It's been over a week since LL was released, and the Pokeni forums have been continuously exploding with popularity.
It's as if more and more matches are constantly being added, making LL's popularity surpass CL's. It's now the game section with the most new topic posts daily.
To better collect data, President Aoki even had the programmers develop various backend data functions, so under his highest administrative account, all backend data is clear at a glance.
Unlike CL's two-level reversal and huge differences,
this time, the reviews for LIFE-LINE were almost universally positive:
"Sob sob sob, I'm literally crying my eyes out, LL's plot is truly moving.
It basically aligns with what Pokeni described in its previous promotions:
LL and CL are complementary mirror relationships.
To be honest, Old Thief Furuhara really understands players.
What was not experienced in CL, what felt incomplete, turned out to be important plot points and components in LL.
And the regrets and omissions in LL can be fully experienced in CL.
It's incredible, Old Thief Furuhara is simply a god."
"Yes, in CL, even though you get a [Perfect Ending] after collecting all the light orbs at the very end, that ending was actually quite rushed, almost like a quick run-through of [Imaginary Life] and Tomoya's family.
At the time, I was thinking, how great would it be if it could be more enriched, with more descriptions of the happy future moments of Tomoya's family.
I want to see Tomoya and Nagisa, I want to see Tomoya and Ushio, and I also want to see the interactions between Nagisa and Ushio.
That would surely be a very joyful, heartwarming scene.
All of this could only be imagined.
But in LL, although all the character settings have nothing to do with CL, this emotion is linked together by some mysterious space-time bond.
LIFE-LINE: Lifeline.
It's not just about sustaining life, but also a bond of fate.
This is not only Miyazaki Natsuki's LIFE-LINE.
It is also CL's LIFE-LINE.
And it's the players', our LIFE-LINE.
Thank you, Furuhara Tsubaki, for bringing us so much happiness and tears. Thank you, Furuhara Tsubaki, for letting us experience such a wonderful game once again.
Thank you, Furuhara Tsubaki, thank you, pokeni."
"LIFE-LINE is better than I imagined. At first, I was particularly afraid that this game wouldn't be as good as it was advertised, mainly because the game CL was just too good.
It's simply god-tier.
Although Old Thief Furuhara has always been on a rampage on the path to godhood, as a fan of Lao Zei, I'm really worried about how long this guy's state can last.
Many great gods go downhill after reaching their peak, which is really scary.
Fortunately, Furuhara Tsubaki submitted such a report card. It seems not to be a perfect score, but in reality, it is.
Why do I say it seems not to be a perfect score? Because compared to CL, LIFELINE is not the kind of work that makes you cry your heart out, where the death of an important person serves as a crucial milestone in life's growth.
There are many humorous moments in the game, and each character has their own destiny. Then, in the game, [romance] becomes secondary.
Or rather, with the female protagonist as a foil, the romance line doesn't feel as important to players as it did in CL.
But these are precisely the elements that make LL perfect.
If CL is cause and effect, then LL is effect and cause.
In CL, the male protagonist first needs to meet Nagisa before their lovely Ushio is born later.
At the same time, it is by first losing Nagisa that the male protagonist neglects Ushio and fails to fulfill his fatherly duties, thereby deeply moving players when he finally realizes his mistakes.
The prodigal son returns, and this prodigal son has a painful past; all of this has a reason.
The pain of losing his wife led players to preemptively forgive Tomoya.
In LL, it's the other way around.
The following contains serious spoilers, please proceed with caution:
The male protagonist initially brings Nare with him, which is actually very misleading to players, because Nare is a child who got lost and then came to him.
We instinctively assume that Nare has no blood relation to the male protagonist, and is just an adopted daughter.
However, even if she is an adopted daughter, the male protagonist takes care of her very seriously and meticulously.
Even though Nare has an eye disease—
where the world in her eyes is completely different from that of normal people, Natsuki still keeps her by his side.
And in the last moments of his life, he strives to find a happy and fulfilling family for Nare's future.
What he, a single father, couldn't give Nare, he hoped to convey through [the Shinbou couple].
