[OLD] Fifth Love [Bishoujo][Drama][Inspirational]

[minzart]

Hey! I'm the head writer and director for an in-development visual novel called Fifth Love! I will be posting this as an introduction post for the project and will update it periodically.

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A high school student in search of his soulmate tries to shake off increasing paranoia that he will destroy the delicate peace among his circle of friends with one wrong move.

A high school student is convinced that he will find his soulmate and resolve his problems all at once in doing so, but soon realizes that he had led himself down a path of regret. You, the player. must navigate through numerous what-if situations and ultimately steer the main character to get closer to one of four important people in his life. Desperately, you search with the protagonist for a happy ending.

You can also read the original concept document (HEAVY SPOILERS)

PROMOTIONAL LOGO

Concept art for MC

Fifth Love is a bishoujo game which tries to deconstruct bishoujo games. That is to say, the writing is very focused on exploring the consequences of simply taking a girl's route.

We don't want to spoil the entire story, but at its core it involves a Main Character (MC) who wants to fix his problems and directionless lifestyle by deepening his relationship with one of four important girls from his life (his twin Sister, his childhood best friend/Rival, his first crush/Romance, and a Confidant he meets through the Internet). In each of the routes, MC's connection with the girl in question are explored and eventually shown to be incompatible with MC's existing problems. As well, each of the four routes uncover hints pertaining to a tragic event which occurs in MC's junior year.

Details for each route (non-spoiler version):

• Sister: MC's twin sister who looks a lot like him at the start of the story (due to a haircutting mishap) and who gradually grows apart from him. She was part of a trifecta with MC and Rival before distancing herself. Although she is the younger twin and has been treated as the "younger sibling" since birth, she gradually becomes the "older sibling" in the relationship, with MC slowly eschewing his family duties.
• Confidant: A stranger who MC meets via the Internet. They become writing buddies and begin to share a special bond. Slowly, it feels as if Confidant understands him more personally than a simple stranger could...
• Romance: MC's high school crush and eventual romantic interest (and girlfriend, depending on the route). She and MC have been aware of each other even before high school, yet meet recently through a mutual friend. They hit it off and develop a more-than-friends relationship which they both work tirelessly to make meaningful and special.
• Rival: MC's childhood best friend. She moved away before the events of the VN, right before middle school. Her sudden return, as well as her massive outpacing of MC since they were young, strain their fateful reunion right off the bat.

Concept art for the characters

In addition, there are two very important supporting characters (Best Friend and Mentor) who form the Squad with MC. You can read a sample interaction here.

(You can read more about the characters on the dev blog or in the dev wiki. You can even just ask us directly )

After playing these four routes, a fifth route is unlocked where MC did one thing differently before the start of the story. The resulting timeline has MC become friends with all four of the girls, who help him realize through their support that he never loved himself. With this new knowledge in mind, he finally takes his life into his own hands.

The timeline of the story extends from sophomore year of high school (10th grade) all the way to graduation (in 12th grade).

The game is a subtle jab at the bishoujo genre, where the guy gets the girl and it's happily ever after from there. Instead, we wanted to create a story that really showed the human condition: the seemingly-contradictory duo of both soul-crushing helplessness and the humbling power to change your destiny in an instant. Fate can (literally) be decided by a single coin toss.

We want the game to appeal to seasoned bishoujo players (who want cute girls and interesting relationships) as well as uplift players who don't usually play this genre (or maybe who don't play VNs) at all! One of our biggest inspirations is the famous OELVN Katawa Shoujo, which was the first visual novel of several members on our team.

We will be updating our dev blog twice a week with content relating to the VN as well as explanations on decisions we made for characters/plot/setting. We are aiming to start a Patreon in May 2017, both to start funding development for the game as well as provide a direct way for the OELVN community to influence the development of the game (we will take suggestions and make special commissions from especially generous patrons!). For example, we may create certain special scenes for them (which will be unlockable in the final game) or even give them a small cameo! If the idea is especially good, it might even become an important plot point >:)

After this point, we will release both a full "playable" text-version game (where in place of dialogue you effectively read through synopses of what happens and then make decisions), as well as a fully-functioning demo for the first section of the game. We will try to get this done before Christmas 2017.

