Sunday, November 20, 2022
Academic Subterfuge
The
English release of Hello Lady is a game in a strange situation. Being
a translation of the Complete Edition, it is effectively three games
tied into one which leads to some interest quirks. I knew that I would have to play the game since I enjoyed
one of the developers previous works, Coμ. Coμ was a flawed but
entertaining game and it is with these expectations I when into Hello
Lady. What I got was an extremely compelling but uneven experience
and here I will endeavour to explain the causes and strengths I
encountered.
In
this analysis I will cover my broader thoughts on Hello Lady which
could not be included in the review since they contain spoilers for most
of the plot. As such I advise you to read my original review before
continuing onward if you just want to know whether you should play
the game.
The Fires of Love and Revenge – Route Analysis
-Common Route -
Hello
Lady’s Common Route is on the longer side and as such has to keep
things engaging through a variety of events. There are your standard
slice of life sections, which do a good job at establishing the
characters, a mock superpower battle, for a little bit of action, and a
sizeable dose of tension between the character's motivations. The
majority of the Common Route is nothing terribly special with it
leaning into established genre ideas as its backbone. However, what
makes it stand out is how it ends. The curtain is pulled back and the
player gets to see the true extent of Narita’s desire for revenge
and how far he is willing to go. It is almost theatrical in how it
frames Narita’s act with a specially made replica gun and perfectly
timed entrance in order to inflict the greatest amount of fear in his target. Narita is the
lead actor in a tragedy fuelled by hate and we have front row seats
for this disaster.
As
mentioned in my review, the main problem in the Common Route is the
choices presented to the player regarding their feelings towards the
school. These fail on a number of levels. There is the issue of how
vague the notion of feelings is with only a binary like and dislike system
available and no method of understanding what this means in practice.
On top of this there is no indication about which heroines want what
number of like or dislike choices in order to access their route,
with some requiring one or the other and some which do not care about
either. This is made even more confusing by the presence of joke bad
endings if you pick too many of either the like or dislike choices
which can make the player believe they are doing something wrong by
choosing these options. Overall this is just a poorly though through
system that adds a blemish to an otherwise excellent Common Route.
-Akahito Tamao -
This
is a route which opens and ends strongly but has a meandering middle.
The inciting incident of Narita discovering Tamao is a spy acts as a
great source of tension with the two teaming up to plan an
infiltration of the secret lab while not trusting each other.
However, this conflict goes out of the window once Narita confesses
his love for Tamao and the narrative never quite recovers from this
loss. Shifting the focus onto the romance between the two might seem
like a sound choice in theory, but they are meant to
be getting ready for a life or death situation and seem to lack any
sense of danger. The interactions between the two are cute and
do a good job at selling their budding relationship while setting up
for the gut punch later on. Tamao’s route regains focus in the
final stretch with a heart wrenching battle of wills between Tamao
and Narita over Narita’s desire for revenge and it is a high point
of the story which saves it from the dip in the middle.
Tamao
and Sorako are the two initially available routes and share some
similar problems. As mentioned in my review, the game cannot know
which of them you will choice first and as a result there is a lot of
repeated information in each which can kill the pacing of whichever
one you choose second. On top of this issue there is the feeling that
these two routes only have one route’s worth of new information in them
and can feel empty at times as a result. Tamao’s route covers the
secret lab and Sorako’s route covers Narita’s past, but neither
cover their topics in much depth since the major revelation are being
kept for later in the game.
-Katsuragi Sorako -
Sorako’s
route is a much more even experience than Tamao’s even if it never
reaches the same highs as that route. Having Sorako act as a constant
remainder to Narita of the past and how it was not all as bad as he
wants to remember it being. Coupling this with Sorako’s generally more
positive disposition, makes her an excellent foil to him with her
both supporting his actions and undermining them in the same breath.
The overall character arc for Sorako is a strong and familiar one
with her gradually gain the confidence to make her wishes a reality
and make Narita see her for who she is rather than his memory of her.
