NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN (Nandome ka no Hajimemashite), the latest work from Purplesoft, departs from the structure of longer multi-route stories like Kunado Chronicles and Aoi Tori to tell a shorter story focused on a single heroine. Given Purplesoft’s tendency to include a primary or true route, I hoped this structure would create an experience of “all the best parts”, Purplesoft style. While NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN didn’t nail everything it tried, I found a lot to like.
Work, Sleep, Repeat
Kinou Yumeto is your average 30-year-old salaryman suffering from ennui. He spends every day working a pointless job he dislikes and every night numbing himself to sleep with the streams of his favorite VTuber. More than anything, Yumeto finds his life excruciatingly boring. That is, until he stumbles upon a mysterious iron ring that summons a demon calling itself Lapla and suddenly finds himself party to a contract with this mysterious entity. Lapla notes Yumeto’s boredom and offers to send him back to relive the time when he was happiest: a particular week in high school.
Though he can hardly believe it, Yumeto indeed finds himself 13 years in the past. And once the shock wears off, he begins to enjoy his carefree high school life. Even simple pleasures like killing time with friends between classes feel like a vacation from the monotony of work. There’s just one problem: a girl named Choumai Sui. According to all the information the now younger Yumoto has access to, Sui is his friend and senior in the Literary Research Club. However, the 30-year-old Yumeto has no memory of ever knowing or interacting with a girl named Choumai Sui.
Have We Met Before?
NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN is one part mystery, one part romance, and one part eroge. The mystery naturally centers around Choumai Sui and the discrepancies in Yumeto’s memories. Without going into spoilers, I found this the strongest part of the game. It’s a strong hook, and NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN feeds you enough hints to keep you invested and paces the reveals well. There’s sufficient time for the possibilities to marinate and the tension to build, so that when the plot does advance, it feels important and satisfying without letting things drag. I was able to guess at the general idea of some of the big reveals, but I thought this was a testament to NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN presenting a well-constructed, coherent narrative, and the details I didn’t anticipate often added an unexpected layer of complexity to the situation that made me rethink my assumptions.
There’s also an interesting thematic core at the heart of NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN. Lots of time travel stories (e.g., Steins;Gate), focus on how to change the past and whether it is possible to do so without causing some sort of paradox. NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN is less interested in the mechanical details and asks a different question about the implications of time travel. Namely, what becomes of the observed rather than the observer. If you go back in time and meet someone you know in the present, is that past them the same person? If something changes in the past to affect their present, what happens to their original present self? What if you change your own past? Even if you change your life for the better, is something lost when that original self ceases to be? NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN reflects on the meaning and existence of an individual both within a particular timeline and across different timelines. The way it explores these questions is something I haven’t seen in many other stories, and it challenges you to think about the perspectives of different characters and how they can sometimes conflict even between friends and allies.
Love Across Time
The romance in NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN mostly works. It’s a shorter visual novel that takes place over a compact timeframe, but especially early on, NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN effectively puts Yumeto and Sui in situations conducive to them quickly forming a believable emotional bond and handles the implications of the time travel plot on their relationship thoughtfully. Later in the story, Yumeto and Sui engage in some of the usual lovey-dovey tropes while ostensibly in an urgent and challenging situation, and this was less convincing. NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN is brisk and focused enough that these scenes don’t cause the story to drag, but they felt like an attempt to cram in some of the usual slice of life romance material and showcase Yui’s cuteness and desirability out of a sense of obligation to fanservice rather than because it fit the story. The ending gets back on track though, and successfully cashes in the emotional intimacy NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN builds throughout the story to build to an affecting climax and satisfying conclusion.
