Completion date: July 17, 2025

This game was played as a group-play/book-club esque Discord project as the game was ported to switch.

FINAL THOUGHTS FIRST

I’m going to be straight up that this game was not really my cup of tea so every time I picked it up I felt a sense of dread but dragged through it anyways.

It is not a bad game, but I was not the intended audience. The MC was naive. I would have enjoyed it fifteen years ago. The art and pastel colour palette were nice; the artist was clearly capable as seen in Hugo’s CGs but I’m not sure if there was a budget or deadline rush, everyone who wasn’t Hugo or Arnaud’s CGs were simple, bland, and did not meet my expectations. Voice acting wise, I unfortunately could never get into Hatano’s roles (looking at Gekkamaru; maybe this will change when I play Matsurika as many people liked his character and I like the story), and Shimono’s character’s story sucked so much that even seiyuu bias could not save it.

I think the game could have benefitted from a stricter route order. I played Serge route first and got spoiled 75% of the entire plot.

My recommended play order: Crier/Lyon > Luciole > Serge > Hugo > Arnaud

My personal character and route enjoyment ranking: Arnaud > Hugo > Serge > Lyon > Luciole = Crier

My score: 5/10

TO THE PEOPLE UNFAMILIAR WITH MY BLOG: I DO FULL REVIEWS. SPOILERS BEGIN HERE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

COMMON ROUTE

The first four chapters are the common route but don’t be fooled by the number of chapters, they are quick and much shorter than the individual chapters.

Emma is a French girl who nearly drowned to death at the age of 10 and lost her memories (how many memory loss heroines have I played recently?). Her parents are both dead, so she was adopted by a family whose dad is working away from home, mother is loving but bad at housework, and an older “brother” Arnaud, 7 years ago. Emma reveals that she is a witch but apparently her magic powers are not awakened, with Arnaud telling her to keep this a secret, as witches in this world had recently decreased in numbers drastically.

The talk of the town currently is a traveling amusement park that apparently appears out of thin air called Rêve. Emma explores it one day and runs into its owner Hugo, who seems to know Emma from long ago but she does not remember him. He also knows she is a witch and asks her to help the employees of Rêve out, as they are all trapped there by a spell. However, not everyone sees Rêve as a simple amusement park, rumours have it that it is tied to the “Hamelin incident” which is based on the German legend of Pied Piper of Hamelin. Basically, people mysteriously die right after Rêve leaves a place.

The game wastes no time in introducing the characters and throwing you into one event with each of them to get a feel. Based on your choices in the common route, you will enter one of the individual routes. Arnaud route is locked after Hugo’s.

Honourable mention to Clara/Kurara, really liked her.

SERGE (CV: Umehara Yuuichirou)

So initially my group’s recommended play order was to play Hugo first because apparently this was officially recommended somewhere? However, people who’ve played it warned against doing that because of the amount of spoilers, so I was like, ok why don’t I move Hugo to second last and start on the next person? And then ran into spoilers anyway…

Serge is the kuudere manager of Rêve who is told by Hugo to smile more (and when he does, it looks hilariously eerie). While he usually does not perform for customers, when it rains he will hop on the piano and play some Liebestraum and captivate his audience. He was initially cold to Emma, but jumps in to save her when an automata misplaced by Hugo almost falls on Emma and turns her into mush in the storage room, revealing he has a mechanical arm following an horse carriage collision that should have killed him many years ago. There was also a CG where Hugo tends to Emma’s wound on her knee WHILE SHE HAS HER STOCKINGS ON I can’t lol. Hugo found him in a near-death state and gave him a mechanical arm as well as heart, which is fuelled by the magic of Rêve, binding him to the park. He cannot leave for more than 3-4 hours. As such, he swore loyalty to Hugo.

Emma felt guilty that Serge damaged his dominant arm/hand to the point he could not work anymore, so offered to be his assistant, and almost worked to death by Serge LOL. Serge as his stereotype suggests, is a hopeless workaholic and even eats nutritionally imbalanced food that he can hold in one hand so he can write in the other and work 24/7. Emma would have none of this and cooked him spicy soup that he likes, thanks to a tip from Hugo. Hugo is honestly such a wholesome wingman in this route and also assigns Emma as the maintenance person for Serge’s arm.

