Sunday, March 1, 2026
Genre – Romance, Slice of Life, Fantasy Play Time – 25 hours Developer – FAVORITE Patch Download VNDB
Call Of Forgotten Memories
When
following on from a visual novel with one of the most satiating
finales in the medium, but some mixed quality heroine routes, how do
you provide any meaningful additions to story? Irotoridori no
Hikari’s answer is to be a hybrid of sequel and fandisc to try and
expand on the ending while tidying up the lingering issues. The main
way it does this is through the heroine after stories which take the
cast and address any remaining conflicts and give them proper
conclusions. Returning characters maintain their strong personalities
and now feel like a part of a group as they interact more rather than being an island to themselves as they were previously. Visual design continues
to be this series’ strength with it doubling down on the
imaginative art styles of the new worlds the cast find themselves in
and it keeps the player excited to see more. However, not everything
is quite a brilliant when it comes to Irotoridori no Hikari’s role
as a sequel where it is clear they did not know what direction to
take the narrative and instead repeated the original’s ideas in a
new inferior and messy package. Can the after stories do enough to
hold the player’s interest or will the burden of succession be too
much? Let’s return to the library of souls and find out.
Expansion And Completion – Narrative and Themes
The
overall quality of narrative’s implementation is a significant set
up over the original both in terms of its broad strokes and the
individual heroine after stories. Many of the rough edges which made
the original feel so uneven at times have been sanded down with a
renewed focus on the cast’s presentation. Gone are the lengthy and
dry flashback scenes so prevalent before and in their place are
conflicts and emotions grounded in the here and now. This makes the development and explanations of
the cast's struggles feel more organic within the flow of the story for an
overall pleasing play experience. Then there is the greater inclusion
of the different worlds visited through the basement and these are
given new layers of depth and fantastical wonder be they new or
returning places. Each one now has a complete vision of what they are
and how they relate to the cast rather than just pretty backgrounds
as many were in the original. What changes such as these create is a
well rounded sense of place and people which is core to the
appeal of this series and tries to retroactively rehabilitate the
previous weaknesses.
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| Looks like her brain has shut down |
Each
heroine after story falls into one of two camps, those consistently dedicated to a single narrative through line or those split down the
middle between a slice of life opening and the conflict centric
second half. Mio and Kana’s after stories fall into the first
category and make for an interesting pair to contrast the strengths
and weaknesses of the after stories within Irotoridori no Hikari.
When looking at Mio’s story it quickly becomes clear this is the
weakest of the bunch due to its unfocused direction. It lacks a core
arc and instead tries to stretch out the thinly vailed metaphor of
Mio’s transparent body over a play time it is not capable of
supporting. Then part way through another character gets reintroduced
after which their characterisation becomes the centre of attention to
the point you could be forgiven for thinking it was their after
story. Despite this wandering about, the after story is still does just enough to justify its existence and is an
enjoyable enough expansion to Mio’s original route. By contrast
Kana has the strongest after story in the game with a clear focus
which wraps up her arc in a nice bow. Part of the reason for this
comes from its extensive use of the other worlds starting out in the
familiar town of yokai and ending up in a snow covered library filled
with robots. It also more explicitly ties the themes of Haku and
Ren’s conflict to Kana’s own regrets so both can reach a
satisfying resolution in tandem. The way they play into each other
creates a constant core identity underlying the experience so no
moment feels like the game is spinning its wheels. Kyou and Tsukasa’s
after stories belong to the second kind and share the same set of
boons and issues. Both their opening halves are unrelated slice
of life sections where nothing of importance happens for either and
they remain static continuations of their original selves. This makes
for a somewhat dry start but the way they lean into the group
dynamic, and sell the post
route relationships the cast have with each other, does provide enough entertainment to not make these sequences
too boring. By contrast their second halves contain major and
important resolution for them to the point at which this material
should have been in the original route since it that impactful to
their arcs. As a result there is a certain whiplash when this shift
between the two happens since little set up is done before hand and
it does not make for a smooth transition. Yet the emotional catharsis
provided through these second halves cannot be over stated and more
than compensates for the weaker opening.
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| It is never easy to reach what we desire |
Perhaps
the keen eyed among you might have noticed the absence of a specific
heroine from the prior discussion, the pancake loving Shinku. This is
because her after story is tied into the largest problem with
Irotoridori no Hikari, its attempts to expand the original’s
broader strokes in terms of protagonist Yuuma and those associated
with Shinku’s world. In isolation Shinku’s after story is a sweet
tale about her trying to be cuter for the sake of being Yuuma’s
bride while coming to accept her feminine aspects with a few crumbs
of future plot developments. Its issues stem from the way it
resets Shinku and Yuuma’s characters back to the way they were
before the finale of the original game and so playing it is like a constant stream of deja vu. A minor
problem with the overall structure of the game is the way the greater
narrative set up in Shinku’s story does not progress and the player
is forced to do all the other heroine stories before they get more on
it, at which point they might have forgotten much of it. Once the
player has moved beyond the after stories, the next issues rears its
head in the form of the Ai side story. This begins a recurring lesson
this game shows us, sometimes you should not explain or show in
detail things which were never meant to be a core focus. For Ai’s
story this is the world she and Shinku originally resided within
where everyone gets one wish granted. The extended time the player is
now given in this world reveals how poorly thought through the whole
concept is and why it was so vague in the original game. It is not a
fantasy world so the wish system and its ridiculous implementation
within the world are distracting and hurt the characters associated
with it since they end up have do dance around this lumbering
elephant of a concept. After this side story the player will reach
the game’s finale and they will quickly come to realise it is a
poorly executed repetition of the original’s conclusion. Shinku and
Yuuma undergo the exact same arcs as before up to and including the
separation of the pair being a major dramatic device. Except this
time is feels the need to give Yuuma a backstory which adds nothing
to his character and removes a layer of mystery in exchange for a dry
and hollow explanation. Everyone involved more or less ends up back
to exactly the same place they started the game and it comes across
as the game spinning its wheels since it does not know how to move on
from the original. These combine to sour the experience
of playing Irotoridori no Hikari rather than ruin it since the
majority of the time spent with it will be in the other character
after stories.
