izigame.me

Well okay then, time for part 2 of Friendsim!! Volume Two with Amisia and Cirava, here we go!!
First thing to note right off the bat: MUCH DIFFERENT ART STYLE. Yes, and a much different overall aesthetic to the game. It's more "lined-in" then Volume 1's; compare Diemen's look to Amisia's, just for starters. This can be a bit jarring when comparing them to Ardata's route in One however. Her art was much "cleaner" in looks to Diemen's, and in Volume 2 the same sort of comparison is warranted for Amisia vs Cirava, giving the look of two different artists who tried their best to match each other's style. I'd so far rank art quality Amisia>Ardata>Cirava>Diemen. *I will say it's INCREDIBLY difficult to judge when taking Cirava's "m o i s t u r e w a v e" aesthetic about everything into account- it bleeds into the overall look of the game at certain "special" points.
Second thing to note: be forewarned, **NO HUSSIE DOING WRITING**, there's at least one different writer. Note that we don't know who Cirava's writer is (maybe done on purpose, considering...), but WhatPumpkin's Farah is Amisia's route's writer. ...
At any rate, there's good news and bad news: Good News first, Amisia's route is very clever!! It's a great look into the realm of Indigo Blood art, and yes, we now get to see a small peek at what sort of highblood, erm, "cultural sensibilities" Equius and Horuss were growing up with!! If you liked how darkly humorous Ardata was in Volume 1, you'll love Amisia since Farah did well mirroring the Huss's own style!! As I'm about to note, that can be hard to pull off...
So yes, the dreaded Bad News: Cirava's route. Oh boy, where to start. I did Amisia's route before doing his, so I was pleasantly buoyed by satisfation that this would finish what Volume 1 had started and knock the game out of the park. Simply put: NO. Nope. Not until the very end of the "good choice" (I always save at both decision paths to see all aspects of a route, keep in mind, and will play all possibilities.). This seemed rushed. VERY rushed. I doubt Farah worked on this one, since the writing comes across SO stilted and SO heavy-handed. (Maybe this is why they didn't list the writer in the credits, they didn't want them to suffer the inevitable backlash? I hope it's not that cynical...)
The beauty of Volume 1's writing was that the initial glance at the choices in all parts of the paths twisted around so well, you'd have no idea you'd be heading for a "bad end" until you arrived dazed and confused wondering how you were so cleverly tricked!! Cirava's route? Well, it has nothing of that sort at all. "Do you like their choice in music, yes/no?" THAT was what greeted me for the first dialogue option. That straightforward. Nothing leading up to it either, none of the dialogue written up to that point showed me any interesting tidbits of his personality the way Amisia, Ardata and Diemen's routes did. The second choice much better, but only in the way of getting the quality back up to under what it was in any other route's options. Under, yes. As in not nearly the quality the rest of the game both volumes. You only got a small tidbit between the first and second branch - a mysterious "incident" - but that's it until the very final bits, where Cirava dumps all the exposition out on you about their past. WHY? Why was this not paced better??
I'll be honest, Cirava's route almost had me not recommending this. If I hadn't done Amisia's route first, I'd have not wanted to play further!! Fortunately I had, so I still recommend this in part- you're basically paying that dollar for *ONE* route, with another hastily tacked on at the end. I'm glad I bought it to support WhatPumpkin, but WOW that was close.
So, yeah, bottom line: PLAY AMISIA'S ROUTE FIRST. That's the big thumbs up!! Then, if you'd like, either play Cirava's with tons of warnings attached or just ignore it altogether. You wouldn't be missing much, sadly.