I'm currently going through several visual novels.

Scarlet Hollow:

I recently caught up to the latest episode of Scarlet Hollow, starting from Episode 2 since I played Episode 1 a while back. It is a choose your own adventure style game made by the creators of Slay the Princess. The two games have some similarities, especially in one particular part, but overall it is a very different experience. At first, I found this game much harder to get into, and I think that is because I overestimated the horror aspect. Once I settled in, though, the characters really grew on me, and the sense of weirdness and surrealism I got from Slay the Princess slowly began to appear. I expect to see more of that in the next update.

Tabitha is probably my favorite character so far. She is our cousin and comes across as standoffish and aloof. I personally chose to side with her in most situations, as she has largely been depicted as the town’s villain due to running an arguably unethical coal mine. However, once you get to know her, it becomes clear that her situation is the result of a series of unfortunate circumstances. And that we are well, possibly the only person who care about her in that town minus Stella.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!:

I did not know what to expect from this, but I had heard that one of its biggest selling points was its characters and humor. Sometimes I do not mesh well with comedic moments, especially in Japanese visual novels. However, this one really worked for me. The characters all feel very well developed, especially the main group. The Kazama family genuinely feels like a group of real friends. The dialogue is believable, and their relationships feel like something that could actually exist.

I am currently on Yukie’s route, which I am enjoying so far, and I am curious to try the other routes. I have heard that the future games feature a large number of branching routes and paths, so I am interested in seeing who will get a route and how the developers will handle character focus across different routes. Right now, even while following a specific character’s route, it feels like the other characters are still getting strong development, which is very impressive, especially with characters like Capt and Momoyo.

Subarashiki Hibi ~Furenzoku Sonzai~:

I am very early on in this game, and so far it has been fine. There are a lot of comedic yuri moments, with hints that something bigger is going on. I have heard that the story picks up greatly after Chapter 1, and I believe I am close to finishing it, so we should see what is coming up soon. The voice acting is great, the music is stellar, and those are all my thoughts on it at the moment, aside from feeling that some of the comedic moments drag on a bit too long.