Played through Kurato’s route in Dark Nights (Steam link), no longer speedskimming through and actually taking time to read (though not to sit and digest every line carefully), and got myself the Normal End in about 2 hours and 30 minutes. I appreciate the dynamic between his teasing and MC—she doesn’t just stand there and blush, she banters back. I did not expect this game to give me in-game achievements but it did! I do feel MC fell for him too fast, but it was enjoyable to read anyways and I liked the content of the Normal End. Route had more action and more guns than I was expecting (neutral, not good or bad), and less parental angst on MC’s behalf than I was expecting from what I saw in the common route/prologue (positive! While angst is fun in fiction, absent parents are so often used for angst that I appreciate the variety in MC’s parents being away from home but her seeming to wholeheartedly think “Even though I do not see them a lot, our relationship is good.”). Lots of typos, including one unfortunately occurring at a dramatic point in the story, but thankfully there was a reporting form for script errors :D
One thing I should mention: I’m awful with both horror and visual depictions of injury, probably oversensitive compared to most. I was able to handle this route but there are some parts where I luckily looked away too fast to see things in detail, and might have had more trouble if I didn’t manage to look away fast. Figured in case anyone is like me I ought to dish so you can be prepared and figure out if this route is something you want to go play or not.
the parts I didn't look too closely because of issues with horror and injury, this does spoil part of the route though
When you’re in the school at night with Kurato, there will be a period where you go to a staircase. You know Edvard Munch’s The Scream painting? There’s one ghost talking to you on the stairs that jumpscares you by going from just a silhouette to having something that looks like that for a face—on its own I’d probably be fine, but I played late at night and it was added suddenly to the silhouette, so it made me jump a bit. A lot worse in my opinion is that after that ghost warns you with red writing (possibly blood? I don’t remember) about looking below because something is coming for you, there is another ghost. This ghost has injuries described I don’t remember that probably got depicted on its sprite, and it is headless in a way that I think is less just “oh, missing a head” and more like evidencing that something gory happened for the head to not be there. I caught a quick glimpse of this on the left side of my screen and purposely didn’t look that way because from what I do remember, the description suggested if I looked it’d probably be a disturbing image—although from what I recall the image also wasn’t super detailed.
During Kurato’s backstory, after he talks about going into the forest and leaving the forest, there will be a CG where he’s lying down. I looked away and focused on the text boxes here, because that CG is when he got shot, and I didn’t feel like seeing whatever injury was on-screen in case it was something I couldn’t handle.
other comments that are spoilers for the Kurato route, that aren't warnings for the squeamish and easily scared
Her being willing to banter back also results in a verrrry interesting CG where she’s pushed him to the floor…
Not sure how I feel about the time-limited choice that shows up. I mean, different gameplay mechanics are always fun and it does fit where it was put, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it as a personal preference thing.
Noticed a parallel between MC thinking Kurato is out of his depth and trying to stop him from going after the shinigami, and Kurato and Chain both thinking, accurately in my opinion if not for plot armor so we can have a full game to play, she would probably get in deep trouble/killed trying to help in the investigation.
Kaichi still talking about privacy even after transforming, appreciate that character consistency.
Kurato got a back injury in a fight and then after the danger was over, MC kinda sorta backs him against a wall and kisses him. I love that she makes the first move, but uhhh… putting his injured, bleeding back literally against the wall? You sure there girl? Though to be fair, I’m not a med student, maybe it would be less bad than I think it is to do that, I’m lucky enough to not have gotten big cuts in my back. Although, right after that scene he started to show signs of injury and condition deteriorated, really felt like the game was reading my mind there—I think something and then it addresses it the scene after. I always love when games anticipate my reaction and address it in-story, or at least appear to do so.
I can’t believe MC was dumb enough to hear a lot about how Chain might kill Kurato over being supernatural, I think she even expressed it, and then thought it might be okay to say about how Kurato purified someone possessed… but otherwise, I think she was quite reckless but given the whole “I’m bored and want something to happen” attitude in the prologue I’m somehow able to excuse it. I’m not sure if I’m letting that initial motive do way too much heavy lifting or not, but either way I’m a lot less frustrated with a reckless MC than I think I’d usually be.
