Crescendo, known in Japan as Crescendo ~Eien Dato Omotte Ita Ano Koro~ (Those Days I Thought Would Last Forever) is an Eroge Visual Novel created by Digital Objet (creators of Kana: Little Sister).
It's the final week before graduation, and Ryo Sasaki is currently taking additional lessons at school to make up for multiple absences over his three years in high school.
At the same time, there are several women in his life: Kaho, his close friend and president of the literary club; Kyoko, a younger member of the literary club who has just recently confessed her feelings to him; Yuka, the teenage prostitute who is looked down upon by the entire school and he himself isn't too fond of but still helps anyway; Ayame, his stepsister who dropped out of college to support herself and Ryo after their parents died; and Kaori, the snarky but kind school nurse that Ryo has grown close to over the past three years. Graduation is in only four days, at which point they'll go their separate ways unless Ryo takes action!
This visual novel provides examples of the following:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Toyed with. Ryo is a gruff guy with a bad reputation and a troubled past who sleeps through school enough to put his graduation in jeopardy. However, the girls like him... because he's a kind-hearted guy who stands by them when they need support, not the fact that he can beat up 3 guys at once. i.e., Kaho's crush on him is due to their history together, which more than justifies it, especially if you consider how she started going out with Tomonori in the first place. note Also he doesn't really like Yuka at first but even then he's one of the few persons who treat her well instead of merely as the local Miss Yo-Yo Knickers.
- Arranged Marriage: Kaori intends to go through with an omiai fate unless Ryo intervenes.
- Auto Erotica: Kaori's good ending.
- Bridal Carry: Rather tragically, Ryo carries an injured and crying Yuka in his arms after she suffers a miscarriage in-class.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Ryo, despite sleeping in the nurse's office all the time instead of going to class, apparently got into a rather good local university. And he's only going there because it's close by.
- Brother–Sister Incest: One of the possible outcomes of Ayame's path.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Ryo and Kaho had feelings for one another throughout most of their three years of high school but because they cannot spit it out, things got a little complicated. 'Most' - because Kaho had a crush on her senpai at first and - should the player choose another girl - Ryo's feelings for Kaho switch to friendship.
- Club President: Kaho, for the Literary Club.
- Club Stub: At the time of the game, the literature club consists of Ryo, Kaho, and Kyoko. Tomonori, Shizuhara, and Yuka are "members" for purposes of keeping the club from being disbanded, but don't actually attend meetings or participate in club activities.
- Cute Little Fangs: Yuka, on occasion.
- Did Not Get the Girl: A possible outcome of most paths.
- Distant Finale: Yuka's bad ending.
- Driven to Suicide: One of Kaori's former students, after she rejected his advances. Yuka also attempts this at one point.
- Elegant Classical Musician: Miyu
- Fan Disservice: Crescendo is an eroge Visual Novel, so h-scenes are a given. However, you're not exactly supposed to be aroused by scenes like Ryo raping his adoptive sister Ayame, Yuka's gangrape, Yuka being half-naked and with Dull Eyes of Unhappiness after Ryo crushes her hopes or Yuka being fully naked — after slitting her wrist and being stopped from going the Bath Suicide way.
- Heavy Sleeper: Kyoko.
- Heroic BSoD: Ryo goes through this on Ayame's path. So does she, as a matter of fact, albeit both tend to be resolved around the same time depending on your choices.
- H Game POV Character: Type II A/B, depending on routes taken.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Yuka.
- Huge School Girl: Kyoko.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Tomonori willingly steps aside if the player chooses to be with Kaho.
- Tomonori steps aside no matter which of the two girls the player picks since he realizes and accepts that Kaho was never romantically interested in him. It's not clear whether he and Kaho will get back together should the player choose Kyoko but at the very least (and one of the CG's has them cheerfully going off together as Kyoko happily goes with Ryo), it will take a long time for Kaho to get over Ryo.
- Also, in Kaori's ending the other girls pull this for her and Ryo, eagerly helping him to reach for her before she goes through her arranged date.
- Karma Houdini: The guys who gang rape Yuka toward the end of her route.
