Let's Play "In Your Arms Tonight"...because...you know...

It's nothing, nothing at all BAD END GO

Yeeaaahhh I have no idea. I want to say A but then he'll get defensive so...let's just go with B

Oh Donmai. Never change.

B! Honesty is the best policy!

Also voting for "I was looking for you."

Oh come on, is he cheating already?
Ask him who was he was chatting up, I wanna know.
do these choices matter?

WAIT A SECOND HERE. Is this the woman he's going to cheat on Lysa with (possibly already)? He invited her to their wedding!? /head desks

Lysa was still looking for him though. Give the guy a little reminder that he just married you okay? Like, an hour ago!

I'm not sure, but I think how Voltage games work is there are a few key choices that actually determine what ending you get, and the rest are just for flavor.

B...even though I really want to go with A and get all up in his face with the "WHO'S THAT GULL?! Y U CHEATIN'?! WE NOT MURRIED FER MORE DEN AN HOUR!?sADKAJLA" buuut that's future Lysa, not flashback Lysa. /sigh

I bet he kissed her on the lips already!

I agree with Para, why was his mistress at his wedding? Did he invite her, did she just show up? Why was she giggling? How is this in any way appropriate?

Have some boundaries people!

I didn't really have a problem with the forehead kiss, though. It didn't seem too weird in light of the fact that this is essentially a situation of strangers getting married. We make the wedding kiss a big deal at American weddings (and cheering for the bride and groom to kiss at the reception too) because we assume they are already in love and have been for a while. Her friends should have realized that it might have been awkward since they knew that this was arranged and the two of them barely knew each other.

Sorry, that went a bit long....it is BAD etiquette to make your mistress giggle at your wedding.

(She was looking for him)

I'm not sure how bothered I am about the weeding scene, but Koichi, what about kissing her on a cheek?

Voting for "I was looking for you" as well. And no Koichi, you don't spend your wedding day at the phone with your mistress.

I don't think she was on the phone with him; I think she was in the same room talking with him. POSSIBLY INVITED TO HIS WEDDING. Koichi, what the hell?

D) Yo' face is what's wrong

I kid, I kid, A. Cause she was and Lysa doesn't have an inkling at the time that he's a cheating cheater face.

Also in light of the mistress at the wedding (are you kidding me that is sooo tacky) I kinda want there to be a twist Bad End where Koichi gets a Christmas present of a lavish dinner but he's just not sure what the main course is though it tastes kinda like chicken but that's a lot of chicken... Surprise! Yandere!protag ending where she's fed him his mistress and while she's killing him offscreen because she's been trying so hard to make this marriage work and Koichi just hasn't and she's tired of his shit/wants to festively preserve his head like she's seen on pinterest the screen is just of their little Christmas tree which has a conspiciously placed partridge ornament. I know it would be too meta and violent for a phone game but ah that'd be an awesome Bad End.

Also I think the biggest foreshadowing ill omen for their marriage is how frowny he is at the mention of the honeymoon trip. For chrissake do you dislike Lysa so much that the thought of her presence ruins travelling for you Koichi? Although maybe he doesn't enjoy travelling as much as me.

I think my problem is more that I'm coming from a mindset similar to Lysa rather than cultural difference. When I was living with my aunt in grad school she kept setting me up with her friends' sons because I wasn't getting any younger and clearly I needed help getting married since I never set up dates on my own. By Zeus, the stink eye I got when those relationships didn't work out was fierce. But I had to tread carefully since I was an unemployed grad student and I risked homelessness if I upset her too much and let me tell you she's more than a bit tempermental. If I hadn't had graduating from grad school and a career in a field I love to look forward to (towards the end, having been unable to find work for 2+ years I was getting a bit nervous about that) I probably would have considered her shoves toward marriage, it was especially obvious that her and the mother of Lockheed-Martin guy had every plan to end it in marriage. And I know if it had gone that way then I would have tried my hardest to make the best out of a bad situation like Lysa pretty clearly is.

