This was refreshing to see from an otome because a lot of otomes I have read and played have had a supernatural/magic element in them (I know there is a lot of otomes that do not but it is just what I have played) so to see one that does not have that was refreshing. All the routes were enjoyable but it felt like something was missing in the routes. Most routes were short enough though that they did not feel like padded out so that was a plus.
feeding my delusions
My happiest surprise of 2023 so far! I was in the mood for a lighthearted romantic comedy and this game delivered. Even though I’ve only played a route and a half, it’s easily become one of my favorite otomes with charming upbeat characters and story. Even though it’s not the most original game in the world, it presents the story in some very fun ways. Pretend Time!
This review contains spoilers
if i had a nickel for every otome game i've played that features an aspiring screenwriter protagonist who is inexperienced at writing romance and who works alongside her love interests - who are all part of the entertainment industry and have varying degrees of daddy issues and eventually show her how to both fall in love and write about love - i'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
the other game i'm referencing is scandal in the spotlight, one of many mobile otome games published by voltage and one of my earliest experiences ever with otome. i don't fully recall if it was my first - i have a feeling the amnesia fan-translation came before it, which i watched on youtube, and diabolik lovers: haunted dark bridal also likely trumped it, in which i have spotty memories of scouring tumblr and google for the sparse fragments of english translations that the internet was able to offer me. but scandal in the spotlight was maybe the first otome i ever actually played. so, for all its many flaws, it means a lot to me! i still return to it every now and then just to reread all the kyohei stories i amassed and bask in the nostalgia of it all.
fast forward a few years, when this localisation gets announced and i read the synopsis and think 'huh. this sounds familiar'. naturally, i'm excited for it! of course, it's its own game, completely unrelated to scandal in the spotlight, but i'm already attached to it by nostalgic association, and after reading a couple of positive reviews for the game i'm super optimistic. i thought for sure it'd be a release day purchase for me - but of course, my brain decides in december that actually, it doesn't fancy playing any otome games right now, so i put off buying it for a couple months. it makes sense that the craving returns in full force right as valentine's day is coming up.
and, wowie, for all the anticipation i had, it did not disappoint. the otome i typically favour is either fantasy or action-heavy, but it was a breath of fresh air to play something so much more grounded in reality. notably, since the setting was more grounded, the love interest's character arcs followed suit, which is one of my favourite things about this game. now, i love my escapism stories, and i like to think i have a high tolerance for silliness and shenanigans, and as such, realism isn't really high up in my list of priorities. but there was just something about its steady presence in this game that i appreciated so much. maybe it's that a lot of the characters' struggles really hit home for me.
for example, harumi's internalised shame over his love of anime, and his journey towards learning to embrace and take pride in it? oof, yeah, been there. i'm an otome player, of course i've been there. for me, and doubtlessly for SO many others, my love for otome games was a source of guilt and embarrassment that i spent so many years locking away and refusing to expose to my family and friends. i perceived so much stigma about otome players being sad and pathetic and needing to get a life, and though it never stopped me enjoying these games, i spent so long feeling terrible for liking them at all. if you ask me, the writers were very aware of this stigma when they wrote harumi's route, and even though i'm already so much more comfortable openly expressing my love of these games nowadays, it was still very validating to read through his route. plus, he's absolutely adorable, and the scene where we were cosplaying together and stumbled upon the other love interests had me cackling.
and then there's kazuma. i played his route first, because i was prewarned that his route was a bit of a train wreck, which, yeah. it was. i'd like to clarify that when i said this game was grounded, that doesn't prevent it from having its exceptions, and the most glaring and off-putting one was the 'surprise! kazuma got bonked by a car and wow, did someone say they wanted him to get amnesia?'. no, no one said that. no one wanted this weird abrupt amnesia arc.
but that's not to say the route didn't have potential. the other aspect that i've seen many people hating was the part where it turns out that all these years, kazuma has secretly resented chiyuki's successes and wants her to fail because he keeps comparing her achievements to his own. i don't blame these people at all, but as someone who also struggles with low self esteem and has a lot of inferiority complexes, i relate to this a lot and think it could've been such an interesting topic to explore. for me, the main issue with as it stands is how late into the story this plot point comes into play, and subsequently how swiftly it both reaches its boiling point and then gets resolved. had the writers just scrapped the amnesia plotline entirely, i believe there would've been enough room for this much more intriguing character arc and i reckon it would've been much more palatable to the general audience as a result. if you'd given it its due runtime, it would've been compelling enough to carry kazuma's route, i promise!