It
is just a shame then that this route is plagued by questionable
choices which add nothing to the route. The choice to have Sorako be a
cross-dresser is an easy example to use of this problem. There is
precisely one scene in which this aspect of Sorako is explored and it
only gets a few lines dedicated to what has been a repeated and
obvious visual part of her identity. Nothing else is done with it,
Sorako never behaves like a male, it never effects how anyone treats
her and even her own family (the very people she is trying to impress
by doing this) never bring it up. It is almost to the point that it
seems as if Sorako may have original been written as a male character
but was changed later in development and the cross-dressing is a
remnant of that process. This would explain why it is not brought to
our attention much since a male dressing as a male is not something
you would draw attention to. Overall, it is just a strange clash
between how visible this trait is and how little it actually matters.
Another
major example of the confused narrative choices made for this route
is Sorako’s split personality. This is a very sudden plot twist
which comes out of nowhere at the start of her route with no
foreshadowing or proper set up. It feels jarring to be introduced to
this new character at the start of a route rather than during the
Common Route and the whole thing is rushed through so we can get on
with the plot. Then the game proceeds to do nothing with this new
character, they do not have their own character
arc and just seem to exist so Sorako has someone to talk about her
feelings. They do not do anything within the story which could not
have been done by Sorako herself and as such this split personality
could have been written out without issue. While it never ruins the
experience, it does distract as you wonder why they even included
this plot point.
-Takazaki Eru -
With
Eru’s route the overarching narrative picks up and we get lots of information to help understand what is going on. Watching the interactions
between Eru and Narita is the highlight of this route since Eru’s
no nonsense attitude contrasts wonderfully with Narita’s tendency
for flamboyance and they bounce off each other well. Of the routes
from the original game, this is the strongest with an excellent flow to it. We get an opening which sells the start of romance
between Narita and Eru with two coming naturally together as they
bond over their common interests while Eru slowly opens up about her
past and develops beyond the idea she is a doll. Throughout this
there is always a sense that Eru is hiding something which adds a
nice tension to affairs.
The
final part of Eru’s route has some of the best and worse aspects of
the original game. It becomes very clear that Saku is not in her
right mind any more as it is revealed she is responsible for the
murders of people with powers. This creates a situation where Eru’s
loyalty is tested and she turns on Narita, but comes around after
Narita pushes through Eru’s power. Having this conflict between
hero and heroine is a strong way to finalise their relationship and
it is the highest point of this route and plays off what has been
established between the two throughout the narrative. It is after
this point which the greater issues with Hello Lady start to rear
their heads. Saku’s dropping of any illusion that she is not the
antagonist here and going to town on the school set her up nicely as
a threat and makes you question which Saku is the real one, this one
or the one we knew before. This is an interesting direction to go in but
runs into the problem of having to hold back a lot of information
about Saku and any revelations about her powers until her own route.
As such the confrontation with Saku is incredibly underwhelming,
Narita attempts to attack Saku only once and when this fails simply lets
Eru use her power to win in an anticlimactic manner.
Eru’s
power is systematic of the strange ability design at play throughout
Hello Lady. The ability to influence the mental state of another
person to the point that attempting to harm Eru cause the person to
attack themselves sounds like a cool idea in theory, but in practice
is highly incompatible with the action focused nature of the narrative.
It appears the developers were aware of this problem as there are only two
proper fights involving Eru, the one just mentioned above vs. Saku
and on in the final route. Both consist of two people standing
opposite each other making noises as they have an invisible mental
battle. This does not exactly make for compelling viewing especially
for the confrontation with Saku since it is meant to conclude Eru’s
character arc and is an underwhelming note to end the route on.
