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I see, thank you for your suggestion!
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I think Iām almost at the end of chapter 1. Really like it so far! It will be fun to see how the relationship between the girls develops in the next chapters.
Did any of you get a character count for the first chapter? I have no idea how long it is.
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Finished chapter 2!
Iām clearing my counts too often cause Iām alternating multiple things ā Ch 2 I think was very roughly around 20k. 1 Iām less sure about but it was something like that or a little less I think?
Chapter 2 spoilers
Well here we have big progress on Mina getting out of her shell, that was quick. I didnāt expect her to actually break down and run away like that. Itās definitely best that she breaks these associations, but they were so forceful that whole time. Ultimately Ran was very helpful and seemed to understand what she needed, but initially going in to āhelpā and then ganging up against her felt kinda bad.
This has me wondering a little more, I dunno if itās convenient writing sidestepping the ways people normally act in these situations, but the way the parents leave a note about how she wonāt want to wear the uniform, and Michiko seemingly being ready to guide her into doing things she doesnāt want ā feels less like a normal job and more like sheās in on trying to help her. Both girls have their own sort of ātroubled pastā and were introduced to this job by their parents. Is there a bit of a scheme to it?
Iāve been seeing this ćććā¦ććć type structure a lot recently; itās useful. Estimated JLPT levels are kinda fake and pointless, but itās allegedly N1, so weāre learning good things. 
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I donāt remember what my character count was for chapter 1 but my total count at the end of ch2 is 48,150. Each chapter felt about the same length so guessing somewhere around 24k.
Ch2 thoughts
The start of the chapter was nice to get some more info on Ranās backstory. I thought the VN was going to have a different perspective or something each chapter since the beginning of this chapter was all Ranās perspective. I was a little disappointed when it switched back to Mina. Not that I dislike Mina, but I was starting to feel really invested in Ranās perspective during that.
I noticed with the heavy CGs, sometimes it feels like the different CGs are just part of one picture but heavily zoomed in for effect. I keep expecting the CG to zoom out at some point and show the āfullā picture but it doesnāt happen. Like when Ran was doing Minaās makeup, it went back and forth between zooming in on each otherās face and I was expecting it to zoom out to show them both in the same CG but then they never did. Not really a complaint, I love all the uses of the art so far but just something I was thinking about while reading. Although I do wish we got a full CG of Mina after the makeover. We got the new sprite of her but a CG would have been nice too. It was cute to see her blush.
I was thinking the same thing since everyone there (Mina, Ran and Himari) all have troubled pasts of some sort. Even though Mina seems to have a low opinion about her parents, it does seem like they care so itād make sense if this ājobā is a place to help people with a troubled past. Iād be surprised if her parents sent her out to a random summer job otherwise.
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The first chapter was longer than I thought! I thought I was almost at the end a couple of days ago, but I was wrongā¦ I really enjoy it, but Iāll probably finish long after you, AzusaChan and Daisoujou!
Ran is shown with blue eyes and blond hair. She says that she dyes her hair, so Iām guessing that sheās fully Japanese, which should mean brown eyes. I wonder why they have her with blue eyes in the drawings. Sheās beautiful though!
Poor Mina...
Iām impressed how she is so afraid of everything, but still goes along with what happens. Like the bath scene, where she wanted to stay behind but decided to join them after all. I see myself in her, and I canāt wait to see her (hopefully) come out of her shell more and more as we keep reading.
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I finished Ch. 3 in one go, so I can say with certainty that this one is about 17k characters long!
Chapter 3 Spoilers
Himariās past and future really dominate this chapter. You really do get the impression she doesnāt get to be a normal kid, always thinking aobut how to improve the restaurant and etc. I totally agree with Mina thinking this isnāt stuff youād want a child to have to worry aboutā¦ which makes it all the more interesting that sheās fixated on Himari inheriting the place. I think she does care about what Himari wants more than her sort of self-blame leads her to think, the way she calls herself selfish for saying this because she wants to stay. Really I guess you could say the way Mina is so focused on finding somewhere good for her, she sees Himari already has that, and doesnāt want her to lose it.
