Community Visual Novel Book Club - Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus

[Exzyleph]

Welcome to the second MetaCouncil visual novel book club!

For the second MetaCouncil visual novel book club, we will be reading the 2012 and 2013 visual novels, Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus.

This is an informal book club, so there is no fixed schedule; you simply read the novel at your own pace, and share your thoughts along the way. Just remember to use spoiler tags liberally and always indicate how far you are in the story, so that people who haven't caught up to you won't get spoiled and so that people who are ahead of you don't risk spoiling stuff for you.


For general information and past and future book clubs, please see the main Book Club thread:

Community - The MetaCouncil Visual Novel Book Club

Welcome to the Visual Novel Book Club Meta(Council) thread! This is a club for those who would like to read visual novels in a group setting. Once a month we pick a visual novel, read it and comment about it in a new thread. It is an informal book club, so there is no fixed schedule; you...

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The story

Analogue: A Hate Story
Back in the 25th century, Earth launched a generation ship into deep space, with the goal of establishing the first interstellar colony. It dropped out of contact and disappeared, never reaching its destination. Thousands of years later, it has finally been found.

Uncover the mystery of what happened to the final generation aboard the generation ship Mugunghwa by reading through its dead crew's logs, with the help of a spunky AI sidekick! Two pursuable characters. Five endings. A dark visual novel that further extends the non-linear style of Digital: A Love Story in a mystery featuring transhumanism, traditional marriage, loneliness, and cosplay.

Welcome to the future.


Hate Plus
Let's spend the next three real-time days together uncovering the mystery of what went horribly wrong on a derelict generation ship, with the help of a spunky/more-than-slightly-traumatized AI sidekick! A sequel to Analogue: A Hate Story that tells a whole new hate story of its own.


The cake
Hate Plus features an achivement for baking an honest-to-god cake for Hyun-Ae. So bake a cake and share a photo with the club:

My delicious cake, from when I first played Hate Plus, can be seen here:

You need to reply to this thread or react to this post in order to see this content.

 

[Kvik]

Hmm, looks like I don't have these in my library yet. How long did it take for you to complete? I'm interested in joining this round, but I already have ML Alternative and my replay of Yu-No in the pipeline as we speak.

 

[Exzyleph]

Hmm, looks like I don't have these in my library yet. How long did it take for you to complete? I'm interested in joining this round, but I already have ML Alternative and my replay of Yu-No in the pipeline as we speak.

Analogue took me 3½ hours and Hate Plus took me 7 hours.

 

[Kvik]

OK, I'm in. Will start reading tomorrow night.

 

[Ascheroth]

Was actually thinking of playing Analogue: A Hate Story not too long ago, but never did, so this is a nice coincidence.
I'm in for that game at least, but I don't have Hate Plus (yet?). Will probably only start around weekend though.

 

[Exzyleph]

Was actually thinking of playing Analogue: A Hate Story not too long ago, but never did, so this is a nice coincidence.
I'm in for that game at least, but I don't have Hate Plus (yet?). Will probably only start around weekend though.

I'd definitely recommend reading both, at least if you enjoy the first one.
Analogue tells the story of the last days of the colonyship, the Mugunghwa, and Hate Plus tells the story of what caused the circumstances that you see in Analogue. You need to read both to get the full picture.

I hope to start my re-read this week, but it is a quite busy week for me so I might also only be able to start sometime next week.

 

[Kvik]

I've started reading Analogue last night. As usual, I have trouble pronouncing even the easiest Korean name. Luckily there's a primer in-game and the family tree helped to a certain degree in determining who is who.

25% unlocked

I always find the concept of knowledge and societal regression in the midst of a supposedly very advanced civilization fascinating. I assume in this generation ship, its essential functions are being looked after by AIs. Still, why did the human Hyun-ae has to turn herself into an AI? What could've caused the knowledge regression to the point that they didn't know what a hibernation pod was? Or why the families oppress women to the point of illiteracy? I also find it very interesting that the oppression itself is not a foreign concept and can still be found in a culture in a certain part of the world today.

