My Thoughts on Love and Shyness

Please don't mind that silly pic. I made it because I was bored lol

Short review:

It's really good. I grew to like it. I like most of the characters even the main villain, I think the story is overall good and it handled its themes well. I also like how the MC, Monika, Kozue love triangle is handled. My only issues are that I wish some characters backstories are presented better, Natsuki and Yuri didn't get to do much in the story as I wanted them to which I could give a slight pass since it wants to put OCs like Kozue and Haishin in the forefront, and I don't like the lack of CGs in the middle parts since they should help to enrich the presentation. In the grand scheme of things though, they're not severe flaws that ruin my enjoyment of Love and Shyness as I think its positives outweigh them and apparently it's gonna have a sequel so that's something I look forward to.

Now for those who want to eat their time to read a more in-depth review....

The good:

• I like how healthy the love triangle in the story remained and I'm glad it didn't turn into some toxic melodrama. Kozue remained likeable throughout and while she used to have some mistrust with Monika at first because of her growing relationship with MC and fearing that it'll end badly for MC if it didn't work out, she took the chance to talk to her and they managed to get along well through properly building up their friendship and talking with MC how he feels about her, up to the point later on that she admits Monika is worthy to be MC's girlfriend in that Ferris wheel scene. She also pulled some Naruto talk no jutsu at the main villain Naomi which does add to how likeable and well written her character is.

• Now to address the main selling point which is MC and Monika's relationship. Not only the love triangle with Kozue went smoothly, but the two's relationship grew naturally and she really did a successful job with "I can fix him" while also not feeling forced or rushed. In the first parts, Monika helped MC overcome his anxiety issues and better his self-esteem. It's a steady process and both did hide their secrets at first, but it make sense given how the mod took the time to naturally build their relationship until it eventually led to MC's character growth to the point he fixed his friendship with Haishin, improved his self-esteem and self-worth, stand up for himself, and return the favor by helping Monika in her beef with Naomi, overcoming Sayori's betrayal, and cheering her up from her issues with her mom and it all culminated when he get to risk his life in saving Monika when Naomi assaults her. It's not that complex of a love story, but it's strongly executed which made it satisfying to see them end up as a couple.

• Speaking of which and might be a controversial take for those who love Sayori (I love the bun too), but I actually like how she's written as an antagonist here. She's introduced as what we'd expect. A bubbly cheery girl who gets along her friends well and insists on helping them. Then it turns out that she's working with Naomi this whole time which legit I didn't see coming. It also didn't feel like they made her a villain for the sake of it. The mod established that she has a history with Naomi and his motivation of taking care of MC does foreshadow her true character in a way as she's the type who insists on helping anyone in need, including Naomi who she befriended with when they're at reform school. And that bit with her backstory when she says she felt good in pushing down a friend to his death thus making her mentally sick adds to her character. And I'm left with curiosity when I saw that post credits scene when Naomi's dad who turns out to be terrible, adopted Sayori and tells her that it's her turn to "do what Naomi failed". Yeah, they're on to something with the sequel.

• I think Naomi is done pretty well as the main villain. I like how they wrote her as an example of what hatred does to a person in the long-run which shows how she stoops low into trying to kill Monika in the end. I also like how they made her parallel to MC in a way where she represents the negative way of overcoming her loneliness and it's pretty devastating to see that she chose to be the way she is especially given how the post credits scene implied that her father didn't raise her well and is also a terrible person.

The not so good:

• I guess I mean it literally when I said the mod gave MC Yuri's personality because man it seemed that they stripped all of Yuri's personality and as a result she's as bland as a cardboard. I get that it would be redundant when two main characters have a shy personality, but I think it's more of a reason to give her a more interesting role in the story. The closest we got to that is when they read Portrait of Markov together, but that's it. It's simply a prop to give them friendship scenes but they have no interesting dynamics and it doesn't help that along with Natsuki they didn't have a lot of screen time. But at least they did something of note to the latter by letting her and Haishin be endgame and her tsundere character is still intact which leads to some funny scenes.

• Why are there no CGs in the middle parts? No joke, after the beginning of the first chapter, we didn't see any actual CG until MC and Monika's kiss scene and the last scene. Instead we settle with a black screen in some important scenes while the text tells everything. Sure they're not the most important part of a VN, but they help a lot in presentation and storytelling for a visual medium.

• At times, this mod suffers from "tell no show" syndrome, honestly one of my most disliked pet-peeves in fiction. I'm not a fan of how a lot of the characters' backstories is told through character dialogue than through flashback like showing us how Monika and Naomi ended up enemies, more from how manipulative the latter is, how Sayori ended up the way she is, why MC, Kozue, and Haishin had a fall out for years. The only flashback scene I remember is MC's dad's funeral but that's it.