Review: Yume Miru Kusuri (Shiraki's Route -minor spoilers-)

Yume Miru Kusuri is a semi-popular name in the visual novel scene. The English title alone ("A Drug That Makes You Dream") helps stand it out from the crowd in an ever-expanding world of translated eroge. But is the game worthy of its hype/a good investment? I hope my partial review of Shiraki's route will help prove a point that the game is more than likely worth a chance for you, the reader.

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Kouhei Kagami, the main protagonist, is an average high school student. Has a decent amount of friends, skips class on occasion...

Aeka Shiraki is a loner, and not by her own choice. No matter what, Kouhei can't help but notice that everyone in his class ignores Shiraki. Almost like she's being targeted.

The two begin to talk. To touch. To build a relationship. To become an alliance.

This visual novel is that and so much more.

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SCORING POINTS:

ARTWORK (8/10):

The artwork is really nice, but the images seem a bit limited. Perhaps they were on a tight budget or something, but I'm pretty sure you could spend up to an hour of gameplay looking at one background on some occasions, especially if you're a slower reader.

CHARACTERS (6/10):

The game did very well with the majority of its characters and developing them. I felt sympathy for those I needed to and felt hatred for those who the game was presenting as definitely deserving it. If you can get me to shout at my screen, that's a very, very good thing.

So why is my score on Characters so low?

Well, because the protagonist...well, he's not exactly the best with relationships with his peers at times. Some of the things he says and does, especially in the beginning part of the game, come off as inappropriate and shockingly vulgar.

For example, he compares himself getting trampled in lunch for some sandwiches to how women feel getting raped. He refers to a girl's dance as "retarded".

Some might argue this is simply a realistic depiction of a lot of high schoolers. And as someone currently attending public high school, I can't say that I disagree.

And then there's his relationship with his sister.

70% of scenes involving the protagonist and his little sister Aya play off like the beginnings to shitty nukige. He walks in on her fully nude changing...and stays in there for way too long. He catches her nude again, and makes weird, cringeworthy, rude comparisons about her breasts and genitals in earshot of their parents, who do not disapprove. At one point, he out of nowhere grabs her ass and for a split second thinks about masturbating her, then "snaps out of it".

These scenes don't build up to any conclusion, or an option for an imouto route, which I could forgive. They just make the protagonist look like a creep with serious issues involving relationship boundaries, which make me fear for his relationship with Shiraki in the future.

EROGE (6/10):

Ehh...I'm very on the fence about what grade to give this one. On one hand, the eroge is very tastefully written and flows like good erotica should. On the other hand, it seemed to be happening at all the wrong times.

Kouhei and Shiraki's first sex scene, especially considering Shiraki's shy nature in every scene before it, was a major shock and probably could have been left out. To see this girl so willingly give her virginity to him when she can only consider him a kind-of friend at the most seemed sort of out of character. It was important for Shiraki to express her feelings towards him, but they could have stopped at the kiss.

An appropriate place for a sex scene in my opinion would have been at a certain moment where Shiraki is at a very vulnerable place and Kouhei comes in as her knight in shining armor. However, even though she stays the night at his house after this, he specifically denies sex, and the script mentions that Shiraki even seems a bit disappointed. What could have been...

SCRIPT (7/10):

The majority of the dialogue flew naturally. The script seemed well-written and edited, except for one major error I noticed towards the end that took me out of the moment of a scene. Let's just say you'll know it when you see it, and it makes Shiraki sound a little, well...special. Not in a good way.

STORY (7/10):

There was some excess filler that could have been trimmed, but I felt like the majority of the story played out nicely. Some of that could also be accounted to the fact that a certain amount of options had to be squeezed in early on for the player to take on different routes.

At the end of the game (on the good end), Kouhei has a conversation with his father that was very powerful to me. The parents sort of play as background characters for the majority of the VN, so it surprised me when it turned out the father was very well-informed and had an actually-relevant, great spiel for his son, keeping a friendly tone yet sternly telling him what's what at parts. (I wish my parents' spiels were more like this.)

Now for a little bit about the bad end. Without giving a ton of spoilers, the bad end does its job of toying with your emotions and making you desire going back and getting the good end. By the time you get the bad end for Shiraki's route, you've already grown attached to the characters, so this ending will certainly get its desired effect of being heartbreaking.

IN CONCLUSION/FINAL SCORE:

In conclusion, Yume Miru Kusuri is a unique visual novel with a unique set of flaws to match. However, once the game gets past a rough beginning couple of hours of gameplay, its true colors come out in a way that will keep players on the edge of their computer seats with each line of text. Shiraki's route has a powerful message to deliver, and isn't afraid to show you some brutal stuff to get it through to you - there's your fair warning on that department. However, it is 100% necessary you see this stuff to get the full effect of the VN.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10