Title: Flyable Heart
Developer: Unisonshift: Blossom
Release Date: 3rd April 2009
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 15+ Hours
Links: Official Site, VNDB
At first it was just a regular day for Katsuragi Shou, relaxing at home with his father. However, he recieves a mysterious letter inviting him to attend the presigious Otori Ryouran school. Initially, he has zero interest in accepting the offer but after reading that the school’s canteens offer all-you-can-eat meals, he packs his bags and leaves the next day.
On his way to the train station, he meets a fortune teller who warns him to turn back because otherwise tragedy will befall him. Not letting anything stand in between him and free food, Shou brushes this off and heads to the accademy. However, before he can even make it onto campus, he’s accosted by a strange young man who hands him a USB key and runs off after instructing our brave “hero” to place the USB key in its rightful place. Shou sets off on his quest and finds his goal but by putting the USB back into place, he sets off a huge round of fireworks, falls off a bridge and passes out.
A young girl by the name of Yui finds Shou a number of days later and takes him to the school where he is introduced to the school’s two ruling bodies – the Student Council & the Ryouran Committee. However, they aren’t expecting anyone by his name to transfer in. Taking pity on him, he’s allowed to stay for now but just who sent out the mysterious letter?
Characters
Katsuragi Shou
Since the death of his mother, Shou and his father have lived together peacefully. However, Shou’s main hobby and love of his life is food so the idea of 24/7 all-you-can-eat was too much for him. He’s generally a pretty kind guy and gets pulled into all of the weird stuff that the student council president Souryuu plans.
Inaba Yui (CV Ogura Yui)
Yui is the girl who finds Shou and brings him to the school. She’s also another recent transfer student and is glad to make a friend who is as new to the place as her. Yui is a bright, cheerful girl whom is friendly with everyone and is a member of the Ryouran committee. Like Shou, she has a bottomless appetite but is embarassed eating in front of others as she was bullied about it at her previous school. She also has an interest in Samurai – especially their top-knot hairstyle!
Sumeragi Amane (CV Miyazawa Yuana)
Amane is the president of the Ryouran Committee and strives to make the school a better place for students. She’s a tsundere through and through with a great suspicion of Shou, especially since he’s staying at the Ryouran Committee’s dorm. Amane is a classmate of Shou and Yui. She’s from a well-off family but doesn’t get along well with her brother Souryuu, often giving him a kick to keep him in line.
Minase Sakurako (CV Toono Soyogi)
Sakurako is a gentle and sweet young lady whom, alongside her best friend Mayuri, is considered one of the school’s idols. However, this means that people are afraid to approach her so she often spends her lunch time alone. Her hobbies include reading and helping others, which is why she joined the Ryouran Committee. However, sometimes her ideas can be a little “extra”.
Shirasagi Mayuri (CV Suzumori Chisato)
Mayuri is one of the two vice-presidents of the student council. However, no matter how busy she may be, she always has time to help out Shou. She’s best friends with Sakurako & the pair often enjoy a cup of tea together. Mayuri has a mature, calm personality but can be competitive and protective of Sakurako. She comes from a well-off but strict family.
Kujou Kururi (CV Chatani Yasura)
Kururi is an accomplished inventor whom specialises in robotics, having created Shou’s “best friend” MAXX. She is generally pretty stoic but is especially icy towards Shou, going to the extent of booby trapping his room because she doesn’t trust a man living in the same dormitory as her. She’s a member of the Ryouran Committee.
Yukishiro Suzuno (CV Fujimori Yukina)
Suzuno is an odd girl that Shou meets in the Nurse’s Office one night. She claims to be a ghost because no-one aside from Yui and Shou can actually see her. The leads to her running into walls and doing other silly things to test out her “ghost powers” (which don’t work). She’s generally pretty shy and quite clumsy but is happy to have finally made some friends.
Artwork
The artwork for this game was handled by three different artists – Itou Noizi, Pero & Sasakura Ayato. The first two have worked on other games together for Unisonshift Blossom. Sasakura is probably best known for their work on the Shakugan no Shana manga adaptation.
Sound
Ending: Mou Hajimatteiru, Mirai. – Kiyo
The game’s BGM was composed by Yamada Kiyoko, whom has worked on a plethora of galge for various companies including tone works & Saga Planets.
System
The title screen for this game actually rotates between all of the different heroines which is a nice touch. The “Die zukunft hat schon begonnen.” option is actually the game’s true ending, which only becomes available after finishing Suzuno’s route.
