got_quiet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
got_quiet) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
playingstory2023-12-12 09:12 pm
got_quiet) wrote in playingstory2023-12-12 09:12 pm
Entry tags:
- blm bundle,
- f/f,
- high school,
- m/f,
- otome,
- vn
Sweet Volley High
Name: Sweet Volley High
Status: Complete
Site: https://newwestgames.itch.io/sweet-volley-high-all-ages-ver
Pairing: F/M, F/F
Description: A sports Otome with some odd pacing
This is a Yuri/Otome game that follows High School senior Aya as she plays some volley ball and gets attracted to all of her teammates.
The pacing in this game is such that I stopped half an hour in to check that this really was a VN with choices, as I hadn't seen a single one yet, and then, after being assured that there were choices, still ended up reading through an interminable amount of single track text in which nothing happened, only to find out at the end that what amounts to choice in this game is a single option picking the LI's route and then reading a bunch more text on rails for the final third of the game.
Aya is possibly the most boring PC I've come across. Her internal monologue is repetitive and first consists of ruminations on just how boring she is (she has no hobbies, she is in volleyball club but doesn't even practice and doesn't care about it. She likes to read alone but what sort of books she likes is a detail too far). After moping around a bit she goes to her grandfather's in the country and in the next chunk of plot she sort of miraculously becomes good at volleyball after spending a summer carrying boxes for her grandpa and taking part in a couple of practices. She is now ready to be be scouted for a pro career.
Her three possible LIs have a little bit more personality, just enough to differentiate them. One is an aggressive flirt, another is all business and wants to go pro, and the fourth is a guy. I'm not sure why the guy LI is even in this game. He shows up and just asks Aya out without Aya really knowing who he is. He has no relationship to the volleyball club, and if I were being uncharitable I'd assume he was just otome bait. He's a nice enough guy, but there's not much going on with him.
The choices are basically nonexistent. After the remarkably long intro which takes you through your junior and senior years, your first choice is basically to just pick the LI route you want by agreeing to their particular plans at the end of the season. This happens maybe an hour or so into the game? Possibly more if you're reading closely. I'd say it's at least 2/3rds into the entire thing. For two routes, that's the only choice you ever get. For another you get to pick if you want a good end or a bad end. And that's it. For how long this game is, they could have put a few dozen choices in there to give at least some semblance of interactivity, but no attempt at such a thing was made.
Even though the game seems to drag out forever with lots of filler scenes (I cannot emphasize enough how much of the game is filler. Did I need to read about Aya taking a test, complete with multiple questions and her reminding me that she has a photographic memory and doesn't need to study much, twice???) , the plot itself feels sudden and truncated, because for the most part all of the boring stuff doesn't have much of an effect on the PC's relationship with the LIs. This is why in one route you can agree to go to with your LI to some team tryouts after summer while thinking she's cute, spend many long and detailed scenes completely separated from her training day in and day out, and then come back to the city only to have her start immediately snogging you in the Tokyo streets. To a certain degree the LI's routes actually begin with them getting together with the PC, but for two routes what follows is just a brief melodrama, and then the guys route is kind of like, well, he made the team and I didn't and now I work as a school coach and life is fine. For those who are sensitive to "Bi floozy" tropes this also has that.
The BLM edition of this game is the family friendly version, so the sex scenes have been excised. Maybe they're worth the price of admission, but if so I would say have no shame in speed clicking through this one cause you're not missing much at all.
Status: Complete
Site: https://newwestgames.itch.io/sweet-volley-high-all-ages-ver
Pairing: F/M, F/F
Description: A sports Otome with some odd pacing
This is a Yuri/Otome game that follows High School senior Aya as she plays some volley ball and gets attracted to all of her teammates.
The pacing in this game is such that I stopped half an hour in to check that this really was a VN with choices, as I hadn't seen a single one yet, and then, after being assured that there were choices, still ended up reading through an interminable amount of single track text in which nothing happened, only to find out at the end that what amounts to choice in this game is a single option picking the LI's route and then reading a bunch more text on rails for the final third of the game.
Aya is possibly the most boring PC I've come across. Her internal monologue is repetitive and first consists of ruminations on just how boring she is (she has no hobbies, she is in volleyball club but doesn't even practice and doesn't care about it. She likes to read alone but what sort of books she likes is a detail too far). After moping around a bit she goes to her grandfather's in the country and in the next chunk of plot she sort of miraculously becomes good at volleyball after spending a summer carrying boxes for her grandpa and taking part in a couple of practices. She is now ready to be be scouted for a pro career.
Her three possible LIs have a little bit more personality, just enough to differentiate them. One is an aggressive flirt, another is all business and wants to go pro, and the fourth is a guy. I'm not sure why the guy LI is even in this game. He shows up and just asks Aya out without Aya really knowing who he is. He has no relationship to the volleyball club, and if I were being uncharitable I'd assume he was just otome bait. He's a nice enough guy, but there's not much going on with him.
The choices are basically nonexistent. After the remarkably long intro which takes you through your junior and senior years, your first choice is basically to just pick the LI route you want by agreeing to their particular plans at the end of the season. This happens maybe an hour or so into the game? Possibly more if you're reading closely. I'd say it's at least 2/3rds into the entire thing. For two routes, that's the only choice you ever get. For another you get to pick if you want a good end or a bad end. And that's it. For how long this game is, they could have put a few dozen choices in there to give at least some semblance of interactivity, but no attempt at such a thing was made.
Even though the game seems to drag out forever with lots of filler scenes (I cannot emphasize enough how much of the game is filler. Did I need to read about Aya taking a test, complete with multiple questions and her reminding me that she has a photographic memory and doesn't need to study much, twice???) , the plot itself feels sudden and truncated, because for the most part all of the boring stuff doesn't have much of an effect on the PC's relationship with the LIs. This is why in one route you can agree to go to with your LI to some team tryouts after summer while thinking she's cute, spend many long and detailed scenes completely separated from her training day in and day out, and then come back to the city only to have her start immediately snogging you in the Tokyo streets. To a certain degree the LI's routes actually begin with them getting together with the PC, but for two routes what follows is just a brief melodrama, and then the guys route is kind of like, well, he made the team and I didn't and now I work as a school coach and life is fine. For those who are sensitive to "Bi floozy" tropes this also has that.
The BLM edition of this game is the family friendly version, so the sex scenes have been excised. Maybe they're worth the price of admission, but if so I would say have no shame in speed clicking through this one cause you're not missing much at all.