i've saved the best two routes for last, which is a bold statement given how controversial our resident trash man riku's route was. hell, i didn't even think this game was gonna have a trash man at all! so consider my delightful surprise when riku, who i thought was going to be a relatively boring, straight-laced yanagi or dante-type route, turned out to be an absolute gremlin. it's totally understandable why people hate him - i mean, the hidden camera blackmail fiasco is v much an unforgiveable act, and that doesn't even cover this man's numerous other crimes. but the 'public menace' love interest archetype is my absolute favourite and i was eating all of his shenanigans up without an ounce of shame. on top of that, this route was especially tropey in comparison to the others, and i had a blast with it.
yukito, however, is were the writing really shined. he was amazing from start to finish, and out of all the characters, it was by far the most satisfying to watch him grow and mature over the course of his route. the way he uses his playboy persona to his benefit in the industry, his sharp perception of other people, his strong desire to break into the acting world and the clever steps he took towards making that transition possible - it all felt so unique to me, and even though i knew i was gonna love him before i started his route, i was still blown away by how genuine and delightful he came across. the writers really said 'lets get ourselves a flirty archetype but make it different' and then they did. plus, this route has kirari, the seemingly cliche 'overly and unjustifiably territorial fangirl' who is simply not that at all. they gave her so much more dimension than that, and she's the best and i love her and i'll fight anyone who says otherwise.
eiichirou's route is a big old Yikes and deserves to be thrown out of a window, but at least it's barely a route at all. i can't believe a game with such an emphasis on family jumped through a gazillion contrived loopholes just so that they could force this tiny, clunky romantic plotline between chiyuki and her 'tecnhically not a brother'. listen here buddy - in the wise words of klaus hargreeves: 'if you have to say 'technically', you're already in trouble'. what a missed opportunity to forge a really sweet family bond between them after solving the Big Mystery of chiyuki's father. the Big Mystery, might i remind you, that was such an integral, pervading element of the whole game.
big old Yikes aside, i consumed this game in three days and thoroughly adored it. given the association with my humble otome beginnings, it's also rather special in the way it prompts me to look back at the otome community and how far its come - the me of 2012 would never have believed that ten years down the line, otome english releases would be rolling in at a dime a dozen and would have a prospering, dedicated fanbase surrounding them. i think she'd go into shock if she saw the present me sitting on the sofa with my friends, none of whom play otome games, and introducing them to each of the initial love interests so that they can indulge me with their initial impressions of each character. there's a warm fuzziness attached to this game, related to both its contents and my nostalgia, and i'd love to see it get more attention.
the other game i'm referencing is scandal in the spotlight, one of many mobile otome games published by voltage and one of my earliest experiences ever with otome. i don't fully recall if it was my first - i have a feeling the amnesia fan-translation came before it, which i watched on youtube, and diabolik lovers: haunted dark bridal also likely trumped it, in which i have spotty memories of scouring tumblr and google for the sparse fragments of english translations that the internet was able to offer me. but scandal in the spotlight was maybe the first otome i ever actually played. so, for all its many flaws, it means a lot to me! i still return to it every now and then just to reread all the kyohei stories i amassed and bask in the nostalgia of it all.
fast forward a few years, when this localisation gets announced and i read the synopsis and think 'huh. this sounds familiar'. naturally, i'm excited for it! of course, it's its own game, completely unrelated to scandal in the spotlight, but i'm already attached to it by nostalgic association, and after reading a couple of positive reviews for the game i'm super optimistic. i thought for sure it'd be a release day purchase for me - but of course, my brain decides in december that actually, it doesn't fancy playing any otome games right now, so i put off buying it for a couple months. it makes sense that the craving returns in full force right as valentine's day is coming up.
and, wowie, for all the anticipation i had, it did not disappoint. the otome i typically favour is either fantasy or action-heavy, but it was a breath of fresh air to play something so much more grounded in reality. notably, since the setting was more grounded, the love interest's character arcs followed suit, which is one of my favourite things about this game. now, i love my escapism stories, and i like to think i have a high tolerance for silliness and shenanigans, and as such, realism isn't really high up in my list of priorities. but there was just something about its steady presence in this game that i appreciated so much. maybe it's that a lot of the characters' struggles really hit home for me.