New Expressions On Familiar Faces – Characters
When
it comes to the cast they are almost entirely inherited from the
original title, which is to be expected from a sequel, and the game
does a good job of continuing what made them so memorable in the
first place. The arcs they undergo in their after stories give a
fresh perspective on what makes them tick and helps round out their
colourful personalities while being a joy to watch. Shinku and
Protagonist Yuuma are still loveable characters despite the reset
they undergo and this it is a testament to the emotional investment
they are capable of invoking even in this diminished form. A majority
of the play time is spent focused on this cast and their ability to be so human provides the player with something solid to grasp on to as
they reacclimatise to the narrative. The problematic characters are
Ai and Original Yuuma who are also more or less exactly the same as
in the original game which is to say flat and weakly presented. In
that original title this made sense since their role was an extremely
minor one so additional depth would have been a waste of time, but
here their major role in the side story and finale makes this austere
identity distracting. Compounding this problem is the introduction of
a new character in the finale who is completely devoid of the unique
personality traits of even the weaker characters like Ai and Original Yuuma and exists to function as
a deus ex machina for the plot. They are a black hole who’s
position in the story meant they could never be given any meaningful
identity due to their minimal screen time and so end up as a worse
version of Ai’s role in the original.
 |
| Poor Kana remains a terrible maid |
Sakura In The Snow- Visuals, Audio and Technical
Visuals
were always something the original game excelled at and Irotoridori
no Hikari builds upon this foundation to expand on its weaker
elements. In particular the new locations are a stand out for their
distinct use of colour and striking imagery to sell the other worlds the
characters find themselves exploring. The new CGs keep to this vision
of a dream like quality which exaggerates the emotions of the scene
it accompanies creating a heightened awareness in the player of the
subtleties being acted out before them. Similarly the music maintains
the same identity and plays with the inherited soundtrack to
recontextualise the familiar tunes within new situations. This way the
memory and immediacy of the OST is merged together reinforces the
game’s atmosphere while expanding on what sort of emotions in can
invoke. As for issues there is a minor technical issue in the
structure of unlocks where the opening after story unlocks the rest
then they must be played to unlock the side story and finale. This is
a problem due to all the new plot being in that opening and ending
with nothing being contained within the other after stories. Poor
pacing is the result where the player is suddenly jerked back into
the narrative after having left it for many hours which makes it
difficult to reinvest in the plot.
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| The other worlds are striking |
Conclusion
Irotoridori
no Hikari was given an impossible task of being both a sequel and a
fan disc at the same time and balancing their disparate needs, so it
should come as no surprise it has its fair share of issues. The after
stories expand on each characters arcs in fun and engaging ways while
wrapping up any lose ends left from their routes. Accompanying these
are a general tidying up the narrative structure, such a not relying
so much on flashbacks, which make the reading experience more
pleasant. Visuals and audio inherited from the original are expanded and give new life to familiar spaces. The returning cast remains as
strong as ever and their emotional exploration and conflict is a core
part of the game’s appeal. It is when Irotoridori no Hikari tries
to be a sequel the issues pop up as it does not have a concrete idea
of what to do next so it just makes a worse copy of the original’s
finale. Couple this with a reliance on some of the weaker characters
for its payoffs and the result is a messy final act. Overall,
Irotoridori no Hikari has more than enough it is favour to recommend
it, but the mixed quality of content may leave a sour taste in the mouths
of some players.
Verdict –
Revisiting the colourful world is an absolute delight as familiar
faces are given proper resolutions and entertaining interactions.
However, its attempts to move on from its predecessor are poorly
executed and it ends up being a weak imitation.
Pros -
+
Strong after stories which wrap up and expands each heroine in
new and exciting direction.
+
Many of the minor issues with the original’s narrative presentation
have been resolved.
+
The returning cast remain as strong and loveable as ever.
+
Excellent visual are put to good use creating the imaginative world
the cast traverse.
Cons -
-
The side episode and finale are weak and end up as a worse version of
the original game’s conclusion.
-
Ai and Original Yuuma are not developmented in the way they needed to
be for their role in the story to work.
-
Resetting Shinku and Protagonist Yuuma’s character arcs makes for a
repetitive experience where the player constantly feels like they
have seen this all before.
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