Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou - Mizuho route complete! Drama! Now onward to Luna.

I just finished Mizuho's route in the visual novel Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou (月に寄りそう乙女の作法). While still entertaining, I must admit it was a step down in terms of development compared to the excellent Yuushe route we discussed in the previous post.

Unlike in Yuushe's route, where Asahi's identity as a male is revealed almost immediately and is not much of a problem, here it festers and becomes the central point of the story. Mizuho receives a huge shock after being led to discover the truth through the usual machinations of Aeon.

This is understandable, considering that Mizuho's fear of men is one of the focal points of her personality; it is so severe that her attendant, Hokuto, dresses as a male to try and help her get used to them. I can also understand why she would feel betrayed by Asahi, who stayed near her at all times claiming to be her "best friend" while hiding such an important secret.

The issue is that you cannot base the entire route around that conflict because it feels more like a side quest than a main narrative. The problem is also solved without much of a hurdle; Mizuho goes quickly from "happy friends" to "depressed" and then directly to "lovers" without a significant event to justify it.

I also feel that Hokuto's character as an attendant was not developed much compared to Sasha in Yuushe's route. She has only a single scene (admittedly a cute one) where she plays an important role, and then she fades into the background, becoming completely irrelevant to the story.

This is, in some ways, a repeat of what I felt in Minato's route, and I wonder if these were meant to be considered "minor routes" from the start. Even Aeon's involvement was extremely limited this time around, consisting of just a small machination at the beginning and no real interaction with Asahi aside from a phone call.

The most damning part was that I ended up liking Luna and Yuushe more in this route, despite them not being the focus heroines and having relatively little screen time. Yuushe, as usual, was the girl who kept the mood up even in the most dramatic moments, making it hard to even feel there was any drama in the first place.

Luna comforting Asahi after he was discovered by Mizuho was also extremely cute, and it shows how much she really hides under the persona she uses in front of others. I am genuinely curious if she becomes deredere once she falls in love with Asahi in her route and how their relationship will develop from there. Apparently, there are two possible endings for Luna: one with Asahi ending up as her lover and one ending up as her maid.

Regardless, we are in the final stages of this visual novel. I will now move on to playing Luna's route and complete the game with the post-route side stories for each heroine. Stay tuned for a final post on this visual novel soon, and then I will decide what to tackle next!