An ex-terminally-ill Korean AI girl from the distant future used this game to emotionally blackmail me into making an actual honest-to-god IRL cake. 10/10 would recommend.

(Basically, it's the Portal 2 to Analogue's Portal. If you like actual engaging characters (instead of flat VN stereotypes), moral ambiguity, tragedy, mostly fanservice-free lesbian and gay relationships, futuristic spaceship dystopias, political maneuvering, reading other people's letters, or cake, buy this game. You won't regret it.)

God damn it, *Mute.

A word of warning: If you're easily depressed or heartbroken, DO NOT play this game on *Mute's route. To everyone else, enjoy, but be warned it'll be a pretty disturbing journey. I rarely recommend games, but this one is definitely worth it.

...damn it, *Mute...

Oh, *Hyun-ae, let's solve mysteries together forever~

Hate Plus is a fantastic... something between a visual novel and a kinetic novel. Both this game and it's predecessor, Analogue, aren't a tangled spiderweb mess of routes, choices, decisions, Good and Bad Ends. There aren't many branching decision points in these games (Hate Plus doesn't even really have any), which kind of removes a lot of their "gaminess." That's okay with me; the visual/kinetic novel genre exists somewhere in the digital melting pot between traditional literature, comic books and video games. That's pretty great, in my opinion.

I won't go into the story because it would be rife with spoilers, but I'll talk some about the game itself. Hate Plus is even more linear than Analogue, which is okay. The bulk of the "gameplay" is spent reading over recovered logs from the derelict generation ship Mugunghwa. You've got the assistance of whichever AI you either choose or carry over from your Analogue clear data. Depending on the choices made in Analogue or when starting a new game, you may have a different relationship with either *Hyun-ae or *Mute.

The meat of the game's story is told through the logs and the AI's commentary on the logs. Because your ship was damaged somehow, you have a limited amount of data you can sift through every 12 hours, which forces the game to be played over a period of at least 39-ish real-time hours (though you can circumvent this, but the author will call you a "jerkface"). Every time you read through six logs or read a log that's very significant to the plot, your AI partner will want to discuss something with you. Depending on your progress, this could either be a discussion about your relationship or about the mystery of the Mugunghwa's reversion to a primitive Neo-Joseon culture. Occasionally you'll receive a message from your employer or other people, usually while you are extracting new data from the encrypted logs.

And that's pretty much the extent of the gameplay. There really isn't much "game" here; it's entirely about the narrative. And that's okay. The narrative is excellent; Christine Love is a fantastic writer. As a writer myself, she makes me jealous. The logs and your progress through them are carefully metered so you're slowly drip-fed the main story while seemingly being distracted by random bits and pieces that don't seem relevant. They become very relevant later.

The plot itself, like its predecessor, is seriously messed up stuff interspersed with little rejuvenating isles of humor and heartwarming. While I was going through the game (I was playing *Hyun-ae's route; I intend to finish *Mute's route eventually) there were many points where I desperately welcomed *Hyun-ae's insistence that we stop and chat. Some of the stories you read in the logs are soul-crushingly sad. Spending time "talking" with *Hyun-ae and her generally ridiculous levels of adorable sweetness balanced out the intense tragedy of the story from the past. I haven't completely finished *Mute's route, but her "breather episodes" seem to largely be composed of humor (and that's great, too). As the plot progressed further and further, the hopelessness of many past characters' situations started to press heavily upon me, drawing me deeper and deeper into the self-contained world and its terrible drama.

That isn't to say Hate Plus doesn't have problems. It has problems. The "real-life" time limit is my biggest personal gripe, even though you can circumvent it. As a general rule I hate it when games try to control the rate at which I play them. I can't stand turn limits, limited numbers of saves, save points, diminishing returns on experience points gain (I especially hate daily quests in MMOs, but that's a rant for another day). My second-biggest problem was the UI seemed to be very sluggish in responding to my mouse commands. Scrolling through the logs seemed to take far more "spins" of my mouse wheel than I would need to execute to scroll a web page in Chrome, for example. I was spinning the mouse wheel so much my index finger started to get a little numb! I tried lots of keyboard keys in an attempt to find some other way to scroll, but nothing seemed to work. Trying to grab the slider didn't work, either. Occasionally clicks on UI elements wouldn't register. I don't think these issues were part of the "interface screw" from the ship's low power and damage.

