Pumpkin's Video Game Diary!

[Pumpkin]

If My Heart Had Wings (Steam)



Note: As should be evident if you know me at all, this is the all ages version of the game. If you want the adult version, I'm sure you can find it, but I personally will be unable to comment about the uncensored content.

This is a visual novel about high school kids who share a common goal: To soar high in the sky. Aoi, our male protagonist, has recently had a biking accident. Figuring it's time to remove himself from the old environment of his bicycling club days, he moves back to his childhood hometown. His mother, having a sense of humour, signs him up to be a dorm mother for an all girls dorm. Coincidentally, one of the dorm residents is a young woman in a wheelchair named Kotori that he met upon returning to town.

As Aoi is re-familiarizing himself with the town and his new school, he discovers a garage housing a glider and a mysterious and beautiful young woman. Turns out that this is the "Super-repeat student" Amane, who has purposely failed her classes so she can stay behind and complete the glider in order to accomplish her missing friend's goal of soaring above the clouds. The best chance to accomplish this goal? A special event called the 'Morning Glory', something seen in a photograph left behind by the soaring club of old. Aoi and his friends join Amane in trying to complete the glider and achieve their dreams of soaring above the clouds.

This visual novel has choices once in a while that will help determine which romantic route you pursue. There aren't actually very many choices, ranging from 4 to 6 total depending on the route, and most are quite obvious if you wan to pursue a particular story. It should be noted however that some routes need to be completed in order to unlock other routes. There is also a "bad" route if you fail to romance anyone, which is more just an abrupt ending if anything.

There are some translation issues, unfortunately, especially with the Ageha route. While most of the routes can be understood with only some issues here and there, the beginning of Ageha's route, the first third probably, is an absolute mess. With that being said, if you stick it out past that point, the translation mostly cleans up to the point of being understandable again. There's an auto option where the text will continue automatically, there's a skip option which will skip all previously read text for getting to the other routes faster, and there's also a gallery where you can view some scene images.

Characters:
(Ordered from favourite to least favourite)
Ageha: Aoi's childhood friend, she is very playful, sociable and outgoing. Originally part of the robotics club, Ageha takes an interest in the machanical side of building a glider. Her story deals with letting people get close because she fears losing them.
Amane: Despite being afraid of heights, Amane works hard to build a glider that can soar above the clouds in order to see what her friend wanted her to see. While she is a genius, she lacks social awareness and comes off as naive and goofy most of the time.
Asa: the older twin sister of Yoru, Asa is an average girl in a superior family, making her struggle with inadequacy and failure issues. She's very sweet and sociable.
Kotori: A young woman in a wheelchair who feels alienated by everyone so she tries to act smug and superior to save face. She finally lets her guard down when she stars working towards her dream to soar high in the sky.
Aoi: A young man who returned to his childhood hometown after a bicycling accident. Takes on a lot of responsibilities as club member and dorm mother. He likes teasing people and is sometimes easily embarrassed.
Yoru: The younger twin sister, a genius who hates wasting her time. She struggles to relate to people but is very attached to her sister. Her story involves trying to learn to let her guard down and experience life.

Overall I very much enjoyed this visual novel. It really kept me interested and I would often have to force myself to stop reading to go to bed or do something else. The visuals are stunning for a visual novel, the characters are likeable and have their own interesting stories, and there's a very strong cast of secondary characters as well that I really liked. The VN has a really nice sense of humour and very rarely takes itself too seriously. You'll also get to learn a lot about gliders. Like... a lot. If that's your deal. Probably my favourite part though was how each of the girls did not just revolve around the main character, but each had their own friendships and relationships with each other that had nothing to do with him. It was more of a story about this students with some romance thrown in more than it was a romance story with some other stuff thrown in. I obviously enjoyed some routes much more than others, but on the whole I thoroughly enjoyed it and I will definitely be reading again in the future.

Verdict:
LOVED IT