Hello Girl

I had been wandering itch.io for days when Hello Girl caught my eye. I stared at it. I had seen thousands of other titles and dabbled in a few, but none of them struck me like Hello Girl. Quite instantly, I knew it would be an experience I'd forever remember. I didn't watch the trailer or read the description or comments. I just glanced at the four stills, clicked download now, unzipped and launched the game. I played the whole thing in one sitting. It is very difficult for me to put into words what I feel. In short, I have a fondness for the story and game, but have fallen in love with its potential. Why do I say potential? Because even though I share the opinion of the many comments before mine that the game is full of care, full of atmosphere, and therefore full of life, I still feel that it is incomplete, and in two major regards, extremely gut-wrenching.

BELOW BE SPOILERS! (From this point on, unless you're fine with reading ahead, I suggest you play the game first!)

The plot was paced well at first, until closer to the end when it cut short what it seemed to have been setting up. Rabbit Zero, the soldiers Twintails and Helmet, even Ana's sister Clara and Yunozha Moonbeam — these plot points and characters which ironed Hello Girl into a compelling story went more or less NOWHERE. In fact, the story felt like it was building up to be much more, and in my opinion, it began to lose this luster with the handling of Yunozha's character. The whole conflict produced out of it, which grappled me with questions like "What will they do when the army comes looking for them?" "How'd Yuno lose her eye?", fizzled quite quickly into non-existence; in Hello Girl's final thirty minutes, the whole story seemed to die on itself. Like a wave it reached the shore with nothing more to it than a final thunderous splash, followed by the silence of a computer screen staring at its audience.

But nothing could have been more fatal to the story than the epilogue. What on Earth were they thinking?! Not only did the characters violate my idealized images of them, but they did drugs. D R U G S! For a moment I thought the surprise Courier was preparing was to be something nice, like Clara's return, a letter, or maybe something romantic — not this shockingly disgusting garbage, this poison. Yes, perhaps for the average itch.io audience this thing, drugs, is a fine things nowadays, but for me it only cemented my sadness over what Hello Girl had been thus far. Having to click my way through minutes of slow brain-frying felt like crawling out of no-man's-land with a bullet-ridden body. I also felt bad for Ana, who quite ironically is being corrupted by her newfound friendships. On that note, judging from the dynamic, I felt it more appropriate that they be besties rather than birdies, but whatever, you can't win them all. It's just me anyways.

There's also the political side of the story, which I believe suffered greatly. At the beginning vague suggestions of the Great Effort were fine, but as the plot advanced, it would have been incredible to know more and more in a gradual manner, especially when you have soldier characters. Economically and politically, what exactly was Gamot? The Eastern Alliance? Their enemies? Why were they fighting? These are questions, like many others, which pass silent in unanswerment.

Ultimately, I give Hello Girl a 3/5. This review itself was somewhat rushed. I actually formed my account solely for the purpose of posting it, literally seconds after finishing the game. That's how much Hello Girl moved me. The soundtrack for one was phenomenal. But all its flaws and shortcomings aside, it was still a worthy experience, an unforgettable voyage.

To Imo Team, I am deeply grateful to you for all your incredible labour. From it, this wretched life saw a star. I applaud you, and thank you twenty million times over.

Sincere as always, Red Echelon.

And to top it all off, what I think of it as music.

the gurls are smoking zaza

this was such an incredible ride, cannot wait for kavaya local maximum!!!

Waiter! Waiter! more unseemingly heart breaking VN from itch.io!

everytime i read the comments for this game, i feel very alienated. there's so much praise for this game, and perhaps i didn't go through it thoroughly, but the entire game left a very bad taste in my mouth.

spoilers








The start is very strong for this game, having a genuinely AMAZING intro, a great hook that engages the players, and myself into the story. The atmosphere is great, the art and mix of the real world images adds to a very worn-down and depressing atmosphere. However, that's pretty much all I can say. Ana, the main character, has a sister who's a medic in the war. I assumed that the intro was from the point of view of the sister, but that's not even true. The whereabouts of Ana's sister, a mystery that has been built up since the start of the game, was never disclosed. The closest thing we EVER got to that, was Yuno talking about how they killed medics during camp raids. Afterwards, Ana has a literal panic attack, and then.. what?? Nothing, it's never resolved, and Ana seems like she doesn't care at all, ESPECIALLY in the epilogue/extras. The entire game is just filled with dropped plot points, like 'Rabbit Zero', or how the military generals mistook Ana for a commander (making us assume her sister is the commander, even though she was established to be a medic?). It feels like the writers wanted to make an apocalyptic and dystopian war novel, and got distracted half-way because they wanted to see cute bunny girls smoke weed (actually happened in the epilogue). They couldn't choose a side, which causes BOTH aspects of the story to struggle. The dystopian parts are very undeveloped, massive plot holes everywhere, and the cute bunny girls hanging out feels incredibly underwhelming, especially considering they introduced Mailard to be apart of the main friend group, even though we've seen her twice, and half of those times were spent seeing her sleep. 

