The first half is a treasure hunt in which our characters become familiar with one another. In the second half, the focus shifts to the development of their relationship as Amber's character flaws start driving a wedge between them. It's a well written story in which our protagonists thankfully aren't boiled down to just their sexuality.
solid little vn with a lot of silly / cute technical ideas. the typically conclusionary segment leading instead to an anxious last third worked super strong. really good stuff all around.
gay rights!
Cheesy and cliche as hell but not every single piece of media has to be serious and rooted in reality! At least, that's how I feel about a lot of things I enjoy. This is a cute and convenient love story on the road for these two. Personally, I would not have let some things Amber did slide, but I am willfully hoping that Amber learns through her habits and use her better judgement to be a better person for both herself and for Marina in their little fictitious relationship
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I'm convinced all the people reviewing this game don't realize how abusive Amber is and aren't a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Because if you did/were a part of the community, you wouldn't be happy with this one.
happy LGBTQ+ pride month everyone !
anyways this is a cute & sweet wlw romance game :] i love it personally
anyways this is a cute & sweet wlw romance game :] i love it personally
INFECTIOUSLY cute. I caught myself with a big dumb grin on my face for 80% of the story. The other 20% made me cry.
this actually makes me want to go outside
Cute, maybe not the most complicated story... but does it need to be?
Highway Blossoms has a fantastic story. It's genuinely really good for a cute little road trip/treasure hunting story with two disaster lesbians. The visuals are good, the writing is alright, the voice acting is only slightly grating at certain times, the music is fine, and there's even some optional smut for the people who don't just want to experience a wholesome story.
Now you might read that and then ask "Why did you only give it 2 stars? Is it not a good game with all that praise?" and that's the thing. It's not a game. Highway Blossoms is a prime thing to point at when it comes to the whole "What makes something a game" argument.
I'm not playing a game when I play through Highway Blossoms, I'm reading a book but instead of flipping a page every few minutes I'm mashing spacebar a couple thousand times. The story is good but you're not acting in it, you're just a third party. There's no action the player can take to do anything, you're just reading a book or listening to the characters speak to one another. There is no gameplay. It does not exist.
I think Highway Blossoms is a beautiful and really engaging story with all sorts of twists and turns. And I do recommend you give it a read. But I wish that way to experience it was as an anime, or a short mini series, or a book. Or anything that doesn't destroy your mouse or your keyboard to read. It took me about 10 hours to finish, but it probably could be read through in about 9. After that it'll sit in your steam library for the rest of time. Because past your first reading, there's no reason to go back.
Now you might read that and then ask "Why did you only give it 2 stars? Is it not a good game with all that praise?" and that's the thing. It's not a game. Highway Blossoms is a prime thing to point at when it comes to the whole "What makes something a game" argument.
I'm not playing a game when I play through Highway Blossoms, I'm reading a book but instead of flipping a page every few minutes I'm mashing spacebar a couple thousand times. The story is good but you're not acting in it, you're just a third party. There's no action the player can take to do anything, you're just reading a book or listening to the characters speak to one another. There is no gameplay. It does not exist.
I think Highway Blossoms is a beautiful and really engaging story with all sorts of twists and turns. And I do recommend you give it a read. But I wish that way to experience it was as an anime, or a short mini series, or a book. Or anything that doesn't destroy your mouse or your keyboard to read. It took me about 10 hours to finish, but it probably could be read through in about 9. After that it'll sit in your steam library for the rest of time. Because past your first reading, there's no reason to go back.
A short visual novel about the developing relationship of a two woman that happen to meet while one is on a road trip dealing with the recent loss of her grandpa and the other is hunting treasure. Decently written but doesn't spend enough time with what matters or adds to the main women's characterizations, instead often focused on bad or ridiculous elements, seems to forget about or ignore what should be more important parts, and falls into too many cliches. Nothing special artwork wise but the voice acting is good.
