I have a history of liking Kemono kusuri's games more than I can play them. Tune in to you kinda broke the curse in that I managed to get through the game from start to finish twice, albeit both times in a stream with a bunch of people. Despite Renpy's best efforts, the gameplay didn't prevent me from seeing the end this time!
First of all, I think the reason why I tend to admire this dev's games is the art. I have such a soft spot for his art and character designs. That is also the case here. The two leads have a pretty simple design, but I love how they both look still. Those glasses look really good on Diere, and Lufo rocking the double sleeveless shirt and jacket is just peak.
Writing wise, I enjoyed this game‘s dreamy vibes. It managed to evoke this very specific feeling of driving at night and all the late night thoughts that come with that territory. It managed to nail this contrast between a lonely drive and the comfort of a soothing, familiar voice from the radio.
I absolutely loved this setup. The two perspectives of contrasting characters, and this story that seemed to be going for a parasocial relationship between a radio host and his listener. There‘s a lot to explore there. The fact that Lufo does call, and it turns out they‘re old friends who drifted apart took it to another direction, but the parasocial aspect remained. I found it interesting how instead of developing one sided feelings of love, Lufo manages to invent a parasocial nemesis instead, and imagines Diere hates his fucking guts. Diere having no idea what he‘s talking about was great, but also muddied the waters for reasons we‘ll get to later.
I liked the very cliche but classic for a reason contrast between the two leads. We have a big tuffo buffo puffo puppo Lufo with his biceps that destroyed two shirts, who is a blue collar worker of some kind, and an absolute emotional wreck. On the other hand we have the wealthier, calmer, well adjusted Diere, who‘s loved by fans and has his cushy job of fiddling with the sliders in the first fucking puzzle I mean of talking with people over the radio. Also I am extremely normal about his 🏳️🌈❓expression with those glasses on woof woof bark arf
Fun fact, my second playthrough of this was with a friend who works in media, and they pointed out that if you actually pay attention to what Diere is saying to the listeners, he‘s actually doing a horrible job and not engaging them or bringing anything interesting to the table at all. I know this isn't the focus, but act your wage I guess Diere!
Then, we get to the section in the house and oh boy, does the story take a turn… Every single other review already beat the dev to death with hammers for the second gameplay segment, so I won‘t repeat it. I will add that I partially see the vision for reasons I will return to later. Narratively though, I think this is such a sudden, wacky turn that was really unnecessary and completely derailed the good thing this story had about these two reconnecting and about Lufo‘s one-sided perceived hatred and self loathing.
Now this is where we get into the meat and potatoes of why Lufo is being such a weird boy about this entire thing. I must admit it‘s confusing in a way that feels both overexplained, dragged out, but ultimately unclear. Lufo is beating himself up for having a crush on Diere in the past, promising he‘ll confess SOMETHING in his letter, and chickening out. Fair enough. Diere remembers absolutely none of this? A bit strange, but I understand him being unable to connect it to „Lufo hurting him“ as Lufo keeps painting this entire thing.
Now the strange part is to me that Lufo keeps insisting that he hurt Diere, and the prose is very wishy washy whether he means emotionally or physically. I think the confusion stems from the gameplay segment where you must use Lufo‘s howl attack on Diere to progress, and that does physically hurt him, but the game is very vague whether this is all a recreation of literal past events that are now haunting Lufo. A lot of things point at yes, but Diere absolutely not remembering anything would indicate no… unless Lufo hit him so bad he got brain damage 😭😭😭
I‘m all for ambiguity in situations like this, but here it feels like it‘s confusing due to unclear editing and writing, and not in order to give us a vague situation to untangle and theorise about. The fact that this emotional climax is happening in this segment with frustrating gameplay that had a couple levels too many didn‘t help.
The resolution though? No complaint's, chef's kiss, I need more!
All flaws aside, I enjoyed this game a lot! While I have noticed this dev focuses a lot on gameplay and novelty, I hope we‘ll get a VN where he locks the fuck in and doesn't get screwed over by the jam deadline or focuses on elements other than gameplay.