A Butterfly in the District of Dreams

Extremely lighthearted novel. There's not much going on, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I liked the characters and that they are fully voiced - a good japanese listening practice if you're learning the language

+rep

HAI HAI HAI HAI

Beautiful, charming, clever, heart-warming, wonderful game! It has lovely characters and an amazing story. There are lots of chapters that you can just chill to and enjoy. Oriibugai and Kochouran are warm and welcoming places, you can always come and have some fun!
It is way too good for its price. If you like visual novels, definitely give it a try. You'll love it!

It's more of an 'average' rating - too much weirdness. Some parts are enjoyable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this visual novel. Each of the three routes has a different outcome, with very interesting and sad twists. The first half of the game will not have many choices for each route, but then you will be prompted to select with girl you want to spend time with. Each route shows different characters develop, not just the selected heroine.

For me personally, this VN was fairly average. It didn't really keep me hooked, but that's not to say that it doesn't have its good points. Yurika's route was fairly decent, but didn't give a proper conclusion (it just hinted for a sequel). If you like Ai and Riko as characters, then their routes aren't too bad either. They had their good points, but if you aren't really drawn to them, then you might feel a little bored in this VN (well this was my case at least). I did enjoy some of the soundtracks found in here, and the atmosphere in the game was very relaxing. Overall I would say I feel neutral towards this title. I would say only pick this one up if you are actually in the mood for the coffee shop themed type of VN, if not then I would say give this one a miss.

The MC Character Found Himself IN Isolated World Where very Little things existed But he wants to see his sister Everyday in fact cause she was in the Hospital Due to her injury. The world as he know it was Quiet vacant Place with Nothing to do But see his Sister I mean who can Blame Him. He then Finds His ChildHood friend Ai in which they finally meet up After not seeing eachother in 2 Months And said somethings Little did they know the train was Leaving. They Shockingly Didnt make it it was the last one or was it...... The Magical Train stopped and off they went into The Mystery World where everything was the Complete Opposite Of what they saw before/ This world was calm Peaceful relaxing Atmosphere To where they can live in Harmony. Once again though little did they know There was no way Home to there old world so they kinda were stuck there for the Time being Or until they figure out Way Back. There they Meet Some nice People Along the way Sakuya Whom she calls herself God Haha Ren san And other people Im not gonna Sopil it too much but Thats The Gist of it Find out yourself its good VN And I Liked it ^^ Def worth the Pickup.

Great game, very comfy and satisfying. Definitely worth the purchase.
The characters are well-written, the setting is pleasant. Just an all in all fulfilling experience.

PS Riko best girl, screw the haters. :P

7/10. An interesting story with interesting characters and interesting themes is hindered by a weak protagonist and seriously stunted by an incomplete ending.

Presentation: Character art is good in my opinion. Backgrounds aren't particularly interesting. In "the real world," the backgrounds are simply fuzzy real-world pictures, while in Oriibugai they're proper drawn art. It's a nice contrast. I like the soundtrack; it's mostly piano which I'm a fan of. There are a few audio issues, though: I had to turn the BGM way down to hear the characters, and sometimes a character will have a couple lines that are far quieter than normal, or they're missing completely.

Mechanics: The VN shakes things up ever-so-slightly here. There's a universal "common route," then there's a section where you can pick between one of the three heroines to see an "episode" or vignette surrounding them. After enough of these, you'll wind up on her route. In addition to this there are two distinct dialog choice moments, but neither matters very much in comparison. It's mostly picking a heroine to focus on, and then just reading the scene.

Story: The store page isn't very clear here, so here's the premise: Haruki lives a bleary life, taking care of his ailing grandmother, visiting his hospital-bound sister, and doing all of the housekeeping while his parents are away at work. A series of events involving a childhood friend finds them both on a mysterious train that takes them to Oriibugai, an otherworldly town where the main street runs for kilometers. With no way back home, the two of them settle into life there, and Haruki finds himself spending more and more time with three heroines, with the chance to develop a deeper relationship with one of them.

The main characters are Haru, his sister Anzu, the three heroines (Ai, Yurika, and Riko), another guy named Ren, and a Japanese god (who's also a young girl near Haru's age) named Sayuka who inhabits a shrine. All of them are pretty unique. Anzu is frail but always happy to see her younger brother. Ai is particularly interesting, in that she seems like she's on the spectrum: she's almost always expressionless, speaks largely emotionlessly and during an early scene when someone tells her to "smile more," Haru thinks something like "It's not like she won't, more like she can't." Yurika is the proprieter of Kochouran (a coffee shop Haru finds himself working for), upbeat yet business-conscious. Riko is a young girl, hyper and loud, and honestly a little obnoxious at times (as a child can be). Ren is mechanically inclined and fiercely devoted to Kochouran: he skirts the edge of "tsundere" occasionally, but is honestly a bit too harsh for that. And Sayuka is quirky and carefree, cooking up schemes to get people to pay for charms or prayers while also being a largely benevolent influence. They bounce off of each other well. Sayuka's pretty close to the star of the show in my eyes; her voice itself is a little goofy-sounding, she'll randomly drop into English for an idiom or two, and whenever she appears a characteristic (and characteristically quirky sounding) track begins to play.

