and reveals that he’s apparently a hitman and kills for hire. He ties her up inside some boat house but Rico and Chika manage to find her and stop the kidnapping asshole. Unfortunately he manages to provoke Rico and because he jumps on him the asshole shoots Chika and aims at Rico. Inori knows that Rico doesn’t wear a bulletproof vest so she jumps in the way and gets shot. Since Chika was wearing one he manages to get up and beat the guy down. Inori is rushed to the hospital and luckily wakes up alive cause she was shot in the shoulder. Rico agrees to wear a bulletproof vest after this. In the end they decide to take the boy’s father off life support because they’re just prolonging his death. After Inori is released from the hospital Rico is ready to continue in his path to hopefully graduating from acting like a 9 year old. 😥 (in his last cg it looked like Inori wasn’t his guru but his mom 😥😥😥). Just then they get a phone call that Rico’s twin bro Ritsu finally opened his eyes.

Shishiba – Shishiba is the computer nerd who takes care of any back end research but also has a soft spot for youtube dog videos. He used to be a pro hacker and would get paid for it. He got caught when he accessed the police database and in exchange for not arresting him they asked him to work for Sidekicks. His favorite superhero is captain Ginger who is a nerd by day and superhero by night. Since he’s a nerd they have a nerdy misunderstanding about each other’s feelings until they both confess to each other in a dark elevator. 😳 Shishiba just wanted someone to recognize him for himself not for his computer skills and Inori made his heart flutter when she told him that there’s no one who can replace him. Unfortunately after this Ayame, a douchebag they hired to take over the explosion case, kidnaps Inori and takes her to his hideout. He reveals that he’s hacked Shishiba’s computer and shows how he’s been checking out Inori’s dream log. This is all to see who is a better hacker, him or Shishiba. Fortunately Shishiba is a pro and manages to find and rescue her before Ayame turns into a gross rapist. 😥 Also turns out the spoofing tool Ayame used, Shishiba created 2 years earlier so he was able to track him thanks to this. Shishiba also punches Ayame for grabbing Inori’s boob and licking her neck. That evening Shishiba and Inori watch the sunrise together and then he does what Ayame did to her on the sandy beach 😂. Despite my short summary of Shishiba’s route he was actually my favorite route in the game, he’s such an adorable nerd I absolutely loved him (*´ω｀*)。

Nora – Nora seems like the nice guy of the bunch and is the first one to approach Inori after she drops her smart phone while falling asleep. He works as a news reporter so he’s often hanging around the Sidekicks to get news coverage. He asks to borrow Inori to work with him on the rainkiller murderer because he says there’s a traitor amongst the Sidekicks. Nora asks Inori to come over where he tells her he knew a man named Asahina who was working on Lip Code drug research. The point of the drug was to help patients who were say in a coma, to recover. Unfortunately Asahina was killed while reciting names of Rainkiller’s upcoming victims to Nora. Nora was terrified that Rainkiller might come after him so he kept in the shadows. Ishizaki, the policeman was on to him but was then killed in the police station explosion incident. Nora feels guilty for being a coward and watching Rainkiller take victims one by one. One night Nora gets kidnapped by Samejima, the guys who killed Asahina. When Inori runs to find him she gets captured too and then Nora lies and says that he’s the Rainkiller. He says that he’s Asahina’s son and he’s out to take revenge and kill anyone who is involved with Lip Code or his father’s death. Suddenly Samejima screams and Inori uses the opportunity to call Shishiba for help.

Nora is hospitalized from being beat up and they tell Inori that Samejima was killed… by the real Rainkiller. Several days later they manage to find the real Rainkiller still in his rain coat and then Nora runs on to the scene asking him to grant Asahina’s wish to save someone. Meanwhile this dude named Tsujidou says they just want to take Lip Code to profit off it and Rainkiller is in the way. Tsujidou offers the Sidekicks to kill Rainkiller together so they can all be heroes but they refuse. Tsujidou threatens to kill them all but Chika shoots him instead. Rainkiller takes the opportunity to escape and then Tatewaki & co arrive. Tsujidou is arrested for spreading Lip Code around Sakrada and obstructing evidence on Rainkiller. Inori visits Nora at his apartment while he’s recovering and he apologizes for lying saying he had no feelings for her to try to protect her. He thanks her for coming to his rescue and they kiss after confessing their love once more. In the epilogue they announce that they will rework the drug to help people like Asahina wished when he originally created it. Nora then tells Inori that most likely the dark horse in the police force involved with the Rainkiller is actually Tatewaki.

