Well hello again everyone! What? What’s that? You’re surprised to see me back with another post about Hourglass of Summer? You thought i was done after posting one route? Oh. oh no. Far from it. We’re doing this. This game’s sat in obscurity for far too long! So let’s do this! What do you say Ligene?
Oh… oh my.
So if you read my last post (if you didn’t for shame) you know the general idea of the story. If you don’t then here’s the basic premise in a nutshell. You get covered in weird magical dust by a person in a trenchcoat, you begin to travel in time randomly in a 2 month time period. You’re trying to save a girl from dying by doing so. There you go. If you want a detailed plot, read my previous post.
Have you ever played a game with a dating aspect where you can tell they just threw in an additional romance? Like, you can tell it was additional. It doesn’t have nearly as much development as the rest but it’s there. (cough persona 4 Yumi cough)
Which brings us to anothhherrrrr class with Hideki!
(Class cheers)
Long story short, this romance kinda feels like that. it almost feels like that romance that they don’t think anyone’s going to pick, so they make it a bit quicker, and a little less overall polished. Which is sad, because by itself, this is a pretty good romance.
Here’s something you may not know. Hourglass of Summer actually got a 2 episode OVA called “Natsuiro no Sunadokei”. In it, they changed the art and they had to compress a 30 hour game into 2 episodes so…yeah.. it didn’t turn out fantastic. However, one thing they DID do that really upset me was they turned Ligene into a Tsundere. She is NOT a Tsundere. I guess with their limitations on time to expand upon her character they had to give her a quirk instead. But it was a bad quirk. She’s not a tsundere, she’s not a jerk. She just has trouble knowing how to act around people because she was born and raised as a time cop. (for god’s sake she has a parfait for the first time and it looks like she’s going to have an orgasm)
So as you travel along with her to help her save Kaho,and by association all the other girls’ lives, not because you love any of them, but because it’s the right thing to do. Even the girl Kaho that your originally loved you realize that it was more of a fascination than actual love. Towards the end of the game, you ask Ligene for a favor, and it’s obvious her affection for you has grown over the weeks you’ve spent together, so she asks you to take her on a date in return. You agree and if you haven’t picked any of the other girls yet (and made the right choices) you can go on this date with her. It’s amusing because apparently she’s so beautiful in this world that people think they’re shooting a movie when you’re on your date
Eventually you make it back to your room. She thanks you for the date but also wants to try kissing for the first time. So you oblige.
In the adult version she wants to try coughother things…but…..this is the clean version.
It’s then that she tells you how much she enjoyed her time with you and how she wishes she could stay and gives you a teary goodbye.
It’s at this point in the game, you get one more choice. You can decide to either let her go, or tell her that you basically need her and don’t want her to leave. If you choose THIS option, something sweet, yet also hilarious happens. She leaves, but comes back and informs you that….and I kid you not, she pulled some strings, and you are now her time traveling cop assistant. It’s adorable as it is hilarious.
The game then ends with you going off on a wacky adventure with Ligene in time.
How should I put it about this route? This route is very cute. If you don’t want to have heavy handed romance with Mana, Kaho, Ai, or the teacher, this is the one i recommend. There is not a lot of drama in this one. Ligene has this energy about her that’s contagious. She’s funny, clever, yet also scared and innocent. That’s one of the reasons i was so mad they made her into a tsundere in the anime. Because they tried to oversimplify her into a stereotype that she wasn’t even in the first place.
While this route may feel a tad bit rushed at the end, it’s still a solid route. Really, the only issue I have with this route is that I wish there was a little MORE romance. For something so cute and adorable, they sure slapped it on at the end.
Even all that said, I really do enjoy this route. It’s cute, fun, and goddamn it….now I really want a parfait…..
Where the hell can I get a parfait at 10:45pm on a Monday? (grabs car keys)
Oh, right. a score. Yeah. Ligene’s route gets a 9/10. So go play it! (runs out the door to look for an all night Parfait place)
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Gah fuck you guys, I’m seriously not showing you the porn!
Hideki