I am maybe 70% of the way through Symphonic Rain, I know I'm late to the party but I wish I was even later lmao.

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I'm still fairly new to VNs and I feel like I was not ready for this shit, I went in expecting a fairly wholesome romance, and at first it seemed like that's what I was getting. At first everything is so unassuming, you're just playing a nice VN with friendly characters, and then you get to the end of a route and you're like, um what the fuck. I'm so used to everything working out in some way, the drama will build up gradually and then there will be a climax, things get resolved, the end.

This game is so different, this game drops a fucking bomb on you and leaves you feeling hopeless as the characters are still picking up the pieces. I was legit kinda shocked initially, but after Lise's ending I'm like, okay, I get it now, endings will have a pretty brutal twist. I should've been ready after mentally noting that, right? Right? Wrong, now I'm playing Torta's POV and I am depression. For real tho, I talked in a post about how White Album 2 is the VN that got to me the most emotionally, and while I definitely cried more playing that, I kinda just sit there for 5-10 mins every time I close this one like "...damn." Put it this way, this is the only VN that has made me sad even while I'm not actively reading it.