Update Eighty-Nine: 6 December 2017

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Aww, this one was cute.

When Our Journey Ends is about one fateful train ride that the main character, Mariko, takes that sets her on a fantastical adventure. Mariko lives in rural Japan, and has to take a train in to school. In fact, she’s the only person who takes local regional train - it runs only for her. When she graduates at the end of spring, the train will be closed down for good. She falls alseep on the way home from school, and she wakes up at an unfamiliar train station.

I really like this premise. There really are regional rail systems like that in Japan, that only run for a dwindling number of students who need to commute to another town for school. It’s a very nostalgic feeling - like the train sequence in Spirited Away, which was by far my favorite part of the film. This game has a very melancholic but still sweet tone to it - the spirits Mariko meets on her journey are sweet and so is she. It’s a very gentle tale that perfectly suited my near-winter mood.

It’s a little short (okay… very short) and while the main story is simple, it’s supplemented by six short vignettes that are really nice.

The art is nice and distinct, but my one quibble with the game (other than its length) is that the text is SUPER SMALL. Very small! The font size could have easily been knocked up a handful of point sizes, and it would’ve made it just easier to read. The price is also a little much for the length, but it’s a tiny studio and I think they deserve that money. This is definitely one to pick up, sale or no.

This nice, dreamy tale is perfectly suited to folks new to the genre, so I’m putting it on my Visual Novel Masterpost!

Next up: Time to revisit old friends!

See you soon!