Amatarasu Riddle Start - Miu's Route Review

 

The playthrough guide I looked through showed to play Miu's route in the middle. I think it is because it has its own unique story plot with Takaya the MC. That said this is the first of the three stories that in my opinion are emotional rollercoasters. Miu's story is extremely emotional and at first I honestly thought it was more of a bad ending, but it would later get better.

Miu who I dubbed the 'rabbit girl' from Alice in Wonderland is a legit bunny girl with ears and all. Though she uses magic to keep her ears hidden if she gets into a frantic or nervous state she will relax her magic and it will cause her ears to revel themselves. She also enjoys carrots and anything that has carrots in it. 

Miu and Takaya start dating not long after the Festival (if you go down that route) and their relationship is very erotic and sexual desired driven. At first their love is based on the feelings they have for one another that they had established between one another after the met as well as a few other instances where Miu gets very...aroused by certain items or things. It is also reveled that Miu can see and interact with Takaya's dreams, so they realize their feelings for one another after an incident after Takaya has a very sexually explicit dream about him and Miu.

It is through the course of them increasing their love and intimacy with one another does a couple of hidden facts are brought to light. Takaya during his early years of being weak and frail had a friend he would play with in his dreams. After the incident however he wasn't able to see her for a long time. It is at this time he realizes that she is that friend in his dream. And her ability to see him in his dreams makes more sense.

Eventually however, you find out about what is referred to as the incident in the eyes of Miu, though for the most part Takaya was unaware of it until his dreams began to show him things from his past that he didn't remember. It is during this you find out that at one point in Takaya's past he actually died. It was Miu using the power of a special watch that could turn back the hands of time that she removed one of the hands from it and placed it into Takaya allowing him to return to a time before his death.

However, time has worn the magic that she infused with him and as such there is a risk that time will revert back to the past when he had passed away. However, before that happens Miu is saved by Takaya from being hit by a bus and in turn he is once again on the brink of death. Miu decides to save him but this time the only way she can do it is to use her own life force to power up the watch of time and force its hand back again. 

She forces the hand that she gave to Takaya the first time she saved him to appear and take its place in the watch, and then using her life she forced the hands of time back and slowly faded from existence.

Takaya seeing the girl he loved disappear to save his own life, was depressed and crushed eventually retreating into his room and over time of not sleeping and not eating he placed himself on the verge of dehydration, malnutrition, and lack of sleep. It is during this time he gets a text message from Miu sent using the last of her life telling him to move on and live his life. However, he refuses knowing to do so would mean forgetting Miu and moving on from her.

It is at this point he enters a trance or dream like state and runs into a younger version of himself. It is through talking to that version of himself that he comes to a conclusion on how to save Miu and through will power and determination he is able to bring Miu back to the world he lives in. 

 To say that this route didn't cause me a lot of grief would be an understatement. Even though the end of it got better and Miu and Takaya ended up married and with a child, the amount of times that they made you think that Miu wasn't going to be coming back or that Takaya wasn't going to end up with her was way too many. I'm not saying it was a bad thing for the story, but for one's heart and peace of mind, it was way too many.

Of all the routes I can say this one was well developed, well planned, and well played. It allowed you to look at more of Takaya's past story and put together several of the pieces that you normally were not able to due to lack of information in the last few routes. To say that this one however was the worst of the worst of the five main stories though I'd say it would be tied with one other story.

I enjoyed Miu's character and I think that Takaya and Miu made one of the better couples, even though I knew that Miu wasn't technically main girl I think she was a close second.

Miu's Free Money Shot

Amatarasu Riddle Star -Kokoro Route

 

Kokoro's route is another route that I feel that had it pretty easy. The three routes after Yua's and Kokoro's all had some pretty big story twists and were a freaking emotional rollercoaster. I don't mean that in a bad way per say but it is something that I was not expecting after playing through Yua's and Kokoro's routes. 

While Yua was the 'Dreamer', Kokoro is the "Queen" from the Alice in Wonderland story. Despite her looks she is the same age as Takaya and is in the same grade. She is very quiet, reserved, and relies heavily on her maid Hire. She is very compassionate and caring though she isn't able to show it much due to her position. The majority of students tend to keep their distance from her afraid they would offend her so she has become isolated.

Through the main part of the story you hear bits and pieces of Kokoro's struggle and feelings for Takaya, though you really don't fully understand why it seems she has the feelings she does for Takaya, at least not until you go down her route. It is going through her route and the trials and tribulations she faces with you that Takaya finally is able to put the pieces together for why she feels the way she does for him.

