Alright, now that I have introduced a grim reality onto you, let’s meet our next beauty, Marie Mahler. As name suggests, Marie isn’t from Japan, and no she isn’t half-Japanese. Marie is from Grecyria, a European nation in the midst of a civil war. Her admiration for Japanese culture led her to Koenji in an effort to see everything she loved from afar in person. She’s a very talented illustrator who’s now been contracted by Eureka Soft to work on the studio’s next game. While her background is certainly filled with mystery, her passion for the current project is evident. Her unwavering conviction makes for a worthwhile ally in the workplace, but her straightforward approach might be a little too much for Ai’s pure heart. Nevertheless, her illustrations are otherworldly. Seeing her art come to life in this first project will be phenomenal.
After getting my heart thrown all over the place by Nana’s route, I genuinely had no idea what to expect for Marie’s route. Throughout the common route, I saw a strong woman, physically and mentally, who knew how to have fun. Was I to continue spiraling down into madness at the hands of our third scenario writer, Maoto Nishikawa? The answer is a resounding yes. While there are no struggles with deadlines or being hired per se in this route, the problems here are on a bigger scale. How big are we talking? How about on an international scale? Throughout this route, I remember echoing the same statement over and over: I just want these cute girls to make a cute game in peace. It was with this route that I realized Yumeutsutsu Re:Master isn’t just your average yuri game. This is the craziest piece of literature I’ve ever read.
After going slightly insane reading the previous two routes, it’s time to introduce the real star: Kokoro Yanagiya. The famous little sister who cut off all contact with you three years ago. Back when she was younger, she was the cutest darn thing imaginable. The sibling love between them is magical which makes the falling out all the more outrageous. A girl that was once so cute now acts so coldly towards her older sister. She has no time to fool around as she’s now the director of the upcoming project. She’s 19 years old. Needless to say, she’s got the toughest job of the funky bunch. Therefore, the stress she’s going through is unreal. She always had a love for games so landing a job in this industry seemed like a no-brainer. However, she’s very adamant about this one in particular becoming a reality. She really needs this.
At last, we reach the route with the most question marks. What happened three years ago? Why does she hate us? These questions and so many more are to be answered by the fourth scenario writer Hio Kousaka, who also built the bridge to get here known as the common route. By the time you get to this point you’ll think you’ve seen it all. No, literally, all the theatrics you’d never expect in a game about cute girls making games. However, I’m sorry to say, it’s all a setup for the most insane sequence of events that I’ve witnessed on my nearly 25 years on this planet. The wild ride known as Kokoro’s route has so many ups and downs that it would turn all the amusement park roller-coasters into practical jokes. Yet, it was a familiar feeling. Why? Because the writer did Nurse Love Addiction, coming full circle.
Four scenario writers teamed up to create the most insane story I’ve read to date. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, I started playing Yumeutsutsu Re:Master simply for the promise of girl on girl romance. However, while there is an ample amount of intimate moments between girls, it wasn’t the focus. The spotlight was set on a bizarre group of stories in an unforgiving world under the mask of cute girls making games. I expected New Game, but I got something darker and I love it. Furthermore, more than the writing itself, the art and especially the voice acting shine here. Over the course of my playthrough, I found myself repeating the lines out of pure ecstasy. The voice actors did a fantastic job giving life to both the painful and romantic CGs. I couldn’t stop reading from beginning to end.
Choices in multi-route visual novels are common, it’s their significance that determines the value of a given situation. If you’re to look at a route guide for Yumeutsutsu Re:Master, a lot of these choices seem nonsensical. Key word being “seem”. The team at Kogado creates a false sense of security with some of the early choices in the game’s prologue then steadily increases their intensity when you’re locked in. The same can be said for a lot of the game’s direction as it steers you through a bunch of symbolism and the like to bring you full circle for a complete experience. By the time I got to the end, and even now while writing, there are pieces of the story sinking into place. It’s such an eerie experience that I would never expect, but welcome wholeheartedly. In short, every detail matters here.
In an effort to diversify my review experience, I did play Yumeutsutsu Re:Master on Nintendo Switch. It’s a weird experience, but definitely the platform of choice for max comfort reading. You can tell a bit more love went towards the console version of the release as technicalities such as the UI look cleaner here. Unfortunately, some features will be missing including a skip to next choice for the good reader that intends to read all of the routes. Furthermore, the lack of subtitles for the bonus voice content makes me furious. In the end, it’s a trade-off between comfort and optimization. On the subject of subtitling, the script translated by Degica was truly exceptional. For a script such as bizarre as this one, I expect to find myself getting lost quite often, but everything was handled perfectly. In addition, some of the cuter scenes stood out because of the translation.
Yumeutsutsu Re:Master is the most insane yuri visual novel I’ve read. More than Nurse Love Syndrome. Kogado and Degica continue to prove themselves as the dynamic duo that deliver emotionally heavy scripts in the unlikeliest of settings. The exceptional voice work and character art makes this a feast for the eyes and ears. I was personally on the hook from beginning to end and I long for more. Thankfully, we have Yumeutsutsu Re:After to look forward to. However, there’s an elephant in the room that we need to address: the price. It’s hard for me to convince you to spend $64.99 on this visual novel. I’ll never forget the 25 hours I’ve spent reading this. The problem is that it was only 25 hours. Should the game’s price ever dip to the same as its Nurse counterpart, I’ll wholeheartedly recommend it. Until then, wait for a sale.
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Game provided by publisher for review purposes.