That's what gets me, Koichi seemed like he was trying in the courting process which gets you thinking maybe it'll work out because both are trying and then he just gave up right at the freaking wedding. He did it in a jerky way too. Being kissed on the forehead by your husband while surrounded by your wedding guests who are chanting for you to kiss... a forehead kiss is probably the worst you can do (barring citing cooties as reason not to) especially now in light of his "I've got to save something for the wedding night". If he'd said that without a kiss (preferably after pulling her to his side and/or smiling) then I actually would have had no problem (ignoring the whole cheating and knowing there is no wedding night which Lysa wouldn't know). It says he's maybe shy or doesn't want to perform in front of everyone and thinking on it I'd even say that would work in a normal, not arranged wedding. It playfully punts the subject. A forehead kiss is just so... condescending.

I kind of think forehead kisses are sweet, but maybe that's just me.

Me, too. Well, depending on context, but in a general sense I think they can be very romantic, much moreso than a kiss on the cheek.

It could just be me on the whole forehead kiss disconnect. Though like in everyday life I could see them being sweet between romantic partners (wife: 'Oh noes I set dinner on fire!' husband: *kisses her forehead* 'It's okay, it happens, let me help clean that up.' maybe?) it just doesn't seem right on a wedding day. Although part of that is eye contact. I guess on a wedding day I like the idea of eye contact (or closed eyes maybe) since it implies that the two getting married are equals.

Although thinking on this, if that is in fact his mistress in the room there at the wedding and she was there the whole time (invited or not) then I bet Koichi didn't want to kiss Lysa in front of her and hurt her feelings. The whole issue with the mistress in this game is that it shows how little respect Koichi has for Lysa. He never asks if she'd be okay with him having side action (some people are fine with this as long as they're kept in the know and it's the lying that makes it cheating to them) or if she figures this to be a uniting of families more than an actual marriage. He just goes and does his own thing and completely ignores Lysa and what she may or may not want. But I think that's where the redemption in his route will come from, he'll realize/be brought to realize that she's a person who has desires and dreams and dislikes too and actually take her into consideration/treat her as an equal and not a pet/obligation. I'm really hoping for Lysa to lay it all out to him. I'm not a fan of ultimatums but a "Either treat me as an equal or it's over" would feel kind of good. But this may be my Western bias showing, I've always been raised with married people should be considered equals to one another as it's a partnership, maybe in other parts of the world this isn't the case?

Now was Mistress-chan (who I'm hoping is actually a lovely person) chanting "kisskisskiss" with the rest of the group? That's what I want to know.

Excuse me a moment.

Is it that I called her Mistress-chan or that I hope she's a lovely person despite being the Other Woman in a phone game?

From what I can tell from my own (admittedly fairly casual) research, there's still kind of a perception in Japan of the husband as the "big black pillar" who supports and is in charge of the family. So there's definitely some cultural dissonance at work and Koichi's behavior (taken out of the context of the fact that we already know the state of affairs three months later and it's not good) probably wouldn't necessarily be as jarring to Japanese audiences.

The romantic rivals in Voltage games seem to have pretty even odds of turning out to be decent folks once someone confronts them over their catty behavior and makes them realize the situation, actually.

I don't mind the forehead kiss too much since Lysa and Koichi barely knew each other at that point but

This bothers me greatly. Look how considerate Koichi is of her feelings! He can be kind, caring, and polite (as shown previously) and this is his natural response (kid with ice cream) which means that he's purposely choosing to be distant, rude, and completely inconsiderate of Lysa later on and even a little bit now. To flirt with your mistress right after disappointing your wife? Bleck. WHY WOULD YOU INVITE YOUR MISTRESS TO YOUR WEDDING?