Tatewaki – Tatewaki is the leader of the Sidekicks, and while he may seem like he’s laid back, his true leadership really shines when he decides to take a vacation and soon as he leaves shit hits the fan. Tatewaki has his own version of the “main” route of the game and the stuff really hits home when one night he barges into Inori’s apartment with a bloody shoulder. He hides there for a few days and asks Inori to keep it a secret and not tell anyone. Tatewaki also gets caught on suspicion of possessing Lip Code so everyone involved with him and Sidekicks begins to get tested for lying at the police station. If you tell the others that you’re hiding Tatewaki you get a bad end so Inori has to continue keeping this a secret. Tatewaki tells Inori that Ishizaki was his best friend before they became policemen and he was heartbroken when Ishizaki died in the explosion. Feeling bad for loafing in her apartment, Tatewaki takes Inori to a movie. However Inori picks a movie that Tatewaki would like because she had the memo he wrote a long time ago of the things he wants to do on a weekend. (ﾉ´∀｀*) Unfortunately after they get back from the movie, there’s a ton of police in front of Inori’s apartment and Tatewaki is arrested by Tsubaki. Inori is taken to the police station to be questioned but obviously she had no idea about anything. After this Sidekicks are told to take a leave of absence until further notice and refrain from doing any investigative work. Several days after being in prison, it’s announced that Tatewaki suicides via drug overdose.

They attend a funeral and shit but then Inori gets home and Tatewaki’s there like “HAY GURL WAZZUP?” 😂😂😂😂 The rest of the Sidekicks come in and he explains that he had them fake his death. He also says he didn’t tell everyone it was fake because he figured Chika would blurt it out cause he’s such a dumbass 😂. Also the reason Ishizaki was killed is because there’s a traitor planted inside the police force and Ishizaki was trying to figure out who it was. The next day Rico gets a message from the hospital that his brother Ritsu has finally awakened. Several days of Tatewaki being at Inoris’ apartment, one night Inori finds him missing. They go to look for him and instead run into Yashiro, who is with Rain Killer and is the traitor in the police force. Just then they remove the Rain Killer’s hood and reveal that Rainkiller is ACTUALLY RICO WTF 😂😂😂😂. They also reveal that Rico and Ritsu are Asahina’s sons and Rico’s been on the path of revenge for his father’s murder. Shishiba managed to figure this out through hacking the police database. Rico figured if he killed all the “bad guys” and apparently he go them all except for Tatewaki who he has now captured. Tatewaki says that the last bad guy isn’t him but Yashiro, because Ishizaki died soon as he told her about the “spy” inside the police. Yashiro just used Rico and brainwashed him into killing people so Tatewaki begs Rico to stop killing. After Rico’s long speech to Yashiro about who is truly the bad guy, she’s like “lol whatever stfu” and shoots him.

She laughs and says that there’s no way that killing others would wake up his brother and it’s now his turn to die along with anyone else involved with Lip Code. She then reveals that she was the one behind the plan to kill Asahina and she asked Ayame to create a bomb to set up the explosion incident at the police station. She wanted to kill Ishizaki for getting too close to the truth but Ritsu getting involved was just an accident. Out of convenience she then decided to use Rico to do the rest of her bidding. Inori is like “bitch dafuq you do all this shit for”  and she goes into a speech about the glass ceiling and that as a woman she can’t rise to the top. 😂 Well she has a point, but seriously crafting this entire plot cause she wanted power is such a silly generic bad guy excuse lol. Rico gets pissed off after hearing all this and lunges at Yashiro with his knife killing her. Unfortunately he is also shot protecting Inori from Yashiro and then dies as well. After Tatewaki is released from the hospital everyone tries to move on from mourning his loss and in the credits Ritsu opens his eyes and tears stream down his face. In the end I guess the route was so plot focused they had scenes of Inori and Tatewaki kissing but honestly I barely felt any romance developing. Also it didn’t help that Tatewaki felt like such an ossan because of TsudaKen voicing him haha. I did like seeing Inori’s hair down in the extra scenario, wish she had it down in more Cgs.

