First of all, don't buy this if you're one of those people who absolutely MUST have gameplay beyond pressing A or Enter or whatever to advance text. This is a kinetic novel, meaning there's no choices, no minigames, etc. It's all text, music, sprites, backgrounds, and a few menus. That's it. Also of note, there's eight parts to the full story, of which this is only the first (don't worry, it's VERY lengthy even just by itself, and the later games are equally so), and parts 6 - 8 haven't been translated yet as of this post. Now, for those of you that this didn't scare off, prepare for one hell of a story. There's a reason I'm giving this game five stars. This game at first seems like a sweet little slice of life story, and takes its sweet time introducing the characters, the setting, the backstory, etc. And it's great stuff. Keiichi Maebara is forced to move to the countryside town of Hinamizawa when his parents' work takes him there. In the process, he meets several new friends, and learns about the storied history of the town. Key phrase there though is "seems like." Soon enough though, Keiichi gets involved in... well, I don't even wanna say much more than that. But suffice to say, this is no slice of life anime or dating sim. This game is justifiably historic in visual novel and anime circles. Its storytelling is nothing short of brilliant, and the absolutely mind blowing amount of build up that goes into the game's bait and switch style plot would give many "real" novels and series a run for the money. It's a testament to what one person (07th Expansion is mainly comprised of this game's author Ryukishi07, his brother, and a now deceased third member) with a vision can achieve even with modest storytelling tools when they put their mind to it.