A large part of the story is focused on a ridiculous treasure hunt road trip that would be ok serving as a macguffin just to bring the women together at first, but with so much time spent finding different parts of the treasure, introducing a weird and unlikable side character and her group as people looking for the treasure and apparently related to the guy who hid it, and actually having the characters find the treasure but it never really mattering or meaning anything to the plot really makes it seems like any other excuse to have the characters together would have made more sense. Looking for the treasure also involves them trespassing on native American territory to try to find gold and the more unlikable side character wanting to blow up landmarks and for no real reason being the only ones to find the parts of the treasure compared to massive crowds of other people looking just because Amber has read some landmark/road attraction flyers and pamphlets while on other trips in the past. There are multiple parts of the plot that just seem to get dropped where you don't know what one of the characters was doing when she says she will be away for a few hours to get a surprise for the other one, you never really learn what Marina wanted the treasure for even though it seemed that the question created awkwardness at first but was then forgotten about, Amber's issues with being in a relationship while dealing with her Grandpa's recent death both seem a bit ridiculous and overblown in a way that isn't really addressed well more so when it portrays her in a more abusive way at some parts.
There seems to be a problem with the game, that has lasted for some time now, where the achievements just don't unlock. One scene had one of the character being removed for a few lines with some placeholder text put over where they used to be saying the game was unable to find a certain image.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1675673408284278784
A large part of the story is focused on a ridiculous treasure hunt road trip that would be ok serving as a macguffin just to bring the women together at first, but with so much time spent finding different parts of the treasure, introducing a weird and unlikable side character and her group as people looking for the treasure and apparently related to the guy who hid it, and actually having the characters find the treasure but it never really mattering or meaning anything to the plot really makes it seems like any other excuse to have the characters together would have made more sense. Looking for the treasure also involves them trespassing on native American territory to try to find gold and the more unlikable side character wanting to blow up landmarks and for no real reason being the only ones to find the parts of the treasure compared to massive crowds of other people looking just because Amber has read some landmark/road attraction flyers and pamphlets while on other trips in the past. There are multiple parts of the plot that just seem to get dropped where you don't know what one of the characters was doing when she says she will be away for a few hours to get a surprise for the other one, you never really learn what Marina wanted the treasure for even though it seemed that the question created awkwardness at first but was then forgotten about, Amber's issues with being in a relationship while dealing with her Grandpa's recent death both seem a bit ridiculous and overblown in a way that isn't really addressed well more so when it portrays her in a more abusive way at some parts.
There seems to be a problem with the game, that has lasted for some time now, where the achievements just don't unlock. One scene had one of the character being removed for a few lines with some placeholder text put over where they used to be saying the game was unable to find a certain image.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1675673408284278784
gay
Lot of love for this game. Personally, I just don't see it. The plot is every blend of cliché and campy that you could find in the road trip and romance genres smashed together with yuri. Many lines made me cringe with how well it slotted perfectly into so many terrible road trip and romance movies I've seen before. Because of this, the story is predictable to a capital T with me guessing all the beats it was going to take miles ahead.
I really liked this one. It was cute and gay, and hit all the right notes for me.
really sweet wlw romance :)
This has to be one of the best romance works I've ever had the pleasure to play through, it being a GL VN makes it way better.
I fell in love with the setting, with the character dynamics and chemistry, with the development, with the build up. For being tamer than, say, A Kiss for the Petals, this was fairly more genuine than anything I've ever experienced...
This novel actually wanted to make me try, specially through those moments in life when you don't know what to do after harsh experiences, and for that, it holds a special place in my heart.
I fell in love with the setting, with the character dynamics and chemistry, with the development, with the build up. For being tamer than, say, A Kiss for the Petals, this was fairly more genuine than anything I've ever experienced...
This novel actually wanted to make me try, specially through those moments in life when you don't know what to do after harsh experiences, and for that, it holds a special place in my heart.