For a free game, this is FANTASTIC! I was disappointed by some other visual novels and this lifted my spirits. I still didn't want to go for Souma (his character type isn't my cup of tea) but I will admit that I didn't dislike him by the end of the game; I just didn't want to romance him.
Spoiler talk below:
I see all these comments about stabbing the president and I'm really curious what dialog choice causes it (if I had to guess, maybe the "Nothing" answer when Yuki sees the garden, or maybe picking the wrong options when choosing if he takes care of himself or not ("soldier on" instead of "take a nap", and then "take a cup of hot milk" even though he doesn't like milk that much). The first ending I got was with Izumi and Yuki running away together which... I don't know, that FEELS like the best ending you can get (just gonna presume that stabbing the president leads to consequences so I won't do it even if I want to lol) but I'd hoped that there was a way to save the bakery too, and I'm afraid of doing another run because getting bad endings make me feel like such a failure and I don't know what I could've done better anyway.
I just find myself really sad because I wanted Izumi but I also wanted the bakery; like, spite the president AND take the president's son, y'know?? Like, "HA, YOU MIGHT HAVE YOUR MONEY BUT I HAVE DETERMINATION AND A MAGNETIC PERSONALITY FOR ATTRACTING BLONDE CITY BOYS."
My whole strategy was, "Be nice to Souma when he's reasonable (I might not like his character type but I don't just rudely dismiss him when he doesn't deserve it), let Izumi help when he wants to, try and take care of Yuki's needs whenever possible." It sounds... well, sound, but maybe I'm missing something? The whole thing where, "oh, Izumi's actually making up with his grandfather," caught me COMPLETELY off-guard and kinda made me angry (let's just say that I have some family troubles so things getting patched up with the guy who literally took the bakery away from them left a sour taste in my mouth), so I was hoping there'd be another ending I'd like more? It just feels... wrong that the whole point of the game was to get the bakery back but that's not what happened. I'd take Izumi over the bakery, sure, but it doesn't leave me feeling wholly satisfied.
(I know that sounds like a lot of complaining but I really enjoyed the game; it's just that the ending is the freshest in my mind but I'd gladly gush if given prompting to.)