Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.53.0] [Selebus]

[fdsasdf_p]

I hope I can find something more interesting to latch onto with Noriko when I replay her stuff, but on my first playthrough I really wasn't a fan of her as a character. In a game full of well-written, multi-faceted characters, she comes across as one-dimensional in a way that gets awfully close to "porn logic".

Pretty much her entire identity seems to be defined around completely unconditional love for Sensei. Somehow this love grew despite not seeing him for years, and the last time she did know him she was still a preteen and he was probably emotionally closed off after the accident. It's also hard to understand how any good qualities she saw in him could outweigh the fact that she knew (or at least heavily suspected) that he groomed/molested wizard Maya.

She again gets confronted with what an awful person he is when Ami cucks her, but her only response is to get sad and avoid Sensei for a little while. After that it's right back to unconditional love and pretending nothing happened, with no indication that she's been changed by learning that Sensei has a sexual relationship with the niece/daughter that he's raised since she was a child. We know the relationship only started post-resets, but Noriko has every reason to assume that Sensei groomed/molested Ami as well. And while she does bring that up in the immediate aftermath, it seems like she's mostly only upset that there is one more girl that Sensei loves more than her.

I feel like Noriko needs to experience some sort of rude awakening if she's ever going to exhibit any character growth, but I have no idea what could get through to her when the shit she's already seen hasn't.

I think a good half of her character's purpose is to provide red-herring regarding what kind of person Noriko actually is against all odds and flags, and to serve as Maya's antithesis that proves how wrong Maya sometimes can be; the other half is to be the window to Sensei's past. Many of her major strides are scattered in main events, but yes her own love line is with way too many bumps.

I get that continuing watching her love remain unwavering might be meaningless to people, and I actually thought Ami cucking her would be the final nail to the coffin that made Noriko drop Sensei forever or at least gave her feeling a huge dent, similar to your "needing of rude awakening" for both Noriko and Sensei. Despite being able to comprehend Noriko's decision to keep chasing Sensei (after getting cucked or knowing how creepy Sensei was/is), I also think this Ami cucking incident has not provided a satisfactory conclusion to the viewers yet, and I am still waiting on it.

Are we actually sure that she couldn't find him?

Spoiler

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Maybe I'm reading too much into something just meant as an easter egg, but it's awfully convenient that (in Chapter 1) she's standing right outside of the cafe when Sensei walks in and is still there when he leaves. And while I can't remember exactly what details we've learned about her pact with Maya, isn't she not supposed to be in this part of town at all? I have to imagine she would only break that for Sensei-related reasons.

Her school was not in the Old District so she has to come to this half of the town at least for that. Regardless, even if her school wasn't here, Noriko made a pact that she no longer (or perhaps never) has good reasoning to follow through for her entire life, not when the love of her life is involved.

And no, I don't think she found him until that faithful reunion in Kumon-mi high. She only has capped cellular data and public transportation as means to look for one guy in a sizable city, and nobody does constant 360 when trying to find someone; overlooking is a thing, a cruel joke in this case for Noriko (not to mention this isn't the first time Selly placed a 2F girl in the background well before they were officially introduced, so yea this more than likely is a self-referencing easter egg)

 

[Fire Lord Zuko]

Spoiler: Noriko Event Titles

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Is it too much to ask that Noriko be happy just one time?

 

[fdsasdf_p]

View attachment 3757928

Is it too much to ask that Noriko be happy just one time?

One of these days her event titles will be in pink; one of these days…

 

[Detective Dc345]

My pareidolia stickers came today!

Spoiler: Stickers

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The only thing is I didn't know how to size them and they came out too small.

 

[LessonsInDissonance]

My pareidolia stickers came today!

Spoiler: Stickers

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The only thing is I didn't know how to size them and they came out too small.

Those stickers are ugly! You should get some WIRES stickers instead

 

[crustlord12]

My pareidolia stickers came today!

Spoiler: Stickers

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The only thing is I didn't know how to size them and they came out too small.

How big are they? I have no sense of scale here

 

[Detective Dc345]

How big are they? I have no sense of scale here

They're about 2 inches big. I used a guitar pick for reference.

Spoiler: Reference

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[Moonflare]

I hope I can find something more interesting to latch onto with Noriko when I replay her stuff, but on my first playthrough I really wasn't a fan of her as a character. In a game full of well-written, multi-faceted characters, she comes across as one-dimensional in a way that gets awfully close to "porn logic".

Pretty much her entire identity seems to be defined around completely unconditional love for Sensei. Somehow this love grew despite not seeing him for years, and the last time she did know him she was still a preteen and he was probably emotionally closed off after the accident. It's also hard to understand how any good qualities she saw in him could outweigh the fact that she knew (or at least heavily suspected) that he groomed/molested wizard Maya.

