There is no way I could ever do this game justice....
The first actual thing I will say about this game is that it is meant to be played multiple times. I, personally, have only had a few game persuade me to play a "new game+" and I have never played a game over and over in this succession in such a small amount of time. There's another... This game is as long as you make it. Your first play will probably take you about six to ten hours, if you savor the dialog and require a little thinking on some puzzles. You may want to stop there after all the hard work you put into getting that far, but if you're like me and just wanted to see what would happen if you say something different or do a different puzzle, you'll be hooked. Another thing...
This game is built around solving puzzles. You need to complete them to move on and go along with the story. The puzzles are well thought out, challenging, and feel fresh. Even the obligatory block and piano puzzles require thinking and strategy.
"But what does any of this matter if the story sucks? I mean it's translated from Japanese, so it's gotta be awkward and all the characters are going to be over-dramatic and you're going to have amnesia and-" There are no cliché here. It feels like an English speaker was actually involved in translation ( what a concept! :D ) and can be enjoyed even if you are not a fan of anime. The cast is diverse and every-single one of them is awesome and has their own secrets to tell if you know how to get them.
Even though I've never attempted this I will try to do a pros and cons as I do not always feel like reading the same things over and over *holds right*
-PROS-
*Great story
*Amazing characters and dialog ( both essential and optional )
* Wondrous amounts of mind-screwing
*Great visuals and music/sound
-CONS-
*Great many plot holes and story anomalies ( Though this can be a good thing as it leave a lot of room for theories and interpretations. )
*Length, I suppose ( even though it is short in some sense, it doesn't need to be long. It is all it needs to be and everything you want it to be. )
Final note: As I said earlier, I can never do this game the justice it deserves but I love this game. I love everything about it. It's characters, it's witty humor, it's puzzles, it's concepts, it's everything. I believe it to be one of the best written hand-held game and in league and often surpassing it's PC VN counterparts or any genera of games or book, really. Buy this game. Buy it and play it to your fill and if you like to half as much as I do tell your friends about it but don't lend it to them... Make them get their own copy...
P.S. The digital root of the number of characters I have in the preview is 9. Check for yourself... :D