*Hyun-ae relationship with *Mute is also quite intriguing. I haven't explored log entries brought by *Mute yet, but judging from what she called *Hyun-ae, it could be possible that it's *Hyun-ae's actions which caused the demise of all the ship's passenger and crews, leading to its derelict.

I look forward to reading more on Thursday.

 

[Exzyleph]

So this is the second time I play Analogue and hence I will be playing with full knowledge of the story. To avoid getting spoiled, first time readers should probably skip the spoiler'd parts of my comments until they've finished the game themselves. But while this may be the second time I am reading Analogue, but I still have a hell of a time keeping track of all the names! Thankfully Hate Plus makes this a lot easier to keep track of characters, as you'll see for yourself when you get to that work.

Returning to these works after having read a number of another VNs, I have an even greater appreciation of Christine Love's take on the genre. Analogue and Hate are works that should be played by every aspiring VN author, so that these become aware of some of the alternative ways of telling a story that VNs allow for. The use of a command-line interface is surprisingly rare in a visual novel, even though it makes a lot of sense from a game-play point of view. It is honestly kind of baffling to me that more works have not included that, even if it only fits in some genres. This literal "slice of life" method of story-telling is also quite unusual, though it does remind me of Kindred Spirits.

20% unlocked

An interesting detail is that the Mugungwha was launched by the Unified Korea Space Probe Agency in 2381, suggesting that on the Earth of Analogue, North and South Korea was unifying at some point. However, I do not recall any mention of this event in Analogue, though it is possible that it may be touched upon in some of the background story that you can choose for yourself.

By the time we login, 221432 days have passed since the last login by "Kim Hyun-Ae" and we get the choice of activating one AI, namely *Hyun-Ae (and not *Mute as we expected), giving away the fact that Hyun-Ae became an AI at some point. And when we see *Hyun-ae for the first time, she is wearing an uniform of unknown design. I believe that the logo on her shoulder is that of the UKSPA, but I could be wrong. It is curious why she would appear that way, but it is perhaps her way of reconnecting with her past identity, as a child of a modern society.

The extreme disconnect between the high-tech backdrop of the Mugungwha and the medieval society is one of the most interesting aspects of Analogue, but sadly one that doesn't get explained until Hate Plus. Yet despite the society having regressed, there is still some amount of use of computer systems, not counting *Mute's autonomous actions.


The cliché that *Hyun-Ae shares with us is quite interesting. She translates it as "Men are honored, women are abased", while *Mute translates it as TODO. Wikitionary gives a more neutral sounding translation of "male domination and female subordination". The translations by *Hyun-ae and *Mute are clearly shaped by their positions, one being forced into subservience and the other being in a position of power despite her gender.


There is also an interesting contradiction in one of the early logs, if I remember correctly. In Ryu Jae-hwa's log 10-QF392, she states that The Pale Bride will have "no problem delivering the soon [Ryu] needs", yet later we learn that she is believes that he is infertile. Am I misremembering or did she merely come to that conclusion later?

A quick warning to those of you reading Analogue for the first time: There are two main routes in this game, but the way you pick a route is not at all obvious. The following is a brief description that shouldn't give anything away, so that you know when to save your game. At one point you will be given a list of special logs and you will be asked to show those to somebody; the character to whom you show any of those logs is the character whose route you'll be locked into.


"It looks like you're investigating the fate of a generation ship! Would you like help?"

 

[Kvik]

There are two main routes in this game, but the way you pick a route is not at all obvious. The following is a brief description that shouldn't give anything away, so that you know when to save your game.

This is where I'm at. I figured it sounds like a decision point when I asked *Mute about it, so I think it was a good stopping point for the night.

65% Unlocked

Reading through the logs provided by *Mute provides some insight into the Smith family dynamics. I find it rather curious that *Mute views the patriarchal society onboard the ship as something that is completely normal, while she herself is a woman. Perhaps the construct isn't relevant to an AI, or it's simply the nature of her programming. Meanwhile, she considers the relationship between So-jin and Hana as an aberration. The relationship between *Mute and Smith Sang-jung is also a curious one. I would've thought that an AI capable of understanding the concept of love can also accept its many forms, including homosexuality.

