Dreamy Planet

Dreamy Planet is ebi-hime's best VN so far. It's a yuri VN about a familiar story of modern life dealing with everyday issues and relationships. The vast majority of the game is melancholic and dreary. It is expertly told and I felt stressed at all times, which was a welcome surprise. The titular abandoned theme park serves both as backdrop and a well-fitting simile of the heroines' shared past. The events of which are mostly alluded to, but not clearly spoken about until much later. The protagonist is a mid-twenties woman named Haruka. I love tragic heroines, and this one doesn't disappoint. She has a thin, insubstantial existence, full of nothingness and self-loathing. Haruka radiates sadness, sucking the joy out of even the most trivial conversations. The game describes her thus: ebi-hime said: She was like a jar that had once been filled with sweets. Now, the sweets were gone, but the jar was left behind: pretty, perhaps, but unnecessary. Click to expand... Haruka is unemployed, stuck in an oppressive life, and engaged to a man who, while decent, is resoundingly unremarkable and brings no joy to her life. Those are all intentional choices for Haruka, but her internal narration betrays her real feelings. Statements like Haruka said: Mahiro was nice and inoffensive in every regard, like rice porridge: edible enough when there was nothing else to eat, but not something anybody would crave of their own accord. Click to expand... and Haruka said: Every time she and Mahiro were together, his fingers against her hip and his breath on her neck, Haruka wished she could slide out of her own skin and run. Click to expand... are peppered throughout. Shiina, the other lead, is the polar opposite. An older woman and a former goth girl, she is bright, vibrant, and relentlessly optimistic despite working a demanding job, going through her own difficulties and harbouring some pain and resentment towards Haruka. The game is about their single day reunion after years apart, where they visit a theme park from their childhood. There is so much I could - and would like to - say, but this story is best experienced blind so I will control myself. There is one, solitary sex scene, which is perhaps the most intimate I've read in a while. It's one of those religious sexual experiences that last both forever and no time at all. At one point, I was unexpectedly confronted by credits rolling. I was distressed. ebi-hime certainly knows how to twist the knife when you're already anxious. Luckily, the credits were not the end and the story continued for a while afterwards. Which brings me to the ending. It was... interesting. It wouldn't be my first choice, but it was clever and sidestepped an easier (and IMHO worse) option, so I'm happy with it. I recommend everyone to give it a shot, and please do remember to read the unlocked notes after finishing the story.