As I continue to work my way through ebi-hime’s free VNs, I was especially looking forward To Have and To Hold because ebi-hime is so effusive with her love of Tavi and Yuel. To Have and To Hold blew me away. It combines the gut punch of Emmeline Burns and the New Adult angsty schmoop of Night Before into some something truly special. Yuel and Tavi sparkle on a narrative and visual level. I stopped play to stare at Cherry’s sprites and CGs. Resu and RialynKV’s backgrounds captured perfectly the wedding’s overdone opulence (even more impressive because Yuel inhabited the sidelines exclusively), the hotel’s aggressive bare-minimum, and the beach’s wide open freshness. Depressed, gloomy characters like Yuel are tricky to craft in an authentic, compelling way, but ebi-hime makes it look easy. Tavi is the familiar charming party king, but the gleaming waters run deep: Yuel may be desperate, but Tavi’s yearning to care was a visceral, physical thing. After playing the game, I couldn’t stop thinking about these two. To say I’m excited to dive into the other Yuel/Tavi games is an understatement. I wish them happiness after a long journey!
!!! aw thank you, this was such a sweet comment to read haha
it made me very happy, i'm really glad you enjoyed it!
yuel is a fun character to write, he tends to be pretty down on himself and introverted (i also feel like he's especially depressed here haha) but he's also kind of snippy and sarcastic, so it's a lot of fun to write his dialogue with tavi. i think their personalities mesh together pretty well, their dialogue tends to flow pretty easily for me maybe because i've written them so much hahathe other yuel/tavi stories are mostly aus that take place in different settings, so the characters + their backstories change a little... they're always the same characters at heart though. i just like putting them in situations to see what they do haha