User:Jaskersss/sandbox

Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi, alternately known as Totono or in the U.S. as You and Me and Her: A Love Story is a metafictional psychological horror visual novel which takes the form of a dating simulator in which the player must choose between two possible romantic interests. It was developed by Japanese video game corporation Nitroplus and distributed for American audiences through JAST USA, and is currently available to purchase on the video game store Steam. Although Totono was initially released in June of 2013 the English translation wasn't officially put on the market until mid 2020.

The game is cited as one of the earliest examples of "subversive horror" in visual novels and has frequently drawn comparisons to the 2017 American visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club! developed by Team Salvato.

Gameplay
As with any dating simulator, gameplay primarily consists of clicking through bouts of flirtatious dialogue and making occasional decisions that further the plot. The game operates for the most part in a similar fashion to any standard visual novel while with a nonlinear structure in the sense that at specific intervals throughout its duration it contains specific options or choices that affect the course of the plot and the ending, along with multiple adult scenes which are excluded in the Steam release but are still available via patch. There are a number of "fake" endings scattered throughout its runtime in order to mislead the player but ultimately there are only two "true" endings accessible, both of which occur only after the third playthrough.

At one point the player is encouraged to search in the game's manual for a code in order to progress in the story.

Plot
This game is set in modern day Japan and contains multiple "routes" or "acts" which can only be played in a specific order to get the full experience.

Miyuki's Route
The game opens from the perspective of high school student Susuki Shinichi who, while in the process of contemplating life and upon arriving at his favorite stomping grounds the school roof encounters zany, pink-haired space-cadet gamer girl Aoi Mukou. After trying to kiss him in what appears to be an attempt to imitate the actions of a character she is likened to from her favorite visual novel, they are interrupted by Shinichi's childhood friend Miyuki Sone who has been invited via passed note to the school roof by Shinichi's lovesick class clown companion Akebono Yuutarou. Miyuki mistakenly believes Shinichi was the one who had written her the note, and is flabbergasted to find him and Aoi in such a compromising position. In order to stop the kiss from occurring Miyuki claims that she and Shinichi are in a relationship, to which Aoi responds by demanding that Miyuki and Shinichi kiss in order to verify their affections for one another, which they are then unable to demonstrate.

Over the next few days Shinichi attempts to establish a friendship between Miyuki and Aoi for the betterment of the latter who is homeless, estranged and generally looked down upon by all her classmates. After consistently ignoring and dismissing Aoi's feeble requests for companionship Miyuki finally gives in and agrees to try and make things work with her as a means to get closer to Shinichi, whom Miyuki has a crush on. Eventually Aoi and Miyuki finally start getting along and make a habit of eating lunch together on the school roof with Shinichi, who feels steadily growing tension as his relationships with the two girls start to become more than just friendship. However, Aoi still stands firmly in her belief that according to the self-aware laws of the video game she claims to be a character in, Miyuki and Shinichi are supposed to be together and the feelings Aoi begins to develop for Shinichi are nothing more than a "glitch" in her system. Upon this revelation she dials an entity she calls "God" (whom she has a close connection with) on her mobile phone and pleads that he rewrite or "patch" the game in order to ensure that Shinichi will never end up with anyone but Miyuki.

After a tense confrontation with Miyuki and shortly before going missing, Aoi decides to adopt a stray cat they find in a cardboard box.

Shortly after doing so, Aoi goes missing before reappearing days later just in time for the play Miyuki has been preparing for. Since Aoi's departure Shinichi's relationship with Miyuki has gradually devolved to the point where they barely speak or interact with each other, and as a result, upon her return Aoi encourages Shinichi to throw his pride out the window and to express his true feelings for Miyuki. Reinvigorated by these words, Shinichi dashes to the theater where he confesses his love for his crush before the play (which is ultimately cut short by a power outage) begins. After a considerable amount of time passes Shinichi and Miyuki become involved in a relationship while Aoi, mission complete, has entirely vanished from the game--leaving the two lovers blissfully unaware that she ever existed to begin with. The game "finishes" on a happy note and the credits roll, upon which the player is forced to restart from the beginning in order to complete "Aoi's route" which is unlocked after the first playthrough and is the only way to achieve one of two possible true endings.

