Finally finished the second story after being distracted for a while.
KimiNozo is actually a prett brief game.
I features Takayuki before the accident and PTSD.
I'm not as clear on the dates of the original since it has been many years since I played it. It starts on July 20, Haruka calls him when she's still not sure if he likes her back, and he's still basically an energetic kid who's not clear on what he wants yet. He still sees Mitsuki as an amazon woman, and he hasn't met any of the other characters he will meet later.
Hotaru shows up looking like a ghost. No one else can see her, and she's here to beg the takayuki of the past to help find the takayuki of the future, who is missing. She doesn't make it clear why she wants his help, and she's basically a gag character. There is some back and forth, where he states he has no intention of helping and hotaru doesn't want to accept his answer. She disappears for a while.
In the days that follow she continues to appear and ask him to help. She interferes in a conversation he has with haruka on the phone that leads her to misunderstanding him. She possesses or somehow influences (it's not made clear) some girls to bully mitsuki by messing up her clothes while she is at swimming practice. This might reference the original game, but it's been a while, so I don't remember. She also holds haruka's legs down while she is in a pool, nearly drowning her (I think a similar event occurred in the original). Finally takayuki agrees.
He gets advice from akane on the Rumbling Angel game, since the world he is going to is basically run by it. He is surprised by his changed appearance, but hotaru handwaves it as a surprise. She also tells him that his friend shinji of this world is gone as he met his counterpart from takayuki's home world. She casually mentions that haruka is in the hospital and he panics and runs off.
Seeing her changed behavior and malfunctioning memory, he assumes she is possessed by a dark spirit similar to hotaru and is determined to save her. He later runs into akane and mitsuki and assumes they also have been possessed since their personalities are completely different. He becomes hungry and ends up randomly choosing sky temple, oblivious that his counterpart works there. He's confronted by Ayu and Mayu, whom he doesn't know of, and is reproached for disappearing without saying anything. He decides to challenge Ayu to a RUmbling Angel card battle. He wins, is challenged by Mayu and wins also. He then challenges mitsuki who want him to call her by her first name (he's been calling her hayase). He wins then goes to the hospital and challenges akane, convincing her that he is doing this to help haruka. After that he challenges haruka, who then faints when the energy leaves her and is admitted to ICU. He's shocked that she hasn't been released from the spirit control he assumed had occurred.
At this point he finally listens to hotaru who has been floating around unhelpfully trying to correct him. So he wanders around and discovers at the shopping center by hiragi station, a takayuki walking around in a dress and ribbon. Apparently this world's cannon ending is the hilarious troll-tacular ending of the original where takayuki ends up with manami. Which is why he disappeared and not some RA or other supernatural reason.
Takayuki is obviously not pleased and wants to return home, but is convinced to tail him. There he meets manami, who figures out he is not 'her' takayuki, and is offended that he should have the same face. At this point, the other Takayuki returns and calls her Mana Mana. He then details how she basically tortured him, but enthusiastically describes it as love. He invites her to share it with the new guy who he doesn't seem to be concerned about looking like him.
Manami is the "Last Boss". If you lose, she takes advantage of your weakness to handcuff and trap you in her apartment. If you win Takayuki-chan (other takayuki) takes advantage of your temporary disorientation to grab some handcuffs from the apartment. Takayuki begs hotaru to return him, and she says she probably can't. He insists and she finally does. It is a week later and he is on an empty train. He has memories of being there to meet someone. After a while he notices and wonders why it so empty. The windows of the train then turn green and manami's voice comes as the announcer. He tries to escape, but he can't. He's still on the other world, and now under Manami's power.
So you get a bad end no matter what, lol.
The game is very short, and I can see why it was released with other fan content. The muv luv version of rumbling angel story actually had a few (not important) choices, and very lengthy h-scenes. After the inital prologue which lasts a bit, once the battles start, the amount of space between each one isn't very long, so unless you have problems winning the card battles, the game is actually very short. Possibly, if it hadn't been released with two longer fan stories (each okay, not great) they might not have thought it worth a physical release, similarly to what seems to be happening with Kimi-Muv. I'm still hoping it will be released in a future FC collection disc, but age seems to be focusing on their newer works aside from translation of their main series'. So who knows.
It actually does seem to have some newer cards not present in the original, and different unique cards.
