I liked it.
It was not nearly as full of angst as the Emi or Rin paths. (The Rin path has enough angst for an entire season of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Or Clannad.) (Now cry.)
...in fact, other than the issue with Misha getting depressed, there wasn't any angst at all, really. It was nice.
Only problem is, not enough sex. C'mon: the path covers the time from Hisao's arrival at school in June through graduation in late March; if you've got a girlfriend and live in dorms which are apparently largely unsupervised, you have all kinds of opportunities to have sex. These are 18-year-olds we're talking about. And since there's only one period (a short one) in the path where Shizune is avoiding Hisao (because she's a bit embarassed over their first tryst) they for damn sure ought to be having more sex than that.
At least there should be some mention of it, if only in passing. Hell, in the Emi path they have sex a lot and that one's considerably shorter; it barely makes it to the end of summer before it ends.
It's a spoiler for me to explain how I know they don't bump uglies more often than that. But I'm pretty confident I'm right.
My only other complaint is that the ending is too wishy-washy. It's a freakin' romance game; you win when you get one of the girls to fall in love with you. That being the case one can excuse the sex being optimal (near-simultaneous orgasms, for example) but it also means that at the end it's "...and we'll be together forever!", no ifs, ands, or buts. The ending of the Shizune arc was a bit on the weak side, in that regard.
Still, it's okay, and I really enjoyed it.
Next up: either Lilly or Hanako. I might need the Duck to send me that walkthrough, but I won't ask for it until I'm sure I can't get one of them by myself. (Basically if I find myself making a flowchart, at that point, I'll ask.)
* * *
Man, there's a heck of a south wind blowing. Where's the warm air that a south wind is supposed to bring with it? I nearly froze my ass off going to the store.
On the plus side: I got three jars of Red Gold salsa for $0.79 each. I had to buy six cans of diced tomatos and a bottle of ketchup to get that price, but I was out of diced tomatos anyway and that's a critical component of goulash, which I haven't had since September. Why not this week, then?
As you may recall I bought two jars of that salsa before New Year's, when it was on sale for $1 per jar; and it was really good--just enough of a bite to it that it's plenty flavorful. A dash or two of Tobasco will warm it up for those who like hot salsa, but IMHO it doesn't need it (and I like spicy food).
I almost bought a couple of jars last week when it was $1.29 per jar; I'm glad I didn't.
I got out of the store for $66.67. *heebie jeebies* I had a pretty long list, though, and I kept seeing things in the store which should have been on the list but weren't.
Like? Well, Pop Tarts; I've got one pack left in the old box and they were on sale for a good price.
Also Wondra, which is the best thing to use for making gravy. It doesn't make it impossible to make lumpy gravy but Wondra makes it a lot harder to. I've just about used up the box that's in the fridge, since I've made sausage gravy a few times in the past couple months.
Wart remover: I've had a wart on my left bicep for a couple of years and kept intending to go see a dermatologist about it--but wart remover costs a lot less than a visit to the doctor's office.
The last time I used wart remover, it was pretty powerful stuff. I had a spot of ringworm on my hand and dabbed Compound W on it; it burned like nobody's business (and I toughed it out for at least 30 seconds before rinsing) but the ringworm was gone after that. That was in 1984, though.
The stuff I bought tonight is just a 17% solution of salicylic acid. I got some of this stuff on the skin around the wart and braced for the pain...and nothing.
Kind of how hemhorroid cream no longer has any anasthetic in it, the wart remover is no longer caustic. Man, I'm really starting to hate this bubble-wrapped society we're living in.