All the same, I mean, the past shapes people for good and bad, and yeah she genuinely wants to take care of the placeā¦ but itās also seemingly the only thing she has ever known. No wonder she thinks about inheriting it, and ultimately I think itās good that Michiko intends to make her at least look at the wider world and other options.
Even if Iām on her side, I donāt think I agree flowers are pretty because they are temporary, but itās ok
Glad Mina is having a nice time, and itās a pretty natural development that now that somewhere is nice she wants to stay here forever. I assume thereās no way thatās going to work out.
Just thought this CG was super pretty.
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Ch3 thoughts
Interesting chapter. I enjoyed them exploring some new places and the beach scene at the end was really fun/cute.
I felt like the scene with Mina arguing with Michiko was kind of out of place. I guess some time has passed since Mina has been there but it felt weird how aggressively she was arguing over letting Himari inherit the place. Mina did have some selfish motivations behind it so maybe when it involves her she gets more aggressive about things (she did try really hard to not wear her outfit too).
Kind of hoping to see more of Ranās perspective soon or how she has been developing. She has mostly been a support character helping with Ranās growth but Iād also like to see her growth too.
Her casual outfit in this chapter was really nice too.
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Iām not done with Ch 4, but I read the first ~8k characters and want to post a little.
Spoilers Ch4, buying watermelons
Well, we get more Ran like AzusaChan wanted.
I agree even more about what you said in Ch3 after seeing this ā everyone gets SO aggressive about the inheritance talk. I know Ran had that line in her head from the phone call but itās like she entered this ready to find some reason to beat up on Mina and jumped on that. The reason Ran cares so strongly confuses me even more.
And itās not exactly an unrealistic line of reasoning for some people to hold, this stuff about sorting yourself out before working on other problems, but hearing it from everyone, it suddenly feels like a visual novel where every character is Jordan Peterson 
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Ch4 thoughts
This chapter was kind of weird. I wanted more Ran but not like this 
It felt like they were trying to force drama into the story here or something. I didnāt really understand why Ran got so aggressive and rude towards Mina. It just felt so sudden and random.
I guess Ran has been here before and the Sanami person sheās been talking to on the phone helped her with her past issues? But if thatās the case, it feels like everyone has been lying to Mina since the start? Pretty sure Mina thought this was Ranās first time being here and Michiko even acted like she didnāt know her at the start. Having everyone around Mina lie to her probably isnāt going to help her heal or trust people after this.
Iām still enjoying the VN overall but that chapter was a weird vibe. Maybe things will make some more sense once Sanami arrives and we see her.
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@AzusaChan and @Daisoujou how are you doing with Everlasting Flowers?
Anyone else reading now? How do you like it?
Iām slowly making my way through chapter 2. Iām not as fast as you, and I want to keep reading Island too. Really enjoying it so far though.
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I was sick & busy with some stuff the past week so I havenāt been able to make much progress but I am still reading and in the middle of ch5.
Glad to hear you are enjoying it so far!
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Hey yeah I actually finished not long after when I posted last. Marathoned a bit, like I did 35k characters at once at the end. I kinda feel like the creeping āehhā feelings I had about developments in the plot grew more over time, and I ended up kind of lukewarm on it, so I meant to maybe post about it but never got around to it, my bad! We can talk more when people start finishing it 
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Finally found some time and finished ch5. Looks like there is only 6 chapters in total so almost done.
Ch5 thoughts
I was surprised how well Mina took it when she found out that the lodge is just a place for troubled girls and that she was basically lied to about the whole setup. Figured that would have angered her or something but she was pretty whatever about it.
This chapter and the last one were kind of weird with how āpreachyā theyāve been getting about their message with Mina needing to fix herself first. Seems like everyone has had a one-on-one to say that to Mina now outside of Himari. Feels like they could have been more subtle about their messaging 
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Finished the VN last night. It was late when I finished so Iāll post my thoughts now.
