Sable's Grimoire Update

 

Zetsubou the creator and producer for the series 'Sables Grimoire' just released a big update for the base game since its primary release on May 18, 2018. The game's popularity continues to grow as it has been ported over to multiple systems including Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. While the Steam version is the one that has obtained the update at the moment I'm posting this Zetsubou has done announced that he is also working with others to have the update ported over to the other systems as well.

If this is your first time hearing of Sable's Grimoire, the story follows a young human male by the name of Sable as he attends a school primarily seen as a place for demi-humans to learn about magic and life outside their normal communities and environment. Humans are allowed to attend as well as there are those that attend due to them being 'mages' which Sable is. While mages are still human most humanity views the use of magic even by their own kind to be scary and tend to view mages with contempt. 

During his time at the academy, he meets a variety of demi-humans and in turn has to navigate his way through the trials and tribulations that come with being a human among demi-humans. Whether it is his roommate Tix the Pixi, Jorou the Jorougumo, Eth and Rei the mandragora, and Rokurokubi dynamic duo, Drakan the half-dragon, Lisha the Elf, or a variety of other demi-humans, Sable is stuck between getting involved in their lives and antics or continue to work on his own studies.

Sable is dedicated to the pursuit of his own interests, for better or for worse. He is a fanatic of demi-humans and is fascinated in learning all he can about the types of demi-humans there are and about their cultures. He is also a fanatic of magic both in learning about spells and creating his own. It is because of this he has gained the attention of a lot of different students and facility members.

In the latest update, a new story plotline has been added that has Sable helping an additional 'interest' that being of his former teacher Eris the Succubus. Sable after defending Eris from losing her job completely at the academy is asked to help her in obtaining information on another facility member in an attempt to end an ongoing feud between them.

Normally I might give a few spoilers here and there or give away the storyline to a point but as this is a new plot and update that just came out, I will let you find out for yourself what it involves. Just know that unlike a couple of the other endings there is no...adult content that I have come across yet for these new endings. While slightly disappointed in that I can understand that with the way things are now on Steam sometimes it's hard to get content like that up now. 

With Eris's story comes 3 new endings, a Good, Neutral, and Bad ending (which I haven't gotten yet but figure that means you die). Along with this update comes with an additional ending called, 'Rei's and Eth's True ending'.  This ending has Sable taking a different route in the story arch of Rei and Eth in which the two demi-human girls are able to stay together, stay at the academy, and in the end stay with Sable. 

The update also fixed some bugs and issues that had been found through the game as most updates do. 

The new Eris route and Rei and Eth route are both very well crafted and done. The Eris route is long which adds more thrill to the story of Sable. While Eris is a secondary character at first I do think this puts her in more of an 'intimate' possible role. Not to spoil it but I think an ending or after story in which we see Eris and Sable getting together after a time period...which is laid out in Succubus culture...would be an interesting idea.

Overall I greatly enjoyed the addition, though not as 'racy' as I had hoped due to the nature of my blogs and such I still found this to be a great addition. If you haven't read my previous blog on Sable's Grimoire I will post a link for it as well as the link to the Steam Game version of Sable's Grimoire. 

Sable's Grimoire Reivew

Sable's Grimoire Steam Game

Fureraba ~Friend to Lover~ Rina's Story

 

Rina's storyline is in my opinion one of the better storylines that I have played through at this time, (at the time of this post I have only completed two of the four story arcs). Rina at the beginning is portrayed as a very athletic, intelligent, extremely motivated girl that is a role model to the other girls in her class.

Rina is extremely good at basketball and it mentions several times how she has been asked to join the school ball team as well as traveling teams but has refused them all. She also works two part-time jobs as well as attending high school. She also lives alone in a small apartment. 

The Protag and her have been friends for a few years now and while the protag isn't as good as she is it is apparent that they share a common interest in athletics and basketball which helped them kindle their friendship. If you decide to take to Rina and decide to speak to her to earn her affection you will learn quite a few interesting quirks of Rina as well as the casual relationship the protag and Rina have.

Prior to completing the path to get Rina as your girlfriend, there is a 'date' you go on with Rina sat up by her close friend as a means to get you two alone together, in which you find out that Rina has a secret, she can't swim. Due to an incident early in her life, she has had a phobia of sorts when it comes to large bodies of water. 

During this date, the protag assists her in learning the basics of swimming and they have a nice time at the waterpark after which they return home. This particular date will lead you down the path to eventually confessing to Rina and the protag and her dating.