- Last Episode, New Character: After completing the paths for all the other girls, the player unlocks a path revolving around Miyu, who up until that point had only a brief appearance and was never formally introduced.
- If you only found out about her through a guide or this wiki, it wouldn't surprise us one bit. The only hint you get (and a very vague one at that) that she has her own route is a C.G. that is unlocked for the gallery at the beginning and then never seen again. Subsequent playthroughs just skip it.
- Like Brother and Sister: One of Ayame's endings has her and Ryo concluding that even though they are Not Blood Siblings, they prefer to live as siblings (as compared to the other possible outcome of that path)
- Love Hotels:
- In Yuka's path. Having sex with her there is not a good idea.
- In Kaori's path. In this case, searching her wallet is actually a GOOD idea.
- Love Triangle: Rather than having distinct paths, there is a single shared path for Kaho and Kyoko. Technically a 'Love Quadrilateral' when Kaho's boyfriend Tomonori is included.
- Loving Force: Toyed with. In the versions of her path where she was raped by Ryo, Ayame ends up being in love with him, but only because she was already in love with him before being raped. This is also what keeps your protagonist from looking like someone who crossed the
Moral Event Horizon. - Making Love in All the Wrong Places: More than one sex scene doesn't take place in either Ryo or the girl of choice's bedroom. I.e. you-as-Ryo can do Kaori not only in her car but in a store's dressing room, or do it with Kaho in the nurse office, or with Miyu in either her hospital room or the music room, or with Ayame in either the couch or the kitchen...
- Multiple-Choice Past: Literally. Some of the decision points occur during flashbacks, which makes working out any back story not directly revealed in a given route kind of weird, if thought about.
- Multiple Endings
- No Antagonist
- Not Blood Siblings: Ryo and Ayame.
- Optional Sexual Encounter: In many cases, it is possible to get the "good" endings without necessarily having encountered the sex scenes.
- Porn with Plot: This game is rather heavy on the plot, and the romantic involvements are used as a vehicle to further Character Development between the protagonist, his girl of choice, and those around him to greater or lesser extents. It is quite possible to avoid seeing most of to almost all the porn depending on the choices made in the story, most of the sex scenes are played for drama and plot development, and many of the bad endings are achieved by actively angling for the hentai scenes.
- Primal Scene: Ryo walks into a classroom where Yuka is entertaining another student.
- Promotion to Parent: Ayame was given one when Ryo was in junior high and she was in college.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Used quite generously, with pieces from Scott Joplin, Fryderyk Chopin, and George Frederic Handel, along with a hauntingly beautiful version
of Scarborough Fair. For Miyo's arc in particular, Solace by Scott Joplin is a recurring motif. - Rape as Drama: Ayame and Yuka's paths. In Yuka's case, this happens in a particularly depressing way.
- Replacement Goldfish: Not a straight example, but it's heavily implied that Ryo reminds Kaori of one of her former students who committed suicide.
- Sick Episode: A sex scene with Ayame takes place when Ryo has an injured arm and she has been taking care of him. Similarly, a scene with Kaho happens in the infirmary after she passes out, and another with Miyu occurs when she's hospitalized due to her illness.
- School Is for Losers: Ryo might fail school if he doesn't complete the make-up classes because of his abysmal attendance rate (if he completes make-up classes).
- Shout-Out:
- The movie which Ryo and Kaori go to see, Look at Life, uses images, music, and dialogue from Kana: Little Sister. "Look at Life" is also the title of the book Taka wrote based on his and Kana's experiences at the end of Kana's Intellectual Endings 2 and 3 , both implying those endings and Crescendo might take place in the same universe...
- Kaho likes the song "Scarborough Fair", and says she even got a CD with it, after Ryo told her a film had been made that incorporated it.
- Shrinking Violet: Kyoko.
- Stepford Smiler: Ryo and Ayame, after the rape incident, try to act as though he never tried to rape her.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Kaori, the school nurse. In fairness, she's aware of this, and tries to avert this trope (at least on the school grounds), but she eventually caves if you get her good ending.