There's not much we can learn from *Mute's side of logs apart from So-jin and Hana's relationship. There's a fair bit of family drama or slice-of-life sort of speak, but nothing about the ship itself. I guess the last 1/3 of the game will tell us about it.

 

[Rockin' Ranger]

I finished the last couple of routes last night. My order was going with *Mute first (not particularly because I chose to go that route first, but I got locked into it by having the reactor start to melt down from looking at *Mute's questions before switching over to *Hyun-ae to ask them), then *Hyun-ae, and finally getting the harem ending. I'd played Digital: A Love Story years ago and had actually started Analogue back in 2012 but played about 90 minutes and quit before getting to the reactor melt down (I was terrible about starting games and dropping them to go back to playing Dota 2 for hours on end back then even for stuff I was enjoying). Ending up loving Analogue now that I finally got back to it 7 years later. Thanks to Gevin for choosing it as September's game of the month.

20% unlocked

An interesting detail is that the Mugungwha was launched by the Unified Korea Space Probe Agency in 2381, suggesting that on the Earth of Analogue, North and South Korea was unifying at some point. However, I do not recall any mention of this event in Analogue, though it is possible that it may be touched upon in some of the background story that you can choose for yourself

I didn't pick up on it from the name of the space agency, but it did stand out to me that Hyun-ae's parents had met in Pyongyang and she'd been told about the city by them.

20% unlocked

There is also an interesting contradiction in one of the early logs, if I remember correctly. In Ryu Jae-hwa's log 10-QF392, she states that The Pale Bride will have "no problem delivering the soon [Ryu] needs", yet later we learn that she is believes that he is infertile. Am I misremembering or did she merely come to that conclusion later?

I may have missed it, but the only reference to a specific character being infertile was Oh So-jin talking to Hana about her husband being infertile with *Mute mentioning low birth rates among the noble families in general.

This is where I'm at. I figured it sounds like a decision point when I asked *Mute about it, so I think it was a good stopping point for the night.

65% Unlocked

Reading through the logs provided by *Mute provides some insight into the Smith family dynamics. I find it rather curious that *Mute views the patriarchal society onboard the ship as something that is completely normal, while she herself is a woman. Perhaps the construct isn't relevant to an AI, or it's simply the nature of her programming. Meanwhile, she considers the relationship between So-jin and Hana as an aberration. The relationship between *Mute and Smith Sang-jung is also a curious one. I would've thought that an AI capable of understanding the concept of love can also accept its many forms, including homosexuality.

I think *Mute's views could be from either her being an AI or just being a woman being brought up within the sexist society that existed on the ship. There are some examples of women on the ship having some acts of rebellion against the patriarchal ways of the society, but there are also women on the ship who work to enforce and continue it.

 

[Exzyleph]

I may have missed it, but the only reference to a specific character being infertile was Oh So-jin talking to Hana about her husband being infertile with *Mute mentioning low birth rates among the noble families in general.

You're right. I was mixing up those pairs of characters.

I think *Mute's views could be from either her being an AI or just being a woman being brought up within the sexist society that existed on the ship. There are some examples of women on the ship having some acts of rebellion against the patriarchal ways of the society, but there are also women on the ship who work to enforce and continue it.

Read Hate Plus to find out

 

[Exzyleph]

Finished up my second play-through of Analogue.
One interesting part of this game is how characters will react to you depending on whether your identify as male or female. For those who play this game, I would suggest trying both options and seeing how a certain somebody reacts. Their line of questioning is quite amusing, in a horrifying sort of way. Several log reactions and even the ending depends on your choices, and that helped make it feel different compared to the first time I played it.

Analogue: 100%

The admin password is a weird part of the story. Obviously Christine Love obviously needed some way for Hyun-ae to gain access to the system, but the notion that a single password (with seemingly no quality requirements!) can be used to gain control of an entire ship seems absurd. Considering that the Mugungwha is a generation ship, it seems inevitable that such a password would be leaked at some point.