It helps that both Yumeto and Sui are defined characters and undergo meaningful development. Yumeto doesn’t have the strongest voice, but NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN does play on his experiences as the mind of a 30-year-old in a high-schooler’s body, and as he uncovers more of the mystery behind Choumai Sui, he reflects thoughtfully on the implications of these developments and changes his goals accordingly. Sui initially comes off as the sort of cute and easily flustered girl you’d find in a slice of life romcom, but as you learn more about her, you discover she’s rather introspective and has some interesting thoughts about her and Yumeto’s situation. I also like that while Sui and Yumeto are friends and romantic interests, their goals and beliefs sometimes clash in ways that challenge them to rethink their images of themselves and the other.
She’s Too Sexy
The erotic content is where NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN stumbles, though not because it’s bad in isolation. The production values are high, and in fact things get off to a promising start with the first H-scene coming at an emotional climax and with consideration for the significance of the act for Yumeto and Sui. Unfortunately, Yumeto mars the scene by acting like a pervy old man, and it’s a harbinger of things to come. NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN has a lot of sexual content for its 10-hour runtime, and several of the scenes are narrative asides that occur due to contrived events that are simply an excuse to cut to an H-scene. And some of these scenes (which all include mosaic censorship in the patched/full version at launch but will become uncensored in a later update) involve fetish content that, while nothing extreme, arises from the contrived scenario rather than a natural outgrowth of the characters and their relationship. So in the end, like in the last Purplesoft game I played, Amatsutsumi, the sexual content sometimes detracts from the story, being titillating at the expense of narrative focus.
Designing Sui with absolutely massive breasts was also a choice, one which is mentioned plenty throughout even outside the H and romance scenes. I suppose whether this is a positive or negative depends on your tastes, though it’s not to mine. Sui’s design combined with the way the writing at times focuses on and sexualizes the size of her breasts makes this choice and Sui’s design as a whole feel like it was made with the H-scenes as a primary focus. Of course, H-scenes with beautiful anime girls are part of the appeal of eroge, but the emphasis NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN places on this part of Sui’s design makes it hard not to think about it in this context even when the story wants to go in a more serious and heartfelt direction.
Art, Sound, and Extras
Above issues aside, I enjoyed NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN’s visual design. If you’ve played other Purplesoft games, it’s very much in the same aesthetic, with characters having somewhat rounded features and glossy, textured clothing. While not every character who appears has a sprite, NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN doesn’t skimp and has more sprites than I usually see in visual novels of similar length. Yumeto even has a sprite, which is always good to see and fitting given he’s not a blank self-insert character. The CGs that aren’t Sui fanservice feature angles and lighting that emphasize the evanescence of the moment. While nothing had that wow factor, the aesthetic was fitting in a way that complemented the narrative and themes.
NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN’s soundtrack has much of the fare you’d expect. For example, a track with wah wah sound effects called “Fail of the Year” punctuates awkward moments. There’s also some playful yet melancholy sounding piano music that sounds like something out of an impressionist composition, which I very much enjoyed. In fact, almost everything feels somewhat restrained in a way that matches the contemplative and sometimes bittersweet tone of the story.
As the only voiced character with the most screentime, Sui (voiced by Toda Megumi) sets the tone for the voice acting. I thought she did a great job balancing the gentle affection Sui shows Yumeto with Sui’s inner conflict and quiet resolve. Mizuhashi Kaori’s performance as Lapla is more businesslike, which makes sense for an entity that views humans as cosmically insignificant. As is tradition, Yumeto is unvoiced, which feels like a missed opportunity here since he’s not a blank slate self-insert character.
Verdict
NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN (Nandome ka no Hajimemashite) tells a focused and thoughtful story punctuated by interesting themes and an emotionally satisfying conclusion. The intermittent focus on sexual content at the expense of the story could be distracting, but I still found NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN a worthwhile read.
NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another visual novel, you may enjoy Making*Lovers: First Blush. We have covered a wide variety of visual novels both original to English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Thank you to Sekai Project for providing a PC review code for NICE TO MEET YOU, AGAIN.
A veteran of Oregon Trail and Battletoads, Wes has been playing and talking about games for as long as he can remember. He’s down to try almost anything, and he especially enjoys games with gripping narrative experiences.
