If my Heart had Wings

 

If My heart had Wings is a romcom style story that takes place in a small area of Japan that has seen both economic and scientific growth and prosperity. Part of this is due to its multitude of futuristic Solar Collectors and Wind Turbines. It is also the site of the nations top technical school which provides academic learning alongside specific technical training in multiple different fields.

The protag is a young man by the name Aoi which had actually lived in the town before its transformation. However, he has been gone for five years due to him going to an athletic based school. Aoi was a rising and up and coming racing cyclist and had taken third place in nationals. The year after that finish he was slated to win first, but an accident ended not only his chances at becoming first, but medically it ended his ability to compete in cycling again.

Due to these events he decided to head back home and move back in with his mom. Aoi had up to that point been living with his dad, as it is implied that his parents had split up. Moving back he was able to enroll into the technical school without problem. When he first arrives back he is taking in the sites when a chance encounter starts his new life. During this he meets the first love interest of the story, Kotori.

Kotori at first is a very stand offish girl after they first meet. They actually meet because her wheel chair has a flat tire. Aoi who was an avid cyclist carries standard tools with him for bikes. He was able to fix Kotori's tire for her and help out of a jam.

Aoi and Kotori then meet again at Flying Fish Manor, the off campus housing manor for students that Aoi has now become the "Dorm Mother" for. Aoi's mother got him the job to help him get money for school, as well as it comes with a room for the Dorm Mother to live in. Of course the one downfall to this arrangement was the lack of his mother telling him that he was a "dorm mother" and the fact that the entire dorm was full of girls.

Kotori is a bit of a mystery at first for Aoi, but as they continue to live with one another and talk with one another Aoi begins to put the pieces together about Kotori and her past. Kotori is impulsive, headstrong, and a bit of an airhead. But her will and determination is matched by none.

The first day of school Aoi is reunited with his childhood friend Aghea. The two grew up in the same neighborhood and along with a few others played with one another as children. Five years ago though Aoi left to live with his father and after a couple of years they hadn't really contacted each other much.

Aghea is a member of the Robotics Club and is extremely smart when it comes to things, she is also a quick learner and study. Aghea was a bit of a tomboy growing up and pretty strong compared to other girls, but over the few years Aoi hasn't seen her she has become a pretty girl that Aoi of course can go after.

Aghea like Kotori however has a past filled with some dark times, for her though it hits closer to home because a great deal of it stems from the past that they shared with one another. Aoi had prior to him leaving confessed to Aghea that he had feelings for her, she at the time turned him down. Not long after that he left and a line of events that followed broke her spirit and mental state. 

Despite that period in her life she finally got out of it and was able to move forward. Aghea is out going, friendly, quirky, and as time passes she becomes best friends with Kotori.

During an excursion at school, Aoi finds his way to an old looking hanger and inside he meets Amane. Amane is older than Aoi and based on the rumors should have graduated a few years ago, but because of her brilliance and genius she has remained a student longer than she should have. 

Amane is beyond her years with knowledge, though that comes with the penalty of having little in the way of commonsense and ability to interact with others. It is here that the main story starts. Amane is working on a glider and the one in the hanger is the same one that Aoi and Kotori saw on the day they met. Amane was piloting it at that point and upon returning she began to upgrade the designs of it.

Like pretty much every character you meet in this Visual Novel she also has had a traumatic event in her past that left her scared and unable to move on a whole lot. During her years in school she befriended a girl that was one of the first ones to bring back the 'Soaring Club' and their goal was to build a glider that could fly over a unique and special set of clouds that only showed up during an event called 'Morning Glory'. 

After a failed flight that ended up hurting her friend, the friend suddenly disappeared never to be seen or heard from again. No matter who she spoke with or how she tried to find any information on her friend she was never able to. Because of that she spends her time now keeping the Soaring Club alive and keeps working on the glider to get it ready for the special event. 

Aoi along with several others end up helping Amane and eventually she graduates and leaves, but she does return to help them and it is there that Aoi and her can start to enter into a relationship.

 The twins, Asa and Yoru are the grand daughters of the chairman of the school that Aoi and the others attend. Aoi meets these two at different times and it isn't until later in the story do they come into play. Aoi first meets Asa at the market where they both are buying things to cook. Later he meets Yoru by mistaking her as Asa at first. It isn't until later that the twins end up moving into the Flying Fish Manor that they begin to interact with one another.

The twins may look alike and hard to tell apart, but their personalities are leagues apart. Not only that but the twins come from a very traditional, distinguished, and each member of the family is extremely smart and talented, at least all but Asa. 

Asa, is a bit of an airhead, she's clumsy, average in school, and average in other areas as well. Because of this she has always been mocked and made fun of by her family, even her parents. The sad part is that because of her rich and talented family she is also looked down upon by normal people as well. She is an extremely emotional person and overreacts to things easily. She is also Empathic and can sense feelings of others easily. Asa because of her more submissive behavior falls into depression easily when she thinks she has messed something up or has done something to hurt another person. 

Yoru, on the other hand is talented in everything she does. Of the entire family she is the golden child that is expected to do great things. Because of this however she lacks tact and tends to be a bit nihilistic, she can be a bit overbearing and shows little to no emotions to anyone but her sister Asa. Where as Asa has always been belittled because of her lack of talent, Yoru has been placed on a pedestal and expected to be the model example of the family. Because of this she priorities things differently than others, she places less value on feelings and things that don't have a defined goal or things that don't contribute to anything.

Both of the twins are of course able to be part of the romance, and there is a gym here too but I won't let that secret go here.

Overall, I enjoyed this Visual Novel. It is extremely long and even one playthrough will take some time but I can say it was worth it for the story. That said, my only down vote comes from the fact there is no 18+ DLC Content available, or at least not that I have been able to get. The community states that the adult version of the game never got fully translated and turned over into the US Release. There have been some to attempt to do a 'Restoration' Project and I have heard that it is for the most part pretty good.

My only other complaint really is some grammatical errors and sometimes putting the wrong names with the wrong sprite and or talking about the wrong person. The music was good and the few CG video's added were a nice touch. The story was the big selling point on this one and I can say that I did enjoy the story immensely.