Aoi's Route
Upon starting from the beginning of the game and skipping forward through some noticeably different dialogue and minor changes, the player is eventually required to make a new decision that was not instigated on the previous playthrough. After Aoi stays the night at Shinichi's house and after spending days searching for her once she goes missing yet again, Shinichi finally locates her on the rooftop where they share a passionate moment. After becoming involved in a relationship Shinichi, suspecting that Aoi might be cheating on him, enlists Miyuki and Yuutarou--both of whom claim to have concrete evidence against Aoi--in order to help him investigate. It is revealed that fellow student Haru-Chan who initially appears female is actually Aoi's crossdressing male lover and is also Yuutarou's brother. After finding Aoi's hairpin in a hotel room a plan is set in motion and at Shinichi's birthday party (which, unknown to Aoi, Haru-Chan is invited to) an intervention is staged by Miyuki, Yuutarou and Shinichi--the latter of which violently and verbally confronts Aoi before finally coming to terms with her adultery after she reveals to him that she is in fact a video game NPC who can only survive by having sexual relations with other visual novel characters in order to "recharge her zappy."

In an attempt to keep her alive Shinichi reluctantly agrees to a threesome with Haru-Chan, after which it is revealed that Miyuki has been hiding under the bed the entire time. Hurt and ashamed, Miyuki goes downstairs and comes back covered in blood and clutching her signature baseball bat along with a bouquet of flowers which she sarcastically intends to give to Shinichi as a birthday present. At this point it is revealed that she has bludgeoned Aoi's cat Eru to death and intends to kill the heroine as well. After murdering Aoi via beating her and bashing her skull in Miyuki sets her sights on Shinichi before directly addressing the player, accusing them of messing up the game and making decisions that Shinichi would not normally make in an attempt to complete Aoi's route after promising Miyuki eternal love in the previous playthrough. During her monologue Miyuki also confesses to planting the hairpin in the hotel room as a means to convince Shinichi of his girlfriend's unfaithfulness and thus bring him closer to Miyuki. After mutilating Shinichi's genitals with her baseball bat Miyuki places a phone call to "God" and asks him to rewrite the game once more, after which the game promptly closes and restarts upon opening it again, officially signaling the end of "Act 1."

Act 2
The game starts from the beginning once more with a noticeably different text style and in-game menu. It is revealed that Miyuki has manipulated the game into becoming an endless loop in which Shinichi is forced to interact with her and only her for all of eternity. If the player goes along with her requests and appeases her she "tells Shinichi the truth" by confessing that she has drugged him in order to make him believe that Aoi was nothing more than a video game character. Upon using the same drug on her whilst making her dinner Shinichi is able to access her phone and call God who reveals that "God" is an amalgamation of female visual novel characters and that the only way to get Aoi back is to either significantly raise or lower Miyuki's affections points either by appeasing or upsetting Miyuki. God reveals that Aoi will be deleted from the game entirely if she is not brought back using the phone number Aoi granted to Shinichi in a previous route.

After intercepting Miyuki's phone and successfully bringing Aoi back with the help of a code hidden in the game's manual, Shinichi is forced to make the ultimate romantic decision between Miyuki and Aoi.

Reception
As of January 2021 You and Me and Her: A Love Story has a perfect Steam score of 10/10 from over 500 ratings, indicative of universal acclaim.

Guardian Acorn likened the game's final act to "sky diving off Mount Everest," and described the game as a "masterful step" for visual novels. while NookGaming highly recommended it, describing the game as "unsettling" and "not a standard romance story. "

This game has been widely and frequently compared to Doki Doki Literature Club!, which it gets likened to due to its dark twist and metafictional aspects. However, Doki Doki Literature Club! 's creator Dan Salvato has denied claims that his game was inspired by Totono, which he states he had barely heard of at the time. The character of Miyuki has also frequently been compared to that of Monika.

In mid 2020 popular YouTube gamer Bijuu Mike uploaded his playthrough of the game, subsequently garnering hundreds of thousands of views.