This game is so beautiful. I am genuinely at an utter loss for words at how wonderfully this game explains abuse and its affects on others. Thank you for making this.

This is genuinely one of the best games I have ever played.

i haven't played a visual novel that's portrayed emotional abuse through manipulation and gaslighting in such a realistic, haunting, and heart-wrenching way before that makes it perfectly clear that what's happening IS abuse and that it is blatantly horrifying and unhealthy. Maybe I'm biased because I've been in exactly Ember's shoes before to an emotionally abusive partner who acted very similar to Yuu/Yua, but this game has truly portrayed the reality of love and abuse and the mental turmoil of it all in such a vivid and genuine way that I'm left in awe.

The love interest being noted as always needing to feel like they belonged, and the protagonist specifically noted as being extremely susceptible to guilt was an especially resonant touch, as it makes sense why the two of them fell into the dynamic they did. I also love how this game tackled how relationships and people change, because it's all in the slow and imperceptible changes that the abuse begins, lingers, and takes root.

The looping segment of the abuse cycle particularly got me. The repetition of "we're good now" only to be followed by "screams at me because I did something wrong" and then right again "we're good now" over and over... wow. You can truly feel Ember's will to live, personality, and autonomy slip away, all replaced by paranoia and emptiness. The depersonalization that happens to them was so vivid and so real. I remember being reduced to that state. And not a single game I've played or media I've watched has so accurately portrayed that mental state- until Hydrangea.

I also adore how the game makes you play through the bad endings first until you can get the good ending. It really accentuates the reality of how HARD it is to escape these relationships, no matter how dangerous they are. The epilogue where even though several years have passed, the PTSD from the event still lingers in the protagonist's mind, is also so vividly realistic. I'm also so incredibly happy that the good ending includes the protagonist not being in contact with either of them. That's truly the most realistic ending and the most cathartic.

I love this game.