Really early this morning, I finished my first play through of Da Capo. I had bought it mostly to encourage Mangagamer to put out more games as a hard copy, and wasn’t expecting too much from it, especially with all the comments Lancer-X has made. Even with my low expectations, I wasn’t prepared for just how underwhelming it was. Now I’m not saying that the game was necessarily bad, but it was thoroughly unremarkable. Given that I just randomly picked times and places for the most part since I don’t use a walkthrough my first time through, a big problem was that I didn’t see enough of any one character to really get a sense of who any of them were. Honestly, I’m surprised that I somehow got some sort of end with Mako given the decisions you make being when to wake up and where to go, with pretty much no indication from the game as to how this influences events. Another gripe I have is how the game seemed to just abruptly end. Honestly, the only thing resembling a sort of conflict that had to be overcome was deciding whether or not you loved her after you have sex. Then you find a love letter in your desk after the graduation ceremony is done and the game cuts to a black credits screen. I’m guessing that the end I got with Mako was good, because after that you get a brief scene on the roof where she tells you she loves you, and you say you love her too. Then the game goes to a white credits screen. That’s it. Pretty much the rest of the game before that is the protagonist lazing about, or bitching about how he can’t laze about. Also, is there any kind of meaning to these “powers” the protagonist has? They were mentioned a couple times, but played almost no role at all. Do they play a bigger part in other routes?
On a completely different note, I finished my first play through Family Project a few days ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but man is it long. I think it may be some time before I try and play through it again. I went for Aoba my first time, and was not disappointed in the least. Her extreme hostility with brief glimpses of a hidden side made her quite appealing to me. Enduring her onslaught of words to find the root of her problems was very satisfying.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the people who in the past suggested I get The Sagara Family. I found it thoroughly amusing, aside from certain elements of Arisa’s route which reminded me of Amorous Professor Cherry. The only character I have left is Sanae, which I have a feeling might be the one I enjoy most (which is why I’ve left her for last).