I've seen a few reviewers praise the story because it had them theorize. That doesn't make any sense to me. It had them theorize, because there were no answers at all. I can definitely understand how time constraints effect a product and how hard it is to actually put work out there is, but the writers had two ideas that didn't go together well, (dystopian horror and the MC's sister being killed in a war, and lesbian rabbit girls smoking weed and dapping each other up), and tried to make them fit together, and didn't take the time to effectively develop any one of them.

please, i beg. i see the vision. please just cook on the sequel 😭

This was honestly surprisingly good for something I only heard of by clicking the "random vn" button on vndb!

The game is insanely immersive and engaging, be it in writing, in style cohesion, or in sound design (which btw, the OST and sound direction throughout the whole thing is fantastic!!). It's instantly gripping, with its unsettling intro scene really taking full advantage of the medium. But the cozy, yet desolate vibe is nailed here, in no small feat due to the really cute yet faded art style that really fits the tone of the VN!

And the world is one of the core parts of this VN, the whole political intrigue and war going on are essential here, and they managed to get explained really well! At no point did I feel lost or like I didn't get enough exposition, like living in this war-ridden world felt as natural to me as it is for the characters in this game. Getting Ana to peek at the conversations she's routing, or having her and Courier explore outside of Ana's house are really good opportunities to get a closer look at how the world works outside of Ana's secluded lifestyle.

Speaking of which, all the characters here are really charming, from their designs to their personalities! Ana, as the protagonist, definitely takes center stage here, and as such, gets a lot of development from it! Her naiveté and innocence mixed with the exploration of her work, relationships and backstory makes her a really interesting and memorable character! Same could be said about pretty much every important character as well, like Courier, Maillard, Yuno or even Clara despite her never appearing once, which manages to make the story feel really full, especially with the extra adding some more personality to the cast.

The ending sequence especially (aka anything from Yuno's arrival onwards) was really great, and a fantastic way to close it off. Rabbit 0 made me speculate a lot about theories for what could happen next, and I'm honestly really excited to see what the next game will give us! The only real issue I have is that it does feel like part of a bigger whole that we don't have so far, and as such it could have gone on for longer, but for a jam entry, this is already a really impressive level of quality!

Really cute, well-written VN, can't wait for Kavaya Local Maximum! ^^

don't wanna paste a wall of text in the comments so:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/HurtingOtherPPl/review/1139540/

this shit is good

that was beautiful. i loved every part of it. the VN ever

I liked it a lot. The mood especially.

Sounds and animation were great, the story may have been a bit hard for me to follow, but I think I did. Which gives that “maybe” blur that isn’t too bad either

finally got around to playing it after putting it off for so long. this is the first vn I've played. can't wait for the next one :>!

This was a very good read. Thank you for putting this out!

incredible.
the setting is so narratively interesting, the characters so human and the music so soothing.

play it, i can't recommend it enough.

Loved this so so much.... Extremely comforting vibes while capturing the feeling of leading an uncertain yet ordinary existence in a scary world (and sisterly yearning)...the characters all felt wonderful to spend time with as well. Will be thinking about this for a long time.

I paid for the support and I haven't received any email, I hope if the support has been able to arrive because the page is weird, I will try the game I hope the team goes ahead :D

This was lovely. I was enraptured. I hope to see more from this team!!!

A group of friends and I spent five or six hours across a weekend reading out loud back and forth with one another a while ago. The vastness with which the story was able to go as it progressed, as well as the art's support of such with Mentha's expressive characters is something I really appreciated, and helped me feel the world inside of me even weeks later. I enjoyed the quirks of storytelling and programming used in the NVL sections, particularly combined with the ending. This plus the animated backgrounds and text gave a mysterious horror flare to everything that I particularly love this medium's accentuation of. Each character's personality really shined and I never felt like anyone was looked over. In addition, it helped strike a good balance with tone. Maillard's scenes were definitely the ones I was laughing out loud the most throughout the story, but even the soldiers were great—and just so cute! The game's music and SFX worked great with the ambience, and I'm glad it was posted onto Bandcamp so it could be listened to outside of the context of the game casually while drawing or reading. If there were any complaints I had, it was only the occasional typo, the inability for all of the backgrounds to have been drawn, and a desire for more—if the last can be considered such. Hello Girl is a lot of fun, and playing through it is super inspiring to see people you've been following for a long time putting out their best creation yet. I'm glad you guys were able to work so well as a group to make this. Thank you.

really incredible from start to finish. lovely music and art, some of the best use of the VN as a medium i’ve ever seen. narrative details do a fantastic job of implying complexity in the world and the characters and their interactions are written with obvious sincere love and an intoxicatingly unique vision. only downside is i really desperately want more from this team – but thats a problem that (hopefully) solves itself with time!

