Hatsukoi 1/1 Joint Review

Get ready to see some weird colours, because this time Aedes and I are both writing.

Because we know you like it all pretty and colorful.

Company: tone work’s
Game site: 初恋1/1（いちぶんのいち）
Release date: June 29, 2012
Links: Getchu, walkthrough, VNDB

This is the first title by tone work’s and Visual Art’s 20th anniversary title. Yuuma is a second year student at the prestigious public school Hoshioka Gakuen. It is known for offering a fulfilling school life, but he has yet to experience love and spends his days lacking any satisfaction. He hasn’t made any progress with his classmates nor his osananajimi. All he can do is look at his love interest, the student council leader Midori, from a distance. One day, he saw her with a troubled face. It seemed that the remaining members of the school cafeteria improvement committee had resigned. After giving it some thought, he volunteered to lead the committee. After that fateful moment, his surroundings became a lot more lively and before long, his first love had blossomed.

[Taken from Micchi-sama’s blog]

Opening

The opening for this game is one of its better points. 

Dude, you’re making the game sound bad. But I guess I can’t really blame you for that since the OP is indeed pretty awesome so not much else can compare to it. Best song in game too.

Dude, you’re fooling yourself if you’re trying to convince yourself that this game was good. At best it was slightly above average.

Story

The writing in black is MOSTLY written by me (yeah, I know it sucks), but a small bit of it is written by Aedes.

Besides the fact that the Yuuma gave up on playing basketball during middle school, he’s your typical protagonist who doesn’t really stand out. His decision to enter the cafeteria improvement committee isn’t as heart-warming as it may sound in the game description. It’s really just an on the spot decision to try to one up the student council vice-pres, who’s a bastard btw. The committee requires a certain number of members, so you’ve got a very long segment on Yuuma gathering members; this is pretty damn boring. Things slightly improve after he gathers all the members. However, it’s still pretty plain because all they do is grunt work and talk about food. Overall, the common route isn’t very captivating. The main problem was that it was TOO long.

Yuuma is so useless that the company apologizes for him being so awful on the Hatsukoi 1/1 broadcast on Niconico. The only thing he was good at was basketball, but now that he gave even that up he’s nothing more than a hetare that you’ll want to erase from the face of Earth. I like that student council vice president better; at least he has the balls to act badass and be more memorable than a sack of bricks. As for the common route, you know one of those games where nothing happens? This is it. 

Yeah he is useless. One of the worst protags I’ve ever seen. The only thing good about him is that he has an awesome phone. Can’t say that I liked the vice pres much though. I mainly saw him as a dick

The individual routes don’t lose to the common route when it comes to length. The routes have a lot more substance than the common route, with a decent amount of ichaicha and comedy that the common route lacked. However, I personally felt that most of the routes were overly dramatic. The committee doesn’t play too big a part in any of the routes, and it’s mainly a mean for Yuuma to see his harem. An interesting aspect of this game is that there’s a time skip for summer vacation in the middle of every route.

The game isn’t kidding when it comes to length with its generous size; and it needs no animations to reach that size. I don’t quite I agree on the overly dramatic point besides Runa’s route and perhaps Yukino’s that we’ll get to later that felt like Korean drama. And no, that’s not a compliment coming from me. I feel that you can’t take all the drama out else there’ll be nothing to keep the game interesting, nukiges aside. And yes, the committee’s only purpose is to serve as the meeting ground for Yuuma’s harem members. It may very well be renamed to Yuuma’s Harem Improvement Committee. In my opinion, they probably did the time skip since summer vacation without school would make for a possibly boring as heck scenario.

Glad you share my thoughts on the common route.

Midori is the student council president who joins as the last member of the committee. She gives off the feeling of a sheltered ojou-sama who doesn’t know that much about the outside world. Yuuma’s lends her his old cellphone; this plays a key part later. The confession for this route happens very early, but the relationship itself is very nice. Good ichaicha and lots of love are huge driving points for this route, but things don’t last. The feel of the route becomes very bitter, as the two break up due to Midori’s father not approving of Yuuma. Yuuma is depressed for a while, however eventually he starts taking steps to prove that he’s not as useless as Midori’s dad makes him to be. However, you find out that Midori was equally affected by their break up.

Despite what he tried to prove, he’s still as useless as ever with oppai being the only thing in his mind; her ikemen father would make for a better protagonist than that indecisive pile of refuse. Let me sum up the route in a few words: OPPAI, ikemen dad, and cellphone. But it does have the greatest amount of ichaicha out of all the routes, so there’s that.

