VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Sweetest Monster Refrain [v1.0] [ebi-hime]

Ok, so I already read this VN and, was it worth it?

Short answer: No, I think you're better off by reading a small summary of its story (you won't miss much anyway, but feel free to read it & form your own opinion).

Long answer (SPOILER ALERT):

So, where should I begin? Let us start with Robin (the MC); apparently the author made clear that his character had fallen from grace the moment he became enfatuated with Bell in the 1st game. In this game, however, she deliberately made him one of the most unbearable, hypocrite characters I've ever seen/read...

He loved Sally (who I felt bad for, both in the 1st & 2nd game, as she was another victim just like Melody, she deserved better...) and Melody; albeit, despite being disgusted by Bell's mere presence (now in the body of his daughter), it seems he just was in an exhausting spyral of denial. In other words, it doesn't matter whether if you pick "I love Bell" or "I don't love her", he STILL thinks; "oh but perhaps this was a necessary evil, Bell actually loved me"; "Sally never understood me, unlike Bell"; "if I choose to save Melody, what will happen to Bell?" (who was, you know, the bloody reason he was in that state to begin with...), and even smth like; "perhaps I never actually loved Melody, she was a disappointment to me"...

If I disliked Robin in the 1st game, then I definitely loathed him in the sequel, because, even if you (SPOILER ALERT) manage to save Melody after choosing "I don't love Bell", at the end, when she's woken up, Robin thinks smth like "why am I afraid? Perhaps because I wish this wasn't Melody at all? Maybe I'd be relieved this was still Bell" or smth like that (the point is, he STILL missed Bell & thought about her...).

Now, let me write about Bell herself (then, I'll talk about Lily, her role in the story & both endings):

1. So, I liked the way things ended in "Sweetest Monster", the fact that she obviously never understood human nature (or perhaps she ACTUALLY did, but from a twisted, dark perspective) and that she never "loved" Robin made it clear she was an irredeemable character. However, in "Refrain", it seems the author tried too hard to "humanise" her, to make the reader have "empathy" for her ("because poor spirit, she was lonely throughout her entire life, she just wanted to be comprehended"...), alas, I never felt such a sentiment for her (because, again, it doesn't matter whether she's a "fallen angel" or not, she's evil, that's all you need to understand).

Now, I'll talk about Lily and how her character "links" with Sweetest Monster's universe:

2. Apparently even the creator herself thought "I didn't know how to connect both stories; Lily of the Valley & SM, however, when I realised both stories shared similarities (basically, miserable guy meets a cute girl, but despite his choices, his life still ends in even more misery), I decided to fit Lily's character into SM's world via this sequel"; in other words, even if she made a remake of "LotV" in which Lily mentions Bell, at the end of the day, it was all improvised (she stated it herself, she hadn't even thought about writing a sequel for SM after all)...

3. So, the real reason why Robin saw Lily to begin with was because (SPOILER ALERT) despite your choices, he was going to die anyway; the author addresses this common complaint of fans that consists of: "well, what's the point of choosing anyhow?" with "well, the story is supposed to be dark & the purpose of having a false sense of choice is to show that the MC was doomed from the moment he had met Bell (and even Lily)". I get this point but then, why did she bother making a sequel to begin with? I think the depressing, fucked up Epilogue in the 1st game made that clear already (and it was a perfect ending)...

Now, let me talk about the quality of the writing... to sum it up, most of the dialogues and writing is about the MC's self-loathing, pitying himself and blaming others for his own shortcomings... that's it; honestly it was such a chore to read, because despite being a pessimist myself, even I get exasperated whenever I'm in that mood for too long (or whenever I see people like that as well), so I just think "enough already".

Finally, let me talk about the 2 endings:

Ending 1. "He loves me": in this ending it seems Robin finally accepts his "feelings" towards Bell, accepting he's a sick fuck, alright... so he comes back home and apparently both him & Bell would keep this lie going for a while, ofc, it would never end well, as after they had sex in "Bell's room" (Melody's actually), Sally discovers them both and the game ends.

It's unclear what happens next as it's left up for the player's imagination, albeit we obviously know it didn't end well (and, somehow, Robin still died according to what was stated about Lily's presence).

Ending 2. "He loves me not": so, Lily (who's an angel) takes Bell away from Melody's body, well, obviously despite both (Lily and even Bell) telling Robin that wouldn't fix anything, Melody comes back to her body and faints.

Robin takes her home, he argues with his wife a bit, bla bla bla... at the end, Melody wakes up, remembering everything Bell forced her body to do with her own father... Ofc, the moment she realised Robin was there beside her, she, devoid of all will to live anymore (I mean, who wouldn't being in her place?), got away from him, supporting her head in both hands and screaming hysterically, then, the game ends...

In the Epilogue, Lily and Bell sit beside each other at the top of a belfry; they, ofc, are not seen by people as they're spirits (with Bell, somehow, still having Melody's appearance even if she no longer was in her body); they talk, Bell realises all the damage she caused and blames herself (for once), but she's still obsessed with Robin; at the end, she said she could still "see him" (in hell I suppose, as there's no way he's in heaven lmao) and the Epilogue ends in such an abrupt way, obviously leaving no more room for another sequel (not that I want even more ofc, but, I reiterate, the way the 1st game ended had wrapped things up already in a perfect way, leaving the rest up to the reader's imagination, fanfics, etc.).

The purpose of this review is, I reiterate, that no matter what you choose at the end of the novel, everything will be made worse... and, somehow, Robin dies (possibly out of a disease, perhaps he was murdered or perhaps he just collapsed)... So no, this is not worth a read IMO (unless you're really curious, but, again, you won't be missing much).

Despite ruining almost every other facet of what was going for Bell and Robin, the one thing that was improved on was the artwork.

Unlike the original, this feels an innate need to try and humanize bell, trying to prove "well she isn't all bad!" when she was never bad in the first place. She encouraged Robin to have fun, that he didn't need to feel an obligation to patch up his loveless marriage, nor did he need to feel one to fix his broken child. The author felt like she had to clarify that these are all bad things and that you must always follow your "social contracts" even to the detriment of yourself for no other reason than you are told to, even going to the extent of writing Robin in a way SHE would feel in this scenario, rather than how he would.

Despite this entire sequel being an effort of trying to beat "wanting for more is bad, stay in line." into everyone (even going as far as to call people out for liking Bell in the original) it isolated moments of good writing, like the mirror scene at the start of the game where Robin debates on how best to kill himself before Bell comes in and "scolds" him. It sets a tone for the story that was very alike the original and yet was then never expanded on, instead switching over to somebody disjointedly trying to explain good things about bell from a perspective of hatred.

Ultimately, all of that pales in comparison to the introduction of Lily and how damning it is to the story. Not only does it do its best to explain what Bell "is" (first rule of horror is to not explain the creature, even if she isn't exactly a "creature" here she is otherworldly.) but it tries its best to make sure you understand that nothing you nor Robin does actually matters because of how "bad" Bell is that you were damned just from meeting her.

This story is the author's way of expressing their hatred for not only fans of the first game, but for anyone with a different mentality than them.

This game has great art, absolutely stellar descriptive writing and character writing, a good soundtrack, and an all-around good experience. It just has two issues that keep it from 5 stars.

1) There are very few sex scenes and in fact, I don't think there are more than 4 scenes that even have partial nudity
2) It's not a game. It's a visual novel with 1 choice: This doesn't make it bad but if you're on this site for an arousing game, this is a pretty big factor.