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Review of D.S. -Dal Segno-

SubjectD.S. -Dal Segno-
D.S. -Dal Segno- Adult Edition
ByHelpfulness: 1
Vote: 6.7
Omikron on 2021-10-18
ReviewAfter going through some troubles in the beginning due to the tag AI heroine and wondering about certain possible similarities with Trinoline I finally began reading and finished after about 47 hours of reading.

Here are my thoughts and my understanding of Dal Segno:

1) Introduction:
Atsuya arrived on Kazana Island to pursue independence.
There he meets Ame, the caretaker of a paradise where no one is ever unhappy. From that point on the CR unfolds, he meets all the heroines and tries to adapt to his new surroundings.
He also tries to make sense of this 'paradise' and its caretaker as he continues to fail to fully understand it.

2) Routes:
There are 5 character routes, 1 normal end and 1 Grand End. Each route is divided into scenarios. The Grand End basically is an extension to Ame's route, hence the Tag 'Only good endings'.
3 out 5 routes follow the exact same pattern, which is the first thing that felt odd.
- Combined effort to score high in the beauty pageant. (Once, the result is not even told)
- Shortly after: the confession.
- 3-4 dates, MC and heroine (try to) get intimate for the first time. Second time comes later.
- The way the heroine acts or she herself changes.
- Drama reaches its peak.
- MC mulling over what is going on.
- MC finding a solution and acting on it.
- Happy End

Due to their exact same execution there are times parts of these routes feel very rushed and forced without a proper amount of time spent in one or more parts to add substance to that part, and hence the route as a whole. Sometimes various parts were just dragging on, being boring...
That I find very unfortunate.


Hamari's route, however, felt much more natural as her route does not follow that pattern and has - sometimes more, sometimes less - variation to it and the word 'date' is only rarely used, unlike during all other routes. Her route felt much more fluent and the reason for its drama was the only one that made sense to me. But I'll come back to that later.

Ame's route, too, does not follow that pattern as it is a bit reversed. She only has 1 h-scene but the reason why it was possible to happen was and is beyond my comprehension. Despite my previous worries of it being similar to Trinoline's Shirone I got positively surprised! I liked her route more than I anticipated and yes, I had to cry in the end. Still, it didn't struck me as bad as it would have, had Ame been a human girl.

While I liked one part of a route e.g. 'combined effort to score high in the beauty pageant it was less enjoyable during another route and vice versa. So, some parts of each route were very nice, others were not. (confession scene during Noeri takes my number 1 spot, Io's being somewhat off.)

All routes have the theme 'happiness' at their core and the heroines' individual way of realizing 'happiness'.
Due to various malfunctions of the island's system, all routes proceed to a point from which on the drama unfolds.
Even though, everything seems to be explained in the conclusion, I failed to understand 4 out of 5 explanations because the 'why' just isn't explained clearly enough...
Following are my takes on each route. (SPOILER!!) Whether they are correct or not, I hope someone can clarify that for me.
Io: She is able to create her own dreams by writing down what she wants to dream. Being with her father for eternity.
Noeri: Actually becoming MC's sister by overwriting her own memories with different ones, so mixing reality and fiction.
Hazuki: Repressing her real identity to live up to her father's expectations. But during nighttime her real self emerges. She knows that but says it is only a dream, and hence prevents herself from sleeping causing her to break down due to deprivation of sleep.
Himari: Fear of loneliness, her hat is taken over by a spirit to prevent her from being lonely. Was it Ame's necklace, and as such Himari's fear of loneliness or her principal who brought forth that spirit? I did not get that. (Her explanation was to one I got, even though I did not get aforementioned issue.)
Ame: The AI who tries to understand the meaning of 'happiness' and while doing so, faces major problems because her system and RAM(??) are used beyond their capacity. Thus, she has to be shut down, or she 'is shutting down' herself in the process of pursuing the meaning of 'happiness'.


My personal preference:
Himari > Ame >= Hazuki > Io = Noeri
I liked all, but some were better than others.

3) Characters:
Every heroine has a distinct personality which is narrated well.
Io, the self-proclaimed Daughter of Darkness, the chuunibyou. Her way of speaking is fun. I often did not understand what she was implying. Fortunately, the MC did.
Noeri, the cousin who badly wants to be the MC's little sister telling everyone she actually is. Her energy never seems to run out.
Hazuki, the 'ojousama' even though she never really acts as such but one can see why she would be one. The student council president who tries to do everything for the school and its students.
Ame, the AI, always cheerful and in a good mood. She is way more humane than many actual humans are.
Himari, the mysterious girl, who is rarely seen at school, wearing a strange hat. Her back and forth with the MC were always fun to read.

I enjoyed them all and was presented with quite a lot of amusing moments making me laugh a lot.

It is really hard to rank them, but I can say that Himari is my absolute favourite! But why is she described as a tomboy?

For the first time ever, I was blown away by the way a side character was portraited, being Yamato. Never before have I had tears in my eyes when it came to a side character, and a male one at that, without it's individual route. He was just plain awesome and a huge support character!

4) H-content:
I think it was nicely done. To be honest, I didn't need more. Only thing I could complain about is the time at which they take place during some routes. I prefer it if they become intimate after reaching the happy end.

5) Art:
Many sprite variations, even changing during the same line, which I didn't see often in other VNs, backgrounds including different variations. Liked them a lot. Well-drawn CGs.
I sometimes wished that a CG had an additional variation fitting the spoken text. E.g. when MC asks Yamoto to extend his hand to help him getting off the ground. No extended hand is drawn in the CG - why not?

6) Music:
Every heroine and Yamoto had their own musical theme, and a fitting one at that. The music in general was much to my liking and I think it fits the scenery, theme and the setting well.

7) Conclusion:
Overall I quite enjoyed the VN. Sometimes different parts of the routes felt rushed or forced or both.
One has to like the topic and the futuristic world it is set in. An AI as a heroine, also, is not to everyone's liking, mine included. Some scenarios were just plain boring, most of which I encountered during Noeri's route, which is a shame as she is very likeable. I felt that quite a large number of subjects were insufficiently explained, at least so in the English translation, as I couldn't grasp their meaning, as I've written above. (Sometimes the translation felt off...)
Other than that - very likeable characters, good humor, nice music and good art. Story/plot-wjse this VN has definitely something to offer, but not as much as I would like it to do.

6.7/10


8) Why mention Trinoline?
I dropped Trinoline. Why? I kindly ask you to read this, post #17.
That was why I was greatly afraid of DS being similar to Trinoline, which it is NOT! It is MUCH better!
1 point