Update One Hundred and Three: 27 December 2017

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

After clearing this game, I managed to snag a very important milestone!

92%!!!!!!

I had reached 92% once a month or two ago, but I didn’t screenshot it. I made sure to do it this time!

Very nearly a wonderful game, Nicole doesn’t stick to its strengths enough to make it onto my rec list. I was debating it - it certainly is a great example of just a very normal story. No people with weird hair, no mystical plots, nothing too crazy. Unfortunately, the overarching plot - you have to solve a series of abductions at your college - is just… it’s really kind of dumb, when you get right down to it.

This is a stat-raising VN that gives you an option to skip the stat-raising which I absolutely took, except to play through badly to get the bad ending. One of the games selling points is ‘you might even date the culprit!’ of these mysterious abductions, and… it is absolutely painfully obvious who it is, from, like, the get go. That part of the story never gets less dumb, and there’s zero suspense in it.

Which is a shame, because the actual romance routes are pretty good, with two of the routes in particular being very strong. Nicole as a protagonist is very plucky and go-get-em, which is something I always appreciate. The art is nice, the non-abduction plot writing is fine, and I had a good time with it even though I procrastinated a lot with it. It really doesn’t 102 hours to clear I just left it idle…. a lot.

While it fell just shy of hitting my rec list, I certainly won’t deter you from picking it up. I’d certainly play it again once the yuri version comes out… whenever that may be. Could be never, which is a shame - I’d love to read some wlw romance from this game c:

Next up: Three tales of ghosts and stuff!

See you soon!