Really? Really! has earned a place in my top 10 visual novels, no doubt. I’ll tell you right from the start, I am giving this game a 10 – there’s no reason for you to skip to the end of the article to see the score here.

Despite this, I am giving this score with a sort of disclaimer; you really really need to have played Shuffle! first. Not only that, but as this game follows the conclusion of Kaede’s route, I would also strongly recommend that you play through her route before coming here.

With that out of the way, let’s talk game. Really? Really! from here on, will just be RR for sake of ease. The game picks up after the conclusion of Kaede’s route in the original game, and expands vastly upon Rin and Kaede’s relationship prior to the original novel. I don’t want to spoil too much, but suffice to say, their past together is rather traumatic, and Kaede is not nearly as together as she always seemed. In fact, she’s rather insecure.

Be that as it may, the game opens with Rin, Kaede and Primula all living together, and there is a small issue with Primula. She is supposed to be taken back to the world of the demons to continue testing, as she developed some magical control while living with Rin and Kaede.

However, the two kings are rather sure that this control comes from her new emotions, which were directly linked to Rin and Kaede. And with the two kings in support of Rin especially, they would prefer Primula to stay with him and Kaede. Therefore, they devise a test to prove that her control exists only because of the now happy couple.

However, during the test, Primula takes in too much power and loses control. Unfortunately, despite the kings protecting everyone, when the dust settles it turns out that Kaede won’t wake up. It turns out that the blast of magic altered her memories, and really messed with her head. But even further, because she doesn’t want Rin to see her with her memories screwed up, she refuses to wake up. This prompts the whole crew (Primula, Sia, Nerine, Itsuki, Mayumi, and Asa) to be sent into Kaede’s head to try and fix her memories.

Now, the game plays in a very different way from most visual novels. First off, there is only one path through the game, with very few actual changes possible in the route, but none change the story at all. Secondly, the story isn’t linear. After the introduction, the player is given two or three memories that they can go through at the same time and they must complete and fix the two in tandem.

You see, fixing memories is actually rather interesting. There are points during a messed up memory in which Rin must ‘attack’ incorrect lines of dialogue with keywords to fix the memories. For example, the introduction involves Itsuki as a girl. During the section where you perform the ‘Really Attack’, one of the lines that Kaede says mentions that Itsuki is a girl – so you attack the line with the keyword ‘Midoriba Itsuki’ to reaffirm that he is male.

It’s a simple process that actually gets rather difficult down the line as you collect a number of keywords. In addition, if you mess up five times in a day, you are kicked out of Kaede’s memories. So, this is where the gameplay is.

To collect the keywords, you need to play through memories. So, when you reach a Really Attack point, you may actually not have the required keyword. In this case, you need to leave the memory and head into another to progress and find the right keyword. This was very well implemented in some parts, especially toward the end of the game when they had the two biggest reveals going at the same time. It was really well done.

The CGs and character portraits were of great quality, matching the art style in the first game spot on. There was a good amount of movement and fun sound effects throughout the game that added a lot to the funny scenes. And the voice acting, especially for Kaede, Asa, and Mayumi was spot on.

I loved their voices, and the actresses really read their lines well. One of the biggest problems that a lot of VAs have with visual novel lines is that they read like single lines, all acted separately. RR didn’t have that issue – the lines flowed very well, which is great. Plus, all of the VAs from the anime reprise their roles here, so you know they will know what they are doing at this point.

The writing in RR was also superb. Again, though, with several Shuffle! related games under their belt, Navel has a strong background of well-written stories. The comedy and serious parts were well balanced – a perk of making the player play several storylines at once. By it’s very nature, they are able to inject some fun parts in the middle of seriousness for a well-deserved break at some parts. And the funny parts are indeed funny.

The last thing I’d like to touch on before talking story (with spoilers) are the hentai scenes. They are well spread throughout the story. And despite the first assumption that I made (Well, this is Kaede’s route, so the H-scenes must all be with Kaede), I was sorely mistaken. In fact, more scenes were dedicated to Asa. With a total of 16 H-scenes, there’s a fair amount of them scattered about the 12 hour or so game.

Now, from here on, there will be some potentially major spoilers, so continue at your own risk.

This games story was incredibly well crafted. In the last could hours of the game, I was absolutely hooked, if only to finally see the scenes that cause Rin and Kaede so much trauma – and I was disappointed. In fact, the scenes from when they were kids, in my opinion, were so much more interesting than the high school scenes.

This is especially considering the last two major memories – Lie and Truth. Seeing the lie that you hear about throughout the game finally come into view was a very well written scene. Especially when you consider that everything about the scenes when they were kids actually felt realistic. It wasn’t high schoolers acting in child bodies – their lines and actions felt childish too.

Furthermore, the interplay between Rin, Kaede and Sakura was very well done. Their mess of a relationship really showed in every scene involving them. Considering how minor a character Sakura really was up until now, she was brilliantly inserted into the story here, and she was explored enough that I felt attached, despite her considerable lack of screentime in comparison to the other characters.

Also, with Kaede’s memories created from her insecurities about Rin leaving her for the other girls, getting small tastes of route that would be with Asa and Mayumi were great. There was a good amount of fun romance scenes spread throughout, which led to the various H-scenes. A lot of the part of the game were simple and fun, like Rin and Mayumi enjoying a date out at a family restaurant, or Rin getting dragged into sleeping at Asa’s house, which ended with a scene in the bath with Asa and her mother Ama.

And the interplay of having the people involved being required to act out their false-memory selves, it ended with some silly scenes after the memories ended with the girls approaching Rin about the H-scenes, and how they weren’t really real.

And then there was the ending. After all was said and done, the game ends superbly, and that is one thing I don’t want to spoil. After seeing this story, it’s hard to think of anyone else as suitable for Rin. Except that I kind of liked Asa and Mayumi better as girls when compared Kaede, although that was less about wanting them to end up with Rin, and more just liking them myself. I liked Mayumi a hell of a lot more during her sections than I ever thought I would. And Asa has always been my favorite – and she looks fantastic in the game with the long hair.

Okay, end of spoilers here! Let’s finish this off with the verdict.

Really? Really! was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Manga Gamer. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s reviews/ethics policy here.