In Search of the Lost Doraemon

Nobita Nobi is a loser in life and a hopeless student at school, but he’s close with his childhood friend Shizuka, and he gets along with the goofy Suneo who studies abroad and the teasing, sharp-tongued Gian who’s also good with a flying kick. Together they start a club at school dedicated to researching weird stuff. One day Nobita meets a naked cat-shaped robot who calls itself Doraemon and claims to come from the future to change Nobita’s miserable past. If things stay as they are, Shizuka, the girl Nobita loves, will be confessed to by Dekisugi in a few days and taken away, and Nobita will suffer a brutal NTR and grow up into a complete waste of a human being. To save himself, the future Nobita sent Doraemon back to help his past self reach the future where he can marry Shizuka.

But as time goes on, Nobita realizes he’s fallen in love with Doraemon, and Doraemon notices Nobita’s feelings too. Their love isn’t allowed, though, because Doraemon comes from Nobita’s miserable future, and once Nobita’s present is changed, Doraemon will disappear. Before Doraemon vanishes, an emotionally overwhelmed Nobita and Doraemon do all sorts of things together, try all sorts of positions, and Nobita teaches Doraemon what making love means. Even so, Doraemon completes its mission and disappears anyway. A lost and empty Nobita preserves Doraemon’s memories, and twenty years later, together with a grown-up Shizuka, Suneo, and Gian, he recreates Doraemon and imports the vanished Doraemon’s memories into the new one. When Doraemon wakes up carrying its precious bond with Nobita, Nobita proudly names the lover he created Doraemon, and the two live out a shamelessly happy life together.

Oh, all right, this isn’t the story of Nobita and Doraemon. This is In Search of the Lost Future (失われた未来を求めて). In some ways it’s pretty much the same story, though… and in various respects I can see clear traces of the writer borrowing from Doraemon, including some lines lifted straight from it, the Anywhere Door, and that single-timeline, history-changing loop description Fujiko F. Fujio used to death, already used in Doraemon: Nobita’s Great Adventure in the Underworld. When I played In Search of the Lost Future, there probably weren’t many people who had good things to say about its story. The premise is actually pretty novel — of course it’s novel, who else would dare use Doraemon memes to rework a visual novel? But in the end the whole thing feels boring, and not boring in its framework but boring in how it’s told.

At first I was confused by a lot of the developments, like why the protagonist’s club is an astronomy club but he’s constantly getting into fights, why he has to ramble on for ages before every fight with Airi, why nothing much is foreshadowed after Furukawa Yui shows up and the protagonist just seems to accept the whole setup as if it’s natural, and why Furukawa Yui seems to have emotions in the first playthrough but comes off like a robot in the later ones…

Just when I’d decided the writer was a complete elementary schooler, the final playthrough perfectly answered all my questions. The fights were to emphasize Furukawa Yui’s actions. The first playthrough differs because the timeline is different. The acceptance is because of the ghost rumors, and because at that point the protagonist didn’t like Furukawa Yui. The robot-like behavior is because Furukawa Yui isn’t human in the first place…

But, ah, but before that final playthrough I doubt any normal person could sit through to the end, because the earlier routes are just too goofy. It seems the game wants you to feel the protagonist’s frustration from his failed attempts to change history, so your first few runs are all bad ends for different characters. It’s also supposed to be the romance route, giving you some fanservice. The mistake is that the romance routes are written so badly. Sasaki Kaori’s is okay — it’s the main route, after all — but Airi’s route afterward is completely nonsensical, and then there’s the sadistic Gian route… oh, sorry, I mean the Hamiya Nagisa senpai route, which uses the dumbest possible description: a business marriage isn’t something you solve by getting into a fight… I think after players go through a baffling first playthrough and then the goofy second and third, few will have the patience left to appreciate the sincerity of the final one.

After taking the same medicine as the writer, I tried to understand and figured he probably only came up with Furukawa Yui’s route, decided the reveal was awesome and brilliant and sophisticated, and stopped caring about the other routes — probably just cobbled them together afterward. It’s basically the same pattern as Sukima Sakura to Uso no Machi. If the other branches aren’t good, don’t force players through them, or they’ll have no patience left for the main route. I also have to complain that the most miserable character in the game is clearly Kirigaya Hana… no, wait, Yae-ko senpai. She’s the victim every playthrough, and in one of them she just sleeps through it and dies. Protagonist, when you’re saving the girls, did you ever think about saving her?

Putting the story aside, the game is actually pretty good in other respects. The biggest highlight is the art — the combination of Misaki Kurehito and Kuroya Shinobu produces the most beautiful art style in any visual novel right now. Shame there’s so little CG. I don’t know if the two artists were too busy or if it’s the production side’s fault, but I think the dates with the heroines could easily have used a few more CGs. Hamiya Nagisa senpai’s dinner and movie dates have no CG of their own, just skimmed over, and that’s hard to leave a good impression. The music is average. Honestly, even a niche title like Musou Mirai does far better on music. As for the OP, it fully deserves a thorough trashing — it’s the worst OP I’ve ever seen. No rhythm, no sync, just a few stiff CGs and blinking, plus character intros, and then it’s over. Hashimoto’s song isn’t good either, and it completely fails to match the game’s art.

The game has a lot of choices, but they’re full of malice. Maybe to emphasize that Furukawa Yui is the true heroine, a lot of the choices have to go to Furukawa Yui to move forward properly, or nothing changes. It’s a bit baffling.

Even so, the game is still somewhat worth playing. It’s short, there isn’t much content, the CGs are good fap material (yeah! let me tell you, Hamiya Nagisa senpai’s sadistic CG is great!), and it’s way better than some so-called masterpiece with an absurdly long name. Apart from the messily told story, it’s not that bad. It’s got a decent reputation, so playing it won’t hurt, but I’m worried — apparently it’s getting an anime adaptation. Can they really make ten episodes out of this much story? Are they really going to seriously animate those goofy fight scenes?