for example, harumi's internalised shame over his love of anime, and his journey towards learning to embrace and take pride in it? oof, yeah, been there. i'm an otome player, of course i've been there. for me, and doubtlessly for SO many others, my love for otome games was a source of guilt and embarrassment that i spent so many years locking away and refusing to expose to my family and friends. i perceived so much stigma about otome players being sad and pathetic and needing to get a life, and though it never stopped me enjoying these games, i spent so long feeling terrible for liking them at all. if you ask me, the writers were very aware of this stigma when they wrote harumi's route, and even though i'm already so much more comfortable openly expressing my love of these games nowadays, it was still very validating to read through his route. plus, he's absolutely adorable, and the scene where we were cosplaying together and stumbled upon the other love interests had me cackling.
and then there's kazuma. i played his route first, because i was prewarned that his route was a bit of a train wreck, which, yeah. it was. i'd like to clarify that when i said this game was grounded, that doesn't prevent it from having its exceptions, and the most glaring and off-putting one was the 'surprise! kazuma got bonked by a car and wow, did someone say they wanted him to get amnesia?'. no, no one said that. no one wanted this weird abrupt amnesia arc.
but that's not to say the route didn't have potential. the other aspect that i've seen many people hating was the part where it turns out that all these years, kazuma has secretly resented chiyuki's successes and wants her to fail because he keeps comparing her achievements to his own. i don't blame these people at all, but as someone who also struggles with low self esteem and has a lot of inferiority complexes, i relate to this a lot and think it could've been such an interesting topic to explore. for me, the main issue with as it stands is how late into the story this plot point comes into play, and subsequently how swiftly it both reaches its boiling point and then gets resolved. had the writers just scrapped the amnesia plotline entirely, i believe there would've been enough room for this much more intriguing character arc and i reckon it would've been much more palatable to the general audience as a result. if you'd given it its due runtime, it would've been compelling enough to carry kazuma's route, i promise!
i've saved the best two routes for last, which is a bold statement given how controversial our resident trash man riku's route was. hell, i didn't even think this game was gonna have a trash man at all! so consider my delightful surprise when riku, who i thought was going to be a relatively boring, straight-laced yanagi or dante-type route, turned out to be an absolute gremlin. it's totally understandable why people hate him - i mean, the hidden camera blackmail fiasco is v much an unforgiveable act, and that doesn't even cover this man's numerous other crimes. but the 'public menace' love interest archetype is my absolute favourite and i was eating all of his shenanigans up without an ounce of shame. on top of that, this route was especially tropey in comparison to the others, and i had a blast with it.
yukito, however, is were the writing really shined. he was amazing from start to finish, and out of all the characters, it was by far the most satisfying to watch him grow and mature over the course of his route. the way he uses his playboy persona to his benefit in the industry, his sharp perception of other people, his strong desire to break into the acting world and the clever steps he took towards making that transition possible - it all felt so unique to me, and even though i knew i was gonna love him before i started his route, i was still blown away by how genuine and delightful he came across. the writers really said 'lets get ourselves a flirty archetype but make it different' and then they did. plus, this route has kirari, the seemingly cliche 'overly and unjustifiably territorial fangirl' who is simply not that at all. they gave her so much more dimension than that, and she's the best and i love her and i'll fight anyone who says otherwise.
eiichirou's route is a big old Yikes and deserves to be thrown out of a window, but at least it's barely a route at all. i can't believe a game with such an emphasis on family jumped through a gazillion contrived loopholes just so that they could force this tiny, clunky romantic plotline between chiyuki and her 'tecnhically not a brother'. listen here buddy - in the wise words of klaus hargreeves: 'if you have to say 'technically', you're already in trouble'. what a missed opportunity to forge a really sweet family bond between them after solving the Big Mystery of chiyuki's father. the Big Mystery, might i remind you, that was such an integral, pervading element of the whole game.
big old Yikes aside, i consumed this game in three days and thoroughly adored it. given the association with my humble otome beginnings, it's also rather special in the way it prompts me to look back at the otome community and how far its come - the me of 2012 would never have believed that ten years down the line, otome english releases would be rolling in at a dime a dozen and would have a prospering, dedicated fanbase surrounding them. i think she'd go into shock if she saw the present me sitting on the sofa with my friends, none of whom play otome games, and introducing them to each of the initial love interests so that they can indulge me with their initial impressions of each character. there's a warm fuzziness attached to this game, related to both its contents and my nostalgia, and i'd love to see it get more attention.