Another surprising bit is that *Hyun-ae's father apparently predicted that Hyun-ae might need to digitize herself; we see a message that appears to be from him to Hyun-ae in the final maintenance log in Block 8 ("Sorry, sweetie... hang on tight, this is going to hurt a bit - Love, Dad"). Another line in the maintenance log implies that this is experimental tech, but that raises the question why there is experimental brain digitizing tech in a cryo-pod. Who was Hyun-ae's father that he could just leave this amazing bit of technology lying around on a ship where technological resources would be finite by definition?

The way *Mute talks about herself in Analogue implies that she was created, programmed, but this bit of technology means that there is a much simpler way of creating AI constructs. So, Hate Plus spoiler,

Hate Plus

If this technology existed, then why was it not used to replace *Star?

The way you obtain the Harem Ending is a nice use of the game's mechanics. The fact that you have to show *Mute a journal that you can only know about from having talked with *Hyun-ae also justifies why their reconciliation could not happen in the canonical story. And while this ending is not canonical, it does lead to my favorite ending in Hate Plus.

 

[Kvik]

On Sunday night I've completed Analogue: A Hate Story. It's an excellent read. Once I've got to (mid-game) the meltdown I just couldn't stop reading until the end.

100% Unlocked

The atrocity committed by *Hyun-ae's adopted father was a harrowing read, to say the least. It feels kind of strange how *Hyun-ae was able to recount the event so vividly in her diary entry, and she recounted it somewhat matter-of-factly, even ending it with a little gallows humor at the end of the passage. I suppose she was always a strong person and her entries reflected her personality as such.

It's kind of a shame we didn't know what actually happened to Ryu Jae-hwa. I feel a part of *Hyun-ae died with Ryu as well since she was a source of strength to *Hyun-ae. I entertain the possibility that she was being silenced because she found out the true cause of *Hyun-ae's muteness. Mostly because the doctor's diagnosis is both hilarious and terrible at the same time. But I also feel there isn't enough there to go on. Maybe I'll learn more about this in Hate+ ?

There's not much I can say about *Mute's route. I feel the game is mostly centered around *Hyun-ae and the interaction with *Mute was rather sparse. She also didn't have much to say about block7 (Apart from that particular entry to unlock the Harem ending). I was kind of hoping to learn more about her origin. It's quite interesting that *Mute refers to the hibernation pod as "the egg", implying that someone actually programmed her within a certain timeframe which happened during this "regression" era without knowledge of past technology. Perhaps *Mute's construct originates for a real person, just like *Hyun-ae?

It's quite interesting to read the historical notes on the Joseon dynasty too. I had assumed this culture of oppression was dated older than the 18th century. Well, I suppose it's also not hard to believe it since this kind of systemic oppression still happens today (although probably not as extreme) in some parts of the world.

Oh, and the meltdown part was kind of fun. I'm not a stranger to CLI so figuring out this stuff in a VN is kind of a novel idea. All in all, this was a good read, and I'm looking forward to reading Hate+ on Tuesday.

 

[Kvik]

Pet peeve for Hate+ : I can't see the bloody mouse cursor! Why not make it white instead of grey?

 

[Kvik]

So that's the first block done. The grey mouse cursor bothered me too in Analogue, but the background was white so I have less trouble finding the cursor there. In Hate+, its primary colour is already dark, making the cursor almost impossible to find.

Day 1, block M1 Unlocked

*Hyun-ae emoting while we scroll down and read the logs is a nice touch.

I'm a little surprised that *Mute is actually much, much older than I predicted. It's a little hard to imagine 1600 years of living, even for an AI. Still, she was an authoritative figure before year 0. We also find out a little of how democracy is being stifled and has led into open rebellion in the past. I assume the government in this era is communist/socialist? I'm still unclear.

I find Heo Seung-bok's relationship with Mimi pretty endearing. Obviously the society during this time is more progressive in some ways. The log from Mae jin-a from block M2 was quite funny as well. It's definitely a welcome change from Analogue since these blocks represent a more peaceful society. Not much else to read apart from that since there's not enough power to extract the M2 block in its entirety.

 

[Kvik]

The second day done.