Played through Kurato’s route in Dark Nights (Steam link), no longer speedskimming through and actually taking time to read (though not to sit and digest every line carefully), and got myself the Normal End in about 2 hours and 30 minutes. I appreciate the dynamic between his teasing and MC—she doesn’t just stand there and blush, she banters back. I did not expect this game to give me in-game achievements but it did! I do feel MC fell for him too fast, but it was enjoyable to read anyways and I liked the content of the Normal End. Route had more action and more guns than I was expecting (neutral, not good or bad), and less parental angst on MC’s behalf than I was expecting from what I saw in the common route/prologue (positive! While angst is fun in fiction, absent parents are so often used for angst that I appreciate the variety in MC’s parents being away from home but her seeming to wholeheartedly think “Even though I do not see them a lot, our relationship is good.”). Lots of typos, including one unfortunately occurring at a dramatic point in the story, but thankfully there was a reporting form for script errors :D
One thing I should mention: I’m awful with both horror and visual depictions of injury, probably oversensitive compared to most. I was able to handle this route but there are some parts where I luckily looked away too fast to see things in detail, and might have had more trouble if I didn’t manage to look away fast. Figured in case anyone is like me I ought to dish so you can be prepared and figure out if this route is something you want to go play or not.
the parts I didn't look too closely because of issues with horror and injury, this does spoil part of the route though
When you’re in the school at night with Kurato, there will be a period where you go to a staircase. You know Edvard Munch’s The Scream painting? There’s one ghost talking to you on the stairs that jumpscares you by going from just a silhouette to having something that looks like that for a face—on its own I’d probably be fine, but I played late at night and it was added suddenly to the silhouette, so it made me jump a bit. A lot worse in my opinion is that after that ghost warns you with red writing (possibly blood? I don’t remember) about looking below because something is coming for you, there is another ghost. This ghost has injuries described I don’t remember that probably got depicted on its sprite, and it is headless in a way that I think is less just “oh, missing a head” and more like evidencing that something gory happened for the head to not be there. I caught a quick glimpse of this on the left side of my screen and purposely didn’t look that way because from what I do remember, the description suggested if I looked it’d probably be a disturbing image—although from what I recall the image also wasn’t super detailed.
During Kurato’s backstory, after he talks about going into the forest and leaving the forest, there will be a CG where he’s lying down. I looked away and focused on the text boxes here, because that CG is when he got shot, and I didn’t feel like seeing whatever injury was on-screen in case it was something I couldn’t handle.
other comments that are spoilers for the Kurato route, that aren't warnings for the squeamish and easily scared
Her being willing to banter back also results in a verrrry interesting CG where she’s pushed him to the floor…
Not sure how I feel about the time-limited choice that shows up. I mean, different gameplay mechanics are always fun and it does fit where it was put, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it as a personal preference thing.
Noticed a parallel between MC thinking Kurato is out of his depth and trying to stop him from going after the shinigami, and Kurato and Chain both thinking, accurately in my opinion if not for plot armor so we can have a full game to play, she would probably get in deep trouble/killed trying to help in the investigation.
Kaichi still talking about privacy even after transforming, appreciate that character consistency.
Kurato got a back injury in a fight and then after the danger was over, MC kinda sorta backs him against a wall and kisses him. I love that she makes the first move, but uhhh… putting his injured, bleeding back literally against the wall? You sure there girl? Though to be fair, I’m not a med student, maybe it would be less bad than I think it is to do that, I’m lucky enough to not have gotten big cuts in my back. Although, right after that scene he started to show signs of injury and condition deteriorated, really felt like the game was reading my mind there—I think something and then it addresses it the scene after. I always love when games anticipate my reaction and address it in-story, or at least appear to do so.
I can’t believe MC was dumb enough to hear a lot about how Chain might kill Kurato over being supernatural, I think she even expressed it, and then thought it might be okay to say about how Kurato purified someone possessed… but otherwise, I think she was quite reckless but given the whole “I’m bored and want something to happen” attitude in the prologue I’m somehow able to excuse it. I’m not sure if I’m letting that initial motive do way too much heavy lifting or not, but either way I’m a lot less frustrated with a reckless MC than I think I’d usually be.