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• overall: A. enjoyment: B.
• if my heart had wings is a gorgeous and beautifully written VN about a group of teens/young adults coping with loss and growing up as they build a plane together in hopes of riding the morning glory. its a lovely story with (mostly) stellar characters and beautiful art and sound design. ...it doesnt, however, seem much like a dating sim. the game is incredibly long, with barely any choices. these formatting decisions put it firmly in "barely a game at all" territory. and despite the near-perfect scores in every other area, the sheer length and focus on tech talk makes it a bit hard to recommend to anyone who doesnt just really love planes.
• plot: S. a boy, aoi, has his dreams of being a cyclist crushed after an injury and has to cope with that loss. shortly afterwards, he meets a girl in a wheelchair, his childhood friend with PTSD, and a mysterious woman obsessed with one goal to the detriment of all else in her life. the four of them pour their efforts together to build a plane and fly above the clouds, a very clear metaphor for everything going on in their lives. ...now, after explaining it, it feels cheap to follow it up with whether i think thats "good" or not. not only is it a perfect setting for a story, its a really good one for a dating sim specifically, giving every girl a good and compelling reason for being there.
• characters: S. the characters in this game are, unsurprisingly for a game with this kind of focus, incredible. theyre realistic, diverse from one another, complicated and emotionally rich, and pretty cute as well. amane in particular is extremely compelling, and its really easy to get invested in her goals right alongside the rest of the club. the twins drag it down a bit. theres just... not much to them. their character elements are redundant, already existing in the main girls, and their designs are stereotypical. they arent that important, though, so its fine.
• writing: A. i want so badly to give this an S. the game is in parts beautifully crafted and clearly a lot of love was put into virtually every aspect. but. it cant be avoided that the pacing is truly horrendous. this game is so long. a huge part of that length consists mostly of intricate explanations for how and why planes work. its so much. and honestly -- if it wasnt for the poor way the game itself was set up, i wouldnt complain. thats just another aspect of the care put into this game. but it drags on for just too long considering how many times you need to replay. the real thing stopping me from highest praise here though is the routes; they arent created equally. amane and kotoris are beautiful, emotionally compelling masterpieces. the others... not so much. i thought agehas was boring and kind of weird when i played, discovering afterwards thats a combination of poor translation and a good amount of her story being hidden in sex scenes in the 18+ patch. the twins, meanwhile, are just completely irrelevant to the story. they shouldnt even be there.
• routes: amane >> kotori >>> ageha >>>>>> yoru > asa
• gameplay: F. this game took me 12 hours to play a single route. you know how many choices i had during that time? somewhere around 3, give or take. this is barely a game at all. its absolutely infuriating. it really feels like itd have been better served by just going full VN and having a "pick your girl" screen at the end of the common route, rather than pretending its even remotely playable. would i have reviewed it if it did? no, because it wouldnt be a dating sim. but itd have been better. this game is hell.
• art: S. now this one i can say without a second thought. the art is phenomenal. the character portraits, CGs (and the sheer amount of them), those gorgeous backgrounds, the cloud shots, the composition -- sometimes the anatomy is a bit off, but given how well it does in every aspect that more than makes up for it. and there's animation. the UI design is simple, but unobtrusive. the game is incredible to look at.
• sound: A. the game is fully voiced, but only in japanese. the quality is fine. it sounds like fairly typical anime voice acting. its hard to pass judgement on it without speaking the language, but the voices are clear, distinct, and convey emotion well. the sound and music design is nice as well, very good at building the mood and not getting annoying over the long playthroughs.