By now, it's mostly a matter of time (and resources). We will start a Kickstarter campaign in order to fund editing, artwork, music, GUI design, and tech help. Then, we will aim to release a full beta version of the game before finally releasing the game in September 2018.

The pricing for the game is a flat price for a regular version as well as an additional price for a version with "extras" (full art gallery, e-book version, etc.). After some period of time (which the team will discuss), we will make the game free for all and sell only the special version (at a reduced price).

We will also be aiming for a novel version of the game to be released. This is obviously a huge undertaking and may well fail based on paper book market conditions, finding an agent/publishing firm, etc. At the very least, we will release an e-book

I hope that this game concept interests some of you! I thank you for your time and your potential readership <3

Also, check out LoiLoi! She is our artist <3 she has done some really good work for us already

[Zelan]

This looks cool. I like the idea of the true route, where the MC's friends act as his support system. My suggestion would be that at some point he does the same for his friends - relationships should be give-and-take. (Not necessarily when he's in a bad spot himself, of course, but at some point during the story.)

Katawa Shoujo was my first VN as well, so hearing that this takes some influence from it is awesome, but make sure it has its own story as well. (I probably don't need to say that since this already seems pretty unique, but hey, free advice can't hurt.)

[parttimestorier]

Fifth Love is a bishoujo game which tries to deconstruct bishoujo games. That is to say, the writing is very focused on exploring the consequences of simply taking a girl's route.

This sounds like a really intriguing idea! Having noticed a lot of the conventions of popular romance VNs, and having gotten fed up with some of them, I'd really like to read something that looks at them with a critical eye. If you can go into a bit more detail about how you plan to deconstruct things in this VN then I'd love to hear about it! For instance, something that bothers me a little bit in many VNs I've read is how each romantic interest will have a serious problem in their lives that it seems like only the protagonist can solve - implying that when you pick one route, all the other romantic interests keep on dealing with those problems alone, and possibly never solve them. Is that something you plan on exploring? (Not that you necessarily have to, since I'm sure there's plenty of other good stuff too - that's just the first thing that came to mind.)

I think the Confidant character's route sounds especially interesting, and the art you have so far looks lovely. Good luck with everything!

[gekiganwing]

The game is a subtle jab at the bishoujo genre, where the guy gets the girl and it's happily ever after from there. Instead, we wanted to create a story that really showed the human condition: the seemingly-contradictory duo of both soul-crushing helplessness and the humbling power to change your destiny in an instant.

Sometimes, it's encouraging to see a story which shows characters remaining friends or moving on. That's what I remember about Canvas 2 -- even though one of its characters is psychologically scarred, and some are lonely / jealous, things work out for them in the end. Having said that, perhaps it would have benefited from ambiguous or morally gray endings.

School Days was written over a decade ago. The reader's decisions in that story can lead to positive endings for the love triangle. However, it can also go badly. Its animated adaptation is best known because the creators chose to go with a bad ending. Also, some of my old favorite OJLVNs featured endings which were mellow or downbeat. For instance, the character drama in Crescendo never seemed to end, and the protagonist of Kana Little Sister was usually left depressed at the end of each route.

Having said all that, I'm interested to see how you'll write this story. Show us the fictional world, and help us care about your characters' dilemmas.

[minzart]

This looks cool. I like the idea of the true route, where the MC's friends act as his support system. My suggestion would be that at some point he does the same for his friends - relationships should be give-and-take. (Not necessarily when he's in a bad spot himself, of course, but at some point during the story.)

Katawa Shoujo was my first VN as well, so hearing that this takes some influence from it is awesome, but make sure it has its own story as well. (I probably don't need to say that since this already seems pretty unique, but hey, free advice can't hurt.)

The actual details of the plot are that in the Satisfaction branch, the main group of five ends up working to subtly help each other because they all have a feeling that they will regret it if they don't seize the day. MC is basically the last one helped, after he already had his part in helping the others So your conception of what the true route should contain is pretty much spot-on!