Rina, you later find out lives on her own while obtaining some money from her parents. You later learn her parents are wealthy business owners who live in another nation to run their business and that Rina has since a child been pushed to the side for their business. While her parents do come to visit and spend time with her and show her a lot of love when they are around they don't spend that much time with her and they forget things like her birthday on a regular basis.

Due to how she's been pushed aside by her parents it has made Rina hide her true feelings for the most part and she tries extremely hard to be good at everything because she wants to be noticed and people to some extent take notice of her. During a study session with the protag, Rina, and a few others (Himari's Jealous route) Rina gets jealous of the interaction between Himari and the protag. 

The protag reassures Rina that she is the only girl that he wants to be with and that he wouldn't leave her for any other girl. This scene plays in the story later when she finally confesses that the reason why she acts the way she does is because of her feelings of not having value to anyone. The longer the two are together the less she feels the weight of this feeling but it is still there and the protag does everything he can to help her through these times.

I won't spoil the end, but personally, I think the ending of this path was a little lackluster to my liking but it wasn't as bad as I have seen others so while I think they could have added a bit more to the end or added an after story but either way the ending isn't all that bad either. I did enjoy the deep character development in this story and the fact the protag was actually portrayed as someone with some sense.

Fureraba Friend to Lover

 

Fureraba Friend to Lover is a Visual Novel developed by Smee and produced by NykoNyan. It can be purchased off several websites or off Steam. If you purchase the steam version you will get the 'General' Version which has had the adult content removed. However, you can go to the NykoNyan website and download the 18+ Content for free to upgrade your content.

Fureraba Friend to Lover takes place in modern Japan where you as the MC are a 2nd Year Student in Highschool. You want nothing more than to finally have a girlfriend and to spend time with that girlfriend enjoying your last years in school. 

So who is in the mix? The usual girls you would think there was, that said the story is still pretty fun and refreshing. There is Himari the childhood friend that you went a couple of years without seeing and now she's back in your class and you want to catch back up with her.

There is Rina the girl you got close to and friends with after you and Himari were separated. At first, you really only saw her as a friend that hung out with you and your other friends. But sometimes the best girl is the one that you never thought it would be.

There is Yuzuyu, she's a girl you met in a park one day and you found out despite her beautiful exterior...she's a firebrand and firecracker and has little in the way of friends. But you see through her antic and realize that deep down she's actually a wonderful girl.

Last, there is Misaki, the mystery girl that is older than you and is famous in a way. At the time of this post I haven't played through her storyline yet but I will do a more in-depth review on her at a later time.

The VN starts like most at the beginning of the school year and it is up to you to talk to each of the girls or to focus on one and build up a relationship with them by a certain date. The game has a calendar that marks the days you have till you confess to the girl of your choice. During that time you can interact with multiple girls at a time and this can actually unlock other 'jealous paths where a girl will feel jealous over another girl. 

I have at this time played through Rina's route and I am glad I did that one first actually. I will give a more in-depth review of her route at a later time but I can say I really enjoyed her route. Currently, I am playing through Himari and Yuzuyu's routes and again will give more in-depth reviews later.

While the game itself doesn't innovate anything nor does it really add on to any particular area of a VN it does have a pretty decent storyline. The characters are well crafted and done and each has its own unique quirks that make them relatable to some extent. 

Not going through all the stories I am not sure which one is my fav yet but overall the little I have played I don't have anything bad to say. I have noticed a few typo errors in the game but they are minor and not many so it isn't that bad.

I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a down to earth and nice easy going storyline.

 Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms (Konami)

Saku Saku: Love Blooms with the Cherry Blossoms is a Visual Novel that focuses on a couple of unique aspects and has some nice story plots pending on what love interest you decide to go with. In this Visual Novel, you plan as Yuma a second-year student in high school that has had a rough past. A year after he was born his sister was born, their mother sadly passed soon after the birth of his sister Konami. Yuma's and Konami's father who was a teacher would later marry a younger woman who was once one of his students. Several years later however their father would also pass due to an illness. 

Prior to his passing, there was an accident in which Yuma was hit by a car and in all right should have died but due to a spiritual event (a Soul Reaper who didn't want to reap souls) sacrifice her spirit in order to give him another chance at life. She told him to make everyone smile and that was what he decided to do. This event of course left him with a bit of a warped perspective on life. Yuma now spends his time helping others and helping them through different things, including love trouble. Though he himself finds himself not really the kind of person to fall in love.

In this Visual Novel, there are a total of 5 girls you can romance: Mio the Childhood Friend, Anna the Student Council President, Yuri the Chairwoman of the PMC, Konami the biological sister, and then later you can unlock Tina the Soul Reaper/ Love Fairy. This Visual Novel also has two versions, the normal one that anyone can play for the most part, and the Adult 18+ version in which shows H-Scenes. The Standard Version can be purchased on Steam, sadly Steam does not offer the Adult Patch like other games for some reason. You can get the Adult Version off the Denpasoft Online Store.

