Everlasting Flowers šŸ’® Visual Novel Informal club

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I see, thank you for your suggestion!

Squeeze

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I think Iā€™m 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!

Iā€™m clearing my counts too often cause Iā€™m alternating multiple things ā€“ Ch 2 I think was very roughly around 20k. 1 Iā€™m 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 didnā€™t expect her to actually break down and run away like that. Itā€™s 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 ā€œhelpā€ and then ganging up against her felt kinda bad.

This has me wondering a little more, I dunno if itā€™s convenient writing sidestepping the ways people normally act in these situations, but the way the parents leave a note about how she wonā€™t want to wear the uniform, and Michiko seemingly being ready to guide her into doing things she doesnā€™t want ā€“ feels less like a normal job and more like sheā€™s in on trying to help her. Both girls have their own sort of ā€œtroubled pastā€ and were introduced to this job by their parents. Is there a bit of a scheme to it?

Iā€™ve been seeing this 悈恆恌ā€¦ć‚ˆć†ćŒ type structure a lot recently; itā€™s useful. Estimated JLPT levels are kinda fake and pointless, but itā€™s allegedly N1, so weā€™re learning good things. :wink:

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I donā€™t 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 Ranā€™s backstory. I thought the VN was going to have a different perspective or something each chapter since the beginning of this chapter was all Ranā€™s 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 Ranā€™s 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 ā€œfullā€ picture but it doesnā€™t happen. Like when Ran was doing Minaā€™s makeup, it went back and forth between zooming in on each otherā€™s 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 itā€™d make sense if this ā€œjobā€ is a place to help people with a troubled past. Iā€™d 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 Iā€™ll 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 Iā€™m guessing that sheā€™s fully Japanese, which should mean brown eyes. I wonder why they have her with blue eyes in the drawings. Sheā€™s beautiful though!

Poor Mina...

Iā€™m 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 canā€™t 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

Himariā€™s past and future really dominate this chapter. You really do get the impression she doesnā€™t get to be a normal kid, always thinking aobut how to improve the restaurant and etc. I totally agree with Mina thinking this isnā€™t stuff youā€™d want a child to have to worry aboutā€¦ which makes it all the more interesting that sheā€™s 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 doesnā€™t 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 itā€™s also seemingly the only thing she has ever known. No wonder she thinks about inheriting it, and ultimately I think itā€™s good that Michiko intends to make her at least look at the wider world and other options.

Even if Iā€™m on her side, I donā€™t think I agree flowers are pretty because they are temporary, but itā€™s ok :wink:

Glad Mina is having a nice time, and itā€™s a pretty natural development that now that somewhere is nice she wants to stay here forever. I assume thereā€™s no way thatā€™s 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 Ranā€™s perspective soon or how she has been developing. She has mostly been a support character helping with Ranā€™s growth but Iā€™d also like to see her growth too.
Her casual outfit in this chapter was really nice too.

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Iā€™m 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 itā€™s 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 itā€™s 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 :skull: :skull: :skull:

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Ch4 thoughts

This chapter was kind of weird. I wanted more Ran but not like this :sweat_smile: It felt like they were trying to force drama into the story here or something. I didnā€™t 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 sheā€™s been talking to on the phone helped her with her past issues? But if thatā€™s the case, it feels like everyone has been lying to Mina since the start? Pretty sure Mina thought this was Ranā€™s first time being here and Michiko even acted like she didnā€™t know her at the start. Having everyone around Mina lie to her probably isnā€™t going to help her heal or trust people after this.

Iā€™m 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.