Furthermore, when his female protagonist was bullied by classmates because of her eye problems, Natsuki was also the first to confront the teacher.
No matter how important the matter at hand, as long as his female protagonist needed him, he would arrive at the first possible moment.
What's more, at this time, neither we players nor Natsuki knew that Nare was his biological female protagonist.
To treat a wild child so kindly is truly moving.
Such a father forms a stark contrast with Tomoya in CL. When I played LL, I countless times wondered—
Can the pain of losing his wife truly be Tomoya's reason for neglecting Ushio?
Ushio cherished a robot as a gift that she finally received from him, but did Tomoya truly understand Ushio's feelings?
In contrast, Miyazaki Natsuki as a father couldn't be better.
In short, LL portrays the father-female protagonist relationship vividly. Playing it really makes one want to have a female protagonist.
It's just a pity I don't have a girlfriend yet, haha.
Getting off track, LL has an effect-cause narrative structure—
Nare is the effect.
She is Miyazaki Natsuki's biological female protagonist. It's just that the future Nare, in the absence of her father, wished through the mermaids tears to come here and spend a sweet father-female protagonist time with Miyazaki Natsuki.
After his female protagonist arrived, she successfully facilitated the union of Natsuki and Moriyama Aoi, thereby solidifying the future Nare.
Yes, Nare is Moriyama Aoi's only female protagonist, which is very clear in the LL game:
Because if your target is not Moriyama Aoi, but other female protagonists, then Nare will permanently disappear, even if the future male protagonist marries other female protagonists, Nare will not be born in that BADEND.
This chronological inversion forms a perfect closed loop.
It's opposite yet similar to CL, which is truly moving.
Especially at the end, taking Nare to the art exhibition, after his female protagonist's inquiry, Natsuki finally realizes—
So Nare really is my female protagonist.
At that moment, all the accumulated emotions suddenly burst forth, bringing tears to one's eyes.
However, after crying, there's a satisfying, sweat-soaked enjoyment.
LL completes CL, and also completes itself. The game is life, with imperfections but also completeness.
This is LL.
At first play, it didn't feel particularly stunning, but after careful thought, it has endless staying power, moving people deeply.
At the same time, because of LL, CL became complete.
These two game are indeed twins. Old Thief Furuhara probably planned to make both game simultaneously from the beginning, right?
I'm still very grateful to Old Thief Furuhara for such incredible creativity, and I also admire Old Thief Furuhara's superb control over life and player psychology.
The final summary is—
Furuhara Tsubaki is truly amazing!"
"Furuhara Tsubaki is truly amazing. CL and LL, when separated, each have their own storyline and their own closed loop.
When these two game are linked together, they feel complementary and integrated.
It's hard to imagine how Old Thief Furuhara's brain is structured to have thought of so much subsequent content from the very beginning.
It's incredible."
"Moreover, this time in LL, Old Thief Furuhara showed rare mercy, not showing the scene where the male protagonist dies of cancer and leaves Moriyama Aoi as a widow with an orphan. This is already Old Thief Furuhara's ultimate benevolence.
You know, in CL, the deaths of Nagisa and Ushio are forever painful memories for countless players.
Even after learning about the hidden ending, the pain remains.
LL didn't do that, and I can only express my heartfelt gratitude to Furuhara, the great god."
"So, have you noticed that after Furuhara Tsubaki's return, his overall skill has become more refined? The knives are sharp enough, and he's getting better at emotional manipulation.
At the same time, he can deliver decisive blows, yet still leave a trace of mercy afterward.
Has he reached the pinnacle of perfection?"
"Bah, it's like we should thank him after he's stabbed people. Have you all been brainwashed by Old Thief Furuhara? Although LL's core is a moving completeness, from a life perspective, it's still a tragedy. Neither the female protagonist nor the father has a complete life.
It's just that they became complete through their encounter in time.
Don't forget, the male protagonist still dies in the end.
And that scene where Nare disappears, even now, thinking about it makes my teeth itch with hatred. I can't wait to send razor blades to Old Thief Furuhara."
