Title: クローバーデイズ ~Making for Happiness~
Developers: ALcot & Yeti
Release Date: 28th September 2017
Length: ~25 Hours
Links: Official Site, VNDB
Yuuto was adopted into the Takakura family when he was just a child and was supported by his new sisters to adapt to life in Japan. Over time he managed to forge some treasured friendships but two of his dearest friends – Hekiru & Hikaru – left to go and live overseas.
10 years later and, under a blossoming cherry tree, he is reunited with the twins and is greeted with a kiss from Hekiru – who claims that she’s returned to Japan in order to become Yuuto’s fiancee, as promised when they were children. With this revelation, the girls around Yuuto are forced to face their hidden feelings towards him as the group of friends leave adolescence behind and head towards adulthood…
Characters
Takakura Yuuto
Yuuto was born and raised in a church-run orphanage in England where he was excluded by others and relied on his imaginary friend Nodoka for company. After being adopted by the Takakura family, he moved to Japan to live with Anri & Anzu and has become very close to them over the years. Yuuto likes to make perverted jokes but considers himself to be a gentleman and would never make a move on a girl, leading to others branding him hetare. His favourite food is a fried fish sandwich as it reminds him of British fish n’ chips.
Takakura Anzu (CV Kiritani Hana)
Despite her childish demeanor, Anzu is actually the older of the Takakura twins. She was bullied a lot at school due to her blonde hair but Yuuto managed to stop this from happening. Anzu was pretty scared of Yuuto at first but the pair bonded over sweets and Anzu adores him now, often clinging onto him and asking him to pet her head or cuddle her, etc… Anzu loves to bake and enjoys having Yuuto try out her new creations.
Takakura Anri (CV Kurosu Touko)
Anri is the younger Takakura sister but is the more mature of the pair, often proclaiming that she’s the only adult in the group. Anri was the person who helped Yuuto learn English when he first arrived and the pair have continued their study sessions ever since, with Anri being one of the best students at their school. She used to be close to Yuuto but Anri has been colder to him of late. She spends a lot of her free time reading books at the school library.
Rindou Tsubame (CV Toono Soyogi)
Tsubame was one of the first friends that Yuuto made when he arrived from England and her kind, caring demeanor hasn’t changed. Tsubame cares deeply for Yuuto but lacks the self-confidence to act on her feelings, even though others joke that they’re like a married couple. Tsubame is a member of the drama club alongside her twin brother Torakichi. Tsubame actually speaks with a Kansai accent but normally tries to hide it due to embarrassment so it only really comes out if she’s surprised or angry.
Yuibashi Izumi (CV Kusuhara Yui)
Izumi is one of Yuuto’s classmates and has proclaimed herself to be his rival, often making even the most trivial activities into dares. The pair originally fell out over their shared love of Tsubame but argue about pretty much everything now. After her father abandoned her family when she was still a baby, Izumi is fiercely independent and works a lot of part-time jobs to help her mother make ends meet. She secretly has feelings for Yuuto and always makes sure to save him one of his beloved fish sandwiches when she sells baked goods & sandwiches during lunchtime at school.
Kagami Hekiru (CV Kitami Rikka)
As the daughter of a famous artist, Hekiru is following in her father’s footsteps and loves to draw. She tends to do things at her own pace and speaks very, very slowly. Despite her tendency for perverted jokes, she’s actually a very pure and naive girl at heart. She came back to Japan for the sole purpose of marrying Yuuto and can be very determined when she puts her mind to it.
Kagami Hikaru (CV Kitami Rikka)
Hikaru is the older of the Kagami twins and has a tendency to follow Hekiru around to keep her “safe”. She claims that Hekiru is the most important person to her in the world and would do absolutely anything for her. Hikaru works as a model after being introduced to the industry by her mother. She has a strong dislike of men but will generally tolerate Yuuto.
Artwork
There are 5 artists that worked on this game:
- Chikotam – Tsubame and Izumi
- Narumi Yuu – Hekiru and Hikaru
- Nimura Yuuji – Anzu and Anri
- Aona Masao – SD Artwork
- Namanie – Side Characters
Sound
1st Opening: Clover Day’s – Marie
2nd Opening: Clover Heart’s ~New Days Recording~ – Marie
Ending: Shiawase Gatari – Chata
This game has 35 BGM tracks, which were composed by the group MANYO.
System
This game has a relatively straight-forward system with few choices so no walk-through needed. The title screen changes a little after every route played, which is a nice touch.
After you finish each route, make sure to go back and read the “Extra” scenario for each of the characters – this section is pretty much a little character interview but is definitely worth the read.
One unusual extra this game has is the “Character Viewer” which lets you look at the individual character sprites. This was a super fun feature but I wish they’d let you pick backgrounds too.