The plot thickens a bit when Serge is revealed to have a military history and one of his old friends from the army, Gil (who quickly reveals he is a bro-con) visits him. Emma learns that the army is cracking down on Rêve because they also think Rêve is behind the Hamelin incident and killing people, even though there was never tangible proof. In the meantime, Emma sees Serge let some people in without tickets, with Serge explaining those are souls who enjoy their park and last moments on earth before they go to heaven without any longing or regrets. Not sure what that has to do with this route at all, but perhaps we will see more in others’ routes.

One day Gil runs over and tells Serge/Rêve to run away because the army issued an arrest warrant for its employees. Emma can’t leave, because her family is still here. Serge gives her a bouquet of three roses as a farewell gift, not realizing the message means “I love you” or does he?

Rêve and employees disappear off the face of earth but Emma was arrested by the army, with Gil being the one identifying her and doing an 180 and acting all cold and evil. Just before Emma is confined, Serge comes out of nowhere and saves her. His heart cannot stand being outside Rêve for too long, but fortunately Emma has trained her magic powers to the point she can make the heart beat longer. The duo also meet up with Arnaud, who has been secretly investigating the army’s obsession with Rêve and the Hamelin incident. They conclude that the army is behind the kidnapping of witches to use their powers in war, and they need a convenient scapegoat which turned out to be Rêve.

Serge and Emma infiltrate an “abandoned” army base that actually held witches captive. Serge wanted Emma to stay behind because she is a lady and cannot fight blablabla, but Emma made it clear that she is Serge’s ride or die, and that if she doesn’t go with him then nobody goes. Serge asks Emma to hide at the entrance and get Arnaud for help if he doesn’t come back by sunset. Unfortunately, Serge got captured and tortured by Gil. Regardless of what you choose for Emma to get Arnaud or run inside to find Serge, she also gets captured and used as a bargaining chip by Gil for Serge to spill the beans on where Rêve is right now.

Good end: While Serge is tied to a pole, he asks Emma to strengthen his mechanical arm with magic. This allows him to break free and escape with Emma. Gil was revealed to be forced to work for the army as they threatened him with his little brother’s life. The bad guys are defeated. Emma frees everyone from Rêve. To her surprise, everyone except Serge and Crier disappear, because they are actually souls and not real humans with tangible flesh in this world. So that’s the major spoiler I suppose. Serge needs to stay with Emma as she needs to continuously supply his heart with magic. They live happily ever and even open a prosthetics shop together. The after story was a cute morning cuddle scene that made me beam out kyaaaa.

Bad end: Truthfully, I did not dig this ending… Serge and Emma run away and hide from everyone. Rêve was not freed and were captured/executed by the army. Serge effectively commits suicide out of guilt and asks Emma to let him die and stop supplying his heart, and Emma just… complies? Yeah, that ain’t it chief.

CRIER (CV: Shimono Hiro)

A big reason why I played this game is because it was voiced by one of my favourite seiyuu of all time. Crier is the juggler and shopper of Rêve and the tsundere of the LI. He initially acts cold towards Emma and implied she is dead weight to the park. Unlikely others at Rêve, he can leave at will yet decides to stay here. Hugo sends the two on a shopping trip, and they unexpected share a love for sweets and bond a little.

Chapter 4 was a drag for me because Emma basically took the whole chapter to figure out that Crier and Clara are twins – like was this not obvious enough from the colour scheme? She even got briefly sad that Crier treated Clara closely yet continued to be tsun to her saying “I have no intention to be friends with you”. I would have nearly dropped the route if she got jealous of Clara because IRL this is NEVER something that people cannot figure out beyond their first 1-2 meetings, so was frustrating to read.

I did not like Crier’s route because Emma orbited around Crier the entire story. First his dreams of being a performer, then around Clara. I like Clara as a character, but the whole route revolved around her relationship with Crier that I felt Emma was the third person, even if Clara was constantly shipping Emma with her brother. Emma did not get to do things she wanted. She didn’t have a will of her own, she was just this bubbly person cheering Crier on and being his shoulder to lean on. Clara is deathly ill and upon liberating everyone from Rêve, Clara is implied to die, hence Crier is constantly conflicted, as he is still the living and will not go to heaven with Clara. (In Luciole’s route, after Emma liberated everyone, Crier made a chilling comment that he was going to join Clara, if you know what I mean…).

