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maleyanderecafe · 6 months

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Past Hope(Visual Novel)

Created by: Frozen iris

Genre: Horror/Romance

I actually was in the middle of translating this game but then someone beat me to it, so my work here is done lol. All jokes aside, this game is pretty neat because the yandere involved and the relationship with the MC is pretty twisted, at least compared to other yandere VNs that I've played, especially since the MC is not a good person at all, which means they match pretty well with Hoshino.

The story starts with the MC confessing their love to Hoshino at the rooftop. Initially, it seems like a romantic scene, but the MC denies it as such, as they have been bullying Hoshino every day and has been doing this as a dare. The MC expects Hoshino to reject their confession, but he accepts it instead asking when their next date is. We learn that Hoshino hardly went to school anymore, and that the MC started bullying him, leading to the other students in the school to do the same. After telling the others the result of the confession (whether lying, changing the subject or telling the truth) the MC can then either go to the date location or ignore it and go home.

If they ignore it and go home, the MC will instead get a phone call from their mother. Answering it reveals that the MC's mother seems very controlling and angry about the fact that they ran away and that they aren't taking their medicine. In the end, the MC believes that they will always end up like their mother as they are of blood, and can either tell her off or hang up. Hoshino also calls around the same time, and when we read his text, we find out he is waiting for them at their date location. Upon going home, the MC ends up fainting due to the fact they hadn't been taking their medicine but ends up lying on their bed instead when they wake up. Upon checking their phone, they find pictures of them in their daily life, with different captions- walking home from school, not sleeping well, and the last picture is of them laying on the bed. The MC finds a knife in their hands covered with blood and follows the blood trail. Slowly, the MC looks under the bed to find Hoshino laying there covered in his own blood, dying. Hoshino had apparently followed the MC home and was going to kill them after they watched them pass out, as a way of revenge or to put the MC out of their misery. Hoshino hesitates and instead makes the MC stab him with the knife. Happy that the MC will never be able to get the image of his dying body out of their head, Hoshino crawls under the bed to die.

If the MC does decide to go to the date spot, he sees Hoshino writing something at the library. They can either decide to interrupt him or to wait for him to finish reading.

Interrupting Hoshino will cause him to nearly attack the MC reflexively. Due to the ruckus, Hoshino and the MC have to apologize to the librarian and decides to walk together. Hoshino and the MC talk about how the two met, when the MC ran out during the rain and was saved by Hoshino. While walking back to Hoshino's place, the MC recalls Hoshino's history. While Hoshino's parents died when he was younger, he was taken in by his uncle and aunt, and had a fairly happy life. However, due to hardships, the uncle and aunt got sucked into a cult and ended up divorcing. While with his aunt, Hoshino's uncle ended up getting sucked back into the cult and coming over to kill the aunt, leading to the MC rescuing Hoshino. With his aunt dead and his uncle in jail, Hoshino now lives by himself. While hanging out in Hoshino's place, the MC is knocked out by Hoshino and brought to the attic (at least, it looks like an attic). Regardless of reaction, Hoshino will get angry that the MC hasn't been taking their medication and wants to die. Hoshino is angry because he though the personality change was due to the medication, and instead starts to slice at Hoshino with a knife as revenge for their bullying. Hoshino ends up killing the MC and afterwards starts crying, and it's implied that he ends his life as well.

If the MC decides to wait for Hoshino to finish writing, they'll will start reading the little match girl. Upon finishing, Hoshino asks if they think the little match girl's ending was happy or not. Hoshino will be happy if they respond that the little match girl's ending is happy and be a bit disappointed if they say it's sad. The above happens, but instead of being brought to the attic, Hoshino will make the MC a drink where they can respond to how the taste is like. If the MC chooses Sweet or Strong, it will lead to Hoshino asking the MC if they want to go star watching, something that they used to do when they were small. When going up to the attic, the MC gets attacked by someone who was stuffed in the closet, the uncle. Hoshino starts to beat up the uncle, killing him, while the MC watches. The MC can either feel excited or nothing, leading to the option of asking why he killed the uncle or simply punching him.

If the MC decides to punch Hoshino, he starts to whimper, begging the MC, telling them that they are their only reason for living. The MC continues to punch Hoshino. Hoshino seems to have been jealous of the MC, but lives for them as well, stating that he only has them left. As the MC continues to punch him, Hoshino rationalizes the reason that they abuse him is because we love him so so much. The MC accepts this stating that the two will be together forever, so as long as he only looks at them. Hoshino seems to be mindbroken. Despite how much he's been abused, Hoshino continues to cling onto the MC, growing masochistic tendencies as he believes that the MC's abuse is a sign of their love for him.