A lot of people seem to have another major gripe: the infamous "cake" sequence in *Hyun-ae's route. To be honest, I actually loved this part. Partly because I really did find it completely, adorably cute, and partly because it gave me a brief respite from the soul-crushingly depressing things I was reading. I happened to be playing at 3AM, but I still went in the kitchen and made a cake (it was pretty tasty, so it worked out). I understand why the developer chose to add this, and I can understand and appreciate why people would be annoyed by it, but I really loved the fact that it was in the game.

Hate Plus is a fantastic visual novel and I'd recommend it to almost anyone, especially fans of science fiction. The plot will make very little sense if you haven't played Analogue, however, so I recommend buying them both and playing them both. Don't let the poor "hours of play per dollar" ratio scare you off; there's some really great story here!

I will warn you though that if you suffer from massive testosterone poisoning, you will probably find both games to be very uncomfortable. Both can be aggressively girly, especially on *Hyun-ae's routes. For me, that's a big win. The gaming industry as a whole is completely dominated by titles that are aggressively hypermasculine. It's nice to have something that more caters to my side of things.

Most of us take it for granted that our society is getting ever more liberal. But if you look at various cultures throughout history, there are actually many instances of relatively egalitarian societies slowly morphing into socially stratified class systems, often drastically reducing the quality of life for a large segment of the population. Few people talk about the fact that this is something that can happen, and even fewer talk about why.

This is just one of the many uncomfortable questions that Hate Plus, the sequel to Analogue: A Hate Story, raises.

Originally planned as DLC before morphing into a half-sequel, half-standalone-expansion, the story of Hate Plus is deeply interwoven with the one of Analogue. It would make little sense to play this one before the first, and in fact, I would go as far as saying that you should play Analogue before you read this review for the best spoiler-free experience. I will also draw more comparisons than I would for most other sequels, so if you are unfamiliar with Analogue, much of this review might be useless to you. You can find my review for Analogue here.

The plot of Hate Plus picks up right where its predecessor ended, with you, the space investigator, having recovered the documents and one of the A.I.s from the Mugunghwa. You can either continue from an existing Analogue save file, or you can start a new game and decide right then which of the two A.I.s you brought with you, who will then accompany you on your three-day journey back to Earth. She offers to investigate with you the contents of some mysterious files. As it turns out, these files detail the fate of *Mute's previous instance from before the computer crash and the Mugunghwa's descent from a thriving postmodern society into a despotic and totalitarian implementation of Joseon-inspired principles. They cover several individual lives throughout the years as well as some of the changes in the political machinery and the intentions of the people pulling the strings into different directions, and of course, how their political actions lead to societal consequences. Your job is, once more, to find out the truth.

Compared to Analogue, this game makes a much stronger visual impression. Instead of the black-on-white look from before, it goes with a striking (if still largely monochromatic) color scheme, mostly using lighter text on dark tinted backgrounds. The character sprites have seen an expansion of their palette of poses and facial expressions, making them even more expressive. Long documents are no longer paginated, instead there is free-form scrolling. Texts are imbued with hyperlinks pointing you to "photos" of the important characters, which is certainly a big help in keeping track of the abundance of political actors. You no longer have to activate the A.I. after reading a document, instead she always accompanies you throughout the texts and comments as you go. Even though plot contrivances still prevent you from any bidirectional free-form chat, this change produces a more noticeable aura of companionship and teamwork from which the emotional investment strongly benefits. The soundtrack is unobtrusive but on point and comes with a wacky, ironically self-aware theme song.

The player freedom regarding the order in which the story is explored is so much bigger that it is almost impossible to overstate. If you felt artificially constrained by Analogue, you might be happy to hear that the game gives you almost no direction whatsoever. You just pick some files whose titles sound intriguing and hope that you can piece together the events and causalities after the fact. I would argue that the pendulum may have swung too far into the "player freedom" direction, as it is easy to ruin any dramatic arc and feel completely lost by choosing the wrong files early on or skipping some important ones for too long.