Clara lives in the good ending so the couple gets to ichaicha, but if Emma hesitates in the route, then Clara will die, causing Crier to beg her to erase his memory of her, which she did. Which in my opinion is not that bad of an ending, you gotta do what you gotta do to move on, I guess? Anyways, I was clearly detached from this route and wanted it to be over with as soon as possible.

LYON (CV: Suzuki Yuuto)

Lyon is the cinnamon bun and mascot of the group. Because of the CV choice I feel guilt during his route that I am romancing a child, lol. His mascot stays on during the day and falls off at night. He also does not have any memory of his life before Rêve.

They share a love for story books, so Emma brings him books from outside as he cannot leave. As they read more books together, Lyon starts regaining his memory. He recalls his last name, his mother, and where he’s from. He worries that his mother is looking for him and wants to send her a letter telling her that he’s safe and sound. However, when Emma delivered the letter, she received an angry response from Lyon’s mother because well, the real-life Lyon died 3 years ago, so his mother thinks this is a ill-intentioned prank.

In the meantime, the two work on creating Lyon’s story book, which was eventually shown to his mother Melissa, who finally broke down because this reminded her of her son. Melissa is also a storybook author and created the book that Rêve is modelled after. This is not as big of a spoiler as you think it is, and why this is the case will be revealed in Hugo’s route when the creation of Rêve is explained.

Emma wants to revive Lyon and basically ventures into some forbidden magic. If she fails she can lose her memory or even her life. The good ending is where a memory-less real-life Lyon meets her on the same hill under the starry sky where they spent countless nights together reading and creating story books, and start their relationship anew. Bad ending is where Emma is in an eternal slumber where in her dreams, she and Lyon are together forever.

Overall this route was quite cute, and I grew to like Lyon more as a character than I started.

LUCIOLE (CV: SHIRAI YUUSUKE)

The nerd and mechanic of the group who does not come out during the day and only out at night to maintain the equipment of Rêve. I liked his character design and CV. However, his route left a lot to be desired…

Similar to Crier route, Emma wants to tag along at his job and he refuses profusely, moreso because he wants to work alone – that’s just how he is. He also does not want Rêve to be liberated for the obvious reason that most people will no longer exist.

Similar to Serge’s route, Emma cooks her way into Luciole’s heart by hand making meals (not magically curated like the usual meals at Rêve) for him. this route reuses a lot of plot points from previous routes, and because I played Luciole route #4 even after a 4 month hiatus I found it tiring. As a thank you for the food, Luciole promised Emma to grant one request, so she asked him to come out during the day and socialize/eat with everyone else, haha.

He and Emma share a similar life story where his mom was a witch who got hunted by a mob and his dad basically went out to get milk so… He ended up at Rêve because there was nowhere else for him to go. He could also use his skill here. Because of his lived experience, Luciole is quite insecure and can be possessive. He does not want anyone else to spend time with Emma alone.

One day, Emma is tasked to go outside with Crier to get supplies. Luciole heavily protests but gives in. I may have been reading too fast but now that I think of it, I don’t think it’s ever explained why he cannot leave the premises. At least we do not know he is deathly ill or shot or dead or anything. In the good end he just turns up too. Luciole’s one condition was for Emma to not use her magic under any circumstances to not give herself away.

Guess what Emma did? Yep. From this point I facepalmed until the end of the route. She just had to help some drunk person out at a bookstore using magic and attracted attention to her so she had to make a hasty escape with Crier. However, the angry mob chased her all the way to Rêve and broke in and threw rocks at her. Luciole stood up for her, gave a speech of magic good some humans bad talk, then people just … listened to him lol? Yeah anyway…

Good end: Emma liberates everyone, but is separated from Luciole. We have no idea where this mans went. Emma keeps waiting for him at the same shop. One day a hooded figure comes and asks her who she is waiting for so she tells him she is waiting for a special someone, and that she believes he will come. After teasing her a bit and testing her resolve, he reveals himself to be the man she was looking for.

Bad end: The better ending imo. This is basically a yandere ending where Luciole rigged the equipment so when Emma cast her spell, she liberated everyone except her and him, who are trapped forever at Rêve forever and ever. The voice acting was on point.

HUGO (CV: HATANO WATARU)

The poster boy of the game and clear favourite by the artist. His CGs were all on a different level compared to the rest.