Ch6/Overall thoughts on the game
I thought this chapter was better than the last two. There were some weird moments in this one though like when we found out Sanami was ignoring Ranās calls for a while when they first left the lodge the previous year and how Ran was about to apply that same attitude towards Mina. Thankfully by the end Ran said it was fine for Mina to contact her but it seemed like some real backwards logic where the girls go to the lodge, get help, make a friend just for them to abandon them. I know they didnāt do it in a mean-spirited way but I just donāt see how that would help their growth.
Outside of that the rest of the chapter was good. Their yukatas were really pretty. I thought it was pretty cheesy when Michiko pulled out the guitar for Minaās graduation. I had to laugh there.
Overall I thought the VN was just okay. I liked the beginning a lot more than the second half. I think they could have been more subtle with their messaging. The ādramaā about whether or not Himari would inherit the lodge was weird too. Seems like they didnāt know how to continue developing Mina or something so they threw her into that.
The music and art were definitely my favorite parts of the VN. All of the art was very pretty and the game had a lot of different songs considering how short it is. Sometimes Iād leave the VN open in the background since the music was really nice.
Thanks to everyone who joined this informal club. Looking forward to reading everyone elseās thoughts as more people finish/post.
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My thoughts
I landed kinda the same way, maybe slightly more harsh? The aesthetics were nice, voice acting is good (rarely isnāt I guess in VNs, heh), and the setup was fine but it all wore on me over time. It feels really contrived and they have this strangely strict idea of what growing is going to look like, as you hit on with the stuff about no contact and etc. So much was made of what Himari would do, in a weirdly intense way like we said, and then they just kinda go āhey why not let her do it!ā suddenly, so itās like pressing hard on these rigid ideas but ultimately not even sticking with them through the end?
There were cute moments between the characters but I found myself buying in less and less and ultimately just didnāt feel like I cared all that much at a point. Definitely could be more subtle and at a point the flower comparisons felt like they were insisting way too hard. Kind of a 5/10 on my end, unfortunately. Iāll give it a little credit for compassion to the hikikomoris at least.
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I gave it a 6/10 so not too far off from my own score. The high production values really helped with my score/enjoyment though. If it was more low budget without as many CGs and good songs itād probably fall to a 5/10 for me too.
I was disappointed this wasnāt better since Sprite had a good track record (I havenāt read any of their other VNs but I see people praise them a lot). The steam page says this is their first installment in these ācinematicā type VNs. I like the idea of these shorter VNs with really high production quality (only other one I can think of is Marco) so Iāll probably buy the next one too just to support the idea of these type of VNs.
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I havenāt read Sprite VNs either, but I do recall seeing people say the writer for this was new. Things like art direction were handled by people involved in their past games like Aokana, so I guess the stuff shared with past Sprite work were the aspects you liked, anyway.
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Are any of you still reading Everlasting Flowers? I concentrated on Island for a while, but today I returned to this VN. Just finished chapter 2.
Chapter 2
The scene where Mina ran away because she had such bad memories from wearing her uniform at school really resonated with me for some reason. Iām so glad that Mina was able to work through that and wear her uniform and that Ran could help her. The scene where Ran helped Mina put on makeup and transform into a ānewā Mina was really powerful.
Looking forward to chapter 3!
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Finished chapter 3. Loved the scene on the beach, and seeing Mina so relaxed and happy!
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How to sum up chapter 4 in one sentenceā¦
I started the chapter today and was unable to put it down, so I finished the whole chapter. I have no idea how long it was in character count, but it must have been more than 10.000 characters. This VN has a way of pulling me in and I just want to keep reading and reading and reading.
Chapter 4 thoughts
I guess Ran has been at the lodge before? And now sheās back and in charge of helping Mina? The scene on the way back from the shop with the watermelons was strange. I donāt understand why Ran got so agressive. She was trying to help Mina I guess, but she did it the wrong way. Poor Minaā¦ Iām glad that she came back though - for a while I was afraid that shw would run away and never come back. And Iām glad that Himari-chan is there and can be an innocent child and help Mina
Really looking forward to the rest of the VN, but one chapter is enough for one day!
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