Everlasting Flowers šŸ’® Visual Novel Informal club

Japanese Language Book Clubs
1

Welcome to Everlasting Flowers, the informal Visual Novel club!

The VN will be released on August 29. Weā€™ll start the book club on September 1st, to give everyone a chance to get the VN.

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The following is a copy of @AzusaChanā€™s nomination in the Visual Novel book club:

Developer: sprite
Official web page: Here
VNDB Play Time: Unknown
VNDB Link: everlasting flowers | vndb
Character count: Unknown.

Summary

Sakashita Mina finds herself in a new town attending a famous all-girls high school. A misfit among a class of young, affluent ladies, she soon stops attending, realizing sheā€™ll never make any friends. In the year since, she has barely left her room.

Time passes slowly, each day a suffocating eternity. Mina would stare at the dried flowers in her room, trying to convince herself that this space is the only place in the world where she belongs.

Seino Ran is a child of a wealthy family and has lived the life her parents laid out for her. That is, until she realizes that nobody truly cares about her. With that in mind, her happy life begins to fall apart.

These circumstances lead both girls to apply for a live-in job at a seaside lodge. Here they meet, and the two girls end up spending the summer together and healing their wounded hearts. They found someone they could trust in each other, something they never thought theyā€™d find again.

Spending her days together with Ran and the owners of the lodge, Yanase Michiko and Naruse Himari, Mina starts to wish that she could remain there forever. However, Ranā€™s friend, Tachibana Sanami, gives Mina a reality checkā€”itā€™s high time she faces her problems.

Mina is convinced that nobody likes her. She avoids speaking her mind, she avoids school, and she avoids everyone she once considered friends. And while facing those problem will be tough, she also doesnā€™t want to go back to that room and go back to being her old self.

As the time they have left at the lodge dwindles, Mina desperately searches for a place where she can belong. As for Ranā€¦

Availability

Steam: Everlasting Flowers - Where there is a will, there is a way on Steam
Switch: everlasting flowers (Multi-Language) for Nintendo Switch
Playstation: everlasting flowers (Multi-Language) for PlayStation 4
I assume it will be available digitally on switch/psn at release.

Member list:

Are you planning to read Everlasting Flowers with the club?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Yes, but I might start late
  • Not sure
0 voters
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Thank you for making the thread! I am excited for this VN to come out, it looks like it will be really good.

Only suggest I have would be to add a ā€œparticipantsā€ poll to the opening post just to get an idea of how many people might join us.

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Good idea! Thanks! Added.

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The cinematic novel is a new genre of visual novel based on the following concepts:

  • Emphasis on quality and visual presentation over length.
  • Colorful CG effects with cinematic compositions.
  • A movie-like experience that combines story, visuals, and music.

From the Steam page. There may not be choices in this, but weā€™ll see!

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Count me in, Iā€™m in between a few different things, none of which have grabbed my attention so happy to give this a try and see how we go!

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Itā€™s the 29th in Japan now! Not yet in Europe and America though. Soon!

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"everlasting flowers"Ā® is the first installment in a series of ā€œcinematic novelsā€ that tells the story of two girls, Mina and Ran, and their struggles and growth as they search for their own approach to life.

I wonder how this game will end - a cliffhanger so we have to get the next one and the next one? And how long it will be until the next in the series is released andā€¦

Really looking forward to starting this series!

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This game plans to unlock in approximately 13 hours

:stuck_out_tongue:
Iā€™ve put it in my wishlist, not planning to join now but maybe Iā€™ll play it in the future!

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I just got the ā€œreleased on Steamā€ email notification and was excited to start my first VN but then realized itā€™s Windows-exclusive :man_facepalming: is that normal for VNs on Steam? Iā€™ve never really checked before

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Oof, thatā€™s unfortunate. Thatā€™s not something I ever pay attention to on Steam, but I wouldnā€™t be surprised if it is. VNs on the technical side can be a bit jank and niche medium it is Iā€™d expect them to cut out extra dev work where they expect fewer users to be. I checked a few random VNs off the top of my head just now and found they were Windows only.

Iā€™d like to join but my wife encouraged me to go on and get Emio (posted about it in the main VN club) so Iā€™m unsure if Iā€™m gonna spend the money on both right now, but weā€™ll see. Too many things coming out at once on my end. I need people on the internet to hurry up and play this and let me know just how short it actually is haha

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Bought, installed, and watched the very first screen. Clicked around in the settings menu and didnā€™t see a flowchart or chapters or anything like that. Not sure how weā€™ll keep track of where we are in the novel when we want to discuss something, but weā€™ll work something out.

I also tried to texthook it. Textractor32 - no go. Textractor64 - was able to hook the first line of text, but it didnā€™t display the next line of text when I went to the next screen. LunaHost64 - was able to hook OK.

No time to play now - have to go to work! But Iā€™m looking forward to playing more tonight!

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I think the game is split into different chapters since when I made a save at the very beginning it shows 1話 next to the save.

I had to search for hooks and near the bottom of the list it generated was a hook that worked for me.

I havenā€™t started actually reading it yet, just wanted to test it out tonight to make sure everything worked fine. Iā€™ll post my thoughts later when I start reading and make progress. The OST seems like itā€™ll be really good from the little I heard while testing though.

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I tested a little more and found out that if you press and hold the number 2 on your keyboard, the English translation is displayed. If you release the number 2 again, the Japanese text returns.

