H2O Footprints in the Sand

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 Gameplay

The gameplay requires almost no interaction from the player as nearly the entire duration of the game is spent on simply reading the text that will appear on the screen; this text represents either dialogue between the various characters, or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. There is a single choice that the player gets to make which determines which girl the protagonist chooses. There are three main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. In order to view the three plot lines to their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and choose a different choice at the single decision point in order to further the plot in an alternate direction. In contrast to visual novel adventure games where the text appears near the bottom of the screen leaving the rest of the window open for viewing the game's visual content, the text in H2O appears over the entire screen in a shaded, but otherwise transparent box. However, there is an option to hide the text in order to see the background without obstruction.

The game can be played in two modes, a Blindness Effect Mode or a Normal Effect Mode. The former takes into account that the protagonist is blind, and while he can imagine what the people he talks with look like, he cannot discern the color of the world around him, which renders the artwork in an almost black and white tone, additionally giving it a stylish and dream-like appearance. As gameplay progresses and the protagonist's condition gradually heals, this convention eventually fades away as the protagonist can now see with his own eyes the world around him. The Normal Effect Mode does not use the effect from the Blindness Effect Mode and therefore the visuals are otherwise unchanged from their originally colored state. The two modes can be interchanged at any moment throughout the gameplay.

There are three parts in the gameplay. The first part, entitled the "Past Chapter" (過去編, Kako Hen?) serves to set up the story and for the protagonist to meet and get to know the characters, especially the three heroines. Following the first part, there is a time where the protagonist has to leave for several years only to come back in the so-called "Reunion Chapter" (再会編, Saikai Hen?) and meet the girls he knew before who have changed somewhat. After the player chooses one of the girls, the third part in the story called the "After Game" (アトゲー, Ato Gee?) concludes the game, which is also where the majority of the erotic content is viewable. The story consists primarily of the first two parts which are a flashback from the protagonist's point of view. Within this flashback are around fifty smaller flashbacks from the past of the protagonist and the girls'. While the game is intended to be a serious drama, the gameplay is peppered with unrelated bouts of humor which come with computer graphic artwork of the characters in a humorous situation depicted in a super deformed style.1 The pacing of the game is rather slow and has the tendency of reusing the exact same flashback scenes multiple times. Additionally, certain flashbacks are viewable no matter which girls' scenario is pursued and these cannot be skipped.

There is an additional "emergency" button that can be activated if the player does not want other people to know they are playing an adult game. This option shows a random piece of artwork unrelated to the game's content out of around one-hundred images. These images are rather bizarre, one such image containing a black and white photograph of a toy horse head with red "blood" splattered around the edge of the image.2

Release history

The game was first introduced to the public in Japan as an adult game for the PC on June 23, 2006, retailing for 7,800 yen (~US$71) before tax;3 an artbook came bundled with the game.4 A version for the PlayStation 2 entitled H2O + with adult content removed will be released in April 24, 2008 by Kadokawa Shoten.5 The PS2 version will contain new computer graphics and scenarios not seen in the original release.6

Plot

Story

H2O's story revolves around Takuma Hirose, a blind young male junior-high school student, though the cause for his blindness is undetermined. After his mother died an unexpected death, it left a deep emotional scar on him, which caused him to become very lonely and reserved. Due to this, Takuma and his uncle move from the city out into a rural area and Takuma is enrolled into a new junior-high school. At his new school, he meets several new girls, though three of whom he gets to know the most out of anyone else. They are, the firm and obstinate Hayami Kohinata, the kind and obliging Hinata Kagura, and the cheerful and mysterious Otoha. As Takuma interacts with these girls, his medical condition gradually begins to heal.