Takaya's story deviates slightly from Yau's story but only slightly. Takaya in his youth created a world in which Kokoro was a princess in a castle and was kept inside much like him at the time. He would visit their world and she would see him through the castle windows and in a strange way she connect with him. At a point she was able to sneak out of the castle and play with the young Takaya and in doing so she finally was able to establish a friendship and even a young romance. Though they only met the one time, they made a promise to meet again.

Sadly, it wasn't long after that meet up did an event in Takaya's life happen that shattered his desire to be part of the world he created and as such the connection they had was severed. Kokoro waited for Takaya to return and hoped he would come and take her from the castle. Eventually after their worlds finally connected she was able to see him again, but he had long since forgotten the castle and the princess. 

However it all came back to him after an incident at the school took place and it placed Kokoro and the teachers at odds with one another. Through his feelings for her and hearing different stories and hearing from Kokoro herself he finally remembered her and her situation. It was that insight that later led him to become a big help to Kokoro to settle her situation.

Overall, out of all the stories I felt like this one would rank in the top two at least. The story was solid, the history between the characters and the way they presented it was well done. There were of course some comedy as well which was a good way to break up the serious points that happened. Kokoro despite her age was short and small and seemed fragile which is why Takaya I think took a liking to her. 

The H-scenes dedicated to Kokoro were unique and in some cases could be seen as a bit...boarder line taboo. Though again this is due to her size more so than her age. The one saving grace about her H-scenes was the fact that due to her...fun sized chest there was not many titty fuck scenes...which as you will see in my next 3 posts with the girls with bigger boobs...there were ALOT of them. Honestly I have no idea why titty fucking in Asian culture is so overly used but that's their thing. 

Yua and Kokoro's stories are at their core feel good stories. Which after undergoing the rollercoaster ride of emotions on the next three main routes...these two were greatly needed.

Kokoro Free Money Shot

Amatarasu Riddle Star - Yua's Route

 

Amatarasu Riddle Start is a unique twist on the concept of Alice in Wonderland of sorts. The story rotates heavily on the concept of dreams and imagination empowering multiple worlds and in some instances these worlds overlap and the result is either they will remain in equal space or they will eventually collapse destroying both worlds. 

I can explain that concept further but as for this post, it is about one of the girls (love interests) you can get with and follow down her path. Yua is in essence is what I have dubbed 'The Dreamer' and the world that was created is based off mostly her own dreams and desires and imagination.

Yua is the childhood friend of the protag Takaya and has been with him since he moved into the town. Takaya as a small child was extremely weak and frail and because of his health he wasn't able to be active like most children. Because of this he dived heavily into books and mostly in that of fairy tails. 

Yua was heavily influenced by Takaya and his imagination as well as his obsession with the stars. Because of this Yua also began to believe a great deal of the belief's and ideas that Takaya told her. Eventually however, an event shattered Takaya's mental scape and left him feeling betrayed by both his dreams and his idea of the world. Because of that he gave up on creating new stories of his own and eventually shut himself off from his past self. 

Yua, seeing his change soon took up the torch of sorts and would constantly tell him the stories he had told her as a child and her own believes, Takaya had forgotten that it was him that had actually told her these stories but he would later remember. It was on a particular night when the 'Starfall' happened and the world that Yua had created converged and became connected to the real world. 

While the beginning and middle parts of the story of this game are pretty much the same there are a few decisions you have to make that will lead to the different routes for each girl you can end up with. It is at the Festival that your choices will show you which girl you end up with and it is here that your relationship will start to change. If you play your hands right you will end up heading down Yua's route.

As Yua and Takaya grow closer and their relationship grows you begin to find out more and more about the connection of the two worlds, though there isn't much information really. Of all the stories this one is the more tamed of the stories. Takaya and Yua become intimate and eventually the two begin to question the changes in their world. It isn't until later on when Takaya does an experiment of sorts that he believes that it is Yua that has allowed the two worlds to connect.

Eventually there is a fear that the two worlds will become unstable and Takaya begins to think of ways to make sure that doesn't happen. Later in their story it is reveled to Takaya that it was his own stories and dreams that influenced the world that Yua created and so through his own hand he helped shape and create the world that is now part of their world. To maintain the status quo Takaya had to look pass his own past and the incident that left him defeated and broken. 

As Takaya and Yua continue to grow their relationship and Takaya once again believes in his own stories from his past the connection of the worlds solidifies and becomes stable.

Yua's route is pretty laid back and fun to go through and has quiet a bit of comedy between them. I can say its pretty wholesome if you don't think about the H-scenes. Yua's shy nature, caring side, and overall innocents really makes her seem more childish and kid like. Her devotion and love towards Takaya is very strong and she does a good job of dedicating herself to him even though he sometimes takes it for granted. She is a remarkable cook and despite her somewhat air headiness she is pretty smart, at least in school.