Yeah, we are actually going through VNs (especially EVNs) and noting their strengths and weaknesses. Katawa Shoujo is one which we looked at a lot given its prominence in the community, and we ended up seeing a lot of universal core strengths it had that would make almost any VN better (for example, tying main conflicts to circumstance and not directly to a weakness/disability), while also trying to avoid the parts we didn't like (the "get girl and become happy" vibe, although as a bishoujo game we can't blame KS for that).

Thank you for your comment! It is very encouraging

[minzart]

Fifth Love is a bishoujo game which tries to deconstruct bishoujo games. That is to say, the writing is very focused on exploring the consequences of simply taking a girl's route.

This sounds like a really intriguing idea! Having noticed a lot of the conventions of popular romance VNs, and having gotten fed up with some of them, I'd really like to read something that looks at them with a critical eye. If you can go into a bit more detail about how you plan to deconstruct things in this VN then I'd love to hear about it! For instance, something that bothers me a little bit in many VNs I've read is how each romantic interest will have a serious problem in their lives that it seems like only the protagonist can solve - implying that when you pick one route, all the other romantic interests keep on dealing with those problems alone, and possibly never solve them. Is that something you plan on exploring? (Not that you necessarily have to, since I'm sure there's plenty of other good stuff too - that's just the first thing that came to mind.)

I think the Confidant character's route sounds especially interesting, and the art you have so far looks lovely. Good luck with everything!

This is literally one of the very first problems we say with many VNs. It is an absurd fantasy to think that one can be the key to so many different girls' problems and also woo them in the process XD

I'll give some examples of the main central conflicts experienced by the four main girls and how the MC reacts to them (in the respective route and in the true ending):

• Sister is hung up on their previous family problems and the burden of being a worthy child. A huge part of this is how much she has to worry about MC because of his aloofness, compared to how he was before. She often tried to "make up" for what MC didn't do. While in the Sister route they do become a lot closer from spending time together, the central problem of her worrying about him not taking the future seriously or properly facing the past are obstacles to her solving her own problems. In the Satisfaction branch, she no longer needs to worry about him because she sees that he is finally taking his life into his own hands, so she has the energy to focus on herself. As a result, MC and Sister solidify their siblinghood, despite spending less time in the true ending together than in her own route.
• Confidant is generally displeased with her place in the universe. Although the player doesn't know this until playing all the routes, Confidant is fairly unhappy with her situation. She is the younger sibling who is constantly overshadowed by the energetic Romance; she loves cello, but started late and can't get to the level she wants; she feels detached from her family and friends, who expect a lot from her but don't seem interested in her. She even detests her real name, which is why the Internet is the perfect place for her where she can reshape her identity.
  In every single route, MC is aware of both his internet friend who he christened "Sol Maris" after her handle Sun@Sea, and of a mysterious underclassman with a certain ability to read right through him. In the Confidant route, she reveals her true identity to him in relation to an online conversation about her self-harm. Although he supports her through her struggle (and even gets her to stop cutting), the actual things she is struggling against still persist and he is fairly powerless to solving them. In the true ending, Rival is the one who makes the connection about her true identity; afterwards, MC's improved relationships with Sister and Romance subtly influence how those two treat Confidant (who is Sister's underclassman at her high school and Romance's sister), which aids in solving the actual problem. Also, his increased awareness of the people around him results in him, by coincidence, asking her if she was okay on the very day she died in every other route. Although this might count as "He saved her singlehandedly", it's more that his actions helped her save herself.
  The scene which I and another writer cried the most about while discussing was the one where Confidant gets MC to take a video of her throwing her razor into a pond. (Based on a real experience)
• Romance is obsessed with notions of "purpose" and "true calling". This is basically the central problem which drives her and MC to break up in every single route, including the true ending. Within the Romance route, many other problems (even Confidant's death) were things that MC and Romance could fight through together; however, her existential crisis is a conflict that pretty much no one can solve. It is nearing graduation, and she needs to sort out what she wants out of her future. She breaks up with MC in both her own route's "true sub-ending" and the true ending over this, because he still doesn't know what he wants either and this is pretty discouraging to her. In addition, she doesn't want the added pressure of a relationship to affect her choices for university the next year.
  However, in the true ending, right before they go their separate ways for university, she and MC make a promise to try their relationship again in the future if the time is right. Plus a whole bunch of other cute stuff
• Rival is grappling with her destructive mindset of always wanting to be the best at all costs. An event at the very start of the story, the coin toss, is actually the trigger for the true ending where she ends up bring the Main Five together. Meanwhile, in the other routes, she is mostly alone (or engaged in a rivalry with MC), not wanting to rely on friends or classmates at all in case one day their separation would cause her as much hurt as when she moved away before middle school (this is basically her way of running away from pain; fly high enough alone, and you can be free). In the true route, she and MC still were separated, but the different tone of how they parted ways led to a much more amicable reunion and resulted in a much stronger friend group. This route basically explored how something trivial like a coin toss could change the course of our lives.
  (Note: Another point is that the coin landed on tails when MC didn't catch it, and heads when he did. This is supposed to represent that the way to win was to play on her terms and see her eye to eye.)