"Honestly, now that Old Thief Furuhara is back this time, how about he doesn't leave again?
Otherwise, we won't know where to send the razor blades in the future."
"Hahahahaha... I thought the user above was going to say something nice, but the second half of their sentence just threw me off balance.
Well done, I also want to send razor blades to Old Thief Furuhara.
I hope Old Thief Furuhara can stay at POKENI forever."
...
&...
...
"Uh..."
Furuhara Tsubaki, or rather, President Aoki, couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth twice after browsing the players' comments on LL online.
Goodness, the comments were so good at first, praising him to the point of elation, but in the end, they still wanted to send razor blades?!
Are you even human?!
How much effort did I put into the game LL just so you wouldn't send razor blades?!
Aoki Haruhi was indignant.
But he continued to browse the forum, looking through the comments that praised him.
The greatest joy of making game, besides making money, is receiving praise from players.
"Such terrifying player enthusiasm," HR-chan remarked.
Aoki Haruhi frowned, feeling as if something was still missing.
He scrolled the mouse.
After a while.
"Oh, right, we should add a like function," Aoki Haruhi said, as if suddenly enlightened.
How can a post not have likes?
Without likes, and only comments, you can't get an intuitive statistical overview.
"Huh?" Ayase Akane didn't quite understand.
"What's a like function?"
"A like function is where players can click to show approval and liking, made into a small heart button placed here.
Then the quality of the post will be clear at a glance."
Aoki Haruhi said with a smile, "And I want to develop two functions: one for liking all posts, and another for liking game reviews. The number of likes can, to some extent, reflect the game's popularity."
"Oh, I see..." Ayase Akane nodded thoughtfully.
"Then why not add a criticism function?" HR-chan asked, puzzled, "How can statistical data only count the good and not the bad?"
"You don't understand," Aoki Haruhi said, "That's precisely the effect I want."
Damn it, as Furuhara Tsubaki, if he opened a 'dislike' function, wouldn't it be all dislikes?
However, Aoki Haruhi pondered slightly, considering whether to add a 'razor blade' function, and a paid one at that.
Instead of having players send razor blades to the company and then converting them into money, it's better to let them directly throw razor blades at the game online.
Tsk tsk.
I'm truly a genius.
So, now there's only one last question—
How to solve online payments.
...
Kawasaki Toshihiko had a network cable in his mouth, squinting at the computer screen.
He didn't know why, but he sensed a dangerous signal from these comments.
"Not good! This is a trap to lure people in and kill them, I must not fall for it!"
He had done this last time.
Shortly after CL was released, the online comment trend suddenly changed from a large-scale call to [send razor blades to Furuhara Tsubaki] to [This game is so sweet].
Their purpose was to get more people to fall into the trap, not just suffer alone.
At this moment, he hadn't found any relevant negative reviews under the LL section.
The only negative review was about the game's lack of gameplay, while the others were basically unanimously praising how good the game was and how divine Furuhara Tsubaki was.
And Old Thief Furuhara actually showed great mercy, not directly stabbing people.
Is this possible?!
Kawasaki Toshihiko gave his first time in life to CL, and also to Old Thief Furuhara. He was so traumatized by the knife back then, okay?
CL made Kawasaki Toshihiko rediscover what a galgame was, and also introduced him to the Producer Furuhara Tsubaki.
As expected of the King of Razor Blades, whenever Kawasaki Toshihiko thought of the plot in CL, he still had the urge to send razor blades to Furuhara Tsubaki.
And after that, he specifically investigated Old Thief Furuhara and found that this person's only grand happy ending game was 'Your Name' before his last retirement.
So, after his comeback this time, Old Thief Furuhara's knife was incredibly swift.
Both CL and LL clearly stated in their promotions that they were tear-jerking game works.
Are these people trying to fool us?
Kawasaki Toshihiko firmly stated that he would not fall for it.
Old Thief Furuhara has no gentleness, only incredibly sharp blades.
A trap!
It must be a trap!
So he picked up his keyboard and posted a thread below:
[Beware of the trap of overwhelmingly positive reviews! It likely means LL's knife is very sharp!]
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