Right. I'm done with Docchi no I ga Suki Desu ka.
Thanks for your input on the game. I have played it now more than half a year ago so my memory of it is still spotty, but I do remember most of the events you mention, for the routes I have played at least (all but Hannah/Lead and Koyuzu/Lead). I'm surprised you didn't actually notice the personality meltdown I had seen between both sides of each character, namely each girl becoming the same version of a deredere, meek and desperately-in-love otome in each of the lead routes. Maybe Hannad and Koyuzu managed to stand their own better in their routes.
As a pure charage, how much one likes the characters is pretty big factor in the enjoyment of each route, regardless of external factors like jokes and plot. I see you fancied Hannad a lot which I kinda didn't, I mean the foreigner "princess" who secretly loves manga and "commoner" culture but is afraid to admit it to her surroundings has been done to death. As a personal preference I prefer romance stories with girls who don't have that obvious edge over the others (be that in terms of beauty, academics, sports and whatnot). In fact I prefer character with obvious flaws, which may explain why I leaned towards Mea (victim of much teasing and kind of dumb) and Maya. Speaking of which, I guess she can be harsh, although compared to other games she's super tame, see bitter smile below, and even within Hooksoft I think there were much worse (honey@coming and Priministar come to mind).
Quick update on my own readings of late:
SuGirlyWish/Megumi : After the debacle that was Hina's route, I was surprised to find myself coming back to it to play the childhood friend's. The result? I actually didn't managed to get through it, or more accurately I deliberately stopped just before the (I think?) confession scene because of the protagonist's obliviousness and dumbness all the way throughout leading to it. Sorry dude, you pushed her away one too many times, no second chances, she's gone. The route didn't have such a bad start with both sides being completely oblivious to one another, but Megumi "figures out" her feelings much sooner that the protagonist and then it's a long parade of approaches in which he just can't get the hint. He does figure it out eventually, right as she seems to be about to go away (actually she's not, she's so devoted to our idiot that she'd turn down anything to stay near him), but at that point that was too little too late, I don't actually want to see him happy with her and so I won't.
Orange Memories/Kokoro : Have I mentioned how tired I am of childhood friends? Well here's five more all packed in a single game! What could go wrong? Well, it's actually sort-of okay as it's possible to refuse the advances of the girls you're not interested in very early in the common part, which meant that I could focus on one heroine at a time. As often I am puzzled at the age-gap of this group of friends, spanning well over ten years between the oldest and youngest (enough for one to become the teacher of another still in her first year). Anyway, Kokoro's route was pretty nice, dropping regular hints of heavy trauma that are only resolved in one branch of her route (the other staying much more light-hearted) to keep things interesting. For once it's not a broken/forgotten promise at the center of it all, that's certainly a plus. I can't say I really fancy any of the other heroines despite the CV cast that drew me to this game in the first place, so unsure if I'll continue.
Bitter Smile./Mii : Welp, here's another serving of four more childhood friends all in one game! The characters are certainly representative of another time in eroge, especially in how violent (both physically with Sakurako and Isaki, and mentally with Mii and Chiseka) the characters can be towards the protagonist. Not that he doesn't deserve it, oh boy does he deserve all of the abuse he gets for how dense he can be, especially in Mii's route as he keeps misunderstanding her, manages to keep saying exactly the thing that hurts the most at the worst of time (unintentionally at least), or when he does just plain ignore her (including her attempts at confessing...). So that was a thing. He does somewhat redeem himself in the end of the route, but if you asked me if that made up for his past blunders I would have a hard time saying yes. Unfortunately the route is kinda short and ends with the making-up, and I have been unable to find the fandisk, so I'm left with a rather bitter taste which I guess was intentional given the game's title. I don't really think I'll play any other routes, maybe Kaname at some point, the shock I felt after finding out there's no Chiseka route was too big. So much setup for nothing!
わんにゃん☆アラモード！/Rui : What the hell am I even playing, this time it's SEVEN childhood friends all in a single game! I actually immediately went for the adorable school principal (and only non-childhood friend) and while her route was cute, it was extremely short and quick to get to the sex without too much setup. Which is fine since she's more or less a sub-heroine, what's even more surprising is when I tried one of the main heroine's route and found her there was even less setup for her, as it lead straight to sex without so much as a confession (Hana). Probably not going back to this one.
Since Omochikaeri has pretty much died of late, anything to look forward to in late May? I'll most likely play
月の彼方で逢いましょう SweetSummerRainbow even though it's just a fandisk but it does look to span quite a length of time, I'll probably try ensemble's
Secret Agent～騎士学園の忍びなるもの～ just for the CV cast, and there's the last entry in the 美少女万華鏡 series,
ー理と迷宮の少女ー, although as always with this series I remain very wary because these games tend to include rape and other violence in large quantities. Please don't rape Renge!
