Another excellent entry by ebi-hime. Sweetest Monster and Sweetest Monster: Refrain is probably her best work (out of the five or so I've read) and I have no hesitation in regularly recommending it to people, even those that don't read too much visual novels.
What separates this VN from the rest you see on the market, is ebi-hime's writing. She's a rare talent. Even I don't write as well. Her writing is surprisingly easy to take in and binge for how deep and emotional it gets.
You'd think one would get a little sick of a twenty minute monologue on how much a character hates themself and wants to die, but you don't. Pins and needles, only enhanced by the music.
Music is good. Piano focus is smart
The titular song 'Sweetest Monster' is my favorite. Something about the instruments used. It's a song I strongly associate with the mood of this VN.
Props to the team. Darksin and Ruderoo's art assets are really... paintinglike. The kind of painting that feels comfortable to stare at. The sort of colors and soft lines you remember the world being like when you were a kid.
Haofeng made the GUI assets clean, very professional.
MINOR SPOILERS from hereon out. If itch.io has a spoiler tag function, please let me know.
Let's get this out of the way first, Sally best girl. It's not even really close. It's not just how ubercute she is, part of it is her sheer understanding and reasonable worry.
That said, Bell had a point. I agree with her completely, and if I were in her place, I would operate exactly as she did.
The most hateable character is probably the main character, but you really can't hate him, given it's ebi-hime writing his internal dialogue. I swear, she could make Stalin seem down to earth.
That makes Lily the least relatable character, but her duty, honesty, and goodness is admirable. I'll be picking up Lily of the Valley next.
I'll be honest. I'm a little sad to see the story end. However, stories need conclusions. Forced drama to drag out the narrative ruins good premises, and I respect ebi-hime for not going that route.
ON EBI-HIME'S NOTES
Reading ebi-hime's notes, it's really interesting to me that it was partially inspired by Nekopara. I walked away from Nekopara with the same impression as ebi-hime. The dystopian, slavelike nature of the world irritated me.
How can you call it love when one side is shackled to the other by necessity? It reeks of otaku power fantasy. Virgin losers don't have enough game to pull catgirls naturally, so they resort to systematic enslavement? Makes the fuwa fuwa come off as creepy. It doesn't even lean into the creepiness like it could. Never saw the appeal.
I suppose that's a reversal there in Sweetest Monster: Refrain with Bell the catgirl being in control.
Another thing it does better than Nekopara is reflecting the nature of the cat. Cats are not dogs. Left to their own devices, they have a 5 miles radius in their day to day life. They like to roam, meet up with friends, get in fights, hunt, explore, do parkour, etc.
Whereas dogs like defending a central location and getting affection, cats are more whimsical and selfish. If you like catgirls, Bell feels like much more of a catgirl than most catgirls.
Honestly, there's so much of a power gap between Sweetest Monster and Nekopara, I don't even see the comparison.
ebi-hime made the correct decision with the setting being England. It's more unique, and was part of the draw of Sweetest Monster for me. I love seeing the cultural idiosyncrasies of her English settings. Gives me an impression of modern day English comedy/slice-of-life that's more than just the Inbetweeners and Fresh Meat.
On a final, more positive note, I'd like to praise ebi-hime once again. Most great OELVN writers drop one excellent work and then disappear off the map. ebi-hime keeps at it.
More than any other VN producer (Japanese or otherwise), she inspired me the most. OELVNs are often seen as lesser. Less effort, less professionalism, less of a market. ebi-hime proves that assumption wrong by taking her works seriously, and it's really, really, cool to see. If it were anybody else, we wouldn't get a Sweetest Monster: Refrain, but we did. Seeing her take her work seriously makes ME want to take my work seriously, and I can't stress enough how glad I am that I do, because VNs are fun to read and fun to create.