SPOILERS!! 

The art is stellar, but the writing and story are both lacking in execution, especially during the later stages of the story where the conflict escalates. 

Do note that I only played Leo's route, so everything I say will stand from that point of view alone.

I personally find the early parts of the story (Chapters 1-2) to be really enjoyable. I genuinely loved the pacing, how fun and diverse the characterizations are, and just how much the low-stakes romance scenes are established to really highlight their flaws and personality. I also really found myself entertained going through the Ace Attorney scene, though I have not played Ace Attorney myself.  While some things definitely could have been executed better (like that NVL mode for Leo),  I definitely think that those cute, funny, and romantic scenes are MH VN's biggest strengths.

However, the VN has a lot of flaws. Firstly is the prose and the writing themselves. There were a lot of grammatical and punctuation issues that could all be easily solved by getting an experienced editor. Some words were used in a way that didn't sound natural to me (like the use of "pained" and the spelling of "arguement" in the later chapters). The lack of narrative writing sometimes gave me white room syndrome, and where there is narrative writing, the prose itself doesn't feel particularly immersive or compelling. This especially stands out when the writing is forced to stand on its own instead of having to rely on the spritework to do the heavy lifting, like the NVL mode.

Secondly is the story itself, as I've foreshadowed earlier is when the story takes itself a lot more seriously.  While the problems were foreshadowed in as early as chapter 1, there was still a lack of proper set-up that led to the tonal shift in Chapter 3 being very jarring. There was also the death of the elder, which frankly didn't make sense to me at all. The Elder's death was foreshadowed very early on, but his death, followed by the flashback conversation the housekeeper has with the commander, were very contradicting. Not only that, but it felt really contrived to force in the third act break-up between the scriviner and the love interest. Even with its foreshadowing, its lack of set-up once again very much hurt the actual impact of the Elder's death. 

The reason why it didn't make sense to me was because the elder foreshadowed they were going to die one day.  But the thing is, he was shot after the admiral tried to shoot to get revenge after MC revealed his plans and his crimes, so it's the sort of thing nobody could have expected. So a few questions are raised: 1.) Why did the admiral just have a weapon lying around? 2.) Why did the elder think he was going to die? Why did he believe he won't be there for the village's future? #2 most especially was left unanswered when in the flashback with the commander, the elder replied he was not sick or dying. He just simply said (based on vibes?) that he's going to die specifically and thus makes the necessary preparations when that happens. Why, is it because he can foresee the future, like he's an oracle? The question, why, is so important for his death because it's also going to affect how the characters grieve and their and the Elder's actions for it. If he knew he was going to die, why didn't he try and stop it? The funny thing is that this could have all been easily solved if the Elder just said he was old, and this wouldn't be a problem, but the story stops that explanation by actively letting the Elder say he wasn't sick or dying. In addition to this, the lack of set up also really affected the impact of the grief itself. During the entire ace attorney scene, there was no tension that someone was going to die. In fact, the characters were winning so the tension was actively going to the opposite direction. While there were stakes in losing the court battle, these stakes themselves were not related to the Elder's death. So in execution, the Elder's death ended up feeling like a very spontaneous event. It didn't feel like a real or impactful thing, but rather just something to fuel the conflict between MC and the LI in the later chapters. And because the death was not well-executed, so did the scenes after that relied on it as well. I couldn't bring myself to feel strongly when Leo pushed the MC away, nor did them going back together feel all too powerful for me. I wasn't too interested in Sir Largo or Jack either, and I felt that the scenes with them felt more like filler to pace the scenes in between rather than anything I found meaningful. 

Overall, however, if I were to end this on a note that I don't like this VN, I'd be wrong. Amidst all the criticism I have to give, I still think it's worth checking out especially if you're someone just looking for a fun, light-hearted read. I still loved going through this, and I wouldn't have finished it if I didn't.