Day 2, Block M2,M4 unlocked

The love story of Mae Jin-a and Heo Ae-jeong ended quite badly. It's quite illuminating how the callous decisions of the council which was recorded in block M4 are affecting the lives of little people like this couple. While the breakup wasn't pretty, I have a feeling Ae-jeong ended their relationship in this way on purpose, while she still cares a lot for her. After all, she kept Mae jin-a's hairpin as a memento.

The minutes in the council meetings were also a good read. *Mute's insistence on maintaining the status quo by installing Ryu Hyeon-su as Chief Councillor ultimately led to her undoing. It's quite amazing how the ship was able to stay afloat for so long with these types of decision-makers staying in power.

Finally, Kim So-yi's radiation research in block M5 was also interesting. I have a feeling that her research will ultimately fail to reach the Councillors' ears, or perhaps she herself will be silenced by the new dynasty. I hope to read more on this once the rest of the records in M5 is unlocked. And of course, her assailant will face no repercussion, because that's how these things normally work out in the end.

Onwards to day 3.

 

[Exzyleph]

After a busy week of travels for work, I finally had time (and energy) to sit down and start on Hate Plus.

In some ways it is a nice improvement over Analogue. The writing in particular seems a lot more solid, and the new profiles alleviates the problem of trying to remember who everyone is, though Hate+ also adds a bunch of hard to remember council members. In other ways it is a huge step down. Where Analogue permitted you to perform most actions using the keyboard, Hate+ is purely mouse driven and it gets pretty frustrating. The running commentary system is also a neat idea, but makes it much too easy to accidentally miss comments if you aren't paying attention.

Like Kvik I was also annoyed at the mouse cursor, so I took a quick look and figured out how to disable the custom cursor (it was done by commenting out line 29 of the following script). If you want the same, then download this script and save it as 'options.rpy' in the 'game' folder, located in the root of the 'Hate Plus' installation folder. Pastebin will add an additional .py extension when you download the script, which you must remove.


I'll try to avoid spoiling anything, so the following should be safe for anyone who as far along as the spoiler indicates. I'll be reading blocks in the order they appear (top-left to bottom-right).

Day 1; *Hyun-ae

The email you get in the beginning is rather amusing. Apparently you've been asking about a "hard shell" for Hyun-ae, and for whatever you've requested an "animation-inspired" inspired model (anime inspired)? There is the odd discrepancy between between *Hyun-ae and *Mute and the photos you see in the profiles, suggesting that their avatars may be "anime" in a realistic world. Would that make this hard-shell something like Alita: Battle Angel (*shudder) or something like those horrifying full-body anime-girl costumes that you sometimes see (double shudder)?

Continuing on to the logs, the world that we are introduced to is already pretty shitty. Life aboard the Mugunghwa was already extremely aristocratic, with a ruling class of families and the "peasants" beneath them who were merely tolerated and largely ignored in political matters. Was that how it was originally, when the Mugunghwa launched, or a later development? We also see Chinese characters being introduced as a method to curb social mobility, perhaps explaining why these were the standard when *Hyun-ae was awakened some centuries later.

We are introduced to quite a few characters, including a seemingly childishly violent security officer, who has a very obvious crush on *Mute, and whose husband is busy having an affair. We also learn of a *Mute who doesn't give a fuck about deferring to men, but is all about security about the Mugunghwa, and who is willing to engage in a lot of scheming to get what she wants. Other parts of her personality seem more familiar.

We are also introduced to Kim So-yi, belonging to the same family as Hyun-ae, learn of her marriage to a husband who seems like a sweat person, and we learn of her being sexually assaulted by her colleague. It is an unpleasant read and the fact that she "endured" for "far too long" before running away suggests that to me that her sexual assault was probably far more extensive than she was willing to admit in her journal.

And finally, we are introduced to the flower-girl Mae Jin-a, an adorable, love-struck, and bumbling girl with a surprisingly sharp wit, and my favorite character so far.

 

[Exzyleph]

Day 2; *Hyun-ae

I wrote down a bunch of things while reading this day, but ultimately my thoughts circle back to the aristocratic nature of society on-board the Mugunghwa. How did it end up so regressive, even before the actions of the new council ultimately pushed it over the edge? With a society like that, it seems near inevitable that an autocratic ruler would be installed at some point during the ship's long journey.

