Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na

After various delays and a slow start, I finally finished the true ending of Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na ～Brighter than dawning blue～. I have to say, you need a lot of patience to reach the good parts of the game, because the first half of it is only slightly more interesting than watching paint dry, which places it on the same level of tedium as Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki.

But if you do manage to hold through, and unlike Tameiki, you will be rewarded for your patience. The second half of the story is well worth the effort. Of course, it’s not as perfect as it could’ve been with a better scenario writer, but it’s good enough that I have some regained hope for the anime, which BTW seriously needs to stop outsourcing its art to Korea.

Introduction

Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na is a 2005 game from August, a relatively unknown company with only five works so far. The PS2 version with new characters is coming out on 7 Dec.

Story

The story is set in very distant future, in a time when mankind is just recovering from decades of war fought between Earth and a terraformed Moon. The war was so devastating that it set technological progress back by decades if not centuries, which is why the settings don’t look futuristic (or maybe because the artist doesn’t like to draw sci-fi scenes…). Although the world is now at peace, there continues to be distrust between the Sphere Kingdom (Moon) and the Earth Federation. Travel between the two is restricted for diplomatic purposes and confined to a single spaceport on Earth.

So anyway, one day the lunar princess (TSUKIHIME!), Feena fam Earthlight, comes to the main character’s house for home stay…

Gameplay

The game play of YoakeMae is standard ADV fare. The first part of the game is divided into about three months or so, from May to August, and you pretty much make all the decisions needed by July.

During the span of Feena’s home stay, there are various small events (eating bento together, going to the beach, etc) that try to develop the characters but fail horribly. They are seriously boring and a huge waste of time that could have been otherwise spent on developing the main story.

Assuming you go for Feena’s story path, which is really the only route that is worth playing, the actual story only starts to reveal itself near the end of July, which means that two in-game months were wasted away on useless character events. Gao.

But once the main story starts, it’s Good Stuff â„¢. The second half of Feena’s normal path deals with the various problems faced by Tatsuya and Feena as they realize their feelings for one another. Since Feena is the princess of the Moon and Tatsuya is just a regular guy from Earth, there are of course many obstacles preventing them from obtaining happiness.

One of the obstacles is Karen Clavius, the person in charge of Feena’s safety and entrusted by the King to select the person who would be Feena’s husband and the future king.

But needless to say, the couple manages to overcome all odds and prove to Karen and everyone else that the two the truly love each other and etcetera etecetera. The game ends with Karen heading back to Moon to recommend Tatsuya to the King.

Happily ever after? Not yet! But I won’t tell you why… yet.

Characters

When it comes to bishoujo games, it’s all about the characters and their stories. Sadly, YoakeMae is lacking in this department. Other than Feena, the other girls are uninteresting and undeveloped. I guess it’s a double-edged sword to have such a prominent heroine who is so cool, cute, moé, beautiful, exquisite and generally perfect in every way possible.

I mean seriously, who the hell plays YoakeMae for anyone but Feena-sama? :P

Game Paths

There are a total of six paths for the six girls, Feena, Mia, Mai, Natsuki, Sayaka and Wreathlit.

• You must play Feena’s path first in order to unlock the rest
• You must play all the other five girls’ paths in order to unlock Wreathlit
• After finishing all six girls’ paths, the final scenario “Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na” will be unlocked

Because all the other girls are so boring and uninspiring, the game creators have to force you to play through all of them in order to get the final scenario, which contains the true Feena ending.

Let me just get this out of the way first: The true ending is the BEST PART OF THE GAME. The scenario is almost as long as the normal paths and it continues from the end of Feena’s normal ending. For Haruhi’s sake, the scenario is named “Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na” for a reason! It’s without doubt the most vital portion of the game!

I shall not spoil anything here, except it’s an (somewhat) epic story of love and self-realization involving an azure-coloured gems passed down from the late Queen and “Lost Technology”. Plenty of passionate Hitomi Nabatame-voiced love-making too of course…

And yes, this is the ending where Tatsuya and Feena really live happily ever after. :P

As you can see, you need to waste a lot of time to get to the best part of the game. What I did instead was to finish Feena’s normal path, download a completed saved game, and then skip right to the ending scenario. I am smart!

Seriously, judging from the way Feena’s normal path is like, I have to conclude that the rest of the paths are probably not going to be very interesting, especially since they are not tied into the main story. I may try Wreathlit’s path someday because she’s voiced by Shizuka Itou and I have a weak spot for Tama-nee… <_<

And, as I said, they live happily ever after. :3

Feena in wedding dress = instant win!
Then again, Feena wins no matter what she wears (or doesn’t wear…). :P

“Another View”

During gameplay, the perspective often changes to allow the player to see important events that are happening away from the main character. The game calls it “Another View”.

It is by no means a new concept and many games have used it before, the most recent one that I can recall being Scarlett. But it is pretty well-implemented and I like it.

Art

The art is awesome. Enough said.

Compare these to the anime, especially episode 3. Doesn’t it make you feel like crying? ;_;

Music and Sound

The soundtrack is nothing outstanding, but the theme song “Lapis Lazuli” does leave an impression. I like the part in the final scenario where it was played… Good stuff.

The voice-overs are generally well-done but not particularly outstanding. Feena by Hitomi Nabatame (Arcueid in Shingetsutan Tsukihime, Yuuna in Maburaho, Nanaka in D.C. II) and Wreathlit by Shizuka Itou (Tamaki in To Heart 2) set off my fanboy alarm. :3

Karen by Yuu Asakawa (Itoko from School Rumble, Motoko from Love Hina) is awesome too.

Conclusion

Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na is an enjoyable game with excellent graphics and an engaging story (towards the end), but it’s nothing special compared to most games of recent times. The main selling point is, of course, Feena-sama and that was enough for the game to clinch the 3rd spot for 2005’s 18+ game sales rankings at 70k units sold, behind Fate/hollow ataraxia and To Heart 2 XRATED.

And indeed, Feena-sama (and her story path) makes the game worth playing.

P.S. wondering why is the title “Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na” (“Brighter than dawning blue” being the creative interpretation)? For that, you have to refer to the final line in the entire game, spoken by Feena.

FEEEEEEEEEEENA!!!