Hugo and Emma have an age gap so I didn’t see him as a LI but moreso a father figure? In his route as well, he was also dashing, charming, gentlemanly, and a bit more flirty. The scene where he held Emma’s hand (earlier CG) got me very doki doki. The two work on a cutesy little project together where Emma helps light up the carousel at night, with him dubbing it “Starlight”. The show gains a lot of success.

It is also implied that Hugo and Emma have met before she lost her memory, and that he clearly remembered her. He is keeping things from her.

Emma got to learn their backstory where Hugo was the “Luciole” of Rêve back in the day, and witnessed Emma discovering her magic powers. Emma is anxious about it, because everybody says witches are bad and dangerous, right? Hugo reassures her that magic is not bad, and is in the hand of the user, and eyes of the beholder, which gave Emma confidence in herself.

Arnaud starts to have some presence in this route. He clearly doesn’t like Hugo for some reason. He did his own sleuthing and eventually told Emma that the real-life Hugo is as good as dead in a hospital for over 7 years now. Hugo conveniently left this part out when asking Emma to help liberate everyone from Rêve – that he would surely die when she finally does. He also smashes the music box that Emma thought to be from her deceased father saying he was the one who designed the carousel and this music box, not her father. Just like how Hugo admitted in the route, I still don’t get what the point of him smashing the music box was other than to create unnecessary drama. You can delete it and nothing would change… He designed the carousel and made a deal with a child Emma to create the perfect “Starlight” carousel at night, which they ended up achieving in adulthood going full circle. No need to smash things now.

Eventually, Emma finds out how Rêve was created. France was at war or something so the military needed metal for warfare bad, so they came to Rêve, who was owned by Emma’s father Florence at the time, and demanded to take down their equipment. Hugo defended the carousel because it was his work, pride, and joy, and got shot in the chest, hence would have died on the spot if little Emma didn’t jump out in front of him. She didn’t absorb the shot as Hugo is still wounded, but managed to create Rêve so his soul can stay in limbo and that he wouldn’t fully die, saving him in a way. Emma feels guilty for trapping Hugo for this long, to which he replies he has nothing but gratitude for her saving his life. However, he’s stayed in this world in this state for long enough, and that it’s time to go, and asks her to release him and everyone else. To which she obliges.

After releasing everyone at Rêve, Emma runs to real-life Hugo in a hospital. She was not the only one running as all the nurses were running to grab the doctor because Hugo is rapidly deteriorating and about to die. So she focuses all her might and uses magic to revive him. And the two live happily ever after in the good end. In the bad end, Emma fails her magic and released everyone except her and Hugo – similar to Luciole end.

It’s very hard not to like Hugo’s route with the fateful meeting troupe and gorgeous CGs. There is a lot of contrast between him and Arnaud’s route which I will go into more detail below as well. Overall, I liked Arnaud’s route more. Hugo clearly views Emma very very highly, almost like a goddess, who descended and saved his life twice. However, what the route lacked was where he protected Emma or sacrificed anything for her on a larger scale. Emma was always saving him unilaterally, you know what I mean? For this reason it was flawed and did not feel realistic.

ARNAUD (CV: ABE ATSUSHI)

The most romantic confession is to stay by your side.

Anyone else know how much it sucks to have your most anticipated character in the end, especially when several of the previous routes suck?? Arnaud was the reason why I even finished this game, and I’m glad I played his route. And I felt bad I had to cockblock him five full times before I finally got to act shy and not respond to his confession (instead of saying “ARE YOU JOKING BRUH”) in the common route.

In this route Arnaud is thirsty for Emma from beginning to end. He comes to Rêve to take her home every day, and holds her hand, and does cutesy stuff. When Clara teases them, he just admits to liking Emma, however, she is not ready yet so this is one-sided. Emma needed some more time. After all, this is the one guy she spent the longest time with (in the time when she has memory). She wants to figure out if this was “familial” or “romantic” love. The two even go on a date together. As time passes Emma finally decides this is romantic love and wants to take the next step with Arnaud.

She knocks on his door, wanting to confess to him. No one answered so she went inside. She caught a peek of some uncompleted paperwork referencing magic so she decided to read more out of curiosity. Unfortunately, Arnaud has been keeping tabs on her and reporting about her monthly to his father Daniel, who is a high-ranking officer in the army. He references witches, experiments, and that Emma is emotionally reliant on him. All of this imply that the lovey dovey front he put on was nothing but a ruse to keep her under his thumb.