-Otonashi Saku -
Oh
boy, here we are at the finale of the original game and the route
with the most missed potential and strangest twists. It has a lot of
ground to cover in terms of plot points and for the most part it is
well paced with a good build up of the relationship between Narita
and Saku while giving the final nail in the coffin for the legitimacy
of Narita’s revenge. The cracks only start to show once we reach
the finale were Saku’s lack of flaws reaches it apex with her being
effectively absolved of any wrong doing with regards to her evil self
which makes her hard to empathise with especially in contrast to the
mentally anguished Narita. Evil Saku is barely utilised
throughout the route's duration with this part of Saku only surfacing on a
few occasions and even then only for a moment. It really feels
as if the developers did not want to have this part of Saku effect
the players impression of her in any negative way. This is furthered
by the revelation that this part of Saku was not really her
succumbing to Onslaught Syndrome and was in fact her being possessed
by Ruri and used like a puppet to commit those murders. This puts
Saku in the clear for being responsible for those deaths since there
is no way she can be expected to fight against a mind control she had
no idea was even happening. Honestly this is a lot of missed
potential and in a later section I will expand on this in more
detail.
Next
we come to fight between Kurofune and Narita which the entire game
has been building up to and is completely undermined by Saku’s
presence. The fight has to constantly stop and start so that Saku and
Kurofune can debate their actions and explain their motives. This
completely kills the pacing of the fight with Narita barely being
involved in a scene which should be the climax of his character arc
and revenge. To put Narita in the background of his own fight and instead favour Saku, who has far less
investment in this fight and does not actually throw a single punch,
is a strange choice and leads to this fight feeling somewhat like a
damp cloth to end things on.
Of
course this is not really the end as our eleventh hour villain takes the
stage. Ruri is very poorly set up and is basically a
cardboard cut out evil who is just there to be defeated. However, this
section has some redeeming features which elevate it above the
Kurofune fight. It nicely acts as the final blow to Narita’s
motivations as the source of his desire for revenge is still alive
and was not the person what he believed her to be. On top of this, the
fight against Ruri is suitably climatic with everyone pitching in to
overcome her and her own powers being excellent for a final
antagonist. At this point it is worth bringing up the elephant in the
room, Saku’s power. It turns out she has the ability to negate
anyone else’s abilities and can take them from the person if she
wants to. This ability is so absurdly powerful in the context of
Hello Lady given how prominent those with powers are in the
narrative. Saku is basically invincible if she chooses to actually
use her powers which for the most part she does not so the plot can
happen and seemly for no other good reason. It is a shame Ruri’s
fight is finished because of Saku’s Deus Ex Machina power but I
suppose Saku had to be involved somehow.
Thus
ends the routes contain in the original game. Quite a mixed bag with
just as many excellent moments as strange narrative choices. If this
were the entirety of Hello Lady I would not remember the game so
kindly. However, it is not the end and what comes afterwards goes a
long way to filling the holes in the original game.
-Kabutoyama Mitori -
When
I realised one of the two New Division routes belong to Mitori I
cannot say I was very interested in it. In the original game Mitori
is a character who’s death, at the end of the common route, acts as
an inciting incident to break the status quo and introduce a new
layer of mystery to the game. There was not much else to her and as
such my expectations were low for her route, but little did I know
she would become my favourite character and her route would stand
head and shoulders above the rest.
Let’s
begin with the common problem which both of the New Division routes share, which is they begin without any build up and assume you are
familiar enough with the events of Hello Lady to follow along.
Mitori’s route does suffer from this more than Hishia since it
begins with an immediate action scene which does not let up for quite
a while. However, neither route is ruined by this issue and it
just means the player may initially be lost as to what has happened before to this opening.
Mitori’s
slow decline as she struggles against the Onslaught Syndrome as it is
eating away at her is everything I had hoped for when Evil Saku was
introduced. Witnessing this decline from both her internal point of view and
from Narita’s makes for a compelling narrative as both have to
grapple with this problem in their own ways, all the while being on
the run from the school who are doing everything in their power to
kill Mitori. The way this decline is contrasted with the growing
relationship between Mitori and Narita, even in the face of this
inevitable demise, works to heighten the tension and make their bond a
beacon of light in this dark time. The whole experience plays out as
any good tragedy should, we know how this is going to end and no
matter how hard the characters struggle they cannot escape the
ending. It is precisely this fight against the inevitable which makes
their efforts beautifully futile and you cannot help but cheer them
on. When Mitori’s end does come it is with one of the best fights
in the game between herself and Narita and perfectly encapsulates
their relationship while still being a climatic showdown. Few visual
novels do this kind of tragedy and it was a pleasant surprise to find
an example of it in Hello Lady.
