Akumade, Kore wa ~ no Monogatari (あくまで、これは～の物語) is a mystery and thriller visual novel developed by Azurite, released in 2018. This is a narrative-focused visual novel where solving the mystery is the main priority, while the romantic relationships between characters take on much less importance.

The story follows Jouichi, a young man who kept changing schools due to his parents' work and never really managed to make many friends. One of these friends, however, committed suicide a few years before the story began, and Jouichi never managed to uncover the truth behind why it happened.

Just as he is helping his childhood friend Emi with preparations for an upcoming summer festival, he decides to install a new chat app called NEEL, which is used by many people. Just as Emi tries to explain how it works, he receives a message on the app that appears to be sent from his deceased friend.

Trying to understand who sent this message and what they want with the protagonist and Emi is definitely part of the mystery, but it is purely the first step of a larger journey. Eventually, Jouichi gets involved with a serial bomber, the NEEL app itself, and other issues that may seem disconnected but are actually tightly linked.

The game can be divided into two main phases. The first focuses on the mystery, with Jouichi interacting with different girls. Each girl has her own route that follows an enforced playing order, revealing small pieces of the overall puzzle. There are Bad Ends that actually contain story content, so you will want to watch them to learn more about the truth.

The second phase starts the moment all the heroine routes are complete. The protagonist switches for the final route to reveal everything that happened in the story from another point of view. I cannot go into much detail without spoiling the actual revelation, but it felt cheap to me. It was hard to relate to a new protagonist this late in the process, and it watered down the first part altogether.

I understand what the author was trying to do, but it fell flat for me. I was extremely excited in the first few hours of the game as the mystery was building up, and I was eager to learn more while speculating about the possible culprits. However, once the mystery was revealed, my only reaction was, "That's it?"

The heroines of the story are:

Emi: The main heroine and childhood friend of Jouichi. She was hospitalized several years ago but is now completely cured, even though she tries not to overexert herself to avoid issues.

Kana: A physically small and quiet girl who lives in a secondhand bookstore. She has a lot of computer knowledge and is able to help Jouichi in the investigation using her skills.

Yukari: An "oneesan" (older sister type) character who attends university and is older than the others. She is friends with Emi and seems connected to some of the elements in the mystery.

Hinami: An extremely cheerful girl whom Jouichi meets during his work. She likes to be active and shows her emotions openly.

I do not think I bonded with any of the girls over the course of the story, but if I had to choose one, it would be Kana. She is a good girl who tries to do her best in any situation, and while some of her actions may seem overboard, she corrects her course quite quickly.

While the story has some good elements, I still cannot fully recommend it, as the payoff at the end is lackluster. But if you are still interested, give it a shot and see what happens.