Your companion A.I. choice has a significant influence on the delivery of the story. Since the events documented in Hate Plus take place while the Pale Bride is still in cryogenic sleep, *Hyun-ae only has a very vague knowledge of the circumstances and a low personal investment, which manifests itself in a more easily distracted and less attentive demeanour. I would recommend *Hyun-ae's route if you are looking for a more playful and cute experience instead of a heavier emotional hit. If Analogue is *Hyun-ae's story, Hate Plus is *Mute's. The former security A.I. has a noticeably better (but still fallible) grasp of society before and after the crash, and she is more strongly invested because her previous instance is a main character in the story. Even if you were initially put off by *Mute's behavior in Analogue, I would recommend her route in Hate Plus if you really want to dive in and get the full experience.

One interesting mechanic that bears mentioning if only for its controversy is the real-time break enforcement. Since you are reading the files throughout your trip back to Earth, you are twice met with a mandatory break time of twelve real-world hours, to sleep and recharge the ship's batteries. From what I've seen, many people are understandably critical of this design choice. However, I personally believe that I benefitted from the extra time I had to let the details sink in. I also know myself well enough to say that I likely would have binge-played it if this mechanic had not been in place, and I would be remembering it with less clarity right now. I understand how it might feel weird to not be solely in charge of your game pace, but I would encourage you to simply go along with it.

With much of the game being rooted in plot exploration, there is little of the story that I would want to give away here. It is more or less like Analogue, but even more intense, detailed, and shocking. The stronger focus on political intrigue (which the Pale Bride was mostly shielded from in Analogue), the engine improvements detailed above (even if the scrolling often feels rather jerky), and the overall more competent writing leave me in a position where I have to conclude that I liked Hate Plus even more than Analogue. Both titles have strong character writing and a compelling mixture of moods, but the sequel stands out thanks to the extra effort that went into it. Don't play it before Analogue, but if you liked that one, I can't imagine you being disappointed by Hate Plus.

Forced to bake chocolate cake with AI waifu 10/10

Play Analogue: A Hate Story before playing this however, as this is a direct sequel to it.
A very engaging visual novel, I wanted to keep playing until the end so I can get my happy ending. The only problem I have with this though is how real life time dictates when you can play the game on the "next day" again. I guess to add a level of realism to it.

10/10 would bake chocolate cake again.

Initially I didn't like this game as much as Analogue, but it got much better after the 2nd playthough with *Mute's route and then even more so with the Both harem route. Hilarious. Also, if you have a completed Analogue game save, Hate Plus will *notice it* by the way.

I Tried To Like This Game, But It Wouldn't Let Me

I liked Analogue: A Hate Story much. It was interesting, it was fresh, it had memorable characters, it had some nice mechanics for its genre. So I bought this game too, a sort of prequel-sequel.

I'm sorry. I hate it already. Let me explain. It shall be my own hate story. Bear with me - for if you played this game, you are so, so used to emotional pain.

First, the plusses. You can continue with the ending unlocked in Hate Story. This is good. Either of the AIs or both (solitary route not supported). You get full interactions from the Harem route, and it is also good. Also, you get to know (step by step), what exactly happened before the events of Hate Story. This should be good, but in fact isn't.

And now to the crux of the matter. The negatives. Why I hate Hate+. Hate is such a strong word, maybe I am just emotionally exhausted. Playing this game feels like wading through filth. And the game won't let reach you any emotional catharsis, no. You have to suffer through it three consecutive real-time days, because the nasty bugger won't let you continue (except for outright cheating). Smart, eh? No, not so much.

Characters. Did I like them in Hate Story? Not that much (maybe because most of them were monsters, including AIs), but they were at least believable and played their roles well. Here, in Hate+. they are TRAGIC monsters. Even the worst villains were so emotionally crippled I wondered how they managed to breathe at all. Please. No more. It's like taking a super-concentrated dose of poison. I don't need my old depression back, thank you very much.

The narrative gets to the point that practically all light is gone, all hope lost, made more obnoxious by zero distance the leading AIs have towards reading the old logs. Yes, *Old Mute was *Mute's previous incarnation, but I dislike how one BIG event in the game was resolved (no spoilers). There should be a limit to self-wallowing.

