Toraware no Shoujo -Bluebird of Happiness-

Toraware no Shoujo -Bluebird of Happiness- isn't an original game, but a remake.
Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to play the original one. So I will start with no previous experience with the story, even if from what I know it was slightly altered.

So... the story! The game is about Ai, a cute girl that likes writing fairy tales. From what we know she lives alone with her father and she seldom goes out of her room, but this is not a problem since she has Bosco, a friendly humanoid rat thief that is probably a creature of her wild imagination (and the best character of the game). Ok so these are all the protagonist of this adventure.


Oh yes, great idea, you filthy rat!

The game is a short story about discovery that is both sad and depressing in some parts, but the true ending really is worth seeing. Did I say "true ending"? Oh yes, because there is a total of three endings (besides the more canonical game-over) but two o them are just two different bad endings. The best ending has more dialogues, a song and is even animated, so be sure to earn it! Oh anyway all the endings depend from a couple of actions during the final parts of the game (that took me about 30 minutes from beginning to the end), so you can easily see them all if you save at a certain point (saving can be done anytime and anywhere, so don't worry! Just save!).

Ok, so what's needed to beat the game? Well this is a simple adventure in which you have to collect items (keys in most cases, but not only) and use them where needed, there are also a couple of easy puzzles (well, sort of...) but from what I understand there is no time limit, just avoid doing something stupid!
And there is also one, and just one, chase section. This section is a bit buggy because it's easy to make get the pursuer stuck, anyway it starts rather closer to Ai, so if you are not quick (and if you do not remember "run" pressing the shift key) he will catch immediately the poor girl. And this means instant game over. But if you are able to outrun at first you will have no problem.

The game is short and simple, it's noteworthy the fact that is uses all custom graphics and sounds. It's very pretty and cute, despite the depressive theme of the game. The portraits are especially nice with all their expressions, and I also liked a lot the parts of the faery tale, when all is drawn with pastels and has a totally different appearance that contrasts with the harsh reality. Cool!
Finally I found extremely pleasant the music especially the ending song for the true ending.
The only things that left me puzzled, except for the bugged chased part, is the strange layout of the house, really... weird! But uhm ok, it's not the only strange part of this game!


Are you sure? You will... soon!

Final Verdict
Toraware no Shoujo -Bluebird of Happiness- is a very short, but cute and beautiful game. Sounds and musics are the best aspects of the game, for the rest don't expect action, puzzles, lots of dialogues and interactions or anything complicated, it's just a story (and a dark one, you've been warned, don't be fooled by the cute images, these are just to create a dissonance between beauty & cuteness Vs creepiness & perversity) but really well told. So yeah, this may appeal the player who likes this kind of games. Anyway not bad, not bad at all!