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Review of Bye

SubjectBye
ByHelpfulness: 1
tomtheerogeman on 2019-10-13
ReviewI saw this game on VNDB a long time ago, and to this day I keep wondering why probably noone has read it. It looks like a potential kamige, and there's even a free version, but that still doesn't attract any interest from our community. I decided to read it to see what's in this game, and I can say with confidence that most people who enjoy plotges will like this one, given the right circumstances. I added new information and screenshots to the database as well, so if you think this game would interest you then you might want to look at it again.

So the game is basically about the daily life of a high school student, Misumi Souto. I don't have much to say about his school life, apart from the fact that he's not the center of a harem like most other VNs. However his life at home is different from most other people his age. He was adopted by a foster parent, and in this family none of the people are biologically related to each other. (apart from Furutachi Mayumi and Furutachi Rena, I think) As his life goes by we find out more about how he and his non-blood-related siblings ended up in this situation. We see different flashbacks from when the characters were younger, discussions between the characters, that sort of thing. You will see some romance as well, but I wouldn't say the story is too focused on that sort of thing.

Now while no VN is perfect, there are a couple of issues that I have with this novel, and the problems are largely due to the fact that Japanese isn't my first language. The game feels strangely secretive when it comes to obvious details of other characters. For example, you might not find out until long after you started reading it that Furutachi Rena has what you'd consider a serious physical disability. It's possible that I might not have been paying full attention to the story prior, but basically this is one of those games that you shouldn't really play if you're tired. It fucks with your brain at times, and while I can't rule out the possibility of the language barrier interfering with the story, I can certainly say that no other VN I've read has given me this much trouble with understanding basic things. Many people will like it because it makes the middle parts of the game more interesting than if you were to reveal all the important information at the beginning, but the language barrier brews an air of uncertainty that ruins this for me.

As for my 2nd issue, the VN has no voice acting. I'm a bit hesitant to read more VNs without it because it means I have to live without listening to the Japanese language until I stop reading it. Yeah, it's a doujin VN so you can't really blame the developer for that, but it makes me want to pick up another VN to read instead.

So that's pretty much all you should know about this game before you read it. It is very well written, free, praised highly on EGS, would be a good choice for a fanTL, and out-of-the-box it appears to be playable on Android/iOS with the help on ONscripter Plus. Problem is the script isn't really gaijin friendly at all. I also added the link to where you can get the free version, as it wasn't there before. I played the non-free version, and I finished Anne's route, which unlocks Rena's route, and there are also routes for Ruri and Mizuho, along with 2 other side stories/routes which don't seem to belong to any specific character. The titles are sentences in Engrish so I can't really say for sure what they're for, but maybe that is up to you to find out. And before you start sniffing around after seeing Anne's name, it IS romanized properly, JMdict says that her name in Hiragana would be あん, but it's actually あんね.
1 point
#1 by literallolicon
2020-05-24 at 16:35
< report >I just finished this VN today. It has a very decent plot and character development despite being unpopular in the database, perhaps like you said, because of the language barrier (btw, I do like it as non-voiced, as it helps me become more focused in the game).
Anyways, I have checked their official website and realized that there is an extra character named "Natsumi Higuchi" which is not available in the free version. You said you have played the non-free version, is she included in it? If yes, then can you provide me a link? I have clicked all links on vndb, it always lead me to the official website but I can't find a link to the non-free version there. Thanks in advance.Last modified on 2020-05-24 at 16:37
#2 by tomtheerogeman
2020-05-24 at 18:36
< report >I only finished Anne's route and that character doesn't appear in it, so I can't say for sure. Didn't personally like the game enough to read the other routes, but it was obvious to me that other people would.

As for links to the non-free version, unfortunately there aren't any and you might have to wait for it to be restocked in places like link or link, since there's no download version. You can add yourself to their waiting lists but it could take months, even years knowing that many old physical doujin items are rare today. The only reason why I have the non-free version is because somebody uploaded it to a Chinese pirate place I frequented a while ago, and not being able to buy the game I knew it was likely rare and that might've been my only chance at obtaining it. The link to the free version didn't exist on VNDB until after I found it and posted it in October.
#3 by literallolicon
2020-05-25 at 03:24
< report >Can you add me on discord, I want to dm you there. My ID is "[Idle-Empire.com] 109739369#7428". Thanks for the quick reply.
#4 by funnerific
2021-08-04 at 03:49
< report >This review gets some important things wrong. See mine for details.
#5 by tomtheerogeman
2021-08-04 at 05:09
< report >#4 I read your review (but not the spoilers) but still didn't see what was wrong. Except maybe where I said it was very well written lol, I think I just said that because the story is a lot more serious or something.

But you're right, I'm not really the best person to review this kind of game. Just that there was nobody else who read it at the time.

Edit: Just saw that the paid version is on DMM too. My Google-fu back then had failed me.Last modified on 2021-08-04 at 05:22
#6 by funnerific
2021-08-04 at 11:32
< report >
I read your review (but not the spoilers) but still didn't see what was wrong.

One of it is in the spoilers.

"the game is basically about the daily life of a high school student" - it's really not, he's only the protag in 2/5 routes and often barely making an appearance at all. The game is about that whole family they have.

"apart from Furutachi Mayumi and Furutachi Rena, I think" - this is not something you're supposed to know until Rena route, and it's a pretty big spoiler. But seeing how you didn't mark it as one, and from what I understand, didn't read Rena route, it's pretty incorrect and you're supposed to say they aren't blood-related either.

"you might not find out until long after you started reading it that Furutachi Rena has what you'd consider a serious physical disability" - revealed within the first hour of the game or so.
#7 by tomtheerogeman
2021-08-04 at 17:35
< report >Note to self - No more reviews based on 1 character route. Not that I do this often, but still...

About the spoiler thing; my assumption was there because they have the same family name. Unless I missed or forgot somewhere that they weren't supposed to be blood related that was pretty much coincidence.

But also,

"you might not find out until long after you started reading it that Furutachi Rena has what you'd consider a serious physical disability" - revealed within the first hour of the game or so.

This is kind of subjective IMO; the "might" in this sentence implies that it's not a given that you'll actually read this not long after the beginning, and the reason it wouldn't be is because if you were to stop reading this shortly after you started it, then continued after a couple of days or more, than you could say that it was "long after" you started reading. Yeah that sounds a bit stupid but I like wordplay so I can't help it.