This game is bleak to the point of ridiculousness, writing is worse than in Hate Story (*Old Mute and her chief officer are laughable characters, Mary Sue and her faithful sidekick played hammy to the max), not much of meaningful choices in comparison to Hate Story, even the mechanics are worse. LGBT love stories feel forced here - am I supposed to be thinking all the evil stems from unhappy lesbian love? That manipulative, cruel, nasty, controlling people are like that just because their One True Love was doomed because of the evil society? How stupid do you think I am? The artwork is inconsistent (stay anime or not, why stretch my suspension of disbelief even further?). The whole "mystery" is plain worse - *why* is sometimes not as important as *if* something happened.

If you liked *Mute or *Hyun-ae, don't play this game. Save them stress. Save yourself some stress.

TL;DR: I accept that this is a sequel worth playing/reading if you've finished Analogue, but while Analogue deserved much praise, this title deserves much criticism. I recommend the game on the premise that you have played and finished Analogue, because you should have no interest in it otherwise. The sexual content is way overplayed.

Mechanics spoilers ahoy, I mean, if you care about that.

The mechanics, interactions, and other minutae that made Analogue: A Hate Story one of the best visual novels are conspicuously absent, and instead replaced with infernal time-gating (thankfully, tied to the system clock) and lonely cake baking. Steam says I spent 5.3 hours to get through *Hyun-ae's path, and that's with me taking frequent breaks, including to make tea in lieu of checking my kitchen stocks since she apparently doesn't trust me to know what's in there (extremely immersion breaking to ask the player to go to the grocery store when they're supposed to be a solo starship pilot). AI character writing direction seems to have drifted away from what I would expect, at least for *Hyun-ae. I haven't yet decided if I will sit through probably the exact same writing to see *Mute's reactions.

Where the predecessor had many touch points with the active characters for most text entries that let you explore their feelings and personalities, this game sadly just has them looking over your shoulder, mumbling incomplete commentary about the text before you're able to read it. *Hyun-ae had few relevant things to say about most of the events covered, and I felt a lot of what she had to say was unseemly for her character. Compared to the skillful, asymetrical revelations made in Analogue that progressed your understanding of the events in a way that made you ask more questions despite easily figuring out the ultimate end, this game is effectively a linear text with enforced interruptions.

The discussion of sexuality in Analogue was masterfully revealed and, within context, tense, shocking, titilating, even dismaying and uncomfortable in the way you probably should want it to be. The sexual content of Hate Plus had no lead-up, and I felt it was quite gauche, bland, disinteresting, and way overdone. That's not to mention it was almost wholly unrelated to the main events and characters that shaped them (2 actual plot relevant characters and 1 implied side character involved with plot character of 10 total characters that be doin' it - 7 are "just there"). Given consideration of the supposed origin of the texts in the AI's code, I find the percentage of sexual and unrelated content pretty bizarre and unexplainable. I understand human preoccupation with sexuality as much as the next person, but I don't think I'm alone in feeling that sticking it onto (into?) everything kills the appeal. And I had to talk at length about it just now because it's just so much of the text that it can't go unaddressed.

Analogue touched on a lot of personal themes and had a tragic story that was difficult to swallow, a setting with mystery, and revelations that packed a punch and really made you feel a lot of different things. Hate Plus's story made sense, but didn't have any particular revelations, after all, we already know the aftermath, but that was the same for it's predecessor as well. I'll not fault it for being what it is, an explanation of what happened immediately leading up to widespread illiteracy and loss of records on the colony ship. But, to be frank, the pre-existing class system made it seem like it was not far off from that to begin with, and more could have been written about earlier events that cascaded up to that point. About how a somewhat 'modern' society could be sustained on the ship despite the decline of knowledge. More about the gradual loss of knowledge and technology, was it related to the fertility issues? Tying more side characters into the main plot instead of leaving them stranded.