-Hishia Mori -
This
is a route characterised by its tendency to meander. It spends the
majority of its play time dumping flashbacks and information about
Hishia and Narita’s past. Most of this knowledge we could either
already infer from what is known or adds nothing of value.
This is a shame as the actually relationship between the two is a
sweet romance focused around how the pair have a similar traumatic
past and find solace in one another. If it were not for the poor
pacing for the majority of the route this would have been one of the
better example in the game of how to handle romance.
However,
there is one part of this route which makes it worth playing through
all the dry backstory and this is the fight against Kurofune. Here we
can see what the fight in Saku’s route should have looked like and
how you do a climatic fight where the heroine contributes
without overshadowing the main conflict. Let’s pick apart why this
works and Saku’s does not. Firstly, Kurofune is established as a
threat by demonstrating his strength directly against Hishia and
Narita, rather than being constantly interrupted, which allows for a
greater catharsis when he is defeated. Second, character growth is
naturally tied into the procession of the fight with it coinciding
with the resolution of the main relationship. Finally, Hishia
contributes to the fight in a way which makes sense for her character
while not taking the limelight way from Narita who is the person with
the greater investment in this fight. It also helps that Kurofune is
given an expanded suite of moves to make the longer fight feel fresh
throughout. This fight is one of the best in Hello Lady and it amazes
me that it is consigned to a fandisc route.
-Superior Entelecheia -
Hello
Lady’s grand finale route is juggling differing priorities. It is
at once an explosive conclusion for the story and characters as well
as a remedy for the issues of the original game’s narrative.
Despite being pulled in these two directions it does an excellent job
making sure neither overshadows the other and ends up as a suitable send
off from the whole game.
When
it comes to being a conclusion to Hello Lady, this route knows it has
to up things to eleven to keep the player engaged to the very end. It
achieves this by giving all the characters enhanced versions of their
powers to increase the spectacle of the fights and having all the
major conflicts in the prior routes come to a head at the same time.
This might sound like it would be overwhelming but in practice
there is a strong flow to events in part due to it using a lot of
elements the player is already familiar with, ensuring they will not
become lost in the non-stop action.
This
route’s second objective is to fix issues with the original game
and the two most prominent examples of this are Saku and Ruri.
Saku gets the smaller enhancement with greater emphasis being placed
on her fear of being left behind by those she loves and more general
weaknesses to counteract the damage done by her own route making her
too perfect. Overall the game is successful in crafting a more
compelling personality for Saku, but there is still the lingering
harm done by her own route which is difficult to undo. Ruri on the
other hand is given the majority of the spotlight since she
essentially had no personality before this route as anything other
than a throwaway villain. Her transformation from generic bad guy to
empathetic heroine is this route’s greatest success and the main
appeal of playing it. By placing her in contrast to the rest of the cast
and playing her off against Narita, the player gets a nuanced look at
what motivates her and how despite everything she might say that she
is as human as the rest of the cast. Having her be forced to question
her world view also adds a lot to her character and we get to see her
struggle to come to terms with what is happening around her. It also
wonderfully expands Nartia by acting as a chance for him to be a
real family member now that the mask has dropped and the resulting
interactions create just the right balance of tension and feeling.
Greater Than The Sum of Its Parts – Overarching Thoughts
-Three Game Chimera -
As
a merger of three games there is some inevitable strangeness in how
the whole package is put together. Going from the cohesiveness of the
original game to selecting the next route from the main menu rather
than from your own choices is quite a jarring shift. It bring a
certain awareness of the fact this a game to the forefront of the
player’s mind and this is one thing most games strive to avoid
wherever possible. While this is not the end of the world for Hello
Lady, it is disappointing that there was no attempt to merge these
detached routes into the original game. This would have certainly
required some additional effort on the developer’s part, but the
benefits for immersion into this wonderful narrative and the
coherence it would have provided would have been well worth it.
