Cherry Tree High I! My! Girls!

Cherry Tree High I! My! Girls! is a visual novel and a companion piece to the life simulator Cherry Tree High Comedy Club, developed by 773 Studios and published by Nyu Media and Capcom. In the original adventure game, the player controls a red-headed high school girl named Miley who is on a mission to seek out and recruit fellow students to her newly-formed comedy club, all while balancing homework and boosting her stats. There are no stats to boost or choices to be made in I! My! Girls!, however. It is a pointless epilogue and a confusing, boring visual novel where the only thing the player can do is read the dialogue. It’s like buying Mega Man 2 and paying an extra $3.99 to watch the end scene where Mega Man slowly walks away from Wiley’s lab as the seasons change. There is some semblance of a story being told there, but the player has no influence over the action aside from hitting enter to advance to the next moment.

Some can argue that this is the intrinsic purpose of a visual novel, a simple linear journey meant to be merely observed without direct interaction from the player. It’s a valid point, but for a game to jump from life simulator mechanics to no mechanics at all means risking the player’s continued motivation. In Cherry Tree High Comedy Club, players want to see Miley form her comedy club, they want to see her stats improve so that she can recruit classmates. There’s a sense of urgency and drive in seeing the character succeed. There’s no urgency in Cherry Tree High I! My! Girls! other than to get the plot over with.

And the plot in Cherry Tree High I! My! Girls! is just as absurd as it is unnecessary. While there are several complex and confusing stories involving several of the supporting characters, the main premise is utterly tired and underwhelming: the world’s most famous pop idol Ai Towano comes to Cherry Tree High after convincing her controlling music managers to let her try her hand at comedy as part of the Cherry Tree High Comedy Club. (Through the poorly-translated dialogue, Ai hints a few times that she might also be an alien being sent to observe our planet, but that’s never confirmed.) When she meets Mairu (Miley in the original Cherry Tree High game), their comedic chemistry is apparent and the two begin practicing as a comedy duo, hence the title—I for Ai and My for Mai. The newly matched partners soon become good friends, much to the dismay of Hoemi, Mairu’s best friend, comedy partner, and the most boring character in the game without question. It’s got all the makings of a played out, but decent storyline, in which Mairu may realize how she might hurt people in her pursuit of stand-up comedy fame, and how Hoemi might learn to deal with her jealousy and come to terms with the fact that as she and Mairu are growing up, they might also be growing into different life paths, but true friendship will never let them grow apart.

And that all probably would have happened, if the game didn’t immediately display “The End, Thanks For Playing” without tying any loose ends or providing any resolution to any of the dizzying number of sub-plots. Unless that was the goal, to merely provide a ‘slice of life’ look into these characters’ daily lives. If that’s the case, the introduction of these predictable story elements is needless, confusing, and agitating. Why lead the audience into these tropes and not follow through?

To be fair, translating any anime, manga, or Japanese video game to English is a challenge, and trying to “westernize” a game to appeal to more American players is difficult to pull off convincingly. The fact that the original Cherry Tree High game is supposed to be set in America is what made the dialogue so off-putting—how many traditional Japanese shrines are in your typical American small town? While I! My! Girls! is in English, the events take place in Japan, which gives the game more believability. It may be insipid, but at least it’s not trying unsuccessfully to fit into an American mold.

As with most visual novels, the art consists of stagnant backgrounds and character drawings that pop up as they are speaking. The assistance of animated sprites traversing across the background and expressing emotions with thought bubbles above their heads does give I! My! Girls! a little more fluidity, and as the character speaks, the foreground faces change from line to line, giving the impression that they are in fact talking and reacting to each other. All the action is set to a backdrop of music that’s as generic as it is grating and repetitive.  There are twelve “episodes” of the game and only about three different music tracks that constantly loop during the scene. Relying heavily on horns, electric guitar, and synthesizers, they don’t enhance the emotion of the scene but rather take away from it, to the point that the mute button begs to be employed throughout most of the gameplay.

If you’ve already played through Cherry Tree High Comedy Club and are simply dying to know the fate of the club as a new school year begins, or if you enjoy flat, two dimensional high school teens form a comedy club to talk about anything else except actual comedy, then by all means, pick up Cherry Tree High I! My! Girls! on Steam right now. If you never played the original game or if visual novels aren’t your bag, you’re better off saving your money and your sanity.

Leslie Rising, NoobFeed
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