She surprised me by asking if the game was screen-reader-accessible, because she wanted to see it for herself. I told her I didn't think it was. She dropped the subject for a bit, but our conversation came back around to it eventually, and so I offered to read at least the first few scenes to her to see what she thought.
Seven hours of reading later, we are at the end of Act 2 of Emi's route, and planning for another marathon session today. At first my friend was sure she was going to have Hisao pursue Shizune, and was also intrigued by Rin, but Emi was just TOO DAMN CUUUUUUUUTE~! Feels level: off the chart. Not just for her either.
Reading the game aloud is like...a whole different level of immersion. I've done this sort of thing before for her, but mostly with fantasy/SF books that aren't available via her usual sources, and never anything with such a heavy visual component. It really gives you an appreciation for the level of detail going on, if nothing else.
Also, it's been kind of fun finding what I consider the voices of the characters. While I find it hard doing voices for the girls (my voice is pretty solidly baritone), I think I've got different-enough ones that she can at least tell them apart. I use my own voice for Hisao. Mutou comes out sounding like Jeremy Irons, the nurse is George Takei, and Kenji started out as Eddie Deezen (mainly because he reminds me a bit of Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory), but now I'm imitating a mutual friend of ours instead, because we both agreed it was somehow fitting
.Has anyone else ever tried this? If so, I'd be interested in how you handled it, so that I might have some ideas. If not, I cannot recommend it enough if you have the opportunity. Like I said, it's a chance at a whole new perspective on the game...like looking at it sideways while lying on a bench on the roof, perhaps
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But she wound up sounding very matter-of-fact precisely because of that additional mindboggle and I would not be surprised if that contributed greatly to me really starting to like her path a lot more in my 2nd playthrough. And Misha I don't think I made sound like anyone else in particular, especially since in Shizune's path you get to hear her backstory and it reveals a girl that's a lot more than just bubbly and ditzy.
Lilly hahah...I'm sorry to say I've been quite mean to Lilly, and I do honestly mean sorry. I just couldn't help but make her sound either overtly-polite most of the time, to the point where I sounded to myself as if I were deliberately trying to troll someone through PR bullshit, or overtly-dramaticized in the more emotional parts of her arc to the point where I sometimes absolutely disgusted myself. And really, it's my fault entirely because it reflected the simple fact that I liked her arc and personality the least out of all the girls.