The Trials of ARomantic Reimu
A reverse dating sim, where you must guide Reimu away from several would-be suitors. Your choices will determine how well she grazes their advances and what fate has in store for her. But don't be a jerk!
Can be played in browser with no special controls apart from clicking options.
Warning: This game contains mature topics and themes, including heartbreak and discussions of sex. Player discretion is advised.
Writing/Coding: AngryCow
UI Design: Jade
Coding/Testing: misabiko
Cover Art: Hippppo
Background Art: Jackyyeah
Music Commissioned from Carnel
Made with Twine
This is a Touhou Project fanwork.
Download
Install instructions
To play from a downloaded copy, unzip the folder and open the index.html in a web browser.
Development log
- Postjam 1.3Jul 06, 2024
- Postjam 1.2Jun 29, 2024
Comments
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This was really good, I think you chose the perfect character for this. Although I'm not aromantic myself (although I'm somewhere on the aroace spectrum, just unsure of where exactly I fit into it), I know and can tell that this was something clearly written from the heart. I think Reimu was the absolute perfect choice to use here. A girl that just kinda wants some peace and quiet.
I literally made an account JUST to leave a comment. I'm a very emotional person and I love romance, and by judging the game's title and description I knew it was gonna be a little hard to process at first. Needless to say, the way the dialogue and reimu's character were handled made it not only enjoyable from the start but also a really sweet and satisfactory story by the end, I almost felt like crying haha. Excellent job by everybody involved in the project, I hope you do more stuff like this in the future. definitively going to check out the rest of the jam too!
(SPOILERS FOR THE TRUE END BELOW!)
And since sanae is my number one girl, I HAVE to ask; who did she marry by the end, assuming she is indeed the mother of the new hakurei shrine maiden? any specific character in mind, if there's any, or just a random unnamed character?
Thank you so much for playing our game. It is great to hear about someone getting involved even so long after the jam. And do try the other entries, there are some excellent stories that are much more romantic than ours. Perhaps they will be even more to your taste than ARomantic Reimu.
And in response to your spoiler questions:
You are correct that Sanae is the mother of the new Hakurei shrine maiden, but I intentionally left out who she eventually marries. That was beyond the scope of Reimu's story, and picking any one character (or unnamed character) could disrupt the flow of the true ending if the reader disagreed. Perhaps hypocritical of me, as I couldn't resist throwing in a suggestion that Kogasa has a romantic fling with a kappa. I did want to show that even the girls Reimu had to reject found their own healthy, happy relationships.
I hope my Sanae writing was up to snuff to satisfy one of her fans, as she is a character I don't personally relate well with.
Thank you so much for replying! I totally get that, Reimu was the focus of the story in the end and honestly, just knowing the fact that Sanae found someone to live a happy life and form a family with really shows that everybody just moved on, no resentments or anything like that. As a HUGE Sanae fan, I can promise you that you did great at writing her :)
Great prose and premise! Even if the story didn't resonate with me, it's still an enjoyable experience of putting yourself into the mindset of Reimu and trying to help her achieve her peace while staying true to her friends and any expectations they may have.
But the story *did* resonate with me, and as the final song plays during the True Ending sequence I had a few tears in my eyes.
Not every story has to be written from a place of emotional sincerity, but I will always appreciate that ones that are - and doubly so aspect of the production is at this standard of quality.
Thank you to the whole team for making this game!
Good writing.
I admit aromanticism frustrates me (like the would be “suitors” no doubt) conceptually since I’m the exact opposite end to that, but I would be foolish not to realize how well realized this works as a lens into that kind of person/character.
Although as far as suitors go Sakuya and Kogasa feel a bit self-indulgent as far as those who have Reimu on their mind, although perhaps many fanworks tend to be! That’s not a dig I just think it’s amusing.
Getting a chance for the player to see through a different lens was a central goal of this game. I can understand the frustration, as I bet it is similar to the discordance I can get reading romantic works. But I hope this game helps build empathy for different viewpoints.
If you are referring to why Sakuya and Kogasa are featured as suitors, I selected each of them based on the angle they could add to the story. Kogasa is a lovable goof who is easy to read for a first challenge, and Sakuya's form of expressing love through gifts and service could be played off Reimu's greed.
Thank you for playing.
It honestly did, thank you.
That was interesting insight to your choice of characters, I simply assumed it came from a place of “I just liked those characters”. However, you saw them more for specific traits that could play well with both the reader and the main character and that’s rad.
Well done. If I had any honest critique - I’m actually not super sure how I got the True ending. If I had to act a certain way with all suitors or explain the viewpoint best, I couldn’t exactly tell. It was a lot of trial and error on my part. But I’m glad I did.
The challenge of the game is something we never got quite right. The suitors are too easy, and Yukari too hard. Since you seem interested, I will tell you how the True End works- but BIG SPOILERS for anyone who hasn't played yet- To unlock the true ending you must handle each of the suitors amicably and then convince Yukari to leave Reimu alone. The trick there is each of the Bad Ends with the suitors teaches you, the player, the best answer to one of Yukari's questions. Since the jam ended I have gotten several better ideas to handle the decisions but they would require a complete rewrite. I will save them as lessons learned for the future.
Very great game! it perfectly shows the view of an aromantic person and their own struggles, and its not easy.
While I dont play many visual novels, this one definetly is one of the best ones in the small amount i did play.
(Now if there was a Seija.....)
I've yet to get every ending, but I got Bad End 5 and the True End. I am a HUGE fan of this, and it was one of the first games to catch my eye due to being aspec related (I'm ace myself, so it's nice to see this).
It's really unique, as I've never seen any sort of VN/Dating Sim(?) like this, but it's VERY welcome for me. The music was also a huge plus for this.
Good job, everyone on the team!
I am really pleased to get more representation out there. Thank you for playing and I hope you enjoy the other endings if you decide to play further, even though they show a Bad End.