Visual Novel Review: Toire no Hanako

3/26/2013

Reiko says she is not afraid of living people. Every night, however, she is scared, believing she is hearing unnatural voices and noises inside her house, and seeing shadowy forms moving inside her room.

Isamu says he is a skeptic, and that he does not believe in supernatural things. Every day, however, after a peaceful night, he will be frightened by people with whom he has to deal daily. He says that living people can scare him to death.


Toire no Hanako is a kinetic visual novel that tackles a story about fear, about love, and about the incompatibilities between love and fear.

toire no hanako visual novel


Likes:
- Isn't it amazing how everything is made of CGs? There are no sprites in this kinetic novel, just hundreds and hundreds of CGs! And they all look so good to me! :) Playing visual novels this way makes it a whole new experience. And... I'm liking it. Truly liking it.



- The concept is so cool. Seriously.

- I love the plot. Maybe because I like topics about the supernatural so much? The story doesn't revolve on that, but it is one of the important points. They even talked about Parapsychology here! Even though that was not the main focus, I totally liked it!

- Most of the scenes between Reiko and Isamu made me feel so giddy. :") I especially love that scene in the restroom! Awwww, so sweeeeet. :")

- Whoever did the soundtracks is a genius. :") Hahaha, actually, "Whoever" stands for Kevin MacLeod and the Farina Brothers. I totally adore the music whenever there is a sweet scene between Isamu and Reiko. The music just fits the scene, you know what I mean? And everybody knows that in visual novels like this, the music makes a huge role. I actually tried removing my earphones while re-reading that scene and even though it still made my heart flutter, the feeling was not that strong without the music. See? Music is important.

- The CGs themselves. I love them, all of them. Hahaha. All were done with so much effort. I wonder how he, Donmai, made them? They were so lovely. I love the colors... the lines... the shadows... everything! Doing this must be so hard. But it's truly amazing. <3 The drawings with the mirrors are the most notable though. Matching a drawing up with a mirrored version of it is not easy you know. Yet it was still done so beautifully here.




- The script was beautifully done. Most of the lines delivered felt so natural to me. Although it's true that some things seem to have progressed rather too quickly, most of the scenes are still quite reasonable. :)

Dislikes:
- Since I was reading this on my netbook, I didn't have a mouse connected (therefore no rollback ability) and I only used the space bar to proceed with the text. I hate how I always pressed too hard on the space bar and the text skipped! Ugh. That was... quite a hassle to load another save and then skip back where I had missed the text. Honestly, I think the text is more "sensitive" than any other visual novel I know.

- Some parts of the story progressed too quickly. Like the love story between Reiko and Isamu, for example. However, even though their relationship started too quickly, specifically about two days after they first met, things still seemed to have progressed rather naturally. The love story wasn't forced. Not at all.

Notes:
- I was seriously expecting a horror story when I first saw this kinetic novel. That's actually the main reason why I downloaded it, because as some of you may know, I am a fan of horror. :) But if you're like me, and is expecting that this is a scary story, then prepare to be disappointed because it's not. Yes, horror is one of the points, but it's not the genre. It's actually a romance VN. :) And I'm not complaining, because it made me feel giddy so many times!



- It's kinda long, which is actually something I like.  It's on my list of my favorite visual novels now. =) Still... I wish it was longer! :") I really like it so much. It's so interesting! And by the way... the scene at the end... I think my heart stopped beating for a moment there! =)

So far, I truly recommend this to you guys. It's a 10/10 for me. This may not be otome, and it may not even be your traditional visual novel with sprites and so, but it was done so good that I just can't resist writing a post here about it. ^_^ Please, download it here and give it a try! It deserves so much more attention. :")

So, what do you think? Feel free to let me know in the comments section below. :3



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