So let's get this party started by saying that now you know the basics of this Visual Novel it's time to discuss the first path I decided to go down. That path is one that I am sure you already know but if you don't then the first girl's route I decided to go down was none other than Konami the Blood-related Sister.

Konami is a first-year student at the same High School that Yuma goes to. She is also a childhood friend to Mio, she's smart, cute, and very down to earth. She is quiet and tends to be like her brother when it comes to showing emotions. She is a Shogi player as well and has Yuma play her every night after dinner. Their father used to play Shogi and got her into it, she was never able to beat her father, and currently, she's not been able to beat her brother either. 

Konami teases Yuma often and he, of course, gets her back and the back and forth is just part of how they do things. They are seen to be very close to one another and the picture-perfect version of siblings. As time goes on and certain choices lead to Konami having to make a deal with Anna of the Student Council. Due to an unforeseen event, the Student Council and PMC are low on members and so Anna has decided to enlist the help of some others. She launches a plan to get Yuma to join the Student Council and to do so she makes Konami a proposal. Konami was wanting to make a Shogi Club and Anna said she'd sign off on it if Konami beat her in a game of Shogi. If Konami lost she would still get her Shogi Club but it would be in cooperation with the Student Council meaning that Anna would be club President of the Shogi Club as well.

As you can imagine Konami lost, later Anna would get Yuri to join as well as integrating the PMC with the Council. With all this happening she then pulls some strings to get Yuma out of his other spot working in the school infirmary, causing him to finally join the Student Council. It is during his time in the Student Council that he eventually meets a young girl on the side of the road inside a box next to his home. Later he would find out that she is a Soul Reaper even though she says she's a Love Fairy. Her name Tina is a young-looking girl with a plushy she keeps on her head that is actually her familiar. She tells Yuma she is going to help him find love and smile in actual happiness.

 Over time Tina figures out that Konami has feelings other than that of being siblings and she begins to make plans to make Konami confront them. Tina takes Yuma and picks up a horror movie and while Yuma finds it interesting his sister isn't much on them but she wanted to spend time with him so she bared it. Because of this, she asks Yuma to let her sleep in his bed, to which he does. This event among others leads Konami to finally coming to terms with her feelings. Konami realizes that she loves Yuma for more than just her brother and she decides to confess to him.

One night while playing Shogi she confesses her feelings for him, that she loves him more than just as siblings. He of course rejects her confession and tells her that he's not going to hold it against her or anything but that because of them being siblings they couldn't be together. Despite this event, however, Tina was not deterred and pushed Konami to do more things to try and persuade Yuma to fall in love with her. This leads to a few...sexually-oriented incidents that push the boundaries of their sibling status. These events plus their continued relations leads to Yuma realizing that he has strong feelings for Konami as well. 

In no time their relationship goes just being siblings to being boyfriend and girlfriend but in the shadows as they can't openly show their feelings for one another. Despite their best efforts though the nurse of the infirmary which is also a close friend of Yuma's mother and a former student of his father figures it out and speaks to Konami about it. She tells Konami to end it and that if she does then she'll forget that it happened. Later Anna sees Yuma and Konami kissing and decides to make Konami jealous to push to see if they could make it or not.

As their relationship grows and they begin to think that they need to let their mother know...things go downhill. While being a bit loving to one another their mother walks in and catches them messing.

Konami and Yuma knew they would have to tell her eventually however she found out before they could tell her themselves. When confronted with the fact that Yuma and Konami were having incestual relations their mother brokedown blaming herself for not providing them with the home environment to help them to grow up better. Yuma and Konami tell her that it wasn't her fault.

This is where the discussion gets a little deep in discussing how they can't have a normal life if they continue their relationship. They can't legally get married, having children would have their own possible issues, that their friends and others in society would never accept them and they would eventually become socially removed. She asks Yuma and Konami to break up and gives them a time limit to decide if they want to continue their relationship.

It is during this time that Yuma and Konami decide to come clean with their friends. One day they meet everyone in the Student Council room and explains the situation to the group. Everyone has different thoughts, but because of the rule that no one in the Council is supposed to be in a relationship, they are breaking the rules. So when it appears that no one will accept them they hand in their resignation letters. Anna says the only way she will accept them is if Konami can beat her in a game of Shogi. Konami finally beats Anna and after this defeat, she rips up the letters and then removes the rule about not having relationships. 