This is super long, but I hope this helps with your inquiry

I am also very excited about Confidant, although the execution of the game-wide character development of slowly discovering different aspects of Confidant's life is quite daunting :/

In general, the biggest deconstruction we wanted to make is that solving someone's problems for the sake of hoping they would solve yours is just a pipe dream. In even the true ending above, when the character actually begins on the path of solving their own problem they end up veering off a separate path from MC's: Sister becomes more focused on herself and develops her own interests more; Confidant and him decide to not communicate anymore until they figure out the next project they want to work on together, which ends up being a visual novel based on his life; Romance breaks up with him and they have much less communication for the remainder of high school; Rival becomes more involved with her other friends (in the Squad) and by consequence depends less on MC.

However, when MC finally realizes his central problem, all his friends pitch in in small ways, just like he did for them over the course of the true ending. They didn't need to "fix" him like he originally wanted; rather, they simply helped him fix himself.

Thank you for your interest in Fifth Love! We are glad that some bishoujo fans appreciate this kind of thing and aren't put off by our (perhaps overly edgy) attempt to attack the very tropes we all "love" head on

[minzart]

The game is a subtle jab at the bishoujo genre, where the guy gets the girl and it's happily ever after from there. Instead, we wanted to create a story that really showed the human condition: the seemingly-contradictory duo of both soul-crushing helplessness and the humbling power to change your destiny in an instant.

Sometimes, it's encouraging to see a story which shows characters remaining friends or moving on. That's what I remember about Canvas 2 -- even though one of its characters is psychologically scarred, and some are lonely / jealous, things work out for them in the end. Having said that, perhaps it would have benefited from ambiguous or morally gray endings.

School Days was written over a decade ago. The reader's decisions in that story can lead to positive endings for the love triangle. However, it can also go badly. Its animated adaptation is best known because the creators chose to go with a bad ending. Also, some of my old favorite OJLVNs featured endings which were mellow or downbeat. For instance, the character drama in Crescendo never seemed to end, and the protagonist of Kana Little Sister was usually left depressed at the end of each route.

Having said all that, I'm interested to see how you'll write this story. Show us the fictional world, and help us care about your characters' dilemmas.

You would be happy to know that there is technically no "good" ending in Fifth Love

Every single route results in either bitter separation or an uncomfortable persistence of the relationship. In the true ending, MC ends up all alone and separated from his friends just like in the default "self bad ending".

However, what does change in this particular ending is the tone. While in the other endings he expressed a profound regret for getting to that point in his life, in the true ending MC realizes that, after all his tribulations, he is finally satisfied with where he was at.

It's sort of bittersweet, but also seems like an appropriate emotional payoff

[parttimestorier]

Thanks for the very detailed reply minzart! Confidant's route definitely sounds especially great - I'm always interested in stories that can realistically depict mental illness, and the struggle to help a friend deal with it is familiar to me as well. I'm really looking forward to more updates on this and I wish you the best of luck with everything!