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(4 edits)

I am quite late to this update, and have already played the latest (0.86) update. this could be why I don't really understand a lot of the sentiment here, but:

SPOILERS FOR 0.85 and 0.86









I feel like people like.... did not understand the reason Haruki has a route at all and what his story is trying to be?

I don't have the energy to type out everything about the reason for Haruki's route and how it's shown to be a "mirror" to Shoichi's route, but when it coems to how his route's story is going, it should be obvious that it would be character assassination for him to just suddenly get along with Yuu's group so soon, especially with his friction with Shouichi. Hell, you only unlock his route after going through Shouichi's route for a few days! That itself should be a indicator that Haruki's route is not a "normal" route. It's gonna have a bit of a different story. There is so much more that needs to be built between him and Yuu, especially with his personality. I will say it would be nice if later on Haruki gets along with Yuu's friends enough for the route to go with the "Main Story", but that won't happen for a little bit, and it isn't even required to do so for a good story. Half the fun of a visual novel is that your choices matter: going after Haruki instead of the others will lead to a different story, especially since he is not a part of the main group.

Finally, the sex scene: I have to say, the furthest you can call what happened between them is CNC, and the first word of the acronym is "Consensual". Yuuichi was given a choice, albeit less explicit. He was told that if he doesn't want to, Haruki would leave it be. Yuuichi did it, enjoyed the way Haruki talked down to him, despite not understanding why. Haruki also still showed he cared for Yuu's well-being, though in a way that left more to be wanted. He was wrong for that, but nowhere near as assualt.

Also, the reason why Yuu didn't seem like he minded the encounter that much is likely because there is normally a high after having sex, something which can last for the rest of the day. Especially when it comes to encounters like that, where BDSM elements are involved. Combine that with the fact that he is busy packing his shit for the big tournament, OF COURSE he does not have the time to dwell on it and hence properly unpack his feelings!


Of course, this was cleared up in the later update with Yuu and Haruki talking about it. Still, I feel like after reading through Sho's route, you shouldn't have a doubt about Yuu's feelings being addressed. Hell, with how Yuu and Haruki's relationship has gone so far, you shouldn't doubt that Haruki cares for Yuu's feelings. This update itself hints multiple times that Haruki cares, he just doesn't show it well or explicitly. He assumed Yuu was into it, did it, was half-way-wrong (in that Yuu didn't want it to be done that spontaneously and publicly), and went out of his way to apologize. Mind you, he did this even before he found out that Yuu wasn't into it.

Okay, rant over. Really liked this update and the next one, hope all is well for the devs! I kind of do hope there are more scenes between these two where BDSM elements are involved like degradation, as most story-heavy visual novels tend to shy away from that. However, it's understandable if not, given how Yuu said he didn't enjoy the encounter really, and especially considering the response this update got in the beginning ^^;