FAVORITE games generally give off a certain impression: artsy, fantastical, and long-winded. Especially that one they put out before, Sakura, Moyu. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “nothing but filler,” but saying it’s “long and stinky” seems fair enough. The prose itself isn’t really the problem — it’s that there’s way too much of that “Japanese-style” circular beating around the bush. Sometimes you’ll be seriously following a two-person conversation for half an hour with zero story progress, and sleepiness hits you fast. Older FAVORITE games had this trait too, but nowhere near this bad, which is exactly why I could get through the Irotoridori no Sekai and AstralAir no Shiroki Towa series but have never been able to finish Sakura, Moyu. And FAVORITE as a company gives off this really mysterious vibe — their release pace is absurdly slow. But later I figured it out: they’ve got a “sub-label” under them called ωstar. As for what “masterpieces” ωstar has put out, well, if you know, you know. Considering the popularity and sales of those “masterpieces,” FAVORITE’s revenue probably isn’t doing too badly — at the very least, they’re a long way from going under. But clearly FAVORITE wasn’t content to just sit back and live off past glories. They wanted to expand further. In 2021, they quietly ditched the old logo they’d used for years and swapped in a more direct new trademark, tacking an even more direct slogan underneath it: The Next Generation. At the same time, they announced a new title: ハッピーライヴ ショウアップ! This new game left a lot of traditional “F-company” fans confused. Tsukasa wasn’t the main artist anymore, and both the scenario and planning no longer had Yukito Ushihara involved. The setting and story synopsis also looked “pretty ordinary” no matter how you sliced it — just a bunch of girls wanting to put on a show on stage. A change like this is going to disappoint a lot of old fans, but it also makes plenty of people curious: will the new-generation-focused FAVORITE really go mid just like that?

The moon is bright and the stars are few; the autumn night has already begun to carry a chill. An old man in a short-sleeve shirt and jeans, idly messing with his phone. “Grandpa.” A little girl’s voice rang out. She looked like she’d been staring at the old man for a while, and had finally worked up the nerve to speak to him. “It’s so chilly tonight—aren’t you cold out here?” “Cold my ass.” Old as he was, his tone carried an unmistakable flippancy—until he looked up, saw the girl in front of him, and realized that kind of talk didn’t suit his image. So he straightened his expression and put on a smile that wasn’t exactly handsome, saying to her, “I’m not cold~ thank you~.” The little girl didn’t seem to care about how the old man talked. She just went on slowly, “Grandpa, grandpa, what are you looking at?” As she spoke, she started peeking at the phone in the old man’s hand. The old man looked a little embarrassed and hurriedly put his phone away. He didn’t want the little girl to see what was on the screen, because in his eyes—no, in most people’s eyes—what was on that phone screen really wasn’t something you’d want others to see. **“Hey there, kiddo~” The old man forced himself to stay calm. “How about I tell you a story?” “A story, huh? What kind of story?” The little girl didn’t turn it down at all—if anything, she looked like she’d heard them all. “What kind of thing do you want to hear?” **“There are handsome guys, pretty girls, and people falling in love…” “Tch.” The old man clicked his tongue, then immediately put his grin back on. “Ever heard the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl?” "……you…… pervert…… uncle?" The little girl looked completely confused. Do kids these days not even know the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl? The old man couldn’t help but sigh. “Want to hear it?” “Yeah!” The little girl was thrilled. **“Come on, come on, sit here.” The old man patted the clean spot beside him. “The story has to start from the beginning…” ……………………