Of the 5 main stories hers I think is a nice story to ease yourself into this VN and a good 1st route to go through. It isn't heavy with information or with a lot of emotional rollercoasters and the H-scenes if you have the 18+ DLC content are well done and even have some 2Dlive motion to them which is actually pretty nice. The ending of their story is a bit lacking I feel but it does at the very least wrap up the main plot while leaving their own stories open to interpretation.

Overall, I think you all would enjoy this path and VN. I know I enjoyed it pretty well and the H-Scenes helped improve the experience as well.

Free Money Shot

Amatarasu Riddle Star

 

Amatarasu Riddle Star is a visual novel released in October 2019 on Steam and was developed by softhouse-seal and published by MangaGamer. The story is a play on the classic literature work by Lewis Carrol called Alice in Wonderland. While it has many characteristics of the original story and many of the unique characters can be compared to characters in the story, it does provide its own unique twists and turns that makes it a unique work.

Unlike American McGee's Alice which went dark and twisted this one goes more light hearted and if you have the 'Adult' Version then it goes a little sexual. There is also two main characters with you playing the protag Doumoto Takaya, while the other "main character" at least in my mind is his childhood friend Yua. Yua also is one of the five primary routes you can take and end up in a romantic relationship with.

The story starts with Takaya and Yua out at night star gazing from the highest point in the town referred to as 'Star Fall Hill'. The pair used to visit the hill often together as children, but after an event occurred to Takaya his once innocent demeanor and active imagination was locked away and the harshness of reality of a down trodden world took over. Because of this now he doesn't go very often but on some nights Yua can get him to come with her to have a night picnic and to watch the stars with her.

Yua is Takaya's long time childhood friend and has for a long time had a secret crush on Takaya. She's a bit of a dreamer and can be a bit of an airhead but she means well. She is caring, nice, loving, and an exceptional cook. She is usually always around Takaya and tends to drag him along with her on her many excursions and expeditions around town. She seems to always be happy and never really shows any anger or contempt for others. And yes...she was the first route I took.

It isn't long into the Visual Novel that an event that we'll call an actually Star Fall happens and it is in this event that the lives of Takaya and Yua as well as everyone in their quiet little town changes. After the two make a wish on a group of falling stars the stars suddenly come crashing down upon the town and a white light consumes the town. However instead of the town being destroyed in a ball of fire it becomes slowly transformed.

It is during this change that we begin to meet the other characters of this story including the four other girls that you can end up being with. The first you really interact with is Ai.

Ai is based off the Cheshire Cat and is usually heard before seen due to her cat bell she wears. Ai is a mystery but seems close to Takaya though he doesn't know why. She likes to refer to herself as his older sister and does to an extent tends to show up when he needs her most. Ai is unique as she doesn't through main set of the Visual Novel tend to have many actual scenes where she's either not sleeping or running away from the Card Soldiers and the Queen's personal maid Hire. 

Ai is fun loving and caring she is also very active and agile. When she's not protecting Takaya from afar or skipping school running from the Card Soldiers she's usually laid up somewhere sleeping, much like a cat. She is protective of Takaya and on occasion will drop by his house to get free food from his parents who just go along with it. At the moment I have not gone through her route yet so I can't say much about her relationship with Takaya.

Later when returning to school Takaya notices that things in the town are changing including his school which has now become a castle of sorts. It is also when he meets and gets introduced to Kokoro which represents the Queen. She is in fact a real Queen and is also acting Head Master and Principle of the school, but she is also a student in Takaya's class.

She has a personal maid Hire who is over the Card Soldiers that can be seen floating around the school acting as guards as well as helping with anything that is needed to be done from construction to clean up. Kokoro is reserved, well spoken, and shy to a fault. She tries to be a strong leader and takes charge every chance she gets in order to connect with the students on a more personal level. Despite that and her obvious cuteness she's seen as somewhat unapproachable and because of that she doesn't have any friends.

It isn't until Yua, Miu, and Takaya start spending time with her and talking with her that her story becomes more apparent. There are hints and discussions between Kokoro and Hire that gives you the impression that she knows Takaya and has a thing for him however it isn't until you start down her path that her story truly starts to make sense. I have played through her route and I actually enjoyed it quiet a bit. The ending I personally feel so far of the two I have completed was well done and had some sort of closure to it.

 Miu is the embodiment of the Rabbit...pretty much literally as she has rabbit ears that she tends to hide unless she gets flustered. She is extremely shy, timid, and fast when it comes to running. She also has a watch that at different times can be heard before she appears. She is a classmate of Takaya and Yua and as the three become closer she tends to follow them around on Yua's expeditions. 