I think the biggest take-away from Hate Plus is that I didn't really have any strong feelings for any of the characters introduced by the narratives. Maybe a couple, but not strong feelings. I felt sad for Analogue's passing, and I felt awful having to decide which AI to save, a tense feeling sitting at the command line, wondering if I made the right choices before typing out 'download'. I did not feel much of anything for Hate Plus's passing. I wondered how a starship's engineers couldn't know the deleterous effects of gamma radiation, something every school-aged child knows, something discovered in the 1930's. I wondered how they could still have working computers with that kind of basic knowledge lost. Was this really where the downfall occurred? I guess the answer is no. That said, this could only really be a stepping stone, after all, the Chinese still use Chinese characters. Playing out the plot of Tree With Deep Roots in reverse wouldn't cause a modern society to collapse on its own, so I still feel like there's a lot missing.

A sequel to Analogue: A Hate Story, this game digs into what led to the world depicted in the previous game into becoming a Neo-Confucianist nightmare. The gameplay is more or less the same, though a bit improved in a few areas so you spend more time reading the logs and less time poking the AI to ask them their opinions. In fact, they just interject with comments as you read the logs themselves, so you will get their reactions as you are both reading it at the same time. I've not finished the other routes yet, but the so-called "Harem" route where you have *Hyun-ae and *Mute together results in quite a few amusing moments (particularly from *Mute, who basically is the "straight man/tsukkomi" here).

While perhaps not as... no, nevermind. The story is still pretty dark and still can be a difficult one to get through, though the end of it honestly was fairly predictable. But if you liked the first game, then check this out too because it answers unresolved questions from the first game and has more crazy, raunchy, and depressing stuff for you to read. Woohoo!

First one was about *Hyun-ae, this one focuses on *Mute and her past self.
The atmosphere isn't as oppressive as in Analogue, since you're just chilling in your spacecraft during a flight instead of negotiating with strange AIs on a derelict space colony ship that's about to explode. The interface is the same, and while the hyperlinks, portraits and summaries are really helpful, the most substantial feature is the story, again fragmented into log messages.

The story of Hate Plus revolves around discovering what occured prior to "Year 0" on the Mugunghwa. Instead of learning about Hyun-ae's past while reading about the events, like in the first, you uncover a lot about *Mute's past from those many lost years. The quality of this game is just as good as the first, which was simply amazing.

If you have any interest in visual novels you should definitely check out Analogue: A hate story and Hate Plus.

To summarize: Wonderful characters. A Great story. Great writing. Cake. This game basically has everything!

As a side note this game has brought to my life the existence of the word "milquetoast" which now ranks right up there with defenestration, verisimilitude, and mastication for words that are way too fun for their own good to say.

Rating:
10 Filia hairball's out of 10 of Otacon's animes.

Analogue was a pretty good visual novel, how does the sequel compare?

...ehh..?

It's alright, yeah. It's just... sterile. Poorly presented overall. None of the characters really have any weight in the story, it's all reading about things that happened in the past that neither character was there to experience, so it doesn't matter much who you pick because the end result is about the same. Why couldn't we, maybe, have a story told from *Mute's perspective leading up to the event that caused Year 0? It would make it a lot more compelling than reading through a lot of logs with an AI companion making comments on stuff. Meh.

The story itself is alright, there's a lot of characters to keep track of and they all have names that are kind of hard to remember but there's a few characters than stand out as more important, so I guess it's fine. Nothing ever really gets resolved in the side-plots though. I mean there are implications given the nature of what comes next, but... ehh. The central story is pretty decent though, a lot of politics but not without a point, and the characters are pretty strong even without any direct interaction between them and the player.

The forced wait between days is also possibly for the better as I don't know if I could stomach just reading through logs for too long, I'd probably be waiting anyways. It's not a game for long sittings anyways, unlike Analogue which could easily and most likely would be completed in one sitting. But that had a variety of gameplay elements, reading over (shorter) logs, interacting with the console, interacting with the AI... that's the thing, there's not much to interact with here, compared to Analogue. I don't know why that's the case.

Overall I'm left just feeling very meh about this. It feels haphazardly thrown together because the author wanted to continue the story but didn't have any ideas for a game. I'd give it a slight recommendation if you've read Analogue already but otherwise there's no reason to get this one.

Travel across space at the speed of plot and learn about the society of The Mugunghwa, a ship that wasdestroyed by a mudering psychopath.

Most people playing this are VN connoisseurs anyway, so I'll just get to it.