CharactersTakuma Hirose (弘瀬 琢磨, Hirose Takuma?) Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (anime) Takuma is the main protagonist of the story. He has a moderately quiet personality partly because he suffers from blindness and for his condition, he carries around a white cane he named "Tomodachi sa" (友田千紗, "Tomodachi sa"?), a pun on the word tomodachi (友達, tomodachi? "friend"). His mother died unexpectadly which left a deep emotional scar on Takuma. In order to rectify this, he moves to the countryside to live with his uncle. Takuma is naturally friendly and likes to befriend everyone he meets in his new town. There is a rift between the rich and the poor, with Takuma being on the latter end of the divide. Hayami Kohinata (小日向 はやみ, Kohinata Hayami?) Voiced by: Harumi Sakurai Hayami is a girl in Takuma's class who sits next to him. She has an unsociable personality and a sharp attitude towards others, not wanting to become friends. Due to this, she is often bullied and is referred to by her schoolmates as the "cockroach" (ゴキブリ, gokiburi?), but for some reason she does not fight back when being bullied. She has an intense fear of spiders. Even though her family is not rich, and she owns a bathing suit, she still will not participate in swimming classes because she is poor at it. Hinata Kagura (神楽 ひなた, Kagura Hinata?) Voiced by: Ryōko Tanaka Hinata is the granddaughter of the village headman, and is one of the rich members of town. She is in Takuma's class and is the class representative for her class. She has a kind of obliging personality, and is popular in her school. She has the tendency to fall down and by clumsy, and one time she even fell down a flight of stairs at school, though luckily Takuma was there to break her fall. She refers to Takuma as "Takuma-sama", a very polite form of expression. Otoha (音羽, Otoha?) Voiced by: Mia Naruse Otoha appears to be a normal girl, but she is in fact a spirit, and only Takuma can hear or see her. She is always cheerful, and will appear out of no where, clinging suddenly to Takuma. She refers to herself with the masculine pronoun boku (僕, boku?), meaning "I". She refers to Takuma as the "Promised Person" (約束の人, Yakusoku no Hito?). Yui Tabata (田端 ゆい, Tabata Yui?) Voiced by: Mio Yasuda Yui is a girl in Takuma's class. She has a self-aggrandizing personality and always has two male henchmen tagging along. She often calls Hayami a "cockroach" and along with her henchmen will bully Hayami relentlessly, and while she gets along with Takuma, she likes to tease Hinata. She is very rich and often uses formal speech so as to distinguish herself from the "commoners". She was given a scenario in H2O's sequel √After and Another. Hamaji Yakumo (八雲 はまじ, Yakumo Hamaji?) Voiced by: Yui Sakakibara Hamaji is one of Takuma's classmates. Despite his feminine appearance and voice, he is in fact an androgynous okama boy who crossdresses like a girl. He has an optimistic personality, and likes to play innocent when he plays bad jokes on others. He seems to favor Takuma. Rin Misakura (御桜 稟, Misakura Rin?) Voiced by: Rui Takagi Rin, like Takuma, is an exchange student from the city. She has a kind and gentle personality, and is a hard worker. Rin is the main heroine in Makura's next game Sakura no Uta.

Related media

Manga

A manga adaptation began serialization in the seinen magazine Comp Ace on January 26, 2007, published by Kadokawa Shoten. The story was based on the visual novel version that preceded it, and illustrated by Kira Inugami. The first bound volume was released on December 26, 2007.

Anime

An anime adaptation by the animation studio Zexcs began airing in Japan on January 4, 2008 on the Fukui TV television network, and is directed by Hideki Tachibana. A preview video was streamed on Kadokawa Shoten's official website for their magazine Newtype on December 19, 2007. Most notably, the video contains an English narration, a rarity for Japanese trailers.78 The first episode of the series was previewed on December 23, 2007 in Akihabara, Japan.9 The first episode opens with a partial recitation of the poem "Footprints".

Music

The game's opening theme is "H2O" and the ending theme is "Tomorrow", both sung by Monet. The maxi singles for the opening and ending themes were released at Comiket 70 on August 12, 2006. Two more theme songs used in the game were "Dream" and "Footprints in the Sand", also both sung by Monet. A character song album for Otoha entitled Otoha's Ghostly Bon Festival Dance (音羽の死霊の盆踊り, Otoha no Shirei no Bon Odori?), sung by Mia Naruse, was released on October 22, 2006 at the DreamParty Tokyo convention. An arrange maxi single titled H2O: Prelude containing arranged versions of "H2O" and "Tomorrow", was released on December 21, 2007. The game's original soundtrack came bundled with the original game as a pre-order bonus. The opening theme for the anime version is "One-winged Icarus" (片翼のイカロス, Katayoku no Ikarosu?) by Yui Sakakibara and the maxi single will be released on January 25, 2008. The ending theme for the anime is "Kazahane" (カザハネ, "Kazahane"?) by Haruka Shimotsuki and the single will be released on February 22, 2008.

Reception

Across the national ranking of bishōjo games in amount sold in Japan, H2O premiered at number two, and ranked in again the following ranking at number thirteen.10 H2O was the second highest selling game for the month of June 2006 on Getchu.com, just behind Summer Days, and for the first half of 2006 was the fourteenth highest selling game on the same website.1112 H2O dropped to the twenty-fifth highest selling game on Getchu.com for the entire year of 2006