The origins of this "otherworldly town" are not immediately clear. There are a few other differences in terms of realities (like the idea that time doesn't flow here), and there's a little bit of discussion on the logistics of these differences, but it takes a backseat to the main experience of the VN. The heroine episodes tend to follow a gentle progression (stronger for the later ones), but a number of them are self-contained slice-of-life moments that deal as much with the coffee shop and associated hijinks as the individual heroine (one of them sees Riko building a bug collection, with the bugs escaping and terrorizing a certain other member of the group who hates bugs).

Where there is a progression in the episodes, it's largely tailored to a heroine. Riko's scenes for example deal with her being overly childish, with the rest of the group trying to settle her down. Ai's tend to be related to her attraction for Haru and getting him to see that (you know, the childhood friend trope). Yurika's largely self-actualized already so her scenes don't necessarily involve growth on her part (and it's a strength of the VN that she's still interesting despite this).

The individual heroine routes are where things get interesting. I'll avoid spoilers, but the "otherworldly nature" of the town becomes a main focus again as stakes start to increase. If I were to rank them I'd say Riko
There's one big criticism I've left out. Haru is the densest idiot in the world. The childhood friend is the most obvious example: before the VN she deliberately failed a test for a prestigious university to enroll in the same one as him, but he has no clue why. During the VN there are plenty of scenes where she does something to get closer to him (like insist that she can't go down the stairs while wearing boots, so she needs to hold his hands) but he totally misses the meaning. At one point, Yurika says, "There's a limit to being dense. It has to be a crime for someone to be this dense. You deserve to be punished for this." The lampshading is humorous, but when it's played straight it gets old. One scene (direct quotes):

[quote]Heroine: "I like you, Haruki! I love you!! I love you!"

.....

...

Haruki (thinking): Like? Who? Who's she talking about?[/quote]

Yeah, it's bad.

I've avoided talking about the themes of the VN, because they aren't immediately obvious and I don't want to spoil them. However, the story does a good job introducing them, mostly at the beginning during the common route then near the end with the heroine routes. Yurika's route in particular brings one most strongly into focus, though again it's hindered by being arguably incomplete.

Was this a good read? Definitely yes. But I hesitate to recommend it with no strings attached. The fact that a sequel is really required to finish the story means you might be better off waiting. On the other hand, lackluster sales here might prevent a sequel from ever appearing...at the very least, know that two out of three routes may not be as good as the final one is (or could be were it finished) but are complete and enjoyable experiences.

I absolutely love this game! Looking forward to playing the sequel! :)

Yes, this is a well hidden game and I highly recommend this game!!!!

This is a good story that I likes.

I so iterest when the story goes to "isekai", I think I can't met "isekai" story in this year, and the story is very interesting me.
But I don't know why sometime volume of Yurika voice is goes down, so I turn out the BG sound, because its louder than Yurika voice. But its only yurika. I don't know is this a bug, or its features.
But I love the story and the character.

I Recomend this for who likes "isekai" stories (in other world stories).

Great game - very touching with a lot of those lighthearted moments with plenty of that touchy-feely stuff to make you feel for the characters.

I played the "true" route for like 5 hours and there are like 2 more.

Great value and touching game but for some reason I want more of the story which might be intentional but whatever.

It's more than worth aroune ten bucks - it could be twenty bucks and that would be cheap for the quality.

This was a nice, but sad in parts, visual novel. The basic premise is that the MC (Yumesaki Haruki) and his friend Tsukibane Ai end up in another world that seems to be in a continuous loop (like Groundhog Day, but a lot nicer). They meet a propieter named Yurika and a bouncing bundle of energy named Riko, and they end up at the coffeehouse run by Yurika. Through a series of choices you can end up with one of these three girls.

The paths are interesting, and the one that seems to be the true path is a bit... sad.

Anyway, it is worth the read.

I play this game and it bested my expectation of what i had exspected it would be.

I play each of the three route. Its very hard to put it into word. Each story was unique and I was amazied how they chance each ending with little tweak with the character and story they did with It make me wish for more.

I wish i could explain how it better how amazing this visual novel is and the emotion I felt after reading it.
It is definitely a story worth it's in gold 11 for 10

This was a great visual novel. The concept is clever. It took a little while for it all to come together and the second half is much lighter and funnier than the first half. There are three paths to choose - I only followed one to the end (so there are probably another 3-4 hours of content to pick through) - and it was a strange place to end even though there was a "rightness" about it.

Definitely recommend this. The art is great. The voiceover work is good. The translation apart from the first 20 minutes or so (which is a bit bumpy) is excellent too.