I was gonna retaliate against you, saying that her boobs aren’t that big in some of the other CGs.BUT, when I actually went back to check , it was basically the same >___>. So it’s my loss here.And seriously, what’s up with you and her dad?

Anyways, the bitterness that you experience when playing this route is something I actually quite enjoyed. I can’t quite explain it, but it sorta reminded me of the bad ending for Da Capo IF, which I watched several times.

That dad is infinitely times more useful than that humanoid looking animal called Yuuma. And I didn’t play Da Capo(!)

Yukino is Yuuma’s osananajimi who often comes to wake him up in the morning. She’s part of the library committee, and loves shoujo manga. With osananjimis becoming lovers you’ll almost always have a bit where one of them thinks of the other as family. The two get into a relationship and are super in love. However, love makes you blind, and Yuuma’s decisions for the committee seem to be bias towards Yukino. This causes Yukino to break up with Yuuma because she doesn’t want to pull him down. So you’ve got depressing and lots of confusion in there. However, the two end up together again which makes you wonder why she broke up with him in the first place.

I usually find osananajimi boring, and this is no exception. Basically nothing changes before and after they’re in a relationship besides some sex and kisses here and there. I do like the part where his eyes sees nothing but Yukino as his whole world revolved around her. That sort of role is usually delegated to the girl so it’s kind of refreshing to see a change. It’d be nice to see him become even more yandere though.

I liked the confession for this route. But Yukino’s character I found pretty annoying. Though not nearly as annoying as Runa.

You know, it’d be nice if they spice things up here and there so the route wouldn’t be so damn boring. Some tentacles and mind control tricks should do the job.

Kyou is the pizza girl whose family runs a pizza shop; when there’s pizza, there’s Kyou, and when there’s Kyou, there’s pizza. I think the only reason she joined the committee was to have her family’s pizza incorporated into the school’s menu. Not only that, I think it’s safe to say that their entire relationship is built on pizzas. He gets kidnapped by her into working part time at her pizza place, and the rest is history. Although the latter part of the route is all about basketball, but in my mind, she’ll always be the pizza girl since that’s who she is in every other route too. One thing that has been bothering me is that they never explained why he gave up basketball years ago. I’d think given the basketball setting for Kyou, they would have. But, nope! He’s apparently too much of a dumbass to explain himself.

Okay, this black part I wrote so excuse me while I skimp on the comments here. What’s there not to like about a red haired genki mood maker pizza girl with just a bit of ero voiced by Natsuno Koori? Aside from the fact she’s neither an imouto or a loli that is.

Is it me, or are Kyou’s eyes oddly spaced? Anyways, I thought that Yuuma was a bit less of a hetare in this route. Also I think I remember a bit where the reason he stops basketball is explained. Something about shoplifting.

Kyou’s art is a bit…weird. And yes, Yuuma was the most useful in this route. Just as useful as a pizza delivery boy. Don’t remember that shoplifting bit at all, but then I barely remember anything about the game.

Maya was a child prodigy when it came to acting. However, due to harsh criticism she received as a child for a film she acted in, she stopped acting and developed a trauma towards cameras. She has a pretty devilish nature, and loves to tease Yuuma. Her feelings of love towards Yuuma felt REALLY strong, which was really a huge plus. As the route progressed, Maya starts getting pressured into taking up acting again, and starts to show her insecure side. It’s at this point that route seems to lose it’s consistency. You get a whole bunch of drama shoved in there involving Maya’s family, and the route shifts its focus to this for quite a long time. However, the route ends up shifting back to her acting issues and leaves all these family issues unresolved.

Family issues are nothing when compared to her passion for acting! Well, we’ll have to wait for the additional scenarios coming out to resolve those issues. For now, let’s assume the family are all living happily ever after. I do, however, love her devilish personality. Sharp tsukkomis and merciless wit make for a character who can poke fun at anyone at any situation. Manaka Umi/Kazane’s do-S voice complements this character perfectly as well.

Sorry, I can’t really accept the fact that her family issues just resolve without ANY explanation. The focus of the route was on these issues for quite some time, and then they’re literally flushed down somewhere. Seriously, I would’ve been happy with a couple of sentences saying that her mum wasn’t a bitch anymore or that she was still sending letters to her other family members, but NOTHING. Also, I actually wanted her to give up acting, and focus on being in love with Yuuma. What I hated more was that she was basically forced to get back into acting. Also, the earrings he gave her at the start of the route ended up being used for nothing! NOT COOL

Don’t be such a dream crusher man! That’s not nice.

