Deardrops is a music romance visual novel developed by Overdrive that follows it's protagonist Shouichi Suganuma . Once a world renowned violin prodigy, circumstances have forced him to give up the instrument, leading him back to his hometown.
There's two basic arcs to this visual novel. The first part of the novel is the common route, which is the same for every route in the visual novel. It's very much like you'd see in any music-centric story and it centers around the formation of the titular band "Deardrops". The second part is where the story branches off into each heroine route. With the exception of Riho's route, all them shift focus away from Deardrops and more onto some other element.
I played this visual novel in the following order: Rimu, Yayoi, Kanade, Riho. That's probably the ideal order in the grand scheme of things since Riho's arc is the longest and best of them. On that note, it's best to play Kanade's before Riho's due to the nature of the two's rivalry.
Riho's arc was a strong ending due to how it wraps up all the disparate elements of the other arcs in a nice bow. In that way, it ended very strongly and it did make much of the previous play time worth it.
Generally, all the stories are pretty good, with the two headlining heroines Riho and Kanade being the strongest, but that doesn't stop the writing from being a bit off sometimes. The writing can get really, really long-winded and overly descriptive sometimes. This can get particularly bad during some of the songs, where the developer locks the advancement of the text to sync it with the song. It can get really overly-embellished describing to you just how powerful this moment is man. I mean, have you ever seen something this powerful man?
Naturally, since it's a visual novel with focus on musicians, the songs in this VN are nothing to scoff at. It's pretty good on average, though it can be inconsistent and they only rarely let us hear the headlining songs like Kibou no Uta (not the FLOW one, the Deardrops one), Be loud!, and more. The background music is pretty good in variety as well.
Deardrops definitely does a lot more right than it does wrong. While I had some reservations about the pacing in particular, it was outshined by the strength of Kanade and Riho's routes in the end. It's a good visual novel that, while it tends to meander about, still manages to sparkle through as a good story that explores Suganuma's classic music past and his exploration of rock and roll in the present.
I'm still surprised that there hasn't been an attempt to adapt at least the common route into an anime. If you've ever watched a show like Kids on the Slope or Your Lie in April, it's a lot like them, just with rock and roll. It's a music story through-and-through and the common route and Riho's arc make sure you remember it.
For maximum enjoyment, I suggest playing the routes in the order that I did, since I think that's the best order all around: Rimu -> Yayoi -> Kanade -> Riho. If nothing else, play Riho's last. It's basically a requirement.
There's two basic arcs to this visual novel. The first part of the novel is the common route, which is the same for every route in the visual novel. It's very much like you'd see in any music-centric story and it centers around the formation of the titular band "Deardrops". The second part is where the story branches off into each heroine route. With the exception of Riho's route, all them shift focus away from Deardrops and more onto some other element.
I played this visual novel in the following order: Rimu, Yayoi, Kanade, Riho. That's probably the ideal order in the grand scheme of things since Riho's arc is the longest and best of them. On that note, it's best to play Kanade's before Riho's due to the nature of the two's rivalry.
Riho's arc was a strong ending due to how it wraps up all the disparate elements of the other arcs in a nice bow. In that way, it ended very strongly and it did make much of the previous play time worth it.
Generally, all the stories are pretty good, with the two headlining heroines Riho and Kanade being the strongest, but that doesn't stop the writing from being a bit off sometimes. The writing can get really, really long-winded and overly descriptive sometimes. This can get particularly bad during some of the songs, where the developer locks the advancement of the text to sync it with the song. It can get really overly-embellished describing to you just how powerful this moment is man. I mean, have you ever seen something this powerful man?
Naturally, since it's a visual novel with focus on musicians, the songs in this VN are nothing to scoff at. It's pretty good on average, though it can be inconsistent and they only rarely let us hear the headlining songs like Kibou no Uta (not the FLOW one, the Deardrops one), Be loud!, and more. The background music is pretty good in variety as well.
Deardrops definitely does a lot more right than it does wrong. While I had some reservations about the pacing in particular, it was outshined by the strength of Kanade and Riho's routes in the end. It's a good visual novel that, while it tends to meander about, still manages to sparkle through as a good story that explores Suganuma's classic music past and his exploration of rock and roll in the present.
I'm still surprised that there hasn't been an attempt to adapt at least the common route into an anime. If you've ever watched a show like Kids on the Slope or Your Lie in April, it's a lot like them, just with rock and roll. It's a music story through-and-through and the common route and Riho's arc make sure you remember it.
For maximum enjoyment, I suggest playing the routes in the order that I did, since I think that's the best order all around: Rimu -> Yayoi -> Kanade -> Riho. If nothing else, play Riho's last. It's basically a requirement.