Visual Novel Review: Bus Stop

6/22/2014

Admittedly, this was only supposed to be a mini-review since the game is so short, haha, but, hey, I'll just make this an individual post... with spoilers. :) I actually liked the story.

Sorry, I really can't help but spoil you guys. Hahahaha.

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Bus Stop is a short GxB visual novel about unrequited love. Or is it...? Hahaha.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect much from this visual novel. Why? Because it started with a quote and... well... let's just say that my first thought was, "No proofreader?"


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Strength... right?
If from the very start of a VN, you already saw a spelling or grammar mistake, wouldn't that turn you off too? However, I still continued reading, hoping it was just a typo and won't be repeated again. (Unfortunately, it will.)

Ahem, haha, let's move on from the negative point. Lol. The story is about this girl, Hana, who has been in love with her senpai and childhood friend, Hajime. Unfortunately, he doesn't see her that way. Also, he has a girlfriend. Or had, at  least. They broke up sometime ago, and Hajime has never been the same after that. Too bad for Hana, because until now, she still likes her senpai very much.

So one day, Hajime tells Hana to meet him the the following day at the bus stop. At first, Hana is confused. Why would Hajime-senpai want to meet her at the bus stop... at 5AM?!

Likes:

Despite the numerous mistakes, this visual novel also has heartfelt moments that I definitely liked. The story was quite good too, in my opinion. Haha. There are back stories for Hajime and his girlfriend, giving them some depth. I really like back stories you know. It's harder for me to feel attached to a character who doesn't show anything about his or her history. To me... everyone has a past, so why shouldn't VN characters be excluded from that?

I'm not talking about characters with intentionally mysterious pasts though, hahaha, like the Stranger from Hierofania, I'm talking about those characters who are just... there. Like... just there to be a bestfriend, or just there to be a classmate. Haha. Characters who serve no other purpose than their "type."

+ The ending I got was surprisingly unpredictable. Hahahaha. And you know, I loved it. I didn't love it just because I don't like Hana that much, hahaha, but I love it because... it's a lot more realistic than the ending I expected, you know?

Don't read the pic if you don't wanna be spoiled!

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Nice ending.
+ Like I said, the ending was good. Hahahaha. :) It's a lot more true to life than what people imagine of their first loves. But seriously. I really liked it. Hahaha. I commend the writer from breaking the traditions of ending these VNs with true love stories and happy endings. In real life, even if you do find your true love, it's never a certified "happy ending." There will be trials, obstacles, and hurdles you have to endure together. 

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I'm glad Hana found a guy who's understanding and loving, even if he knows that Hana hasn't completely moved on from her first love yet.

Dislikes:

- Like I said, one thing that I really disliked about this VN was the overpopulation of grammar and spelling errors. I'm not a perfect person, and I have to admit that I also make mistakes. Sometimes though, too many errors in a text can be pretty distracting, even for such an imperfect person like me. Even the space and punctuation errors annoyed me in this visual novel. Oh gosh.

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Are you telling her to move?
 - I didn't like the presentation that much, haha, but this is more of a personal preference. I'm just not a big fan of NVL mode, especially if the VN has sprites. Hahaha. I wanna enjoy the art, yet this mode darkens everything. Huhuhu. Lol. :)

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So anyway, I give this visual novel 6/10 visual novels. Not bad, haha, but there are still lots of room to improve, especially writing-wise. But story-wise, oh, it's fine, and I quite liked it. ^^

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Here's the maker. Cute logo. Haha. :)
Anyway, feel free to try it out! You can download this game here~

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4 berries

  1. Hi ran~
    I wanted to ask,how do you pick your visual novels? Do you accept requests,or do you just review whatever you feel like? Also,what's a good place to search for visual novels besides lemmasoft forums?

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  2. Hey there Komachi. :)


    I usually choose VNs based on the genre, or sometimes, if WiP's summary interests me, I wait for the release. :) And, yeah, I accept requests, but that also depends on the requested visual novel. :) I don't always review the visual novels I play though. When VNs are too short or when I have nothing good to say about the VN, I don't review it at all. Haha. That's because I use this blog as a sort of "diary" for my thoughts about visual novels, games and the like. :)


    Not all games in the Ren'Py archive are posted in LSF, so I check that sometimes. Also, sometimes I see visual novels in tumblr, or in other blogs, haha, so I check out those that interest me. ^^


    If you want to play professional VNs though, vndb.org is a good place to start. :D They list all sorts of VNs there, both freeware and commercial. :)

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  3. Do you have any guidelines for what kinds of visual novels you will or will not review? Or is it better to just ask you ?_?

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  4. Haha, I don't really have any specific guidelines. :)) For example, I am not a huge fan of sci-fi and action, though I still play/read them if they seem interesting enough Hahahaha. It's better to just... ask me then. It's fine. :)

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