Soon all of them accept their relationship with one another, however, when they tell their mother she makes a decision. One child will remain there and continue school, the other will go to another school and move out and live on their own, after three years if their feelings still haven't changed...she will accept it.

 Three years pass and finally Konami who chooses to leave the house in the hopes of becoming more independent finally returns home. She has just graduated High School and has decided it's time to move back home. Yuma who had graduated a year sooner is working odd jobs and working towards getting money to support themselves. 

Upon her return, they again confirm they have no desire to break up and will continue to live with one another as boyfriend and girlfriend even if the world is against them.

Konami's route discusses a lot of things dealing with relationships, social issues, social perspective, and morality. Personally, I have little in the way of morality, I find that more often than not 'morality' is a construct of society in a manner to establish control by creating a form of 'mob rule'. Sadly I am but one person and many do not see it that way. However, that said this Visual Novel is visually appealing, the music is good, and the H-Scenes are pretty good as well. I recommend it to anyone willing to take a chance. Though if you want the Adult version remember to get it from Denpasoft.  

S3: Love Convenient Store (Adela After Story)

 S3: Love Convenient Store (Adela's After Story)

Adela's Afterstory is the first installment of a total of 3 to be released DLC's that deal with the girl's Afterstory. The second has been released in its native language with an English version in the works, but due to COVID, the time frame of the English Version has been pushed back. The second DLC is Yena's Afterstory, which leads me to believe that Soohee's is in the pipeline for future production. Each DLC is described to be equally as long as the girl's paths in the main game itself. Adela's DLC cost me $4 which isn't bad for a DLC.

Adela's story takes place after the events of the main story in which Adela has committed to a new contract with Seven Stars and recently thanks to some help from the inside (a plot twist I won't release here...sorry.) Adela has joined two other girls from the agency to create a small group that has started to tour. Because of this though her time with the protag has greatly been reduced and other than the protag and the other two girls no one is aware that Adela and the protag are actually dating.

With her dream of stardom coming true she takes every concert performance she can arrange with the other two girls and hopes to increase their viewability. Soohee decides to create a fan club site for Adela and thanks to the protag taking her weekday shifts she is able to travel to all the events Adela is partaking in and taking pictures. The game reverts back to its business options by making you start over with your shop and work your way up in earning money and upgrading certain aspects of the store. Instead of buying gifts for Adela though you obtain items you purchase to support the fan club which earns Adela fans. 

Time continues to pass and the relationship begins to strain, the continued lack of being able to be with one another pushes both of them into a depression and uncertain way of thinking. The protag does his best to keep Adela on track to achieve her dream by holding his emotions in, he doesn't want to tell her that he wants her to stay with him and not travel any more but to do so would be asking her to give up her dreams to be with him, and that is something he can not do either.

Adela is also feeling the pressure as she wants to spend more time with the protag and goes so far as to change her clothes and hide her appearance to ensure no one knows it's her. Eventually, after some ins and outs with the group, she's in she decides to skip a full day of work and spend it with the protag at a hotel just the two of them. 

After spending time with one another in the hotel pool they leave to find some diner and after spending the day out walking around after eating they make their way back to the hotel where she notices someone taking pictures. To be sure no one sees her she makes off with the protag in tow. It is at this time she decides that she has to go back to the agency and hope they didn't see him and her together. She goes back to the agency but before she does the stress and emotional decay from being forced apart because of her dream is causing her to push herself to her limits, all the while the protag is fighting with his own emotions and deals with bottling them up over time which is causing him a great deal of grief. 

Prior to the start of a performance, the agency announces that Adela will be taking time off due to illness, but the truth of the matter is that she has fled and gone into hiding. Seven Stars turns to the security firm that is located in its building to locate Adela. This means that Yena is placed on alert and sent out to find where Adela could be. At first,
Soohee and the protag don't know where she could be and any attempts to call her on either her primary phone or her second phone she bought just to talk with the protag all goes straight to voicemail.

The protag returns to his apartment where he finds Adela passed out in his apartment. After he wakes her up and asks her what is wrong she breaks down and tries to explain all the emotions she's been feeling. The protag helps her eat something then puts her to bed and then heads out of his apartment to call his mom's boyfriend to ask him something when Yena appears and comes up to him.

They talk about Adela and Yena asks if she is there at his place, he of course tells her that she is. Yena tells him that she will do what she can to stall them from investigating and finding him and her for a time but that is the best she can do for them. If it comes down to it she won't put her job on the line, and she will come for them if ordered. He agrees to this and she leaves him to make his phone call. He calls his mother's boyfriend and former Manger of the store to talk to him about Adela.