A heartbroken Emma isn’t sure how to process all of this. Before she had time to sort her feelings out, Daniel shows up unnoticed to her door and coldly kidnaps her to the army because he knows she is a witch, that she can now use magic, and that she is connected to Rêve, presumably all due to Arnaud’s report, right? This makes Arnaud’s disappointment with Emma (for using magic to help Rêve and not telling him) early on in the route all the more hypocritical.

Emma refuses to eat as a way of rebellion, so Arnaud comes in and holds up a macaron, something little Emma always liked, and begged her to eat. Emma was reluctant, but she did not want to see Arnaud being sad, so she obliges. At this point, an unexpected ally shows up – Gil from Serge’s route! He carries word from Emma back to Rêve and even snuck Serge in for 15 minutes when he was on duty. Serge gives Emma the letter that Arnaud ended up sending to Daniel. Emma didn’t read the message fully the first time. Arnaud tried to cover up for Emma and lied that she has not awakened her magic abilities, but how could he fool an old fox like Daniel, so he came anyway. Emma, who is separated from Arnaud, also learns from Serge that Arnaud struck a deal with his dad that if he can find another witch to replace Emma, he will release Emma and let them be together. Emma does not like this idea so she wants to escape and find Arnaud and talk to him.

Arnaud wasn’t always close to Emma. He met little Emma at Rêve and fell in love at first sight; but Emma was too busy hanging with Hugo all the time so he actually didn’t even get to make an impression. When at home, he was telling his father about his day, including the different amusement rides. His father went like, it’s free real estate, so he pulled up with his soldiers to Rêve and caused all the tragedy. He also shot Florence – something that was not disclosed in Hugo’s route for reasons unknown; I was left wondering what happened to Florence then. Emma became homeless. Because she used magic to create Rêve in front of Daniel, he took her in as a foster daughter knowing his son has a massive crush on this girl, and told him to keep tabs on her and report to him when she awakens her magic. Hence, Arnaud saying “I loved you from the moment we met”. In Emma’s existing memory, Arnaud has the biggest share, but this wasn’t always the case.

Emma makes an epic escape with the help of Gil and Crier, and runs to Paris where Arnaud is stationed at. However, because she was subject to many experiments and “magic amplification” exercises, when she was approached by a soldier who found her suspicious, she panicked and caused a destructive storm. Blood was shed, and Arnaud found her, held her in his arms, getting wounded in the process, then managed to calm her down.

The two ran away and had a heart to heart. Arnaud feels significant guilt for causing all of this, even though he was a child at the time, and this was all an unintentional mistake. He tells Emma over and over that it’s OK to hate him, not forgive him, and not want to see him again. I really liked one of the dialogue options where she says “then protect me this time“.

The good ending then unfolds where Arnaud and Crier get the word out to the public, and Daniel’s superiors, that he is doing unhinged witch experiments so he gets apprehended. The bad ending is Daniel shoots Arnaud, Emma jumps in front with her powers activating and destroying everything in sight, and her finally becoming “the bad witch”. When she wakes up, she has all memories except that of Arnaud, to which a desperate Arnaud holds up his hand to her, back facing the living room light, just like 7 years ago, saying “Nice to meet you, my name is …”

Thoughts. I cannot help but think of Eileen Chang’s famous white/red rose analogy (not the war of the roses in English history… different concept). In one of her story, she laments that each man will encounter a red and white “rose” in his life, and that no matter who he chooses, he will want to have the other one instead. Grass is always greener on the other side, yadi yada.

“Marry a red rose and eventually she’ll be a mosquito-blood streak smeared on the wall, while the white one is ‘moonlight in front of my bed. ‘ Marry a white rose, and before long she’ll be a grain of sticky rice that’s gotten stuck to your clothes; the red one, by then, is a scarlet beauty mark just over your heart.“

Hugo is the moonlight in front of Emma’s bed, but Arnaud is the one who stayed close to her by her side, by a coincidence of events and some scheming, nonetheless. There is no right choice between either, but I prefer the red rose in this case.

WHAT’S NEXT AFTER THIS GAME?

Work is still busy as ever but I managed to gain some balance back in my life to enjoy my hobby again.

I plan on finishing BUSTAFELLOWS next, only on the second route so far so will take a while. However, I enjoy that game more than this one so will be less of a drag. After that, likely will do a new title between OVER REQUIEMZ and Uchronia FD.