-Saku’s Missed Potential -
When
Evil Saku was introduced in Eru’s route I was immediately intrigued
by the twist that a previously beacon of moral purity has a darker
side to them. This is initially presented as Onslaught Syndrome but
the player is clued into the fact it is not this because of how the
sympoms of Onslaught Syndrome do not exactly match what is happening
to Saku. She is too in control and too human. However, this potential
dies as you enter Saku’s route with it being pushed into the
background and ultimately revealed to be a case of possession by Ruri
and not anything related to Saku’s character.
This
is the single biggest missed opportunity in Hello Lady, especially
given how many of Saku’s plot points and character traits would
play well into a darker self and her overall arc. So join me as I
engage in a thought experiment (read as Fanfiction) about how this could have been handled
better.
Saku’s
character arc can be broadly split into two parts, her fear of being
left behind born from her friend’s death and her struggles to
reconcile the idea of being noble with the realities of an unfair
world. Her struggles with her friend’s death are the fertile
breeding ground for the construction of another personality to deal
with the issues Saku does not want to face. Multiple personalities as
a part of having powers already has a precedent with Sorako so this
would not be out of left field. This new Dark Saku would be
assertive, ruthless and willing to do whatever it takes to deal with
threats and in particular problematic people with powers, everything
the original is not or does not want to admit to being.
The
focus on those with powers would stem from the established fact that the person who killed her
friend was someone with powers who managed to get away with what
they were doing for a long time and was not somebody the normal
authorities could handle. So Dark Saku’s answer is to kill these
people to prevent them from causing harm since nobody else is willing
or able to do it. Saku would have some awareness of what is happening
to her but not remember the events when she is Dark Saku (as in the
actual game) and also cannot quite bring herself to fully reject her
other self’s methods. It is also easy to justify why Dark Saku
would have killed Eru’s Owner given how he treated Eru as a thing
rather than a person and thus would be unacceptable to Saku’s
values. Saku would also feel responsible for Eru since she would be
aware of being involved in Eru’s current state and as such she would take
Eru under her wing even if she is not comfortable with Eru’s
attachment to her.
Saku’s
route would focus on the same issues and themes as the original but
frame them through the duel personality and having Saku come to
accept this other self. Dark Saku would be more present, like Evil
Saku is in Eru’s route, and acts as both a mirror to Narita’s own
negative traits and a source of tension as the player would not know
if they are friend or foe. The Kurofune fight could also used as a
perfect ending to Saku’s arc by reconciling her and Narita’s
feelings with Kurofune acting as an opposite ideal to them and
forming a coop fight much like the one in Hishia’s route. As for
Ruri’s appearance, this is a more fundamental issue which one route
cannot solve and simply requires better set up throughout the entire
game. However, on a character level Ruri could act as an opposite in
terms of someone who stands above everyone else in terms of power and how they
should behave. Ruri believes everyone to be lesser because of their
weakness and uses them like toys, while Saku wants to protect
them with her powers and adhere to the ideal of being noble. This
makes Ruri occupy the same role as Kurofune but from a power centric view rather
than focused around beliefs.
Conclusion
Quite
a lot of ground has been covered in this analysis but I hope that it was insightful as to the many strengths and flaws of Hello Lady.
It should be obvious now this game is far from perfect with odd
pacing issues, problematic choices of superpowers and general missed
potential. However, it should be equally clear that it shines
brightly with emotive character arcs, outstanding action scenes and
an understanding of how to get the most out of each moment. Never has
a visual novel made me so conflicted about if I think it is good or
not throughout its entire length and swinging wildly backwards and
forwards on which side of the divide I sit on. So ends my brief
journey into madness and I will now try not to think about Hello Lady
for a while, it has occupied too much of my mind.