The relationship between Heo Ae-jeong and Mae Jin-a suffers a cruel end. Neither had self-confidence, even though both attributed confidence and self-control to the other person in the relationship. And their failure to communicate what they actually felt is probably what lead Ae to break off her relationship with Jin-a, in a manner that was a lot more hurtful for both than was necessary.

On a more positive note, we learn about tourism in Pyongyang, seemingly hinting at *Hyun-ae getting the chance to visit the birthplace of her parents, but we also get called out by the historical society, who have noticed our AI stowaway and demand that *Hyun-ae testify about her experiences.[/QUOTE]

 

[Exzyleph]

Day 3, *Hyun-ae

We finally learn what drove Oh Eun-a and Captain Ryu, but honestly they feels like cartoon villains. The story does try to justify Eun-a's behavior based on her insecurity and desire for stability, but it doesn't really work as well as it does for other characters in the story. Ryu is even harder to understand, mainly because we never see things from his perspective. That was one thing I really liked about Analogue, in that even the people who did horrible things had motivations that ultimately felt quite grounded.

One thing I noticed this time around was the many parallel stories: Oh Mi-seun and Heo Seo-yeong both have too strong feelings for their "superior" and both ends up as pawns for those more powerful figures; conversely, both Oh Eun-a and *Mute were manipulators and both failed somebody important to them due to their own fixation on their "duty"; and Heo Ae-jeong/Mae Jin-a and security boy/Mimi were lovers who ultimately failed to communicate to their own detriment.

In the last case, we do see a strong hint that Heo Ae-jeong and Mae Jin-a manages to stay together; supposedly Heo Ae-jeong is supporting her "younger sister", despite Heo Seo-yeong confirming that Ae doesn't have a sister. And we've already seen the term "sister" used for a consort in the case of Eun-a and Mi-seun.

We also get a hint as to why *Mute failed; she was doing the same job for too long and fell into a rut, ultimately failing to grasp what was going on around her because of her getting bogged down in centuries worth of minutia. It is a subject that I would have liked to see explored in more depth, though obviously Hate+ wasn't the kind of story to that subject.

 

[Exzyleph]

Finished up the other two routes of Hate+ and that concludes my re-play.

All in all it was quite enjoyable to re-read Analogue and Hate+. Both did interesting things with the medium, though I think that the format used by Analogue worked better for practical reasons. Being able to show logs to a character simply ended up being more reliable than having characters react to scrolling text, in part due to how clunky scrolling felt. Had Analogue included the profile pages that Hate+ introduced, then it would have been a clear winner in terms of usability, though the writing felt more solid in Hate+.

Days 1-3, *Mute and Harem

Thanks to the early memories of *Mute, we learn that Heo Seung-bok and Mimi also managed to stay in touch despite their challenging circumstances. I wish we learned what happened with Kim So-yi after the computers got wiped, but I do not believe that she is in any of the post-wipe logs.

While *Mute is horrified by female homosexuality, as also seen in Analogue, she quite enjoys the logs dealing with Seung-bok and Mimi. While a bit amusing, it is also perfectly in line with her view of a womens role in society. Interestingly, the game does suggest that *Mute is realizing that these views are wrong, based on her authoring every answer to this question, in particular the highlighted. That is not a possibility that would be considered, much less phrased like that, if she was confident in her beliefs:

The death of Old *Mute and the birth of New *Mute feels tragic, but the reader spends so little time with New *Mute that she feels like little more than a stop-gap to avoid "solo" play on day 3. Still, I like the attitude of New *Mute and it is interesting to see her deal with her awakening.


As I hinted at a few posts back, the Harem ending in this game is my favorite.
We learn a lot about both *Mute and *Hyun-ae. In particular it reveals just how vulnerable *Hyun-ae is, making it clear she fell in love with the player character just because we rescued her. And because of that, the sidekick ending for *Hyun-ae in Analogue ends up feeling a lot more fitting. The harem route also sets up a redemption arc for *Mute, whose death in her route never gave her a chance of that. I find it fitting that the two of them forge their path going forward in this route, instead of it being up to some rando in a spaceship.