She enjoys reading the same type of stories that Takaya does and truth be told they have a great deal in common and can at some points even finish each other sentences. Due to her shy nature and innocence she is extremely popular among both the boys and girls in their class, though the boys all want her to be their girlfriend. However, despite this she never really tends to do much with the others.

I am currently on her route and her relationship to Takaya is pretty interesting and one that I find to be a nice change of pace. There is some hidden secrets there about Takaya's past that you start to see but those seem to be secondary at this point so I'll have to see where it goes and update you all on a different post.

Madori is based off the Mad Hatter and you meet her when Yua decides to explore the forest that has sprung up behind the school. She of course drags you with her and you soon find yourself in a traditional Japanese style tea house. It is here you meet Madori who is a first year student in the Tea Ceremony Club. Madori is mischievous and a prankster and tends to do things at her own speed. While this normally isn't a problem she sets her sites on Takaya and that can cause some chaos and confusion.

Madori is quick witted and enjoys making Takaya flustered by making suggestive remarks, rubbing her boobs against his arm, and putting him in situations where people believe that he and Madori are a couple and they have done way more than people think. While she does this on a regular bases she doesn't speak about herself much and she tends to be elusive. She also has an unusual tick of sorts by talking to herself and if Takaya says something about it she dismisses him as him just being crazy.

Not playing her route yet I honestly can't tell you much of their relationship story. 

All in all from the few stories I have played through and the over all feel of the Visual Novel is very well done and thought out, the story flows and has several comedy like instances that is refreshing and nice. That said there are also a few of those more heart wrenching moments that really hits you hard. While I won't say what those are because I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

The artwork is well done and the music works well with the overall feel of the Visual Novel. I recommend this VN to anyone that is looking for a unique take on a classic like Alice in Wonderland. If you obtain the 18+ DLC it will also add 3 additional 'mini' endings in which there are three other women you can get with. And to say the H-scenes are hot is an understatement. I can say that thus far of the three I've done or working on there are several that even got saucy for me...which I like.

Orwell -Keeping an eye on You-

 

Orwell Keeping an Eye on You, is a unique experience to say the least. Orwell is a new government security program that has the power to survey the online presence of every person in The Nation. With the ability to monitor all forms of personal communications and able to gain access to any computer, Orwell finds and decides which pieces of information should be passed on to the security forces and which should be rejected.

This is where you come in, as an Investigator hired secretly by The Nation's Security Forces it is your job to use Orwell to investigate the lives of citizens and to find those responsible for a series of terror attacks. Thanks to Orwell you have full access to information from the internet, personal communications, and private files. Be warned however, the information that you supply will have consequences.

You were selected from thousands of candidates to become Orwell's first human researcher. When a terrorist attack on The Nation's capital of Bonton takes place, you and Orwell are immediately put to the test. You start with a single person of interests, and soon you will be using your access to Orwell to help the Security Forces build out and profile a network of potential culprits.

Thanks to the Orwell System you are able to investigate the digital lives of citizens searching through web pages, social media posts, dating site profiles, news articles and blogs to help track down the terrors suspects. Using the unique sub systems of the Orwell System you can go as far as to gain access to citizens cell phones and computers, giving you access to read personal emails, listen in on chat communications, hack their PC's, pull medical files, and make connections based on these.

As the investigator and Orwell's counter part, it is up to you to determine what information is relevant. The information you provide will be sent to the Security Forces and they will act upon it. You get to decide what they see and don't, which influences how suspects are perceived. 

It is up to you and Orwell to find the terrorist that bombed Bonton to keep the citizens of The Nation safe, knowing that Orwell is watching over them.

The game's story is well written and enjoyable the artwork actually goes well with the concept of this game so even though its not like top of the line graphics I still found it really well done. The audio is crisp and clean and while I do wish they had more actually voice overs instead of making you read all of it but that isn't bad really. 

I would recommend this game and while its not a normal adult style game that I play it is still listed as mature due to adult language and some of the situations but overall its not really all that bad.

Gear of Glass

 

Gear of Glass just recently released its English Version upgrade allowing English speaking and reading players a chance to get into this Visual Novel. Gear of Glass was developed and produced by Remnants of mosaic and the original language is Russian. The game offers multiple endings for multiple characters as well as multiple romances. From what I have played through so far for the majority of the characters you can interact with there are good, neutral, and bad endings, however I haven't played through all of them.

The Visual Novel allows you to pick between a Male or Female character and then allows you to place points into certain area's like an RPG such as Strength, Agility, etc. Though I like this aspect I haven't found a great deal where these come involved or if they do they are done so without really knowing what activates them. This game also has a high probability that you will end up dying multiple times through the process of playing through a single play through so I advise saving often or at choice scenes to make sure you can pick a different choice.