The game’s system is overall ~very~ pink so if that’s not your thing then it might be a bit of an eyesore. There’s also quite a lot of choices, with some of the SD CGs hidden behind seemingly random choices so a guide would be recommended.
My Thoughts
Given how cute (& pink, so very pink) this game is it’s no surprise that it’s been on my “to play eventually” radar for years. However, did the game live up to the fluffy expectations I had for it?
Like many chara-ge, the common route of this game is excellent – sets up the story and characters nicely and has a good amount of humour. The thing that particularly impressed my with just how fun this part of the game was – I wish my school days were half as exciting!
Another cute thing was the game’s use of the tale “The Wizard of Oz” – it’s referenced at multiple points throughout and the fairy-tale lover in me really appreciated the way it tied into the game’s main story.
I was also impressed with the tone change as we go into the individual heroine routes, where there’s a more serious atmosphere in many of them. All of the routes were of good quality but I guess Suzuno’s would be my favourite because of the way it ties into the game’s true ending (which had me in tears omg).
The romance in the game was also generally pretty well-done, with the relationships not feeling rushed and awkward like in many other games.
As far as main characters go, Shou was slightly on the forgettable side but was a decent enough protagonist. He does actually have a bit of personality and backstory though which made him slightly more interesting the the typical galge protagonist.
Yui is an absolute cutie – her cheerful attitude just brightens the atmosphere so much! I also totally relate to being 4ever hungry, haha. Her route was enjoyable, probably the most “cop-out” one but still nice. Just don’t think too deeply and enjoy it as a love story and its very nice.
Amane is, on the surface, the game’s most generic girl by being the blonde tsundere ojou-sama. However, her tsun side isn’t really that strong and she’s just a nice girl. I liked her route because of how much it involved Souryuu (#bestboy).
Sakurako looks like a princess who has just stepped out of a fairytale & absolutely has the personality to match. She’s just so gentle and sweet that I adore her so much! Her route was another cracker which totally made me cry.
At first I was not looking forward to Mayuri’s route at all – her type of character are just not my thing. However, I was pleasantly surprised and actually found her route equal parts hilarious and interesting. Unfortunately, the ending did feel a tad rushed.
Kururi is a strange little character, while her icy interactions with Shou were hilarious I found the start of her route perhaps a little rushed. That being said, it was still a decent read.
Suzuno is the game’s endgame/true heroine with a route befitting of that accolade! It explained many of the game’s mysteries and ended very abruptly, leaving me in despair before realising that the true ending is essentially an epilogue to her route and it was very enjoyable, one of my favourite routes I’ve read in a long time!
Something quite unusual about this game is how often the sub-characters come into play. There’s only four main ones – MAXX, Megumi, Souryuu & Kei but their antics really take the game to the next level. I adore them all so much (especially Souryuu – I almost wish there was an otoge version of this haha).
The game’s voice acting was of good standard, no complaints here. The music, while not really having any spectacular standout tracks, was very fitting and I particularly enjoyed the piano arrangement of the opening theme. It was super interesting having the composer’s comments for each track on the BGM player as you could really tell what they were trying to convey with each song!
The artstyle of this game is instantly recognisable & incredibly cute (although I guess that’s personal preference). There was a decent amount of CGs and all looked pretty nice – the SD CGs were hilarious!
Each heroine has between 1-3 H-Scenes, although Sakurako is the only heroine with 3 scenes and her first scene probably shouldn’t count. You clearly don’t play this game for the ero content but the scenes themselves were actually pretty decently written for once & of course sugary sweet.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts: 8.5/10
Overall, this is a well put-together game that focuses on pure love stories, with just a sprinkling of supernatural going-ons. If you like fluffy stories but don’t mind the occasional cry then this is definitely a game that I would recommend highly.
For some reason, this definitely feels like a galge that would appeal to women as well as men. Maybe its the pink, abundance of male characters or the cuteness factor but I would recommend this regardless of gender.
I will definitely be getting around to playing the two other Flyable Heart games soon since I bought them as a set – I’m really looking forward to them!
Character Ranking:
Sakurako > Yui > Suzuno > Amane > Mayuri > Kururi
Recommended Route Order:
Amane → Kururi → Sakurako → Mayuri → Yui → Suzuno
Thanks for reading!
Zettai Renai! 