PSP Plot Completion Edition

You know how it is—you can’t get Tsukiko’s route in Himawari no Kyōkai to Nagai Natsuyasumi, and you can’t get Kiritani Hana’s route in Renai 0 Kilometer. Unforgivable. Intolerable. So even if it’s raw Japanese, that’s not gonna stop me. Time to dig the dusty PSP out of the drawer and get going!

Himawari no Kyōkai to Nagai Natsuyasumi extra vacation

The story just cuts straight in via a choice. Tsukiko, who loves Oboroshira Village more than anything, wants to revive the place, so protagonist Yōsuke decides to help out as her right-hand man. Together they rope in a whole crowd of people and come up with all sorts of schemes—bringing in a black cat to stir up internet buzz, making special food, setting up a village festival. The festival is a success, the village gets its spark back, and Yōsuke and Tsukiko become a couple.

The plot is pretty gentle, very slice-of-life, and the emotional beats are built up little by little. That’s good. The first real emotional turning point comes the night before the festival, when Tsukiko gets anxious—what if all her effort over the years amounts to nothing? That’s when Yōsuke realizes that the always-smiling, always-energetic Tsukiko actually has some deep-seated issues and is under a ton of pressure. He holds her tight and tries to confess, but she runs away. She’s been watching Ruka and Kongōseki’s feelings for Yōsuke all along, and she thinks she can’t like him or she’d be the third wheel. Of course, in the end Kongōseki talks some sense into her, and Tsukiko takes the initiative to confess. They become a couple.

Most visual novels have this pattern—they create a bubbly heroine who drives the plot, but behind that energy there’s usually some hidden insecurity and pain. Happiness is a constant; the more you give to others, the more you suffer yourself. That’s probably why we often see comedians or talk show hosts who are all laughs on stage secretly struggling with depression…

Worth noting: the only difference in this PSP version is Tsukiko’s route. Nothing else changed—not even the OP. They just slapped a line on it. If you’re asking whether it shows effort… Tsukiko’s route is actually decent. But if you’re asking whether it’s lazy—they didn’t even change the OP, the CGs have no large versions, the ED has no single. That’s pretty hard to defend. Still, with my love for Tsukiko, I’d say it’s fine.

Renai 0 Kilometer Portable

Renai 0 Kilometer is damn good at milking money. When I was looking up guides for the PSP version, I found out there’s also a PSV version with zero changes! Anyway, I was in it for Yūhi—Kiritani Hana—but it turns out you need to clear the two new characters and Sakuya’s route first to unlock her. Plot locks are the worst. So, grumbling, I took it step by step.

First up was the Ozawa Meru route—the new character voiced by Tamura. It’s bundled into the big sister’s route, and the story is pretty simple. The Ozawa sisters, Meru and Moe, live next door to the protagonist and go to the same school. Moe is the older sister (looks like the younger one), and Meru is the younger. Meru works part-time as a voice actress, playing Merumeru in the all-ages kids’ anime Magical Girl Sisters… Yeah, I can already feel the snark coming. Since the character interacts a lot with her brother in the show, Meru says she can’t quite get the role right, so she asks the protagonist to play her brother and practice lines with her. As they practice more and more, they fall for each other. Eventually, during practice, the protagonist confesses to Meru and says he’s serious, then they have a little lovey-dovey scene and it’s over.

Second was the Ozawa Moe route. Moe is voiced by Asumi Kana—man, she really loves voicing these loli big sisters. During New Year’s, the protagonist and Moe go out shopping, Moe hurts her foot, and he carries her princess-style to a quiet spot. Moe suddenly thinks he’s just like the prince she always dreams about, and falls in love (so casual). She goes home and tells Meru, who suggests she write him a love letter. “You’re the big sister, so you have to take the initiative.” So on the first day of the new semester, Moe goes to deliver the letter, but through a series of mishaps it doesn’t get handed over properly—it ends up stuck on the protagonist and carried away… After reading it, he thinks it’s a joke, but the next day Moe says she’s serious.

“I’ve always fantasized about a prince coming to protect me. I… I graduate in half a semester, so could you pretend to be my prince until then? Once I graduate, it’s over.”

What’s with this “we break up at graduation” vibe? So the protagonist and Moe spend a long time in this fake relationship, and he gradually falls for her. One day, Meru forgets her voice acting script, and Moe goes to deliver it but gets lost (probably). The protagonist runs around in the heavy snow all day looking for her, and when he finds her, he says he doesn’t want to play the prince anymore—he wants to be the real thing. Then he confesses, and the route ends.

I fast-forwarded through Sakuya’s route, but I noticed some changes regarding Yūhi—they added more hints that Sakuya knows Yūhi is her sister. Then I moved on to Yūhi’s route. It’s short… really short… stupidly short. I’d say it’s a total rip-off.

Yūhi’s route starts with the protagonist wanting to go swimming and asking Yūhi to come along. She acts tsundere but goes anyway.

At the pool, Yūhi shows up.

Holy shit, when did you get those huge boobs?

Then one day, the protagonist sees Yūhi crossdressing—she says it’s a punishment game, but he still compliments her, saying she’s cute. After these two events, Yūhi starts thinking that if she went back to dressing as a girl, maybe her brother would like her more.

So she goes to Sakuya and says she wants to dress like a girl. Sakuya drags the protagonist and Yūhi to the shopping district to buy women’s clothes, and the protagonist ends up paying. The next day, Yūhi goes to school crossdressed.

Everyone was stunned! I was stunned too! How did your boobs get even bigger?

The crossdressing lasts one day at school. Yūhi asks the protagonist to walk home with her, and on the way he says things like “cute” and “gentle” to her. Sakuya sees this and thinks he’s about to make a move on Yūhi.

The next day, Yūhi goes back to boy’s clothes and says she doesn’t care about crossdressing anymore. Then Sakuya tells the protagonist, “If you dare lay a hand on Yūhi—your own little sister—I’ll never forgive you!”

And then it’s over!

Yep, over!!

What the hell is this?!

Also, the bigger scam in the PSP version of Renai 0 Kilometer is the OP. I always thought Lovely Days was the PSP OP, but it’s not!!!! It’s still the original! They just added two people and changed the names a bit! You’ve got that amazing 3D effect for Lovely Days, why not use it? Why stick with the cutout animation?

Anyway, after playing through these two raw Japanese games, I found that I can actually understand a fair amount of Japanese—even though I only went through the kana chart once and don’t remember much, it’s still practical experience. Hopefully by this time next year I’ll be able to play raw Japanese games comfortably.