She again gets confronted with what an awful person he is when Ami cucks her, but her only response is to get sad and avoid Sensei for a little while. After that it's right back to unconditional love and pretending nothing happened, with no indication that she's been changed by learning that Sensei has a sexual relationship with the niece/daughter that he's raised since she was a child. We know the relationship only started post-resets, but Noriko has every reason to assume that Sensei groomed/molested Ami as well. And while she does bring that up in the immediate aftermath, it seems like she's mostly only upset that there is one more girl that Sensei loves more than her.

I feel like Noriko needs to experience some sort of rude awakening if she's ever going to exhibit any character growth, but I have no idea what could get through to her when the shit she's already seen hasn't.


Are we actually sure that she couldn't find him?

Spoiler

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Maybe I'm reading too much into something just meant as an easter egg, but it's awfully convenient that (in Chapter 1) she's standing right outside of the cafe when Sensei walks in and is still there when he leaves. And while I can't remember exactly what details we've learned about her pact with Maya, isn't she not supposed to be in this part of town at all? I have to imagine she would only break that for Sensei-related reasons.

I think the big words for understanding Noriko are loser, genius and insane. I'll skip most of what has already been said in previous posts and instead focus on what I think hasn't been mentioned enough.

Also, this is a long only textual character analysis, if not interested, skip to the tacos at the end.

Spoiler: Loser

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Spoiler: Genius

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Spoiler: Insane

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Talked a lot, here are some smiles:

Spoiler: Rivals (Taco Tuesday)

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[fdsasdf_p]

My pareidolia stickers came today!

Spoiler: Stickers

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The only thing is I didn't know how to size them and they came out too small.

I don't know why I find this funny, but they're too small indeed.

Make em bigger, put em on your bumper to fish out all the local Senseis near you!

 

[LoveWhiteHairedGirl]

They're about 2 inches big.

What the fuck is a kilometer inch

 

[Waifulover359]

I'm finally on my vacation and have some free time to replay the game once again. I just started, and man, after the whole Ami's mental breakdown, Akira's first day must have looked scary as fuck from Ami's perspective: sudden memory loss, questions about her parents, about the people he's known for years, why she calls him Sensei instead of his real name, why she's living with him instead of being closer to her friends and the like.

 

[LessonsInDissonance]

I think the big words for understanding Noriko are loser, genius and insane. I'll skip most of what has already been said in previous posts and instead focus on what I think hasn't been mentioned enough.

Also, this is a long only textual character analysis, if not interested, skip to the tacos at the end.

Spoiler: Loser

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Spoiler: Genius

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Spoiler: Insane

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Talked a lot, here are some smiles:

Spoiler: Rivals (Taco Tuesday)

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I never liked Maya and these kinds of things only amplify my dislike of her.

She is a pretty disgusting person, more so than Akira in my opinion.

This is where moral compasses cannot point to a correct direction, you'd think Akira is a horrible person (which he is) for grooming girls, but what about Maya? did SHE groom Akira? This might seem like a pretty stupid person, how can a literal child groom an adult person, but that's a misconception that people always have because they assume a young person can never be bad or should never be held accountable.

This is where my moral compass differs from most people, I believe Maya is worse than Akira for the simple reason that her intentions are more ill-purposed than his. She seduced and stole Akira from Niki (presumable using some kind of powers) and made it so that all comunications was ceased between him and the others because "fuck them hes only mine lol"

She doesn't give a fuck about how others feel and only wants him for her selfish desires.

Akira is just a broken man (actions still not justifiable) that finds comfort in getting his Pink-headed yogurt slinger wet from drilling fresh pussy, but he genuinely feels bad for doing it, he's just too weak to control it, and at the end of the way he wishes to help people, that's why he goes out of his way to constatly embark in shenanigans with people. Maya simply doesn't give a fuck about hurting others, that is the big difference.

So if for whatever reason I happened to be WIRES, I would take this stupid bitch and remove her from existance so that she can stop corrupting this shell of infinite power and replace her with a girl that has genuine, un-implanted feelings of love for him. Maybe a girl that can hear sounds.

 

[DeSkel15]

View attachment 3757928

Is it too much to ask that Noriko be happy just one time?

Spoiler

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I think the big words for understanding Noriko are loser, genius and insane. I'll skip most of what has already been said in previous posts and instead focus on what I think hasn't been mentioned enough.

Also, this is a long only textual character analysis, if not interested, skip to the tacos at the end.

Spoiler: Loser

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Spoiler: Genius

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Spoiler: Insane

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Talked a lot, here are some smiles:

Spoiler: Rivals (Taco Tuesday)

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Noriko didn't actually seem to get to confront Sensei and (presumably) Maya. She was seemingly stuck on her bus:

Spoiler

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In retrospect, if Sensei was with Maya then she broke the pact. It's actually probably Ami, but there's not really much of a reason that Sensei and someone would have been in the old district back then...