There are three paths, one only accessible via a save from the first game. One has *Mute: a girl of perfection, one has *Hyun-Ae: a girl with the personality of sliced bread, and one has both girls working with the nameless, optional gendered protagonist. Each story involves *Mute and/or *Hyun-Ae learning more about the ship's past and coming to terms with how their life has progressed. You know, that real deep stuff. Like baking some cake.

That being said, gameplay wise: If you know how to read, you are pretty much in the clear. It is preferred that you should like reading if you want to play this game. Because there is a lot of that. It's the whole game.

Music's aight, really good to set the mood for the settings.

It gets raunchy, like a lot. So maybe not let someone under 18 play this?
In the same vein, prep for a lotta gay stuff if that irks ya. I thought the stories were cute.

The stories also involve a lot of political corruption and government mindgames. Every lawmaker should play this, it gets hotter than the sex stories. It's every lobbyist's wet dream.

Even though I finished most of it, I just can't play it anymore. I finished *Mute's route and it messed with me a bit too much personally. Lastly, if you are reading this for info about THAT achievement, you're too young to play this game. It's passed your bedtime, go to bed.

10/10, would experience severe catharsis again.

So, what is this? This is the sequel/addon to Analogue: A Hate Story, and, just like a sequel normally does, continues the story from its prequel. After rescuing *Hyun-ae or/and *Mute, you can use your savestate of Analogue and start your journey back to earth with all your gathered information and new waifu. But - because you're a handsome space investigator - you do not slack off during your travel home; no, you go further into investigating instead (and bake a cake).

In Hate Plus you get to know what happened on the Mugungwha before the year 0; what exactly happened that society got so old-fashioned; the missing piece in the story of Analogue. I won't write how exactly the story goes, in order to not spoil it for anyone who hasn't played it yet. But I'm willing to say that the story is awesome and matches perfectly with the story of the prequel. Everything fits, though you have to be prepared that this story offers a quite different atmosphere, since society hasn't regressed yet; it feels a bit more modern. You may also need to be interested in at least a little bit of politics, since you will read a lot about it here; if you're not, this game may not be as easy to read for you - it could (and possibly will) get a bit boring then.

The soundtrack is - just as in its prequel - good, absolutely fitting and decent. If you liked the soundtrack of Analogue, you will like this one too, and it's totally worth its money. (Though, Analouge's soundtrack was way catchier)

I strongly recommend this game to everyone who played Analogue and liked *Hyun-ae or *Mute. Though, you have to keep in mind that this is an addon. It's not really a standalone game, it's an addon. I say this, because sometimes I get the feeling that it's just not as good as Analogue was; so if you ever get this feeling too, just remember: it's basically just an addon. So, everything's fine. Besides, there's no point in playing Hate Plus, if you didn't play Analogue. But I feel like I'm starting to ramble here, am I not?
So, if you liked Analogue, get this game in your cart already and continue investigating!

Possible spoilers in this review. I will try to keep it to low-key spoilers, but be warned regardless.

I'm not as impressed with this game as opposed to its predecessor. The original was a tragedy about how a regressed society can put their nail in their own coffin to seal their ultimate demise by being too rigid in their beliefs. The premise behind this game is in a similar vein; it shows how an advanced society based on future technology can regress down to pre-modern times.

The story itself is pretty good. The council of the Mugunghwa has a major problem threatening to revolutionize the government aboard the ship. A movement has been gaining steam and will hit a critical mass within a year and what the council needs is a bold plan to make this movement lose steam until it becomes a non-issue. *Mute, the security AI and one of the councillors aboard the ship, has a bold plan in mind. It sounds great in theory, but there's one problem with this:

The plan involves putting Councillor Ryu, Councillor of Captaincy, to the Chief Councillor seat.

Why is this a bad thing? Because Ryu is the man who, seven years later, will overthrow the government and create the regressed, patriarchal society that would eventually cause the downfall of the ship.

This isn't a major spoiler by any means. If you start on *Mute's route, she will make it known immediately that this is the man who became the first Emperor of the new society. The main story is how this man slowly took over the government over seven long years in order to create the perfect society of his choosing.

