Midsummer Haze - the long awaited review

• Title - Midsummer Haze
  
• Author - Sakura Shima
• Style - Short branching novel (interactive)
• Engine - KiriKiri2 (requires Japanese Enviroment)
  
• Price - Free
• Get - Web Download - http://at2006.haeleth.net/game.php?id=13

Midsummer Haze.....I look forward to finally being able to delete this game after 3 long months. MH has a one choice with two options.....and four endings....yes four. To get the third ending you have to play one of the paths around 50 times and to get the fourth you have need to stall at the choice until it is triggered. Now this is very clever but the story isn't.

Graphics - Solid art, nothing special. Fairly colorful. The backgrounds are stock images. There are no event CGs I can remember. 8/10

Music/SFX - The music is good and appropriate to the scenes except the final ending song which is techno. Sound effects are appropriate. 8/10

Story - Story..... there was one....kinda. The idea was good but the implementation is boring at best and the plot twist invokes more of a "huh?" than the intended "oh" . The only part of it that I enjoyed was the third ending but it was rather incongruent to the story. 3/10

System/Extras - This is a KiriKiri game (Japanese environment required). The system is straight forward not a pretty GUI but it's simple and easy to use. The ending system is pure undiluted evil tho. As I mentioned before, you have to play the one path about 50 times to get the only ending worth anything in this game. Thankfully there is a fast-forward button. After you get this ending you unlock the extras which are a postscript, translator's note, and extra story which would be good except, at least in my case, you will hate the characters by that point. Then there's the fourth ending with the techno theme and you're done, no extras after that one. 2/5

Score - 21/35 - 60% mediocre