Tester's Corner: DEARDROPS Ed. Vol. 1

First up, the Tuna Salad…

Imagine if you will, you were given a game to test and then, half a month later, a certain MMO (*cough* TOR *cough*) that you had been waiting for came out…Would you dedicate yourself to finishing your testing duties first before wasting away at yet another MMO or would you man up and chase that internet dragon to the ends of the galaxy?

Suffice it to say, about a week left before the scheduled end of the beta, I wasn’t through with the demo portion of the game yet, and that’s saying something since I also beta’d the demo half a year earlier…Oh and I had a Winter Break in there at some point…

If you must know, I finished testing a day early…

Barring Kara no Shoujo, which is on the alpha-omega tier of literary masterpieces, Deardrops has got to be the best VN I’ve played in a very long time. Usually, being forced to finish testing an entire game over the course of four days is terrible as there’s always disparaging bits of fluff that distract from the main story, but for Deardrops, the fluff is downright fun. In fact, I would argue that first-time players should start by getting the fluff out of the way before moving onto the main canonical story because that’s when things get serious and fluff after srs bsns is no fun.

I highly recommend that everyone starts with Rimu’s route because Rimu is awesome and if you’ve somehow made it through the common route without discovering this, you’re a terrible person and should fall off a cliff. Quite unfortunately, this means that Rimu’s route is one of the fluff stories and is quite short compared to the rest, but it’s Rimu, you can’t be expecting something profound from Rimu. It’s an all around feel-good route to start with.

Next up is Yayoi, the Queen of Plain. Most certainly not as fun as Rimu, Yayoi has her own set of charms that I will admit, grew on me as her quick and “plain” story went on. Barring any significant spoilers, let’s just say she had an accident that put her title as the Guitar Princess in jeopardy.

Next is none other than Kanade. Watching her fidget and blush her way to stardom is downright cute, especially when you consider that she’s not actually part of Deardrops. If I had to classify her story, I would say she serves as the foil for Deardrops, an alternate ending to the canonical story that I would have liked to see in a future spin off. Plus, her story involves the Deardrops Strip Club Watching Tour, which was hilarious for all the wrong reasons…

Finally, that leaves us with Riho, the firebrand of the crowd. Her route is the canonical story of Deardrops and rightfully so. Her story is without a doubt, the most enticing one in the whole series and the one you carry with you when you finally finish Deardrops. That’s why I say save Riho’s story for the end, not only is it the longest, but after you finish, you won’t be able to see some characters in the same light and it’ll spoil some of the other routes, should you not have already played them. Riho’s route features some of the best music in the game and served as the sole reason why I ending up importing all of the Deardrops albums…Yeah, that wasn’t cheap…

I, like many people, just figured Riho to  be a bitch at the beginning. Honestly, at the end she still is, but there’s a method to her madness and that madness just so happens to be the very essence of Deardrops. Now, with it all finally over, I can’t help but feel a little empty inside, with only my ipod set to Anytime, Anywhere to remind me of those four epic, sleepless days of Deardrops

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9 Comments

  1. Thanks for the route order reccomendation; I’ll get to playing ASAP…maybe it is a good thing I opted for the super saver shipping for Mass Effect 3

  2. I want to so read this, but with Kamidori recently getting a fan translation and my copy of neptunia mk2 getting here today….>_>

    but I have to admit after listening to the song that was linked my drive to want to read this has sky rocketed to say the least, god damn that song was nice…

  3. I absolutely agree with your suggestion in doing Riho’s route last. It was the most amazing route out of all of them, and I don’t think I’ll be forgetting it anytime soon. Some people keep comparing this game to Kira Kira, which I think is wrong, as to me this game was something totally different. It was more like the first part of Kira Kira, which I loved more than the 2nd half. Whether it’s because I love music and this game focused on it so much, or that I simply loved the story and characters, I think this game is worth playing millions of times! ^_^

  4. I want to see the Deardrops VS D2b fandisc get translated sometime in the future, I think it takes place a few years after Riho’s ending.
    Which has better songs:
    D2b or Deardrops?

  5. Wow. What a coincidence. This was exactly how I planned out the route order while in the common route. I just finished Rimu’s route and she is awesome. She’s one of my favorite VN heroines.

  6. Kind of wish I’d read this before going through the game in a Riho -> Kanade -> Rimu -> Yayoi order. :p

    After going through the “srs bsns” of Riho followed by the alternative ending of Kanade. Going fluffy Rimu next ended up being a bit of a let-down, despite her being awesome. I ended up thinking I saw the best of her… in Riho’s route. ^^;

    Finishing up with “plain Yayoi” worked surprisingly well though, after going through the rest of the game… gave the impression that this was a hidden gem. 🙂

  7. raincoat superstar

    My original plan was to do Riho’s route first. I was, and still am, as enchanted as Shoichi is with her striking looks and that intangible SOMETHING she possesses, and couldn’t imagine wanting to go for anyone else.

    Then I read this post, which convinced me that perhaps I should leave her until last. So I’m going for Rimu (who, as luck would have it, is indeed awesome) first instead.

  8. i just finish it and i was hoping for a part two i hope you can make a part two

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