He is informed that she is suffering from stress-induced anxiety and panic attack, if left untreated she will get worse, and eventually, she will not be able to deal or cope with her line of work or people in general.  Taking this to heart the protag asks him what he should do to which the only advice he can give him is to get her to a hospital and get her medication to help her for the time being until she makes a choice between the profession or walking away. 

Over the next day or so the protag and Adela spend time together and he helps her get her meds, they share their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires with one another including the fact that Adela is starting to question her own desire to be a performer and idol because of how she has to hide the fact that they are dating. After this long story scene, you are given two choices each with different endings, "Good For Everyone" and "A Normal Life".

Now straight up to me personally both endings are both nice so I don't feel either ending was bad. I see what the author was trying to do though, honestly, I also struggled with how I felt about how Adela should handle the situation as I obviously wanted their relationship to work out but also understanding the protags thoughts and feelings on Adela achieving her dreams. So I think both these endings are well done and cater to those who really were divided on what would be the best choice for her and the protag to do.

In 'A Normal Life', while out with one another Adela makes a choice and decision about their future. She removes her mask and having the protag wrap his arms around her she takes a selfie with the two in the picture and posts it to her social media site with the tag, 'Me and my Boyfriend'. As part of her contract with Seven Stars, she is not allowed to be in a relationship, and therefore because she herself went public, she is released from her contract, effectively being fired from her agency. 

She then decides to help the protag with his store and enters a normal life with her and her boyfriend no longer seeking to be an idol of sorts she still gets other agencies wanting her for small contracts and for other shows. She however never signs another contract and simply implies that her dreams have changed from being an idol to simply spending her life with the man she loves, the protag.

In 'Good for Everyone', she and the protag sit down and discuss their situation frankly, and in the end, she comes to a conclusion. With the incident taken care of about her leaving the group for a short time and with the Security Firm putting to rest any investigation into who she was with, Adela decides to go into contract negotiations with Seven Stars and tells them what she wants for them to continue her contract. It was a long-drawn-out fight but in the end, she wins what she wants. 

She signs a new four-year contract with Seven Stars, she will not be forced to do as much touring and is allowed to live outside the agency. Furthermore, she is allowed to spend time and live with her boyfriend if she so decides to. The Agency allows her to have a boyfriend and will not interfere with her love life. This ends with the protag and Adela talking about what she will do when her four years are over with. She says that by then she will almost be out of the idol market and instead will focus on being a singer-songwriter but she won't have to be contracted to do that. In the end, she is able to keep her job, keep her boyfriend, and they are able to plan for the future. 

I have seen people say that Adela is 'Best Girl' and after reading the Afterstory I tend to agree that they made her the 'Best Girl'. While I think Soohee would have been a better 'Best Girl' I can see the appeal for Adela to be it instead. So despite my own thoughts, I can understand their choice here. This DLC is well crafted and done, with emotional twists and new secrets that make it a very good DLC. It makes me want to see what comes next with Yena's Afterstory and to see what they will eventually do with Soohee's after story. 

If you have S3: Love Convenient Store main game I highly recommend the 5$ and get this DLC.  

 Some Some Store: Love Convenient Store (Adela)

The final possible girl you can end up with but certainly not the least important is Adela. Of the three different girls, Adela is classified as the more 'medium' difficulty one to get but I believe that is because, in the end, she is actually the best girl as she seems to have the most attention and in-depth story of all three. 

While her story is a bit drawn out, there is a great deal of information that is loaded into her story, not just for her character but for several other characters as well which actually makes other events in the other two girls stories make more sense as well as giving more depth to the Protag and his family situation.

Adela is an interesting character as she combines Korean with English in an attempt to make her own style. She is edgy and dedicated to her art. She is employed as an Idol Training through an Agency. Because she is a Trainee she has a strict set of rules and regulations she has to attend do, which is well spelled out in her contract. 

Apparently, she has been a trainee for quite some time with no real break to speak of but despite that, she is always positive that she will make it as an Idol in due time. She works in an agency (called Seven Stars) that is in the same building as the security firm that Yena works for. She is outgoing, kind, and somewhat wild. This lends to her idol personality and is one of her more attractive sides. 

Adela and the Protag hit it off after a couple of chance encounters at the store that the Protag works at. Eventually, she explains to the protag how her contract is set up. She can't be in a relationship, she has to watch her weight, she works from 10am to 10pm daily with Sunday being her only day off. She participates in dance lessons, singing lessons, and work out routines to maintain her figure. 

Over time the two find themselves falling more and more in love with one another and this only serves to cause them pain. At first, it was just meeting one another at the store or at the protags apartment. The protag however wants their relationship to go further and when he asks Adela she at first hesitates. She explains to him that they can only date in secret and that she will be busier and busier as she works towards her goal of being an Idol. 