Despite having a VERY childish personality, Runa constantly tries to act like an adult with feminine charms. A failed confession by her results in the two getting into a fake relationship. Things only get worse when Runa tries to push Yuuma into getting into a relationship with Yukino, despite her own feelings. Oddly enough, Yukino and Yuuma DO become a couple. Things get EVEN worse as Runa constantly whines to Yuuma telling him that he’s doing things wrong. Admittedly, things improved a bit towards the end, but the relationship but the dramatic love triangle crap was dragged out for basically the whole route.

RAGE, RAGE, RAGE, RAGE (x100)!!!! Words can’t describe the kind of rage I felt when I wasted my time playing Runa’s route. Runa’s pushy and childlike personality is the type of personality I ABSOLUTELY hate. RUNA, I WANNA KILL YOU SO BADLY.

Runa the LOLI probably watched too much soap drama so that she knows exactly how to act in order to piss absolutely everyone off, including herself. A shame since she’s a loli her brain capacity may not be enough to deviate from the standard soap drama routines: take every way you can think of to go in circles around your goal and only try for the goal in the very end because otherwise you’d have no time left to do so. And that’s also her only good point – she is the only LOLI in the game. An aggressive one at that. 

I don’t sense much hate from your comments >___>. Don’t tell me you actually LIKED Runa?

How can you not like a loli despite how braindead she is?

Route Rankings:

1. Midori – Midori
2. Kyou – Kyou
3. Maya – Maya
4. Yukino – Yukino
5. Runa – Runa

You looked at mine first and copied it didn’t you? >___>

No, you copied it for me. I didn’t even put one up and just said mine is the same as yours.

Graphics

Whatever, look for yourself.

A wish this game had some SDCGs… besides that, there isn’t really anything wrong with the graphics. One of Midori’s CGs looked kinda weird to me though.

System

The main noteworthy feature here is the cellphone feature. You can take pictures with it which is equivalent to taking a screenshot. The surprising thing is, it’s actually saved in your hard drive in PNG format! You can also check texts with it that the other characters send you sometimes, but sadly you can’t call or text anyone with it which is done automatically by the system when the scenario calls for it. 

This additional feature is actually pretty useless, because you can only take pictures of character sprites. Checking texts is only useful if you can actually READ what they’re written. To me the text might as well be in Chinese >___> Another thing worth mentioning is that this game has too little save slots. It only has 6O. Also, you can’t load from the log.

It’d be nice if they’re in Chinese. That way I’d be able to read them all in a blink of an eye. And uh, I don’t know about you, but I only used 6 save slots.

Music

Somewhat above average music selection of 32 BGM tracks total not including vocal ones should be more than enough to get the job done. There is also an astonishing number of 10 vocal tracks including 1 OP, 1 insert song, 1 image song for each of the characters, and 3 ED’s. I personally like the OP by KOTOKO best.

Can’t really remember much. I just know that I love the opening XD

Overall

If you insist on playing this game, I recommend only playing Midori’s route. Otherwise, this game is a long waste of time and you’re better playing 2-3 other games in the time you would spend on this. 

Story: 5/10
Character:6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Music: 7/10
Overall: 60/100 (not a total)

ATLAS: Easy-Medium, AND hard. The normal dialogue isn’t anything special, which gives the easy-medium rating. However, the characters send quite a few txts to each other, and these can’t be translated.

If you’re looking for a pure love game with no gimmicks, bells or whistles and nothing but romance, ichaicha, and some drama, this may be it for you. This is perhaps in some ways THE average, stereotypical eroge, albeit one that is done reasonably well in that you’ll find nothing out of the ordinary but what you find should please you if you’re fine with getting exactly what you’ve been expecting from eroge from the time you’ve laid you hands on one.

Story: 5/10
Character:6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Music: 8/10 (Purely a coincidence. I swear.)
Overall: 65/100 (not a total)

Going to relive some RPG nostalgia via Futsu no Fantasy, which hasn’t disappointed so far with its protagonist tirelessly poking fun of everything unreasonable in a RPG. Like: “Why can’t you chop down a tree?” “Because that’d change the map of course.” Will probably write something up on that in the near future.

I’m going back to finishing Double Sensei Life and Shakkin Shimai 2. Aero out.