I was very surprised by this VN, both by the length and quality, it ended up being so incredibly good that I finished it all in one day instead of pacing myself like I usually do.

Props to the audio and visual editing, every single sound effect put me right there in the setting, and all the clicks and static and stuff was perfect. Same for the backgrounds and sprites and every effect regarding the dreams and the start of the game. 

As for the writing and the characters, that was also fantastic. I actually really like that so much is left to interpretation. That despite all the confusing and weird stuff that happened, what Ana and Courier needed was to be with each other instead of going off and fulfilling their weird destiny with Rabbit Zero. In that way, I really like how different Yuno is to them, as someone who's willing to take on the role and go have that particular story somewhere else.

I had such a fantastic time playing this, and I'm really looking forward to whatever this team might make in the future.

Beautiful little game. The characters, setting, and aesthetics felt refreshing and interesting. Very intimate in a comforting way. 10/10.

I have never experienced a more humanizing account of living tangent to war. This is a story that is lived-in, soft, warm, sincere, ominous.

It's an experience, and it is masterfully made.
I think its soundtrack and audio are perhaps its strongest piece beyond its very tender delivery.

The developmental and author commentary is also worth reading, because I feel the story tastes very sweetly of the journey embarked to make it.

We love Hello Girl.

this game is great and i'm glad i played it, the art and soundtrack are so pretty

also maillard funny :]

God, this was absolutely wonderful. Hit me like a truck. 10/10

Insanely well written and probably my favourite VN on itch. Dialogue reads so naturally & the narrative so strongly shows rather than tells. Really using the VN medium like you're supposed to goddamn brother. Loved the dual narrative of what's going on with the main character and the fuzzy background of Rabbit Zero. I noticed some people complaining on the vagueness of the Rabbit Zero portion but it didn't bug me whatsoever and I felt that it was more a catalyst for the character relations to build off while having it's own implications too. LOVED the music too, excellent guitarist & musicianship applied to have tracks that made contextual sense in every way. AWESOME SHIT!!!!!AUGGHGFGF222  

I loved this a lot. Very pretty writing, art and music. A lovely read.

I got lost when it came down to lore. Rabbit Zero?

[I have other things to say but this is a main thing which I need a clarification on]

This is criminally underrated

art is so nice!

This is something new to me. Uncommon setting and absolutely unique atmosphere. The way how writing tells the story, how sounds, ambiance and music makes you feel the place, it all makes you so immersed. Your feelings are really become one with the characters, and the fact that this is kinetic novel helps even further.

And as I barely comprehend all the depths and details of the story, so any praise words from me will not suffice. But for me this is the piece of art, after which the most important thing in your life becomes to get your hands on its continuation, because what I've read has grown deeply into me... in a good way.

Huge thanks to IMO Team for this work.

Also visual part itself is unfathomably cute, and technical realisation have surprised me greatly.

And the answer is yes - yuri.

Well. after playing this game I definitely do, first of all let me say, amazing team work, the music and art style fit perfectly and are both pretty good and unique, I very much enjoyed the relaxing and melancholic tunes as well as the cute and distressed faces of this cute girls while reading.

The constant animation and change of expression on the portraits of the characters really makes this an enjoyable visual experience.

I read for more than 2 hours and not a single moment felt dull or boring,quite the opposite, like in that scene in the "tent city" this is a very compelling and (at least for me) relatable story, even if the world it's a little bit fantastic, the characters and their troubles are pretty much grounded in reality. It made me even more interested in the story of telecommunications!

The story went all over the place, yet it didn't felt random at all (OK maybe a little bit with Yunozha Moonbeam but that was really fun), keeping the tone change is something really hard to do and you guys nailed it.

Keep up the good work!

such a beautiful VN! i felt so many emotions in just 2 hours and couldn't help but tear up a little by the end. the characters are amazingly written and i care for each of them so deeply already. the art is amazing and the music is so perfect for every occasion. all the hard work that went into this really, really paid off. thanks so much for this wonderful experience! i'll think about it for a while, that's for sure.

finished reading it just now. this is going to stick with me for a long time. thank you all for this.