I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this one! I really needed something lighthearted when I got this one and it delivered! It also had me laughing hysterically the whole time. I normally don’t like “pretend” romances but it didn’t bother me here, for whatever reason! Sometimes the plot points are a bit silly but I knew that going into this one so I wasn’t too annoyed. I’m not sure I can pick a favorite LI cause they really are all so different! I know for sure that Sena is my least favorite but he still really charmed me toward the end of his route! I have a little bit of a bias toward Kazuma cause I’m also a beautician, plus I am a MAJOR sucker for the childhood friends to lovers trope. The music is also a BOP, the extra features after completing each route were really cute and fun, and the artwork is really lovely! I really liked the protagonist too; I felt like the writers did a good job of balancing her shyness while not being a pushover.
This review contains spoilers
An enjoyable common route deceives you into liking every LI until you enter the guy's route and it becomes a trash fire with last minute character revelations that changes up the dynamics of the relationship, not to mention some really asinine drama.
Special mention to the amazing art, its clean and with pleasant colors.
I enjoyed Yukito and Harumi's routes. The others can go burn in a trashfire. Asagi in particular was offendingly either boring or wtf am I reading. The main mystery is solved by way of 7 minute of an info dump on one route and promptly conveniently forgotten in the others (as it gets in the way of the romance) until maybe a 1 line acknowledgment later.
Great common route, Yukito and Harumi are best boys, even though Harumi's route also suffers the 'dumb drama' syndrome.
Special mention to the amazing art, its clean and with pleasant colors.
I enjoyed Yukito and Harumi's routes. The others can go burn in a trashfire. Asagi in particular was offendingly either boring or wtf am I reading. The main mystery is solved by way of 7 minute of an info dump on one route and promptly conveniently forgotten in the others (as it gets in the way of the romance) until maybe a 1 line acknowledgment later.
Great common route, Yukito and Harumi are best boys, even though Harumi's route also suffers the 'dumb drama' syndrome.
This review contains spoilers
i finally finshed the game! took me longer than expected because of a certain route...
first things first, my play order was: kazuma -> riku -> harumi -> yukito -> teacher (doesn't deserve to be named tbh)
and now actual ranking of how much i liked each route (and/or the guy): harumi = yukito > kazuma > the random trashcan in the outside area > riku > (...) > teacher
okay, before i talk about the guys i want to express my love for the MC! chiyuki is very pretty and she's overall amazing personality wise too, for the most part. the only times were i'd have issues with her is because of the fact that her personality changes correspondingly to a route, so the trashier the guy is, the more lenient chiyuki gets. (cause otherwise there would not be any possibility for a relationship with some of them ngl...). but i still love her a lot, i was just sad that she would let them get away with some of the stuff they did to her...
also i love that this game doesn't villainize its female characters! they are always met with understanding and all of them are befriend-able by chiyuki! i especially loved kirari! (and seemingly so does chiyuki based on the additional scene :D)
ok so now the actual plot: chiyuki is a collage studant who wants to become a screenwriter. she also wants to find out who is her father. she becomes her teacher's assistant and thanks to that she gets opportunity to talk to sons of the potential suspects. (you probably can see how this can go wrong, right?)
now onto the guys starting with...! (i'll go in play order)
kazuma - he's a cheerful guy who happens to be MC's best friend. playing through his route made me discover how much i actually like golden retriever-like characters hahah you open the box, and who do you see? kazuma. you watch the only animated part in the whole game, and who is it? kazuma. so with how much this game seemingly loves him you would believe they give him time and effort. you would think. kazuma's route is for sure the messiest when it comes to plot. at least you don't have to worry at any time that he's your brother... it seems the writers started throwing darts and a board and any plot point it landed on they gave to kazuma... questionable. if you want to save yourself a headache, play the GOOD ending and then stop. HAPPY ending? what happy ending... he definitely has great CGs but he's a make-up artist, and there's not a single CG of him putting make-up on chiyuki! (that's just disappointing...) this is the route where i realized that the pretend in the title doesn't just apply to the fake dating trope but also to the personalities of the characters.