The game doesn't say exactly what situation or state the world is in but it would appear to be a alternate world in which technology is post Imperialist Age but not quiet that of the WWI Era. From what information is given there are a couple of powerful nations currently at war with one another and one such nation is attempting to create super soldiers and to some extent better humans. This is led by a secret group in an underground bunker facility. Part of this groups methodology is to use children found on the streets as test subjects.

Economically speaking based on the game's story that is given there is a growing disparity between a group of elites and the common people, so much so that there is an ever growing poor population. With more and more families choosing to send children to orphanages or to force them on the streets in order to be able to feed themselves. 

The MC and the sister (as you can choose to be male or female) are orphans that fled the confines of an abusive orphanage in the hopes of obtaining freedom. However, in this world Freedom comes with a high price, that price being poor and downtrodden. Because of this the MC and the sister end up living on the streets and with little to no food and no shelter they end up malnourished and sick. It is at this time when both are on the doors of death that they are saved by a young man that appears to be a doctor and researcher. It is after they are rescued that things start to happen. Taken to an underground facility the MC is separated from their sister and can take injections, (not sure if you can refuse it or not though I am thinking you can). 

One of the things that makes this VN unique is that there are so many different endings pending on the choices you make through the game. There is a walkthrough that you can find in English on Steam if you wish to use it to get to the ending you want. Currently I have just started so I have not actually gotten many of the endings but I plan on playing through more and seeing about getting more endings.

So what are my thoughts overall on this game? The graphic quality is not as good as higher end Visual Novels but as an indie developer it isn't that bad. I do think that a later updated adapting it to better resolution would be a good thought though. Sound quality wise I am pretty impressed with, while there is no voice overs which personally isn't a requirement, the sounds for the back ground and music used is pretty good and does a good job of getting the player in the mood for what is going on around them.

The story and character development can be a bit rough around the edges, and the story is a tad bit short and doesn't explain a great deal of what is going on in the game world to really get the players mindset to be in the game. That said, I think the game still has a lot of promise and is still well crafted for what parts of the story is being told. I think the story is very engaging and makes for a good starting point for some expansion later if the developer decides to do that.

My only real complaint is the lack of time given to convert all text to English as well as the grammatical errors. Also I there is a lot of switching back and fourth between genders. Playing as a Male MC there were many instances when the MC had 'her' and 'she' instead of the needed 'he' and 'him'. I figure this will be the same on the Female MC as well.

There is one thing that I must warn possible players of though, there is a great deal of violence, suicide, description of scenes of blood, guts, and more. People with weak stomachs or constitutions probably will want to avoid this game.

I would recommend this to people that enjoy a Visual Novel that has a lot of endings and a lot of those endings are you most likely dying, because you will die a lot in this VN.

WAGAMAMA High Spec - Toa's Route

 

The final route to take based on the information I read was none other than the sister's route or Toa. I admit that I like how they actually stayed true to the concept of Siscon to the extreme here. In many Anime and Manga's the 'sister' figure is usually a half sibling and usually one that marries into the family so are not usually blood relatives. However, that is not the case with this Visual Novel. Based on everything she is a true to honest blood relation to Narumi. 

While to some this may be cringe but as far as taboo's, kinks, and or just all around artistic concept this is one of the best ones I've seen in a while. This route is also the route that you find the most information out about Narumi and Toa's past and their parents.

Toa is a brilliant and smart individual with the tech abilities to back it up. She is of course in return very anti-social and tends to relegate herself to her home more than anything. However, she does have to attend school from time to time in order to graduate. It isn't until Narumi gets inducted into the Student Council that she finally starts to come out of her shell. Thanks to a fishing email opened by the advisor of the Student Council Narumi has to call on her to come and help remove the virus from the school computer network.

Due to her help and I think also because she's Narumi's sister she is asked to join the Student Council as well. At first she is hesitant but after being encouraged by Narumi she decides to join. It is later that you find out that Narumi has a huge inkling that the fishing email was actually created by Toa. Though she really never confirms it you can tell by how she acts that it is probably the case.

The relationship starts after a little bit of back and fourth between the siblings after Narumi's editor has him starting to research how to write a spin off of his main manga that involves the a perspective from the main characters little sister. Due to this he begins getting research material such as manga's and games that have a sister arc (the irony right?)

After his sister discovers this she seeks out advice from Mihiro about what she should do. It is going through this that she realizes that she has had feelings for Narumi for a while, and not just because of them being siblings. Her feelings started soon after the ran away from home.