So overall, it was surprisingly enjoyable! After their previous disaster, I decided not to bother with Extend’s games anymore….but seeing all the positive reviews I decided to give it a chance.  I’m glad I did because the story was good, the graphics and visuals were amazing and a pretty good cast to boot. The visuals is what stood out the most to me about the game especially some animated scenes, the really nice menus and gasp – ART CONSISTENCY. Seriously lately with Otomate sprites done by one guy and CGs done by another and it’s just uncanny valley. This was refreshing to see that each CG was very consistent of the character’s design. This is something I EXPECT from visual novels so the fact that this feels “refreshing” to me is quite depressing. (Only other game that I can think with consistent artwork recently is probably Taisho Alice.) Honestly my only beef with the game is one, wtf was the point of Shisui other than his stupid narration and “Channel S”. Seriously the game did not need him, he was a mystery from beginning to end and unless there’s a fandisk or a sequel, he was probably a waste of resources tbh. Second, there was a critical bug in chapter 2 where I think a voice file was corrupted – which would cause your game to crash. If you hadn’t saved you might have lost 1-2 hours of play time. I’ve reported the bug to Extend and they are aware of it, but seeing how it’s almost 2 months since Sidekicks was released I’m not sure how much priority they have in fixing it. Therefore if you play the game, make sure you save in chapter 2 at the scene where Tatewaki comes into the diner in his Hawaiian shirt. Soon as you see the graphic of his “list of things to do while on vacation” get ready for your game to crash or just force skip until the image of his list is off your screen.

And finally my beef with Rico. Oh my lord Rico. It’s hard not to go into details why without spoiling but I would have really just wished he wasn’t your stereotypical “I’m 19 but I act like I’m 9 except when I push you down and stick my tongue down your throat” character. ヽ(。_゜)ノ While I’m not a huge fan of Aoi Shota’s voice acting, his voice acting in this game for Rico was utterly the most nerv grating thing. If you don’t know what I mean just go to the official site and listen to the voice samples. Σ(ﾟдﾟlll) And finally four, why the hell is everyone’s name in Japanese? Literally EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. has a Japanese name and no last name just…1 name like Yashiro, Tatewaki, Inori etc. This game takes place in California, all the food, drink, and even the car driving scenes are steering wheel on the left! (Actually one of the drama CDs actually makes fun of this by telling everyone to speak English so at least they’re aware lmao! 😂) Speaking of car CGs, I CAN’T SAVE THE REALLY COOL DRIVING CAR CGS CAUSE THEY’RE NOT IN THE GALLERY!! 😂😂😂😂😂

So do I want a fandisk for this game? Yea!! Do I think they will release one: NOPE LOL. Due to a certain plot point, a fandisk for this game is basically impossible and it seems like Extend would rather shuffle their freelancers around for new project to see what sticks than to actually keep a consistent team. Of course the plus side is you get more chances at higher creativity and better games (rather than the same stale corner cutting poop Otomate releases lately) but the minus of course you could get a team fulla bads and you get games like Kakuryo Enishi. Anyways, tl;dr I recommend this game especially if you enjoyed stuff like Collar x Malice, Tiny x Machinegun and Binary Star. For play order I suggest Chika → Hibari → Rico → Shishiba (my fav ♡) → Nora → Tatewaki. Nora & Tatewaki are locked in that order so you can’t change it even if you wanted to hence my suggestion. Glad I decided to pick up the Stellaworth set while in Japan, now time to listen to all the drama CDs and read through the booklet (´∀｀).

Bonus 😂: