Early thoughts and impressions
I’m a big fan of the original morenatsu, so I thought I should give this game a try. I’ve played a couple of the first days, so I thought I would jot down my thoughts. I do greatly admire the team’s attempt to work on such a project, so even if my criticisms sound harsh, just know it’s coming from a place of love.
I think the game’s new art has good and bad elements. It does a good job of catching the original Morenatsu’s vibe, while looking more modern. However, some of the characters look off. Kouya (looks too skinny), Kounosuke (looks less chubby), and Soutarou (way too tall) all look weird to me. Other characters benefit from the style changes though, like Shun. Very smart choice to give him glasses. I also feel like there’s less expression in the sprites overall, but I understand development is still being done with that.
The game’s writing is also a mixed bag. I understand that some of the characters have different stuff going on now compared to the original, but it feels like the core intent of these original scenes are lost now. The party at Raimon in the original was fun and welcoming, but now it’s just very uncomfortable? Nearly every character acts more sad/passive aggressive, and it kinda ruins the scene. I get that the original game’s scene had some weird moments, but it was written in a comedic tone that made it more digestible. It was also a lot more fun to read. When Hiroyuki says he’s smiling in the bathroom now, I just don’t buy it nearly as much as the original. I also feel like the new writing is ham fisted at times. Hiroyuki has 2 monologue lines where he’s directly telling the player about how Tatsuki’s route is about his alcoholism, which feels like I’m being spoon fed incredibly obvious information. In terms of positives though, I think the new scenes are very nice. It’s clear that an intent was made to show additional aspects of these characters which we only heard about in the game/blogs previously. I also think the writing for Hiroyuki is overall spot on, even if I think his edge was diminished. He was a great protagonist in the original, and I’m glad this project mostly understands why. I have played Revisited before, and although I can’t say much about it for Homecoming specifically right now, I am excited to get to the main routes of some characters—knowing that a lot of them got vast improvements from the original game (cough Kounosuke).
Probably the biggest negative I have for Homecoming is that I think getting rid of the ability to choose how you spend each day from the map is VERY detrimental to the experience. The whole thesis of morenatsu is that you’re supposed to be making genuine memories in a finite amount of time. Going to the map select each day for the first half of game, seeing the area of Hiroyuki’s hometown that you wanna go to, and then choosing to spend time in that area/with that character is an essential part to the experience. Once you make your decision on what to do, that’s all you can do that day, and that makes each day’s event feel a lot more meaningful and impactful. It also opens up a lot of replay value, as you learn different things about Hiroyuki’s friends/past/hometown every time you choose to go somewhere on a given day. The player is willingly choosing how they want to make use of their finite time, and exactly which aspect of Hiroyuki’s past they want to learn more about. Knowing that summer will eventually end, and that the stuff you experience with your friends will also come to an end, is literally apart of Morenatsu’s identity. Feelings of nostalgia, and all that.
Homecoming relegating this to Hiroyuki just walking around town and choosing to stay in certain spots based on text options is so underwhelming. Sure, you’re functionally doing the same thing as clicking from the map, but you’re losing the entire player experience. Players no longer feel that sense of finite time, and like they’re the ones choosing which aspect of Hiroyuki’s life that they wanna learn more about/continue. It also hurts the game’s replay value, as each day’s events take much more time to get through and start. I’m assuming this change was done so that each day has more content in it, which I admire the attempt to add a lot more writing, but it feels fundamentally at odds with what Morenatsu is supposed to be. This change causes the game to feel a lot less unique compared to other visual novels now.
Even despite my criticisms though, I am looking forward to continue playing. I do appreciate a lot of what this project is doing, and It’s just really cool to see how much effort was put into it. I hope the best for the team, and that ya’ll continue trekking.
I think the game’s new art has good and bad elements. It does a good job of catching the original Morenatsu’s vibe, while looking more modern. However, some of the characters look off. Kouya (looks too skinny), Kounosuke (looks less chubby), and Soutarou (way too tall) all look weird to me. Other characters benefit from the style changes though, like Shun. Very smart choice to give him glasses. I also feel like there’s less expression in the sprites overall, but I understand development is still being done with that.