 

[ElaineZol]

I never liked Maya and these kinds of things only amplify my dislike of her.

She is a pretty disgusting person, more so than Akira in my opinion.

This is where moral compasses cannot point to a correct direction, you'd think Akira is a horrible person (which he is) for grooming girls, but what about Maya? did SHE groom Akira? This might seem like a pretty stupid person, how can a literal child groom an adult person, but that's a misconception that people always have because they assume a young person can never be bad or should never be held accountable.

This is where my moral compass differs from most people, I believe Maya is worse than Akira for the simple reason that her intentions are more ill-purposed than his. She seduced and stole Akira from Niki (presumable using some kind of powers) and made it so that all comunications was ceased between him and the others because "fuck them hes only mine lol"

She doesn't give a fuck about how others feel and only wants him for her selfish desires.

Akira is just a broken man (actions still not justifiable) that finds comfort in getting his Pink-headed yogurt slinger wet from drilling fresh pussy, but he genuinely feels bad for doing it, he's just too weak to control it, and at the end of the way he wishes to help people, that's why he goes out of his way to constatly embark in shenanigans with people. Maya simply doesn't give a fuck about hurting others, that is the big difference.

So if for whatever reason I happened to be WIRES, I would take this stupid bitch and remove her from existance so that she can stop corrupting this shell of infinite power and replace her with a girl that has genuine, un-implanted feelings of love for him. Maybe a girl that can hear sounds.

Assuming she has any power to begin with, even if she does, it doesn't seem to be that strong if she couldn't do shit to stop the resets and all that. Otherwise, she is just a normal teenage girl and Akira an adult who not only pursued something with Maya willingly, he also willingly went with whatever Maya did to "steal" him; broken or not he has proven to be able to say no when he doesn't want something, so saying Maya did it all is unfair, he is just as guilty.

 

[Moonflare]

- "I begged the driver to stop so I could get off and chase you down and wrap my arms around you and ask you to come home."
- "But of course she [redacted]."
- "I couldn't believe it. Here I was just inches away from finally finding you and [redacted]."

Interesting, my interpretation from "but of course she" was that she managed to get off the bus but was stopped by Maya from hugging him.

I guess that she wasn't able to leave the bus is also valid.

Assuming she has any power to begin with, even if she does, it doesn't seem to be that strong if she couldn't do shit to stop the resets and all that. Otherwise, she is just a normal teenage girl and Akira an adult who not only pursued something with Maya willingly, he also willingly went with whatever Maya did to "steal" him; broken or not he has proven to be able to say no when he doesn't want something, so saying Maya did it all is unfair, he is just as guilty.

I agree, Maya was a child. I think it is relevant that he was broken, and that she acted in bad-faith, and forced/manipulated and even perhaps blackmailed him - since that is also evidenced by her strong refusal to the fact that she was molested. But Akira was still an adult that most likely wanted to "pet the cat" when he first met her. They're both wrong here, or none of them are depending on how the story ends. But we can't in good faith just blame one side (especially not Maya's since, again, a child).

I'm finally on my vacation and have some free time to replay the game once again. I just started, and man, after the whole Ami's mental breakdown, Akira's first day must have looked scary as fuck from Ami's perspective: sudden memory loss, questions about her parents, about the people he's known for years, why she calls him Sensei instead of his real name, why she's living with him instead of being closer to her friends and the like.

Looking at it from that perspective, yes, she takes it way too well. Like way too well. She either remembers fragments of the cycles, or Akira had this happen other times before the resets (Ami is fully acquainted with his sanity pack and auto-pilot mode). Or maybe both.

 

[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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[steveveve31]

Wow, even I'm a big fan of Maya and I know that Noriko is going to be very important to the story, why do you have this opinion about her???

I know I'm a page late (and honestly other people did a very good and detailed dive into it too!) but yeah in addition to all that, the RL stalker this was a big turn off.

Also, to go a little more meta on it, I remember when she was first introduced Sel doing a post somewhere to the effect of "if the perfect girl doesn't exist you create her, meet Noriko", so when she was so unhinged during her intro scenes, I was already on alert. There was also some other Sel comment when someone was asking him about the original plans for the story if the second floor hadn't gotten added, and he said that Niki would've still happened and been (obviously) vital to the story, but I assumed from that point that Noriko was basically shoehorned in. To be fair, this was all quite a while ago and I might be misremembering!

In general though, I feel like most of the characters besides the original 10 are unnecessary and contribute to bloat on an already insanely bloated game, even the ones that I've come to really like. Uta is probably my favorite of the main cast, but her story is pretty much a nothingburger with a crazy amount of stringing along. This is what happens when the author takes so much pride in word count though (it's still my favorite game on this site don't shadowban me plz k thx)

 

[LessonsInDissonance]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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Yeah fuck that guy

 

[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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