The fact that the two of them interact during readings is also much more enjoyable than the one-sided comments that you get on either individual route:

There is also a fun parallel to a recent visual novel that I cannot name without spoiling it (Danganronpa V3):

And finally there's the song that plays during the credits of that route, which perfect end-caps the game:

 

[Gevin]

Finished everything today, it was really good

Spoiler

The fractured structure worked really well, it was nice figuring out some stuff and linking something you just unlocked with another thing from earlier. The first ending I got was with *Mute cause i started reading the questions and it forced me into the reactor sequence so at the end I thought Hyun-ae was really evil.

Getting the chance to check her viewpoint afterwards really gave another meaning to the story, and the final twist was so tragic. I didn't quite get how the other wife died and I wonder if I missed something there. Also how did such an advanced society regress to medieval times?

I'm kinda intrigued about the sequel but I'll get it some time in the future.

 

[Kvik]

I'm kinda intrigued about the sequel but I'll get it some time in the future.

Ryu Jae-hwa It's definitely a mystery. I suspected foul play, but there's not enough to support this theory in the logs of Mugungwha.
And the sequel will answer your question.

 

[Kvik]

Finally finished with Hate+. My cake-making adventure didn't turn out as well as I expected. It's not exactly soft and fluffy. Oh, well. I suppose I can revisit the recipe again if I'm feeling adventurous.

*Hyun-ae, *Mute and Harem routes cleared

I find it rather curious that as well educated Oh Eun-a really was, and considering how much power she has over Ryu Hyeon-su, she's willing to create a totalitarian-patriarchal society, destroying her relationship with her "sister" in the process. It's interesting to draw a parallel between their relationship and Heo Ae-jeong/Mae Jin-a. The lives of both pairs are affected greatly due to Oh Eun-a's manipulation of the council through Ryu, although Heo Ae-jeong and Mae Jin-a's relationship seems to have survived in the end.

The failed coup d'état ended in such a tragic way, although I can see survival is the priority for *Mute hence her decision to surrender. I find it rather ironic that out of 1,600 years of experience, she can't predict that Ryu was actually bluffing. Finally, we found out why the current *Mute is the way she is. Her suicide during the downtime between day 2 and day 3 is probably the most "human" reaction out of her past two lifetimes. Subsequently, the harem ending is actually my favourite out of the three endings, since *Hyun-ae tried her best to save *Mute from despair. Again, it's interesting to draw another parallel with *Hyun-ae and Ryu Jae-hwa when they were alive. *Hyun-ae become a pillar of support to *Mute, just as Ryu Jae-hwa was hers in the past.

*Hyun-ae's ending wrapped up nicely with her testifying for the Historical Society. *Mute's ending is also pretty good, in the sense that she found a new purpose, and not considering it as a fresh start, but carrying her past as a driving force to keep moving forward.

I must admit, I was expecting a totally different tone before I started reading both of these games, it's not long before I realise that this is not The Return of Obra Dinn. Still, I enjoyed what I read. I"ll definitely recommend this for both sci-fi and drama fans alike.

Saya no Uta next month? Sign me up.

 

[Exzyleph]

Saya no Uta next month? Sign me up.

I'm thinking of making next month the Spooktober VN bookclub, since a number of people have already read Saya (myself included).
That way people can play one or more horror VNs of their choice and talk about it.

But I am of course open to just making it a Saya no Uta bookclub, if people think a Spooktober club is a bad idea.

 

[Kvik]

I'm thinking of making next month the Spooktober VN bookclub, since a number of people have already read Saya (myself included).
That way people can play one or more horror VNs of their choice and talk about it.

But I am of course open to just making it a Saya no Uta bookclub, if people think a Spooktober club is a bad idea.

Sure, I don't mind that. I've read Saya too, but I'm interested in reading stuff like Tokyo Dark or Detention as well during Spooktober.

EDIT: And NG is coming out next month, too.