riku - ah, mr. trash himself. i guess that's what makes him popular (explore trash in fiction so you don't have to date trash irl.. quite smart!). firstly - the plot magically forgets that he can be your brother (it remembers at the very end of the game). his CGs are beautiful! and what a waste it is... honestly, this route is more like riku getting a babysitter for himself, rather than falling in love. at least in the teacher's route, you get payed for your babysitting activities. he also randomly sends you off on a date with yukito and then proceeds to get mad at you because you went (huh?) i took the most screenshots playing this route because i couldn't believe my eyes with what i'm reading. he asks chiyuki to pretend date him, she says she will think about it, and then he just forces her to do it anyway (what a gentleman!) he even blackmails her (what a gentleman!) then the game suddenly treats it as if both riku and chiyuki can gain from this arrangement (questionable) (why is the game gaslighting me) honestly i could keep talking but it only gets worse from this point onward so i'll spare my complaining. bad route, boo! (beautiful cgs! woo!)
harumi - god i love him. he's so cute! so precious! probably the closest to my type irl too. and ohhh i loved his voice!
oh and you already learn during the prologue that he is, in fact, not your brother.
harumi is an otaku, and here i mean - otaku by western standards, he's obsessed with anime. also i LOVE chiyuki in his route, here's quote that i think is too funny:
harumi: (talks about people he looks up to)
chiyuki: "(your neck must be stiff from looking up to all those people.)"
amazing.
every once in a while he will give you the tsundere treatment too... "it's not like i care about you!" cute! and his cgs! ahhh! so lovely!! in comparison with others, his route is definitely not as much of a rollercoaster but! i think his personality is well enough to carry it.
yukito - here comes yukito! who i thought i would hate but... he did steal my heart! chiyuki in his route is also amazing, first thing she does is slap his hand off after he becomes too touchy with her (good for her!) the game tries to convince you yukito is a womanizer but... yeah that's a lie. something that i noticed while playing other routes is how useful yukito was. i called him a genius on multiple occasions. he just somehow always knows what to say, and he never tried to steal chiyuki away from anyone. and in comparison i'd say, aside from kazuma, he probably likes her for the longest too. chiyuki is very assertive in his route, i'm very glad i played him as last because this is exactly what i needed! the dialogue has to be my favorite during this route too. it's also a route with kirari! i honestly wished that maybe there would be a branch here where you could just have (at least) a friendship-route with kirari.
here's something i didn't like:
1."i'm glad your not my sister too" as he grabs your face (why is it so icky lmao) (i couldn't help but laugh)
2.why did they dye his hair...
and that's it. i wish he would have more closer cgs with chiyuki but! you can't have everything. (and his cgs are still very good!)
and now for the reason why it took me so long to finish this game... drum roll..........
teacher - eh. he's creepy. the age gap made me uncomfortable then you add the fact that he is her teacher and superior (she works as an assistant!) and finally... they incest bait you. i wish i was kidding. and they still express romantic feelings while thinking they are siblings... (what is happening) they talk about it as if the only thing stopping them is the society (make it stop...) another problem... he tells chiyuki and one point but BEFORE he tells her, he acts flirty with her. huh. but he believes that she's his sister!!! shouldn't he at least try to stay away from her like that??? what!! and then he kisses her in her sleep after telling her. amazing. thankfully this route is rather short. but i suffered every second of it anyway.
i only played it for that completion... oh well. i did it.
final thoughts: it's a good rom-com. it's not too serious. it keeps forgetting the main plot (learning who chiyuki's father is). do i recommend playing it? sure. but is this going to change your life? not really.
first things first, my play order was: kazuma -> riku -> harumi -> yukito -> teacher (doesn't deserve to be named tbh)
and now actual ranking of how much i liked each route (and/or the guy): harumi = yukito > kazuma > the random trashcan in the outside area > riku > (...) > teacher
okay, before i talk about the guys i want to express my love for the MC! chiyuki is very pretty and she's overall amazing personality wise too, for the most part. the only times were i'd have issues with her is because of the fact that her personality changes correspondingly to a route, so the trashier the guy is, the more lenient chiyuki gets. (cause otherwise there would not be any possibility for a relationship with some of them ngl...). but i still love her a lot, i was just sad that she would let them get away with some of the stuff they did to her...
also i love that this game doesn't villainize its female characters! they are always met with understanding and all of them are befriend-able by chiyuki! i especially loved kirari! (and seemingly so does chiyuki based on the additional scene :D)
ok so now the actual plot: chiyuki is a collage studant who wants to become a screenwriter. she also wants to find out who is her father. she becomes her teacher's assistant and thanks to that she gets opportunity to talk to sons of the potential suspects. (you probably can see how this can go wrong, right?)