It is at this point as well that she ends up working at the Store for a short time as her company attempts to produce a new reality show, but it flops before it really gets started. The amount of time that they spend apart takes a toll on both of them, even after they both agreed that no matter what happens they will always care for one another, but the distance and short amount of time between them pushing them into a mixed bag of emotions and depression.

Eventually, to spend more time with one another Adela will leave the agency and sneak off to be with the protag for a little while before returning as if she had been there the whole time. At first, this works very well, she even is able to pull a fast one on the company and pull a longer stay at the protags place. 

During one such outing however their luck runs out, one of Adela's former managers who recently had been let go from the company spotted them together and took some pictures. He then sent the pictures to Seven Stars and was going to blackmail them into giving him a hefty sum of money to keep the pics out of the press. The company hires Yena's security firm to find not only the man that took the pictures but also the man she is with.

Yena finds the man that took the pics and turned him in, but she played her part in making sure that the protag was never found out. However she knew that her group knew who he was, but for some reason all his information had been removed and covered up by the Security Firm, even the higher ups at the Seven Star didn't act as if they cared any further who the man she was with even was.

Adela meets up with her former manager and asks him why he did what he did, the man who had been paid by Seven Stars to keep his mouth shut only told her that after he had lost his job he needed the money, he didn't like doing what he did but it was his last options. She told him that she planned on remaining with the protag and if she had too she would out herself to be with him. Take back the man simply nodded and said no more.

 

At the end of this playthrough, however, the protag and Adela agree that she needs to continue on for another stent with her agency in the hopes of making her dreams come true. This is the protags hope that her dreams will come true even if that means they limit their own time with one another. Adela moves into her own apartment after living with her sister for a while, this freedom allows her to spend her days off with the protag even though those are far and few in between. 

The strain of this relationship is noted to be one of the more heartwrenching ones of this game. Honestly, Soohee's story is pretty emotional though it is because of her fragile state. Yena's emotional parts come in the form of you having to tell Soohee that you love Yena, and the result of that is her looking at you differently and treating you differently. In Adela's case, it is the fact that they are obvious in love, but because of her contract and her dream of being an Idol, they have to put their own personal desires aside, mostly the protag.

All in all this game was a nice change of pace for me as it added more than just the branch and choice of most VN's. This one reminded me greatly of the old classic dating sims and the story was done very well. If I had to pick one of the three myself...I honestly don't know if I could, they each are unique and offer their own special thing to the relationship.

 Some Some Store: Love Convenient Store (Yena)

In this second installment of 3S Love Convenient Store, I will be going over Yena's story. Yena was not an easy one to get her ending on and to be honest I actually found out the game stops at 302 days after trying to get her. The first time you play through 3S the app will give you a statement that is extremely true. Soo is easy to get her ending, Adela who I have yet to get is classified as 'medium' and Yena's is the hardest. At first, I wasn't sure what all that meant but after playing through her story I can now see why it was hard. 

The first thing to remember is that the app in-game will give you hints and help you see your progress with each of the girls. I will tell you upfront if you are doing Yena's route do not focus on Adele because she will bog down your ability to reach Yena's end before time running out. 

Yena's route is heavily dependent on Soo's route. In fact, you will have to balance between using your limited funds to spend time with Soo and buying her gifts to get her so far in the story every so often to keep Yena's story opening up. You will also have to pay money to gift Yena and to do some of her story missions. This can put you at odds with your pocketbook and of course focusing on both girls takes a great deal of more time than it would if you focused on just one.

Yena is an interesting character and her unique characteristics make her route that more interesting. Yena is very quiet and observant, she is a workout junky and spends hours either running or working out in the gym or at home. She works at a security firm as a bodyguard for those that can afford their services. She is easy to anger and not very bright when it comes to certain things, (the protag tricks her several times with false information that is close to the truth) she is also one of the best friends of Soo. Yena is dedicated to Soo and her well-being almost too much so which hits the protag strangely. 

As you progress through Soo's route you will need to keep up with Yena's route as well, there will be times you will notice that her route options 'disappear' but that is because it is waiting for you to do another one of Soo's goals to open up the next one.

During your playthrough, you will hear more information as to what it is that Yena is actually doing and how she became a secret bodyguard to Soo even though Soo doesn't realize that is what she is doing, at least not at first but over time she does figure it out.