This is where the story gets sordid, the apparent story is that Narumi and Toa's mother is well known and famous especially on TV. Apparently at some point she and a member of the crew had relations and what came from it was Narumi and later Toa. Because of her fame she hid the fact she was pregnant and as far as people know she has never had children. 

Later, their mother ended up getting with another man and the rumor was she was having another child. Due to their lives being hidden from the world Narumi finally decided to take his sister run away and in doing so they no longer have any contact with their parents. Narumi spent his days doing whatever he could do to help supply Toa with whatever she wanted and needed and it was that along with his will and determination that led her to see him as something more than a brother.

  After some back and fourth coming to terms with how they feel about one another the finally end up together. At first only Mihiro is the only one that knows after Toa basically told her everything that happened between them, and I do mean EVERYTHING (H-Scene included). Their relationship is at first strained however as they work on their feelings and separating the feelings they have for each other as siblings and the feelings they have as lovers. 

It is during all this that Narumi is given a chance of the lifetime by not only working on a spinoff for his manga but also developing a Digital read of it as well as possible making the way for an anime. He pours everything he can into his work and trying to do what he can to support Toa. It is also when he finally burns out and ends up in the hospital due to malnutrition, sleep deprivation, and anemia. Upon returning home Toa takes care of him and helps him get his strength back, it is a rollercoaster ride as his editor decides that she pushed too much on him at one time and because of that he pushed himself almost to death.

Feeling down over causing stress to his sister, his friends, and his editor he slowly slips away into despair and begins to question his own abilities and desire to keep writing. It is during this dark time for him that Toa shines as she reminds him what is really important and that he needs to get back to doing what he loves. It also solidifies their bonds as lovers.

Now I'm not going to ruin the ending so you'll just have to play the game wont you? Overall, I really did enjoy this route and of all of them this is one of my favorite, but I am also bias because a good taboo incest route is kind of my stick. The H-scenes are well done and I think story wise this one was a bit better than the others. Though I think they could have really went further with this story as I fell that compared to the others this story was pretty short, also I feel like they left it hanging for the most part. But despite that I was very impressed with this VN and this particular route and was glad to finally hear the full story of the MC and his sister.

WAGAMAMA HIGH Spec - Mihiro Route

 

Mihiro is what I would call the 'childhood friend' route. While technically they were older when they first met up and became friends Mihiro is from what the story says one of the first people that befriended Narumi and his sister Toa. It is also stated in the forums that this would make the best route to play third in the lineup as it does talk a bit more about Narumi's and Toa's past.

Compared to the previous two girls routes I would say that Mihiro's route is better than Ashe's route but maybe not quiet as good as Kaoruko's route. I do believe that they did take a great deal of time to flesh out this route and it really showed in the character development. Even though Mihiro basically throws herself at Narumi every chance she gets, though that is part of her charm.

Mihiro is best friends with Toa, Narumi's sister and to that extent she is also friends with Narumi. Her parents run a small family restaurant that she works at when they need her to. Mihiro is extremely well versed and good at cooking and despite her age is very well trained to not only reproduce others cooking works, but to also produce her own recipes. She also becomes a member of the Student Council due to her being a first year and she scored the highest on her entrance exams. 

Mihiro met Narumi and Toa after they fled their parents home and came to the city where they live now. Having known Narumi's parents prior to him and Toa leaving, Mihiro's parents allowed them to live in the staff rooms for a time. Eventually that led to Narumi working part time at the restaurant to earn money to eventually get a place for him and his sister. They did eventually get the money and moved out but from that day on Mihiro, Narumi, and Toa were friends and spent a great deal of time together.

Mihiro knows about Narumi's past as well as the fact that he is the writer 'Potato Salad' and that he works as a writer for a Manga publishing firm. Mihiro has an affinity to animals and in several instances is able to effectively communicate with several animals including a duck that can't swim (I didn't get it either other than the irony of it). She is very outspoken, energetic, caring, loving, and a bit of a pervert especially when it comes to Narumi. While she likes to tease him on a regular bases it isn't until later in the Visual Novel does the question of 'does she like him for more' finally comes up and gets asked.

While Mihiro's route isn't as much of a rollercoaster ride as Ashe's was it still has its moments. Narumi eventually begins to find he does have feelings for Mihiro and after talking about how he feels with his friends he comes to a solid conclusion, he does love her and he wants to be with her. He also makes a few other decisions that will ultimately effect his future. 

Mihiro decides to go out of town for a week to train under another chef to help with her families restaurant and at the end of that week she returns late one night on the train. When she gets off Narumi is waiting on her, not hearing from her that day due to her phone being dead caused him some destress. Due to that when she appears before him he is unable to hold back his feelings. Hugging her close he confesses to her his feelings and then asks her to go out with him. Of course, somewhat embarrassed she agrees to do so.