now onto the guys starting with...! (i'll go in play order)
kazuma - he's a cheerful guy who happens to be MC's best friend. playing through his route made me discover how much i actually like golden retriever-like characters hahah you open the box, and who do you see? kazuma. you watch the only animated part in the whole game, and who is it? kazuma. so with how much this game seemingly loves him you would believe they give him time and effort. you would think. kazuma's route is for sure the messiest when it comes to plot. at least you don't have to worry at any time that he's your brother... it seems the writers started throwing darts and a board and any plot point it landed on they gave to kazuma... questionable. if you want to save yourself a headache, play the GOOD ending and then stop. HAPPY ending? what happy ending... he definitely has great CGs but he's a make-up artist, and there's not a single CG of him putting make-up on chiyuki! (that's just disappointing...) this is the route where i realized that the pretend in the title doesn't just apply to the fake dating trope but also to the personalities of the characters.
riku - ah, mr. trash himself. i guess that's what makes him popular (explore trash in fiction so you don't have to date trash irl.. quite smart!). firstly - the plot magically forgets that he can be your brother (it remembers at the very end of the game). his CGs are beautiful! and what a waste it is... honestly, this route is more like riku getting a babysitter for himself, rather than falling in love. at least in the teacher's route, you get payed for your babysitting activities. he also randomly sends you off on a date with yukito and then proceeds to get mad at you because you went (huh?) i took the most screenshots playing this route because i couldn't believe my eyes with what i'm reading. he asks chiyuki to pretend date him, she says she will think about it, and then he just forces her to do it anyway (what a gentleman!) he even blackmails her (what a gentleman!) then the game suddenly treats it as if both riku and chiyuki can gain from this arrangement (questionable) (why is the game gaslighting me) honestly i could keep talking but it only gets worse from this point onward so i'll spare my complaining. bad route, boo! (beautiful cgs! woo!)
harumi - god i love him. he's so cute! so precious! probably the closest to my type irl too. and ohhh i loved his voice!
oh and you already learn during the prologue that he is, in fact, not your brother.
harumi is an otaku, and here i mean - otaku by western standards, he's obsessed with anime. also i LOVE chiyuki in his route, here's quote that i think is too funny:
harumi: (talks about people he looks up to)
chiyuki: "(your neck must be stiff from looking up to all those people.)"
amazing.
every once in a while he will give you the tsundere treatment too... "it's not like i care about you!" cute! and his cgs! ahhh! so lovely!! in comparison with others, his route is definitely not as much of a rollercoaster but! i think his personality is well enough to carry it.
yukito - here comes yukito! who i thought i would hate but... he did steal my heart! chiyuki in his route is also amazing, first thing she does is slap his hand off after he becomes too touchy with her (good for her!) the game tries to convince you yukito is a womanizer but... yeah that's a lie. something that i noticed while playing other routes is how useful yukito was. i called him a genius on multiple occasions. he just somehow always knows what to say, and he never tried to steal chiyuki away from anyone. and in comparison i'd say, aside from kazuma, he probably likes her for the longest too. chiyuki is very assertive in his route, i'm very glad i played him as last because this is exactly what i needed! the dialogue has to be my favorite during this route too. it's also a route with kirari! i honestly wished that maybe there would be a branch here where you could just have (at least) a friendship-route with kirari.
here's something i didn't like:
1."i'm glad your not my sister too" as he grabs your face (why is it so icky lmao) (i couldn't help but laugh)
2.why did they dye his hair...
and that's it. i wish he would have more closer cgs with chiyuki but! you can't have everything. (and his cgs are still very good!)
and now for the reason why it took me so long to finish this game... drum roll..........
teacher - eh. he's creepy. the age gap made me uncomfortable then you add the fact that he is her teacher and superior (she works as an assistant!) and finally... they incest bait you. i wish i was kidding. and they still express romantic feelings while thinking they are siblings... (what is happening) they talk about it as if the only thing stopping them is the society (make it stop...) another problem... he tells chiyuki and one point but BEFORE he tells her, he acts flirty with her. huh. but he believes that she's his sister!!! shouldn't he at least try to stay away from her like that??? what!! and then he kisses her in her sleep after telling her. amazing. thankfully this route is rather short. but i suffered every second of it anyway.
i only played it for that completion... oh well. i did it.
final thoughts: it's a good rom-com. it's not too serious. it keeps forgetting the main plot (learning who chiyuki's father is). do i recommend playing it? sure. but is this going to change your life? not really.