If the MC decides to ask Hoshino, he will ask him what they should do with the body, whether they should hide the body or not. Hoshino will also beg for the MC, stating that their only reason for living is them. The MC seems to accept this, stating that they were the one who caused him to be like this, that they had finally created a monster that could only rely on them. Amongst all of this, the MC ends up accidentally confessing to Hoshino. Flustered by this, they run away back under the bridge where they first met. There is a flashback to how Hoshino saved them when they ran away from home.

In the true ending, the MC and Hoshino seemingly go back to school, having all worked out. The two seem happy together, but it all turns out it's a fruitless dream the MC wants. In reality, the two are intertwined, seemingly losing themselves and Hoshino, forcibly two horrible people who deserve each other.

I gotta say, despite knowing that the MC was kind of a horrible person, I didn't realize to the extent of how far they went to hurt Hoshino and it's pretty great. I very rarely see MCs that are just mean towards their yandere counterpart, or are just bad people (unless it's a BL-for some reason), so it's actually really nice to see an MC that basically turned Hoshino into what he is now, which is something I always would like to see more. We see that it's something that they gain from their mom, who seemed to love their dad more than they love their own child- extremely depressing. Hurting Hoshino was a way to keep control over him and to push over any stress they have, despite the two being childhood friends. It would have been really easy for Hoshino to snap so easily, but his infatuation with the MC was what kept them alive. The MC themselves also realize that they are a horrible person-refusing to take their medication because of their crippling self hatred for themselves. It is a bit sad that it ended up like this since the two of them seemed really close when they were younger, but alas, you can't have a yandere sometimes without breaking a few eggs. Plus, I liked the ending where the MC just beats Hoshino up and turns him into a masochist. It's such a broken ending with a broken yandere and boy is that fun to see. Sometimes you just have two broken people who are meant for each other.

Hoshino as a yandere is interesting. He had a turbulent childhood (though I'll be honest, I thought he was just simply abused, not that his uncle and aunt were indoctrinated into a CULT of all things) with the MC as his only safe rock. It must have been a real shock when he realized that the MC started to bully him. I am surprised that Hoshino kind of just took the brunt of it- the reasons he gets mad seemed to be that it was either A. the only way for him to get any attention from the MC B. This is how he recognized the MC's love this manner or C. That the medication is what caused the MC to change their personality. He does seem to be angry and vengeful at some points, don't get me wrong, since he does actually try to or successfully does kill the MC in two of the endings, but both times he's very reluctant about it and dies afterwards by his own hand- a sign of regret perhaps or the idea that he can't live without them anyways. Similarly to the MC, he seems to have suicidal tendencies as well, as he calls the ending of the Little Match Girl happy since she can finally be free of the burdens of this world- pretty morbid. Depending on the ending, Hoshino could also become a more masochistic, accepting his fate of being hurt by the MC as how they gain attention from them. It is kind of a weird thing to have a yandere do, since most of the time they tend to retaliate if their darling gets violent or struggles against them, but Hoshino... doesn't. He kind of just... accepts his fate. He's not even particularly happy or necessarily helpless in the situation since it is obvious that he could kill the MC at any time given the various ways that he stalks them. It's probably because Hoshino is trying to rationalize why the MC might be doing this, since it seemed that at least until the point where he was bullied by them, the MC had saved Hoshino a couple of times before- most notably when he was almost killed with his aunt. I guess the best explanation is simply that he could not live without the MC at that point, so he could only take whatever the MC gave him- even if it hurt.

I will say that it's nice that the two characters don't have a nice ending. Neither of them are good people and it would be very difficult to suddenly have this redemption arc in the middle of it all or it wouldn't make any sense. Plus the entire thing seems pretty pessimistic from the start- there's simply no way for these two to make each other better because of what they've gone through.

Overall, Past Hope is good game. It's pretty different from a lot of other yandere visual novels I've played with a different point of view. I think that some of the endings seem a bit strange or fast, but overall, it was a fun play. If you are interested please check it out. Maybe one day someone (or I) will translate the other game that they have about a weirdly cannibalistic pink haired rabbit boy.

#Past Hope #male yandere #yandere #yandere boy #recommendation #visual novel #completed

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