The game’s writing is also a mixed bag. I understand that some of the characters have different stuff going on now compared to the original, but it feels like the core intent of these original scenes are lost now. The party at Raimon in the original was fun and welcoming, but now it’s just very uncomfortable? Nearly every character acts more sad/passive aggressive, and it kinda ruins the scene. I get that the original game’s scene had some weird moments, but it was written in a comedic tone that made it more digestible. It was also a lot more fun to read. When Hiroyuki says he’s smiling in the bathroom now, I just don’t buy it nearly as much as the original. I also feel like the new writing is ham fisted at times. Hiroyuki has 2 monologue lines where he’s directly telling the player about how Tatsuki’s route is about his alcoholism, which feels like I’m being spoon fed incredibly obvious information. In terms of positives though, I think the new scenes are very nice. It’s clear that an intent was made to show additional aspects of these characters which we only heard about in the game/blogs previously. I also think the writing for Hiroyuki is overall spot on, even if I think his edge was diminished. He was a great protagonist in the original, and I’m glad this project mostly understands why. I have played Revisited before, and although I can’t say much about it for Homecoming specifically right now, I am excited to get to the main routes of some characters—knowing that a lot of them got vast improvements from the original game (cough Kounosuke).
Probably the biggest negative I have for Homecoming is that I think getting rid of the ability to choose how you spend each day from the map is VERY detrimental to the experience. The whole thesis of morenatsu is that you’re supposed to be making genuine memories in a finite amount of time. Going to the map select each day for the first half of game, seeing the area of Hiroyuki’s hometown that you wanna go to, and then choosing to spend time in that area/with that character is an essential part to the experience. Once you make your decision on what to do, that’s all you can do that day, and that makes each day’s event feel a lot more meaningful and impactful. It also opens up a lot of replay value, as you learn different things about Hiroyuki’s friends/past/hometown every time you choose to go somewhere on a given day. The player is willingly choosing how they want to make use of their finite time, and exactly which aspect of Hiroyuki’s past they want to learn more about. Knowing that summer will eventually end, and that the stuff you experience with your friends will also come to an end, is literally apart of Morenatsu’s identity. Feelings of nostalgia, and all that.
Homecoming relegating this to Hiroyuki just walking around town and choosing to stay in certain spots based on text options is so underwhelming. Sure, you’re functionally doing the same thing as clicking from the map, but you’re losing the entire player experience. Players no longer feel that sense of finite time, and like they’re the ones choosing which aspect of Hiroyuki’s life that they wanna learn more about/continue. It also hurts the game’s replay value, as each day’s events take much more time to get through and start. I’m assuming this change was done so that each day has more content in it, which I admire the attempt to add a lot more writing, but it feels fundamentally at odds with what Morenatsu is supposed to be. This change causes the game to feel a lot less unique compared to other visual novels now.
Even despite my criticisms though, I am looking forward to continue playing. I do appreciate a lot of what this project is doing, and It’s just really cool to see how much effort was put into it. I hope the best for the team, and that ya’ll continue trekking.
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I love this game! But miss it too..
I absolutely love this game and fell in love with its story and characters ever since I first downloaded it, but it also pains me not to see the story or game update, I usually come back every so often to check on the game to see if it did update but never did. I just hope that in the future I’ll be able to see it continue.
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Excellent
Loving it! Can’t wait for more routes to be finished :3
😪
To be honest, the updates take way too long. I have been replaying this game for three years and it’s kind of tiring for me to replay characters that aren’t finished, but I will see. I do appreciate you for putting in the to make us all happy
Very good game- can’t wait for more updates!
I really enjoyed this game. I’ve been doing Shun’s route, and I can’t wait for his route to be continued! Once the full game is out, I’ll definitely rate it five stars!