Soon after they start dating Narumi sets his plan in motion, to help support Mihiro and to help her with her dream of taking over for her families business he discusses the matter with his editor who agrees to let him go from a weekly print to a monthly print allowing him time to work at the restaurant. While he's working there he is working directly under Mihiro's father to learn how to cook like him.

It is during this time of career changing that Mihiro and Narumi learns that the restaurant is not doing well financially and that Mihiro's parents are discussing shutting it down. The two decide to enter a contest that if they win would bring their restaurant much need PR coverage. And of course as you know they win.

During all this things ultimately brings them closer together and in doing so they plan for their future together. Now I'm not going to go into all the great details because well...you need to play this Visual Novel to get those, but let just say that it's well worth it.

Overall, the H-Scenes are also very well done and in fact in this one there are a few kinky based scenes including the use of a anal beaded dog tail, some ears and a few other mentions of some other kinky related things. And is with all the others the talk of having children does come up but much later in the scenes so I don't feel as I do about the previous two. I think you will enjoy this playthrough as much as I did.

 

WAGAMAMA High Spec - Ashe's Route

 

Of all the girls in the game I felt that Ashe's story wasn't as good as the other. That said however, I'm not down playing her story arc and route either, I think for what it was it was well done and well crafted and I did enjoy playing through it. The emotional rollercoaster on this one I think is what really did set this one out from the rest though and while I normally not much on the emotional rollercoasters this one was refreshing and had a good ending.

Of the routes you can play this one based on reviews by others stated that Ashe's story would be best played as the second playthrough and route. Now as I have stated before, this was a recommendation only and not something you have to follow. While you don't learn a great deal more of the MC Narumi in this one like in Kaoruko's route I still find this one to be a decent second runner.

Ashe is the Vice President of the Student Council and good friends with Kaoruko. Truth be told she idolizes Kaoruko and wishes to be more like her. Her reasons are so she can become the next President after Kaoruko graduates from High School. Ashe comes from wealth as well and lives alone in an apartment that is paid for by her parents while she attends her studies. 

Ashe's mother is a world renown pianist and travels the world to play in big venue's. Her father was at one time a world renown violinist, but would later give it up to become the manager of Ashe's mother. Growing up to a world famous performer that was the first woman from Japan to win national and international awards for her piano playing was hard for Ashe. She spent her time learning to also play the piano from an early age to one day be as good as her mother.

However, after winning her first ever competition Ashe's mother told her to give up on Piano, she had no talent for it and she needed to not play it any further. Telling a young child this devastated Ashe and created an inferiority complex when it came to others that held natural talent over learned talent. Her father however, told her that while she may never become a world renown pianist that he felt she had talent in composing. So she would later decide to try to become a composer instead.

  Narumi helps Ashe find her talent as a composer after being asked to help write a script for the Drama Club after their senior member that was writing the script got injured. Narumi and Ashe started working on the script and Narumi in an attempt to help Ashe find her talent had her work on composing scores for the play itself. The two worked with one another to complete the Drama's Club play in a short amount of time. Not only was Ashe able to complete composing multiple scores of music in little time, she was even able to train to become a part of the play.

During this time Ashe had started to cut back on eating and drinking, much like Narumi does when on a large push for his manuscript, because of that and the stress of everything surrounding her and her feelings for Narumi she eventually collapsed. By this point I'd like to point out that Narumi and Ashe had started dating.

The emotional rollercoaster would soon start after this however. After the play she sent a great deal of her scores she composed to her mother to look them over. Her mother sent them to a famed composer in Austria who stated that he would want her to come to Austria and study under him. Ashe's mother came in person and spoke with Ashe about this switching schools. Of course Ashe wants to go to become a better composer but she also knows if she leaves she'll be effectively ending her relationship with Narumi.

In a drawn out line she eventually asks Narumi to make a choice for her. Narumi however makes the choice that honestly I didn't see coming. He ends up telling her to go to Austria and to become a composer there. Of course at first you think he's doing it because he wants her to reach the full potential of her abilities as a composer, which while is very noble is also shitty. It isn't until after she's been gone for months and things change that he finally comes clean as to why he really had her leave.

Narumi believed that she was of a higher caliber then him and her being who she was that she deserved better than him, even though she had chosen him he still felt that she deserved to have way more than he could provide for her. It is only after he collapses due to fatigue and pushing himself hard due to the hole in his heart from her leaving him that he realizes how dumb he really was.

He has his friends help him to get things ready and in a display of true love he makes his way to Austria, finds her school and confronts her with a manga unpublished that depicts their story of meeting, falling in love and their separation. The last page however has them getting back together and as luck would have it, Ashe accepts Narumi and they end up back together. 

