The anonymous protagonist is diagnosed with a terminal illness shortly after his twentieth birthday, and is admitted to a hospital in Mito, Ibaraki. There he meets Setsumi, a woman a few years older, who is also terminally ill. Finding that they both reject to die either in hospital or at home, they steal a car and run away together.
From VNDB
I dunno if I should review here 2nd Part, or not, but I think this one will be about the 1st Narcissu, just ’cause they are diff. stuff.
I’m not really the crying type, I barely cry in any movies that people talk about crying (unless it’s animals dying, then I’m sobbing all over), but this one hit me right in the damn ovaries. I’d heard a lot about how it was a sad, depressing, melancholic type of game, and made peeps cry. I shrugged that off, as usual, and went and played it because it was free and so highly regarded.
Man, was it a trip (pun intended) that was well worth it. I sobbed like a looney in the end, which was amazing and broke my heart into little atoms ;_; And I also promised myself I wouldn’t read the 2nd one, because the 3rd one is not free and finishes the story and I don’t even know Japanese yet to go and read these things :C
I loved the mood, tbh, even if it was depressive and kinda “I’ve given up hope”, in the end, they didn’t. They had hope till the bitter end, and it was both beautiful and tragic. I’m so glad Narcissu is coming to Steam, all da hoes need to experience this game. Even if it makes them depressed, cry for a couple hours and stuff (coughwhichIdidcough).
For a free game, the voices really carried a lot of emotion, the writing (at least the translation) was really good, the atmosphere-like movie because of the graphics was really nice and different, the music was always there to pull the wrench on me ;_;
I must admit, I kept thinking this would be all fine and miraculous. Power of love, of friendship, something, heck, anything! Nope, I appreciate it for that, too, and so I went and played the 2nd one, and got more feels destroyed ._.
The reason I’m not gonna talk about 2nd part, is ’cause I wanna talk a bit about the 1st characters and don’t wanna make a gigantic post~
Setsumi was an interesting character. She’d given up all hope of not dying on the hospital, nor home because of the constraints for her parents, when Protag comes to the ward. Both terminal characters, you know that from the beginning, any mahou shoujo miracles you expect, are solely based on the likability of the characters~
Following their decaying strength, and bodies, was surprisingly interesting and also mindblowing. Losing strength, reflexes, appetite, heck even mental power, was shocking. You never really realize how bad you’re until your own body fails you at the basics, like running, breathing, eating. It was daunting, and full of feels and I really dig Setsumi, and got so heartbroken seeing her burn out faster than the protag, because she’d been there longer and was closer to terminal I suppose ;~;
It also had a few “light” moments, where they try to enjoy their time while away from the Hospital, perhaps for the last time, in order to experience simple things like the ocean, the beach, eating ice-cream and feeling the sun on their skins. All da love that they never experienced .-.
This is not a dating-sim, or a love-love story, at all. Very grounded, realistic (in a painful way) and unapologetic about it all.
Have you heard about this game before? Have you played it? If so, I’d love to know what you think of it!
Among the Deep 