Title: アイベヤ
Developer: Azarashi Soft
Age Rating: 18+
Length: ~4 Hours each, <15 Hours total
Links: Official Website, VNDB
The Aibeya series from Azarashi Soft is a trilogy of low-priced games loosely connected under the idea of two childhood friends being placed in a situation where they need to share a room – hence the game's name (相部屋).
Despite the naming convention of the series, the games share no characters/continuity so feel free to play them in any order or only play the title(s) that interest you.
The games share only an artist and director, with each having a different scenario writer so I feel it would be fairest to talk about them individually. Especially as there has been 7 years between the first and third game releasing, and Azarashi Soft have improved their single heroine games in general during this timeframe.
Aibeya
Score: 5.5/10
The first Aibeya title follows our generic protagonist Kouta being forced to stay with his childhood friend & neighbour Aki suddenly after his parents decide to renovate their house without telling him. However, it decides to muddy the premise by also having Aki ask Kouta to pretend to be her boyfriend at the same time, to test if her feelings for him are real or not.
Being one of the earliest Azarashi Soft low-priced titles this absolutely shows its age – being in 4:3 square ratio for one thing, and just lacking polish – primarily having no voice acting or character sprites outside of Aki despite her mother being quite the important side character. To be fair, none of the three games in this series feature any sprites for side characters.
Aki is also just kind of bland and lacked anything to make her stand out. That's not to say that the game is bad per se, it's a serviceable moege with lovely artwork and decent enough H scenes but the rest of the series is just better.
Though I will say that there is absolutely no reason for the ending song to be so damn good. It's so good in fact that they stole the song for Chitose in Amakano 2 lmao.
Aibeya 2
Score: 7/10
Aibeya 2 takes the sillyness of the setting and just runs with it. Youichi's childhood friend Saku has lived with him for a while due to her parents moving for work. They had to do some creative renovations to make it work and the pair have individual bedrooms connected by a sliding door. This has worked fine but in the midst of summer the AC in Youichi's room breaks down and a repair is impossible at the moment. Luckily, the one in Saku's room works fine, leading to the door between them opening up both physically and metaphorically.
Aibeya 2 was a welcome improvement on the original. For starters, I liked how they leaned into the kind of dumb premise of the series and gave something genuinely novel. And, as generic and basic a metaphor it was, I did enjoy seeing the sliding door between their rooms gradually opening as a reflection of the deepening relationship between Saku and Youichi. This worked very well with Saku's personality – a shy, nervous girl with a heart of gold, and watching her slowly build in confidence was very enjoyable. I feel like this type of heroine as a childhood friend was a rare treat also.
Production values were a step in the right direction. Youichi's mother still lacked a voice but the game did have voices for the two other friends in their group and I liked the plot arc those two had.
There was also a clear step-up in effort put into the presentation of this game, and I really liked how cinematic the confession scene felt.
This is a very solid example of Azarashi's formula and I'd recommend this entry to anyone interested in Saku.
Aibeya 3
On a side note, Azarashi Soft NEEDS to make this into a real shirt – it's adorable
Score 7.5/10
Aibeya 3 is the newest entry in the series and follows Kousuke in his final summer vacation before his life becomes a grind for his university entrance exams. His parents have worked with & been best friends with Suzume's since they were in kindergarten so the pair have grown up close. As is typical the two families go on a group vacation but this year there was a mistake when booking their holiday lodges and they were one short, leading Kousuke to have to bunk with his parents. However, Suzume comes to his rescue and offers Kousuke to share with her instead. This happens to coincide with Kousuke having resolved to confess his feelings to Suzume this year, so this summer will be more exciting for better or worse.
Again we have a silly premise but the summer vacation in a holiday lodge was something different. The game does essentially throw the parents out of the way after 5 minutes, thus making their lack of voice (still!!) less noticeable.
I will admit that personal bias skewed my score on Aibeya 3 a bit as Suzume is just my type of heroine – an older sister type of childhood friend who is teasing and yet really cute. I liked her quirk of "scoring" things. In terms of more objective quality it's about as good as Aibeya 2.
There's a good amount of perspective changes early in the game which add to the story and character building – seeing a more flustered side to the usually mature Suzume was incredibly cute. I wish these had continued into the last third of the game but it is what it is.
My one complaint with this game would be that the protagonist has a clear character arc about wanting to decide his future career, with his main interest being a barista/cafe owner (so I hope you like reading about coffee). Suzume is also meant to have her own doubts/uneasiness about her future but the conclusion she comes to was pretty rushed/underwhelming. But that's my fault for looking for plot in my wish-fulfilment moege.
One extra thing is that Aibeya 3 is written by Hozakura, which makes this part of his "cinematic universe"(?) within Azarashi Soft's games so it was fun seeing references to his previous games Hatsukoi Master-Up & Tomokoi. Clearly fanservice but I'm a fan so I lapped it up lol.
Final Thoughts
The Aibeya series is overall a fairly enjoyable experience focused on childhood friend heroines. While the first game is noticeably weaker, the other instalments feature that signature Azarashi Soft formula of low-price + likeable heroine + cute romance so if you need a quick injection of sugary sweet moe then this wouldn't be a bad choice if any of the heroines appeal to you.
Ironically Aibeya 3 is a better example of an older heroine romance than their game dedicated to that earlier this summer *cough*年上彼女2*cough*.
Despite their crazy publishing schedule this year (their Azarush or however you call it) I think I've had enough of Azarashi soft for now. I did play the trial for Saku Love Triangle and, while the plot itself is interesting (it reminded me a bit of moshiraba), I found it to be too H-focused to take seriously so I plan to wait for reviews/a sale at some point.
As always, thanks for reading~
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