Haitei Raoyue (Free Reading Game) Introduction and Review

Preface

Lately, I've been playing a lot of long-form games, so I decided to try playing a short game from a different genre.
Among several works that I was interested in, this time I chose"Raising the Moon from the Bottom of the Sea" (Haitei Raoyue)I played it.
This is a so-called VIPRPG, and it was submitted by the author, Midori, to "VIPRPG Kohaku 2020".
For those who enjoy mahjong, the title may be familiar as it's a name of a mahjong hand, but the content of the work has nothing to do with mahjong.

My first playthrough took about 30 minutes to complete (normal ending).
I spent about 20 minutes trying different things to get to the true ending.

Game Introduction

The main character is Windy, who leaves her dark past behind and starts living in a peaceful town.
The story revolves around the protagonist's interactions with Nereid, a strange girl he meets in a town of mountains, the sea, and cats.

This game was created using RPG Maker 2000.
The game progresses as you read through the text, but choices and diving segments are interspersed throughout.

The diving section is like a mini-game and isn't particularly difficult.
However, one wrong move and you'll drown, resulting in a game over, so players will experience a tense and exciting diving experience.

Review (with spoilers) + walkthrough

The opening sequence, with its vocal track and visuals presented like an animated movie, really showed how much effort went into it.
The way the single illustrations and character sprites are skillfully combined, and how perspective is created through various compositions, shows a wonderful way of working with the materials.

After seeing the ending once, I learned that there was another ending, and I managed to see that true ending as well.
The circumstances when I saw the true ending were as follows:

- Your first choice is to purchase a dolphin charm.
- For the second half, purchase a charm for success in love.
- Push yourself to the absolute limit during dives and raise your lung capacity to 31.

I'm not sure if these are essential conditions, but I was able to see the true ending at this point.

The first ending I saw seemed to be the normal ending, but the credits rolled, so I thought that was how the game was supposed to end.
However, looking back after seeing the true ending, I felt that the story just didn't feel right without the true ending.

I'm not saying that because the true ending is a happy one.
In the normal ending, the protagonist, Windy, has no impact on the story.
In the normal ending, Wateri, unable to choose between life and death, chooses death after reuniting with the doctor.
With this ending, whether Windy is there or not, the outcome of the story remains the same.

However, in the true ending, Windy can persuade Watari to avoid that choice.
The interactions between the two, the amulets they bought along the way, the lung capacity honed through diving—everything has meaning because if anything were missing, they wouldn't be able to reach the true ending.

In a sense, this work is a story about Windy, a living person, pulling Watari, who is trapped by the dead of the past, back into the world, and walking together towards the future.

What was unfortunate about Watari was that escaping wasn't his own wish, but rather largely due to the wishes of II.
If Watari himself wanted to live freely, he wouldn't have committed suicide by pursuing parts II and III.
For beings created as weapons, it may have been difficult to survive solely on reasons given by others.

The fact that Wateri initiated the conversation with Windy at the beginning of the game suggests that Wateri herself actually wanted someone to help her.
Otherwise, there would be no need to go out of your way to talk to Windy, nor would there be any need to explain the purpose of your diving into the sea.
I think that even though she was clumsy, Watari was unconsciously sending signals that she needed someone to help her.
Ultimately, I'm glad I chose to live with Windy rather than stay with my deceased sisters.

Although it's described as a reading game, I felt it was actually very much like a game in that you could change the ending by raising your stats.