My Thoughts
This port was stuck in development hell for almost 2 years before it finally released just under a year ago. Given that there’s no new content, I’m not entirely sure what caused the masses of delays but was this worth the wait?
The main themes of Clover Day’s are “family” & “growing up/facing your feelings from the past”. I feel that in general the game manages to stick to these themes and all of the routes are fairly well written with quite a lot of character development.
I’ll start with the common route first – it’s fairly long and manages to set up the story pretty nicely without feeling like it’s “dragging” too much. The character interactions are all super fun and there’s a lot of humor. It’s probably worth mentioning that this game relies heavily on dirty jokes/lewd humor often. I personally didn’t mind this (as many of the jokes are pretty funny) but if this isn’t your thing then you probably won’t enjoy this game at all.
One of the things that I didn’t like too much was the game’s reliance on love triangles. This isn’t one of my favourite tropes, which is unfortunate since 4/5 routes contain this aspect and I found it to be a bit shoe-horned in sometimes. I personally thought that Izumi’s route handled this issue best.
The thing that Clover Day’s really manages to do well is the “climactic” scenes in each route. The character routes are each split into two sections with each part having a main issue that requires resolved. The climaxes of each part are generally very well done and have a good amount of emotional impact, even if the stories themselves aren’t particularly unique.
Onto the characters now~ Anzu is my absolute favorite character from this game – she’s just soooo cute and pure! I really enjoyed her bro-con antics and thought that the character development she had during her route was very good. Her route in general was my favorite overall and I feel like it really encapsulated the themes of the game, as well as giving some interesting backstory for Yuuto.
Anri was a really interesting character and I found the contrast between her mature outer appearance and her “true” childish personality to be pretty endearing. Her route was very different to Anzu’s and instead focuses on the idea of a “taboo” sibling relationship. This was something that I didn’t mind but it was just weird that this issue wasn’t brought up in Anzu’s route at all?
Tsubame was also adorable (even if her accent could be a little hard to understand at first) and I was really looking forward to her route. The first half is really good and deals well with her “unrequited” love towards Yuuto. However, I felt that since all of Tsubame’s dilemmas had been dealt with here, there was very little going on in the second half of her route and found the drama introduced felt very forced, which was a disappointment.
Izumi is absolutely hilarious and I found her banter between herself and Yuuto to be really fun to read. I felt that the love triangle aspect of this route was handled very well and enjoyed the majority of this route, even if the second half felt a tad drawn-out.
Finally are the twins. My personal favourite was Hikaru but felt that the game really let itself down by not having separate routes for the two of them. While the story of this route certainly involved the “family” aspect, I feel as though this route is in contrast to the rest of the game as the characters don’t really develop and “grow up”. In my opinion, the 3P ending could’ve been kept in as a “what if”/bonus or something but Hekiru and Hikaru would’ve been more interesting characters if they learned to “stand on their own two feet”, rather than overly-relying on each other. I might just be biased because I like Hikaru but I felt that she definitely plays second-fiddle to Hekiru for 95% of this route which was super annoying.
The sub-characters were generally pretty good and all added something to the game, which was nice. My favourite was Tsubame’s twin brother/ Yuuto’s best friend Torakichi. All galge are improved by a stupid best friend~
Despite there being a fair few artists working on this game, the artwork manages to stay consistently “good” quality. My personal favourite was Nimura Yuuji though. There’s definitely enough CGs even for the long length of the game but it’s a shame that there was nothing new added in for the port. It’s also worth mentioning that the SD CGs are utterly ADORABLE!
The sound department was probably the place where this game excelled the most – both of the opening songs and the ending song are beautiful and the BGM tracks are all pretty atmospheric. I really liked the change of BGM on the title screen every time you finish a route. I’ll definitely be adding the OST to my “To-Buy” list!
It’s nice that the second opening song links this game back to its spiritual predecessor Clover Heart’s since (as far as I’m aware) none of the characters from that game make a cameo in this game.
Final Thoughts
My Score: 7/10
If you’re a fan of childhood friends, younger sisters, slice-of-life and/or twins then this is the game for you. Clover Day’s manages to have decent character development and enjoyable routes with emotive climactic scenes, even if the stories themselves aren’t completely original. That doesn’t stop the game being a good read though and the humour is generally pretty good too.
My main disappointment was the lack of new content in the PS Vita port, especially considering the numerous delays so, to be honest, you’re probably better off playing the original or remake on PC.
Oh well, time for me to go back to CharadeManiacs. I’m probably like halfway through the game but I’ve honestly made such a mess of the route order its hilarious. I normally look to see if there’s a recommended route order but for some reason just decided to jump into this one, which was perhaps not my smartest move…
Next week’s review will be of the super short Dialovers Vandead Carnival.
Thanks for reading!
Zettai Renai! 