Game of the Month for September 2021: Dandelion!

[alias_sqbr]

Dandelion: Wishes Brought to you is a Korean dating sim about a depressed, lonely young woman who encounters five mysterious animals and gets to know them as pets...only for them to become people!



This is the first game made by Cheritz (Nameless, Mystic Messenger) and is a bit rough around the edges but still overall very enjoyable. The protagonist is a realistically drawn college student with anxiety caused by an abusive mother, and her arc of self discovery and healing is really well done. There's a lot of stats raising, which is sometimes cleverly integrated with the story and sometimes irritating. The love interests are varied and interesting as characters, and the romances vary from "good" to "I respect what they were going for but it didn't quite work for me". It's not full on furry but it probably helps if you think catboys and rabbitboys are cute ;)

Content notes: consent issues, abusive parents, unfortunate disability angst, abusive love interest

My reaction posts

Download the demo or buy the full game

To celebrate the start of Spring here in the Southern hemisphere, and because as scytale pointed out catboys are...kind of...like hobbits, in that they're short and hairy and like food >.>

Comments

[icecheetah]

Downloading it as I type. I bought it a few years ago but last thing I remember from playing is the MC seeing the LI's human forms for the first time. I think that means I didn't get far.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah that's the end of the common route, just before the individual routes kick in. I hope you enjoy it!

[icecheetah]

Ah! I see.

[icecheetah]

I just started playing today and accidentally discovered that it lacks that very useful feature Ren'py games have where you can hold down ctrl to skip text you already read. It just skips the text whether you saw it before or not. No option to turn it on.
I quite like being able to hold down ctrl and see the little things that change with different choices... .

Also, looking at the game files, there's the game's .exe but there's also something called... PinkFluffyUnicornDancingOnRainbow.exe

[alias_sqbr]

Oh that's unfortunate! I'd forgotten that but yes very annoying.

[caramarie]

I am very fond of this game ♥ Although I only ever completed Jiwoo and Jisoo's routes. I liked Jiwoo's a lot, but was less fond of Jisoo as a LI (although I do remember liking how the route dealt with the whole thing with Heejung's mum).

I think I cried a lot at the end of Jiwoo's route, which I was not expecting from the start!

I talk about the game in a couple of posts, although not very deeply.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah I really didn't jive with Jisoo but Jiwoo was great. I liked all the others too.

[icecheetah]

I've just reached the start JiYeon's route (which I think is exactly where I stoppped playing last time XD) and, I'm not great at korean but I know enough to pick up some differences between what the voice acting is saying and the translation.

in korean: Jiyeon "Nuna nuna!" (similar to the japanese "onee chan onee chan!", except "Nuna" is only used by guys.)
MC: "Oh, uh... the thing is... calling me Nuna... ." (This is half guess from context and what I can understand)
Jiyeon: "What? Do you hate it? But I like it."
MC: "Well... it... ."

and this is translated as
Jiyeon: Heejung!
MC: "So you know my name..."
JiYeon: "Of course! Im your cat."
MC: "umm"

[alias_sqbr]

Yes even I picked up that difference since nuna/noona doesn't sound anything like Heejung, and it's also one of the few Korean words I know. But I couldn't translate any of the other words, so thank you!

The funny thing about it is that he calls all older women that, it's flirty but not at all personal like using her name would be.

In 'Mystic Messenger' I found the way MC could call Zen 'My lovely Zen' a bit odd, and read on the wiki that in Korean it's "oppa" which again has a different vibe. There's really no similar terms in English, so I sympathise with the translators. You could go for "daddy"/"mommy" but that's...a bit much haha.

[icecheetah]

Heh! Since the game saves any scenes you've seen to review at your leisure, I'm tempted to, once I'm done, put the game in korean and try and do a practice translation of my own. (BTW I finished Jiyeon's route. I have some thoughts about it I might write up later, but from what I read I actually expected him to be worse than he was?)

Yeah, though it also has connotations of "look after me" through nuna/oppa culture so that easily can be part of his conning.

... I hope no one ever translates those words that way.

[alias_sqbr]

I'd be curious to read your thoughts if you do write them up!

[icecheetah]

Dandelion's Month is almost over and I found myself really enjoying it. I haven't been able to finish it, I'm still in my third route, Jiwoo's, but I got to the bit where Jiwoo gives Heejung an untranslated poem and I thought trying to translate it (with help from a dictionary) would be a good way to end the month on my end.

Some bits were hard to read, and I guarantee there's subtleties I missed. e.g. there's a recurring pattern in the poem that could be translated two ways, either "dangerously open" or "floating above"

"In the morning I watch you opening your dangerous eyes and
their dangerous light opens and
Above the moon lights my way to your future home.

I think your heart is excited to see me.
My feelings open to your humming.
I only wish you weren't a stupid person.
"Rise Up" you see my past as a human."

[alias_sqbr]

Thank you, it's really nice to have that extra little bit of detail! Lol that even in a romantic poem he's complaining about her being stupid.