Now it's stated that Narumi heads back to Japan and lives there until he graduates then he heads back to Austria to be with Ashe as she continues her studies as a composer.

All in all I think this route was well done, and the H-Scenes are well done as well. Again there are a couple of references to pregnancy but nothing comes from it and again I am a bit disappointed. But it seems like that is just how these Visual Novels go.

  

WAGAMAMA High Spec - Kaoruko's Route

 

Kaoruko's Route is in my honest opinion the first route you should take. I know most times I just pick the one that I want and run with that and if that had been the case here I wouldn't have went for her first but after reading up on some posts from other players of this VN I found that there was an order in which you should probably play the girls in order to get the best return from the story including finding out what happened to the MC Narumi. 

That being said a user suggested that Kaoruko's route would be the first girl you would want to play through in order to get the full extent of the story and after playing through the entire game including all the other girls route I can say that the user was correct in how he said to play through the game.

Kaoruko also known as 'Mr. Deer' is an illustrator for the same company that Narumi works for. She is a student as well and is the current President of the Student Council that Narumi goes to. When Narumi finally got scouted and began to get his writings turned into a manga he was told that an up and coming illustrator had asked to be part of the project. After seeing the illustrators abilities Narumi was more than happy to have them work on his manga with him. Despite working for months with one another they hadn't actually seen one another and instead they used their editor to coordinate between them. 

It wasn't until Narumi made a mistake and dropped his notebook that held all his ideas for his manga that things changed. Kaoruko found the notebook at the school in the hallway and after looking through it realized the storyboards and manuscripts were all from the manga she illustrated with a writer named 'Potato Salad'. She made an announcement over the intercom asking if someone had lost the notebook and waited until the person showed up to claim it at the Student Council room.

It is there that the team of 'Potato Salad' and 'Mr. Deer' met for the first time. Soon after Kaoruko asked Narumi to become a member of the Student Council with her and Ashe. At first he isn't sure about it and thinks of a reason not to but after Kaoruko explains to him that its because she needs a man on the Student Council to help out with requests from the male students that he decides he could help her out...well that and she's his illustrator. Ashe doesn't like Narumi at first and makes it known that she's only accepting him because Kaoruko has vouched for him and thus starts his term as a member of the Student Council. Between his deadlines as an author, student, and the Student Council he has become more busy than ever before.

As time progresses you find out that there is a lot more to Kaoruko and why she asked to be the illustrator for 'Potato Salads' writings. During a meeting with their editor, after some issues with Narumi, the reasons are made known.

Kaoruko comes from a wealth background and her parents are old fashion and as such they have a set of strict standards when it comes to how they view the world and things in it. It is at a young age that Kaoruko decides she enjoys drawing and art, it is in Manga and Anime that she finds her real joy and passion. However, her parents find out about her collection of Manga and Anime and her obsession with it. With that in mind they end up collecting all of it and destroying it, and then proceed to tell her she's not allowed to draw that kind of stuff again. On a younger child such actions takes a heavy toll on Kaoruko.

Soon after she enters a dark time when she feels as though she has nothing to enjoy or to look forward too. It is then she begins to spend time online and comes across a site like a fan fiction where people post writings in the hopes of maybe one day being spotted. One such author was 'Potato Salad', it was his stories that really reached to her and lifted her from her depression. His writing style, technique, character development, and his overall concept impressed her and soon she found the will to draw again. 

When she had reached the decision she moved out of her parents house to an apartment and began drawing and entering her illustrations on a site dedicated to artists. It was there she was scouted by the agency she works for now. Upon hearing that 'Potato Salad' was getting his own manga spread, she practically demanded to work with him. And the rest as they say is history.

As time goes by the two finally admit that over the course of the year between the Student Council and working with each other they fall in love and they elevate their relationship from just friends and partners to lovers. It is this time that a variety of events happen that really sends you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. There were times I honestly was beginning to get concerned that there was about to be a dark twist towards like in "You and Me and Her". However, it never happened and in fact the route ends on a more positive note.

There are several H-Scenes and in one I'll be honest I was so hoping it would have led to a different sort of story. There is one H-scene in which Kaoruko removes the condom that Naruki was wearing and makes sure he drops his load in her. In all honestly, I was expecting that to lead to a route in which she became pregnant but that fell through. I won't complain too much but is it really that difficult to create a route in which that happens.

Without ruining the ending, all I am going to say is that they do live happily ever after and in fact they continue to produce Manga with one another. All that said my only real complaint, (I guess other than the lack of the pregnancy route) would be that the ending is very abrupt and I feel like they could have added more to make it feel more...finished. But that said all around this route was a good route and I did enjoy playing it greatly.