Dear Mom: My Letter to You

This game is weird. I was thoroughly enjoying it until multiple hours in, when it decides to throw in possibly the worst and most careless depiction of sexual assault that I've experienced in a piece of media. Basically, 2/3rds of the way into the game, one of the main characters friends is drugged, with what is only described as an "aphrodisiac", and then proceeds to sexually assault the main character in a closet. Said friend gets expelled, and your task is to work on your stats so you can reconcile with her. The entire time I was extremely uncomfortable with the fact that my in-game goal was to basically make-up with the girl who just sexually assaulted me, and it's not until after doing so that you even find out she was drugged. This arc of the story kind of put me off of the entire experience. I don't really think I could recommend this game because of that alone. Sexual Assault is such a delicate topic, and to see it handled this poorly really made me lose faith in this games writing. I'm also pretty sure whoever wrote this game doesn't know what an aphrodisiac is.

This was a lovely experience! It's a very sweet and heartfelt VN with love and care oozing from every single facet of it, and it's very easy to recommend it! So, to briefly explain the story... Dear Mom is a VN/statsim hybrid which (funnily enough) reminds me first and foremost of the Persona series. Though there's no dungeon crawling here, it's structured somewhat similarly. In Dear Mom you assume the role of Ayame, whose mother has recently died. You experience one year of her life in high school, and the story is broken into four main chapters with story beats scattered across each chapter. In-between these story beats, which range from a light-hearted trip to the beach to more emotional scenes, such as your grandfather reminiscing with you about your newly deceased mother, you get periods of time where you can choose what you want to do. Ayame has four potential love interests (three of them are women) and five stats to build. Each love interest has their own isolated little mini story which you can play through while experiencing the overarching main story, but you can only progress in your love interests' stories if you've raised enough affection points with them (either t…

Quite frankly, I am a tad baffled by the positive reviews. The first two thirds of the game are fine. But when the writing goes off the rails, it REALLY goes off the rails. First things first, I feel like I should address a massive elephant in the room that it seems like one review has addressed? There is just a straight-up sexual assault scene in the game, and it gets played off as harmless drama. A love interest is drugged by a late-arc villain (for reasons that frankly make no sense) and said love interest assaults the protagonist in a closet. She is caught, expelled, and then your goal is to prevent said interest from leaping off of her balcony to her death by...unconditionally forgiving her with no knowledge at the time that she was drugged. Beyond this, the intended plan was for both girls to be drugged, which would have resulted in...I guess both characters being assaulted because neither could consent under the circumstances? But this also doesn't make much sense; why would this be a means of getting back at a girl for not dating you? Beyond that...I don't really think the author has any clue how aphrodisiacs work. To be clear: an aphrodisiac substance will not force you…

Would give this a mixed review if that were an option. I think I lean on not enjoying my experience and it definitely made me cry but MAN did some things bring me out of the experience. First off, I'm really sorry but I did not like Perrine's voice actress. It definitely sounded like cheesy 2000's anime voice acting which if she was doing it on purpose congrats you successfully rage baited me into turning her voice off. Never done that before even when I didn't like the voice acting. Secondly, I think the writing in general was all over the place. I think story wise it was ok and I definitely cannot help but feel bad for some of the stories in this game but the dialogue often felt really unnatural, cheesy, and annoying to read through. Minor gripe but this game also really needs a section in the profile page where it tells you how far along you are in a stat. It would also be nice if it told you what the max stat was just so you didn't waste your time leveling it. The good thing about this game is that the stories around the love interests are compelling but you definitely do not get nearly enough time with them. Mia-Nee for example on her 5th introduces a lot of her troubl…

Dear Mom may be a game that's easy to overlook and dismiss based on it's cover and premise, but underneath the rough edges lies a hidden gem and a heartfelt experience that will make you laugh, make you cry and surprise you in many ways. Visual Novels have always been a niche genre that's been hard to pick up, but even from within the classics that everyone knows and loves, without external recommendation - every title feels like a risk to try. In that sense, Dear Mom is no different. It is a loving homage to all the classic Japanese romance games that I used to play, and I could feel the passion and enthusiasm bursting from within. The stats building made me feel like I was always progressing and that my choices felt impactful. The background locations and the visual effects always made me feel immersed. All the characters are brimming with personality, yet have more dimension and depth to them than initially expected. All the character arcs feel real and human, relatable. It all wraps up neatly towards the end in this package full of genuine heart. There are some rough edges to be sure, but I think it is extremely easy to overlook once you're in the thick of it and pretty soon…

Great game, has a beautiful message and it's really fun. I like the characters, each one has a different personality and interesting story line. I also like the stats bilding mechanic.