During a party at Soo's house is where things get a bit wild and also explains why Soo's route is important to the development of Yena's route. The party winds down with Yena passing out on the floor after drinking too much, and Soo and the protag set on her bed watching streamers for a bit when 'Store Kitty' scratches the protag. During this interesting event, the protag and Soo end up face to face laying on her bed close enough to kiss. They come close but do not actually kiss and soon after this incident, the protag leaves to head home.

Yena pulls up to our protag on her motorcycle and in a drunken fit asks him what he was doing and she seemed pretty mad. The protag not understanding what was going on attempted to at least chastise her for riding her motorcycle while intoxicated. However, this only lasted for a few seconds before Yena grabs him by the collar and forcing him against a wall kisses him with aggression.

Our protag is slightly startled by this reaction and after she leaves he realizes why she was upset. She had come to terms that she had feelings for him just like Soo did, and seeing them almost kiss while she was there was more than she could handle. Though unlike Soo Yena didn't show emotions well and didn't know how to handle them any better. 

This one event leads to the two to meet later and agree to date secretly which at first seems odd to the protag and the two conditions to them dating at first also catches him off guard. She says her two conditions are he can not tell anyone they are dating, especially Soo. And the second is he can not be alone with Soo at any time and he must limit his interaction with her when he can.

These two rules are what prompted him to figure out what is really going on. He comes to the conclusion that Yena is protecting and watching Soo for her company and that she is effectively using him to help her obtain her goal. He decides that he is ok with that as it allows him time with her and helps him better understand her.

Eventually, Soo finds out what Yena has been doing and it throws their friendship into question. She leaves the store and after a heart, to heart a few moments Yena leaves the store as well. Eventually, after days passed the protag decides after talking to Adela that it's time for him to tell Soo the truth. He meets her at her place, I won't lie here either, I actually felt really guilty and bad when I made the protag tell Soo that he was interested in Yena and that they were secretly dating. Soo countered with the fact she was using him and he admitted he knew that was the case.

Soo eventually asked him if there was any way that they could be together...and again I felt really guilty by saying "no". With that Soo asked the protag to leave her apartment. The dynamic between Soo and the protag changes drastically and the tension is bad, but what is worse is that Yena is nowhere to be found for days. 

Days go by and the protag goes to the normal places he would meet up with Yena only to see she is not there. However, while he was running through the park he gets a call from Soo asking where he was. When he lets her know, she and Adela show up pulling Yena with them. The two force Yena to admit her feelings and tell the protag everything she needs to. She tells him some of it then asks him to come to her place so she can tell him the rest without fear of Adela and Soo hearing her. 

After getting back to her place talking turns into physical activity which leads to what you think...though sadly there are no H-Scenes in this one. I was bummed too. But at the end of the story, the three friends of Soo, Adela, and Yena remain together with the addition of Yena's boyfriend the protag. Soo remains working at the store though she no longer really talks to the protag other than when it is about work, she has shut him pretty much out of any other interactions with her. Adela resigns her contract with her agency and remains a decent part of their friendship dynamic.

Yena's route is one of the more difficult to play through on several levels, I can honestly say the emotional part of it was a bit more than I had first thought it would be with me honestly feeling bad for Soo who is a fragile girl to begin with and the sudden shock of finding out that the guy she fell for actually loves her best friend that is kind of using him hit really hard. I can say that for a Koren-based game I wasn't expecting the sudden change in dynamic so this is a surprising new development that really made this storyline interesting.

I still have Adela's story to go and I am interested to see what her story has in store...I am hoping that I don't have to go through the pain of shooting down Soo again...that was not what I was expecting. But sometimes that is the best part of these VN's.

Some Some Store: Love Convenient Store (Soohee)

 Some Some Store: Love Convenient Store Soohee the Part-Timer

I normally stick with Japanese-based Visual Novels, however every so often a Chinese or Koren made Visual Novel will spark my interest and I will see what it is like. I also was fortunate enough to participate in a Curator preview for a Russian-based group Visual Novel which was also well done. 

From what I have gathered this is actually a Koren-based game though I could be wrong. Regardless this game plays differently than a Visual Novel in the sense that it has some added features that make it more interesting I think than a standard read along with a Visual Novel. The game has a 'management' aspect that is based on the classic dating sim games you would see from time to time on websites like "Albinoblacksheep" and "Ebaumsworld" and yes I know I am showing my age. 

This game allows you to customize the name of the Protag making him your own personal character which is kind of nice. The small backstory for our protag is that he is 21 and works in a Convenient store as the "Assistant Manager". From what little bit is spoken of his history his father left him and his mother when he was young, he also left the store to him. For the rest of his years apparently, his mother who didn't want him to have the store anytime soon had allowed her boyfriend to run it, though, in all honesty, the protag does most of the work. 