I think I may just play this game with minimal lookups - see what I understand from the audio and the Japanese text, check the English translation to make sure I understand, and maybe look up a few words. Thatā€™s my favorite way to read VNs anyway.

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Alright, itā€™s decided, Iā€™m buying this and joining for sure now!

Currently nearing the end of Ch1 on Umineko so I might start in a day or two after I finish that. Looking forward to checking it out.

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Edit: I only now read that you said at the top you intend to start the club in a couple days, but, well, here I am :upside_down_face:

Ok I lied, the remaining interlude in Umineko was only 2,000 characters so I started this!

There are indeed chapters, I am still in chapter 1 but after ~5,500 characters as a little start I hit a point where a real Ch 1 splash screen happened.

Quick spoilers up to that

Love the art so far, been taking a bunch of screenshots. Itā€™s cool how it changes literally every few lines.

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Not a ton to say story-wise so far, it wasnā€™t THAT extreme but I did move in like 6th grade and can kinda relate to that transition being awkward and unpleasant. I like the general mood with the soft colors (and the change from the black and white intro to colors at all) and the music.

Canā€™t believe that lady just totally takes her phone while sheā€™s here though. Thatā€™s unnecessary! Guess Iā€™d be taking the leave option :upside_down_face: Back to the bedroom to wither away :wilted_flower:

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I started to read a bit today too. Since its an informal club, I hope thatā€™s not an issue starting a little early. I made it to the ch1 splash screen as well.

Early thoughts

I am loving the OST and art so far. It feels like a high budget game right from the start with all the different CGs.

Feels bad for Mina in the beginning having to change schools and then her old friends being pretty apathetic towards her. I didnā€™t really understand why she lashed out at her parents, seems like they were trying to help but maybe teenage angst stuff :sweat_smile:

I donā€™t have too much to say yet either since the intro is mostly just setting up the story. The blonde girl looks like a complete opposite of Mina, so Iā€™m excited to see how their interactions will be later on in the story. Curious to see how she ended up here as well.

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I decided to read a little too. Itā€™s beautiful!

Iā€™m reading with minimal lookups. I read and listen to the Japanese and try to understand it. Then I check the English translation (press and hold the number 2 on your keyboard to see the translation).

What I see is that even though the Japanese and the English have the same general meaning, itā€™s not a direct translation. For me itā€™s not a problem, and I find it interesting to see the differences, but itā€™s worth noting all the same.

Have you seen any way to jump between chapters? In other VNs, thereā€™s usually a screen where you can jump back and forth between the chapters you have finished. Maybe that screen appears after we finish the first chapter.

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I canā€™t say for sure it doesnā€™t exist, but no, I havenā€™t found anything of the sort thus far.

Today I finished Chapter 1! At the end it just showed the chapter 1 screen again, no title drop for chapter 2 yet, but I got a steam achievement for clearing the chapter and the save shows 2.

Ch 1 Spoilers

Obviously a reasonable assumption in general, but I was especially thinking there must be more depth to Ran that weā€™ll discover when Mina was very on the nose thinking about how she must have no problems. I canā€™t make too much out of that end of chapter phone call, but it looks like the next is launching into Ranā€™s story more. I guess she snuck to where the phone was and took it back temporarily? Sheā€™s a rule breaker!

Thus far I do like how itā€™s committed to the types of people they are! Mina is bad at socializing, still always afraid and thinking back to her problems, connecting new experiences to how theyā€™re going to turn badly. And hearing that Ran finds her kind of annoying despite how friendly she manages to act is good depth too, heh.

The little girl is cute, not much else to say about her. She gets up at 5:30am :skull: . Waking up at 6am has been added to my ongoing list of reasons I would run back home to my room :wink:

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I just finished ch1 as well.

Ch1 thoughts

The opening chapter was pretty fun. I liked all of the introductions. Every character so far has a ā€œrealā€ feeling to them.
I was confused how Ran got her phone back and then said she was going to stay in contact with her friend. She told Michiko she was going to step outside for a bit, so I was confused if Michiko knew she had her phone or not? Seems like itā€™d be hard to steal it back in that scenario but guessing theyā€™ll explain it later on.

The art and music were great throughout. Seems like a majority of the songs have been more on the melancholic side so far, hoping we get some happier songs as Mina beings to heal.

Feels a bit bad for both girls that they are going to have to share such a small room. Definitely no privacy in there.
I had the same reaction as Ran & Mina when Himari was talking about her past. Felt like such a heavy topic but was brought up so casually. At least it doesnā€™t seem to be affecting Himari.

I was thinking the opposite. I was like, thatā€™s a very reasonable time. The other girls sleep in way too late :stuck_out_tongue:

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The trailer makes it look like a romance between these two girls! Is that the case? :rainbow_flag: :heart:

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Iā€™ll put it behind spoilers in case someone considers it a spoiler

answer

Iā€™ve only finished the first chapter so I canā€™t say for certain but based on reviews and what other people have said, there doesnā€™t appear to be romance in this game. I was hoping for romance but it seems like the focus is on developing a strong bond of friendship between the two main characters rather than a romantic bond.

As an aside, if you want a story that focuses heavily on romance between girls, I highly recommend the Flowers series. We recently did an informal club for that and I will definitely be there to respond to any discussion if anyone joins later on :stuck_out_tongue:Flowers šŸŒŗ Visual Novel Informal Club (Now reading Hiver)

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