The other main feature of this game over the predecessor is how much more emphasis it places on society outside of the primary plotline. It shows a famous actress who falls in love with a peasant girl, and eventually loses both her love and her career to the changing society. Another woman who slowly figures out why the shipwide birth rate is steadily decreasing despite everything else in her life doing its best to prevent it. A nobleman who falls in love with another man only to have his heart broken. Society and how it changes over these several years causes huge shifts in these people's lives, and the setting feels very fleshed out and deliberate as a result. This is an excellent way to use non-linear storytelling, and I have to commend Love for how this was done.

So why exactly did I give this a non-recommended rating?

It's simple. Outside of the logs themselves, the game is a huge step down. The AIs in the original story had very clear reasons for being there and their stories in of themselves were a big part of what made it so deep and enjoyable. The sequel... much less so. *Mute has an interesting storyline since she has no memory of anything that her former self had done in any of these logs, plus all the cultural things that don't fit what she thinks is right (having only experienced the post-government takeover) makes her a much more respectable character than she was in the original. Something happens that throws a wrench in this completely, however, and that ruins the suspence for me.

Hyun-Ae... I don't even know what happened. Her personality from the first game is intact and shines through, but that's all there is here. There's nothing that stands out about her that *Mute doesn't already have except for the fact that she takes her relationship with the protagonist investigator very seriously.

That by itself isn't negative, but it arises with one of my biggest pet peeves this game hits: forcing people to wait.

I personally hate this design choice and I don't feel it was the optimal one here. The primary draw is the story inside the log files, but the story outside of them is still a big part of what made the original game good. Love clearly tries to have the same effect in the sequel, but the forced waiting comes off to me as trying way too hard to force it. The mandatory 12 hour wait between log sessions (of which there are 3; I'm fully aware there is a skip button, but it's very clearly meant to be played without using it) arbitrarily breaks up the story. I'm not entirely sure what kind of emotional buttons its trying to press, which is worrying when annoyance is the primary emotion I was feeling. The other big issue is the very beginning of Day 3 in Hyun-Ae's route, where she forces you to wait several minutes using the subtext of expecting you to bake a cake. It's very clear what Love was going for by having this in the game, but it's extremely awkwardly placed (come on, I started day 3 to finish reading all the logs... I have to WAIT now?) and it feels like a shallow attempt to force Hyun-Ae's route to have some meat to it. It's not conducive to good characterization in my eyes and it ruins the flow of the story more than it already has.

I haven't played the harem route yet and I won't until I decide I want to go for the nine day achievement, so I will refrain from commenting on it here.

All in all, this is a good sequel if you want just to know the context as to why the Mugunghwa was so far in the past in the original. Otherwise, this isn't worth the money in my eyes.

Play it. Hate it. Love it.

I like Hate Story, I think it was awesome. So I was looking forward to play the sequel. But I met with various bugs in the game. I can't play it. After a while looking around on internet, feels like a waste of buying this sequel.

1. I tried the new game, and after answering all questions, all I got is red screen.
2. Tried loading saves from previous games, but I can't see save games. I found out I can actually see if I hover the mouse on the empty sides (which supposed to be where the previous ending screen games are. But after I entered Hyun-ae and getting ready to start reading, I see nothing again.

I dunno what is wrong, but I have spent hours trying to figure it out I gave up. A game I bought on Steam messing up like this despite being only on Ren'py engine... -sigh- Can I have a refund?

I like Christine Love. I like her games. This game was okay.

But I cannot, in good concience, give a game in which you cannot complete it 100% a positive score.

The "Level Four Revive Materia" achievement was not clever. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

If you're looking for an Ero Story, with Smutty CGs, Those Aren't Romantic to this game. So Turn Back Now! Now for those who are still here. This game is wonderful as the First one, They added more Diolog to the Wheel, Removed the Console thing, And a lot of Reading. I Recommend getting the Harem ending from the first one First! Cause you'll get more story outta that. Its All about *Mute and not *Hyune but she'll be there to support both you and *Mute. Its a Cutsy little Love story. And The ending music is so addicting, I always ask my friends if the Visual Novels they sent me has an Ero Story with Smutty CGs, and Reply by saying Those aren't romantic to me. :D Love the game! Love The Story! Love The Music! And Love the characters! Can't wait for another One!