During one of his shifts, he gets on his phone to find an app in the store that popped up first. It was simply called "Some Some App" and after downloading it he started getting messages. It stated he would be meeting his interests soon and the app was right. 

Later three girls named Soohee, Yena, and Adela come in seeking to purchase some things, during their conversation they speak of how Soohee just lost her job after the ice cream shop she worked for went out of business. So after some discussion, Soohee decides to apply for a position at the Convenient store for part time work. Of course, the Manager, who is the protags' mother's boyfriend leaves it up to him if he hires her or not. 

He hires her and they start working together. This is where you also start to see another side of the game. After each story plays out you are taken to a screen where you can upgrade your store, offer promotions, and take special requests. Each of these earns you an increased number of customers and how much you make per customer purchase. The better items bring in more money and people but can get expensive. Every 4 weeks (1 turn in-game) you get a paycheck you can use to buy gifts for the girls and to take the girls out and go deeper into the storyline. 

Soohee the Part-Timer is a girl that keeps her past to herself and tends to be way too trusting of people. She is very selfless and plans her entire day and life around others including her friends. She is about as close to a shut-in as you can get without actually being one. She usually goes to work then back home or to the internet cafe where she will play games well into the night. She only breaks this routine if she plans on hanging out with her friends Yena and Adela. She chose to work at the store because it is close to her home and close to where her friends work.

Soohee seems very positive and stern on the outside but on the inside, she is extremely fragile and tends to over worry and overthink everything. This personality trait of hers tends to cause her a great deal of anxiety and depression and her only coping mechanism is to emerge herself into gaming. She also has a weak spot for animals including a cat she later gets that her and the protag name "Store Kitty" as they found it at the store.

 As you go through her missions and get her gifts you slowly learn more and more about her and her friends, but any discussion about the past is stopped before it gets too far. You of course eventually do learn a few things, though not before going through some drama-filled events. These events lead you to realize that you do have feelings for Soohee and that despite her friends' warnings of how hard she will be to handle because of her personality you will accept her no matter how hard it is. 

During a moment of weakness on her part due to her being sick, which she apparently doesn't get sick often but when she does she is down for several days. You learn more about her past as well as her personality that helps you better understand why she is the way she is.

At a certain point in her life, she realizes that her mother and father are not actually married and eventually he leaves her and her mother to marry into a rich family. She spends a great deal of time dealing with the emotional scars from this fact and growing up without her father being in her life. However, she opened up an account at a bank, and soon after it was open she found large amounts of money being deposited in it from an untraceable location. 

It took her some time but she eventually figured it was her father sending her money in a way to show he still cared about her. At first, she used the money to buy anything she wanted and to live a life she wanted to live indulging in the better things that life had to offer. But eventually, it hit her what she was doing, she was accepting a bribe from her father for all the years he wasn't in her life, furthermore, he was basically buying her love. This led her to decide she wasn't going to spend as much of his money as she had been. She decided to get a part-time job and work on her own. 

She only used the money at times to help with paying for her rent, all other money she made was used for her bills and other needs such as food. This set of events left her fragile and guilty at how she had acted prior to making the change. She would also later learn that Yena her friend who worked as a personal security guard through a firm was being paid to keep an eye on her. This led her to wonder if they were ever really friends. 

Eventually, Yena told her the truth or at least of what she knew, and because of this action, she was removed from Soohee and would get jobs that would take her all around the country and other nations. Her other friend Adela who had wished to be a pop idol eventually lost her trainee contract and because of that, she decided to go overseas and study. This meant that Soohee who relied on her friends to keep her from falling into a pit of despair was going to be leaving her behind. 

She tells the protag that after they leave her reason for staying and working at the store will also be gone and she will most likely quit. It is at this point that the Manager asks our protag a question, "do you want to run the store?" and the protag thinks he kidding but the manager is honest. He has gotten a new gig and wants to hand the store over to the protag, plus he thinks that it will help him in his future. Events click into place and our protag confronts Soohee about her past and the fact her friends are leaving, at first, she doesn't know what to say or how to react but after some back and forth he makes it clear that he will be with her from now on and wants her to be with him. 

There isn't much in the way of what happens afterwords which I guess can be good and bad at times. The dating sim feel is a bit nostalgic for me as I can remember playing them all through High School and even somewhat in college. The graphics are crisp and decently designed, the characters all have their unique talents and with the help of the Some Some App you can keep track as to what girl likes you the most and so on. 

On the downside, I found out recently that you are limited to how much time you have to get with one of the girls. Apparently, 302 days is all you get, and each turn is 7 days long. So learning a strategy needed to get one of the three girls within the time limit is crucial.