Review of Suki Suki Daisuki!
| Subject | Suki Suki Daisuki! Suki Suki Daisuki! |
| By | Helpfulness: 11 Vote: 8treetape on 2020-10-28 last updated on 2023-01-01 |
| Review | I feel as though I have to put the summary of my feelings first before diving in in much detail into my impressions I had reading this game as it's necessary due to this game's flaws: this game's first two endings (which are pretty much half the game) are really surprisingly addictive and tastefully written, and the rest are mediocre in comparison and I honestly recommend just skipping out on them entirely. This is because the game's first two endings focus on the best part of the game (essentially its selling point): the psychology behind the interactions of the protagonist and Honona. The protagonist himself is an extremely peculiar character, although he's kidnapped this girl, he still clings on to pure intentions and speaks to her like a nervous teenage boy talking to his crush, and too shy to tell her he loves her. At no point do his actions towards the girl he loves ever feel calculated and manipulative, it's like if you just removed the fact that he's kidnapped her, he's just an innocent, very lonely guy with good intentions, who's just yearning for somebody to accept him and understand his crippling fetish, which he has never opened up to anyone else about. You definitely feel disapproval and despair towards his crime, but at the same time, you do feel sympathy for him. Now that he's gotten himself in this mess, all you can do is watch from his point of view and pray he at least makes the best out of the situation. The effects the confinement make Honona feel end up being by total accident and the protagonist remains rather oblivious throughout. Although he is her kidnapper, he is just about as tense as she is when talking to her, and frequently runs away when he feels awkward. After every awkward conversation with Honona, the narration switches to her point of view where we see her slowly hunger for conversation (any at all), attempt to piece together why this man kidnapped her and what is the meaning of the suit she's wearing (both of which the protagonist is waiting for just the right time to confess to her), as well as her interpretations (and misinterpretations) as to what the protagonist said during each conversation. I'm by no means a rubber fetishist, but I was really surprised by how erotic the descriptions of such things as how rubber stimulates 4 of one's senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch), and the story of how the protagonist was first mesmerized by rubber and was never the same again, which are all described in great detail and kept surprisingly tasteful (keep in mind though, I'm not talking about h-scenes here). Many times, during my first playthrough, I thought about how this game read much more like an erotic novel than an eroge, partly due to the very apt and subtle approach to the narration during these scenes (eroge writing is very rarely actually erotic) and how little the game's rather poor visuals mattered in face of the writing and because of how prevalent the narration is: the game is mostly just narration, even the majority of dialogue is just told through narration, with the game having very few voice lines. The game may seem like a nukige from the description, but it is absolutely all about the narration and what's happening inside the characters' heads (specifically the protagonist and Honona's), that is when it's best, and it shows: the h-scenes are a pretty big step down in terms of writing quality, which isn't all that surprising, fair enough. But this leads into the game's real major flaws: everything that isn't about the two major characters. When I first started reading the game, I had a hunch that all of the other characters would be nowhere near as interesting and that the game would have dated route structure dragging it down, and I was exactly right. Whereas the first two endings are deserving of a great 9/10, the whole latter half of the game (which is 8 other endings but some are quite short) completely pale in comparison, and have pretty much nothing that made the first two endings so utterly addictive to read. Honona's story is pretty much done after the second ending and there honestly isn't much else to see, asides from maybe the third ending because of one bizarre scene in it. Basically what I mean is that the rest of the game really has nothing to add to the game's main story and main draw, and just tells rather boring, kind of stupid stories instead about uninteresting characters, and it just feels like it's padding, which it probably actually is, under some dated obligation to lengthen the game, since it's quite short. I still would have definitely preferred this game to just be those two first endings, as I think a short quality story is much better. The good news, however, is that due to the fact that the game's other endings add nothing to the main story, they can be entirely missed out on, which I genuinely recommend for people curious about this game, as I stand by the fact that the first two endings were a great experience that I would recommend to those interested. I stand by the fact that the game is a great 9/10 that will hook you right in if you just read the game's main story content (the two first endings), for the rest, there is pretty much no value in reading and will unfortunately drag your experience down, which is why my total rating is a 8/10. |
| 11 points |