I wouldn't mind him having a mistress if he just asked if it was okay with Lysa. He doesn't seem to care about her at all. Earlier he said that he was determined to have Lysa be his wife. Yeah, well, he got what he wanted and almost immediately afterwards (I'm talking about the honeymoon part), he's somewhat distant. I'm pretty sure Lysa wouldn't mind an open relationship after a little explanation since neither was in love and that this way Lysa could also pursue whomever she wanted without restriction from Koichi as well. (Ebi-chaaaaaan)

We spend all this time analyzing Koichi; his redemption better explain some things!

I'd guess she was probably invited because

Not that it makes it much better, but it's the difference between "super classy, Koichi" and just "...awkward."

What! They both--



I mean, come on. Well, that helps with the mistress thing a little bit though I guess we shouldn't call her a mistress then.

MTE, Para, right down to Ebi-chaaaaaaan~! Though I'd bet money on Koichi expecting her to remain faithful if for no other reason than to not risk her getting knocked up with some other dude's baby.

Oh man... That's... This is clearly going to be hilariously full of twists and turns. It is the difference, but oh man still. Mistress-chan could have at least pretended to be sick the day of so she could politely bow out and not bring a whole dumptruck of awkward to the wedding. That'd be the polite option in this... clusterfuck of impropriety? I'm really not sure the best way to describe it to get across the feeling of 'drama incoming get the popcorn' and 'Ms. Manners must be spinning in her grave'.

Alternatively, she might actually not have been invited at all, and just turned up of her own accord.

Bwahahaha! That's just awful! I approve of the coming trainwreck!

ALL I CAN THINK WHEN PEOPLE MENTION TRAINS IS NAKABA. ToT And he'd be a way better awkward arranged marriage husband than Koichi. *nods* If only Lysa could be switched with the protag-chan from his game she'd get a husband who isn't a douche and then Koichi would get a wife of similar not awesomeness to his own.

Oh, God, Nakaba. I just played that game recently and got his bad end and my heart is broken. ;_;

Ugh, most certainly, because they have to produce adorable grandchildren for their parents. BUT KOICHI IS ALLOWED TO GO TO LOVE HOTELS WITH HIS GIRL. (I think. We saw them near one right?)

That "problem" is easy enough to solve. Lysa, go out there and get yourself a girl too! :D

Oh god. I just caught up.

I just...

There are no words. Only feels. And tears. A flood of tears.


I had already played Ebi-chan's route but I somehow failed to get the good end. >n< But seriously, I was crying at the end of it. Actually in tears. Her parents were so mean as were Koichi's and I just wanted everything to work out for her and just hhhhnnnnggggg! So many feelings. So, so many feelings.

I am actually glad you are doing Koichi's route now. I found it to be one of the most interesting and it was nice to get some backstory out of him.

I can't wait to see you play! ouo

Which would make sense for anyone else, except for the fact that this is hindsight and we already fucking know that things between Koichi and Lysa are not OK in the bedroom. I think it's kind of funny how many people are stupidly trying to justify this in this story. In any other story I would agree, but not in this one. Koichi is cheating on his wife in the present. Did all of you forget that, or what?

I'm just trying to distinguish between player knowledge and character knowledge. Of course it's a sign of something bad in this relationship... because we, as the player, already know that something bad is happening. I don't think Lyssa, in the moment, has much of a reason to suspect that something is bad yet, and I don't think it's reasonable to interpret her actions and feelings as if she has metagame knowledge.

Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone!

I was driving home after a Christmas party a few days ago and my car slid on a bad patch of ice...

Let's just say things got messy....

So I've been unable to do anything more than sleep ever since :(

Sorry for the wait, I'll get one more full night of sleep then update like the wind tomorrow!

(Also, if you already read this post on my My Sweet Bodyguard LP, sorry for the repeat >.<)

Just take care of yourself!

Don't worry about us so much. Hope you feel better.

Rest and take care !

Oh no! D: Take care of yourself, and I hope you feel better soon!

You take as much time as you need. We'll still be here once you're ready to continue.