About Raise A Floppa:
For me to consider a VN to be a shining example of the genre, it must involve at least two things: a great story that’s not too badly marred by poor grammar or translation; and art that’s pleasing to behold. They’re the core components of a VN to me, and while extras like fancy interfaces, galleries, sprite viewers, and the like all add to the experience, if the story or art are rubbish then the game tends to be a failure. How to Raise a Wolf Girl tells the story of senior high-schoolers Shuuji and his not-girlfriend Kana, living in a small village in the Japanese countryside. While cleaning a shrine in the nearby mountain forest dedicated to a Mountain God who presides over the area, they find a girl who looks about their age trapped in a boar cage placed by Shuuji and his grandfather. They soon notice that the girl, Iroha, has large wolf-like ears and bushy tail, and is unable to talk. Freeing Iroha from the cage, they take her home to care for her. This simple beginning sets the stage for a short story about friendship, love, and loss, which is written and translated extremely well, as I’ve come to expect from everything published by Sekai Project. I feel that I should reiterate, though, that it is a short story in the traditional sense: there’s a single idea around which the story is based. The game examines that idea and follows it through to resolution, and then it finishes, all within five to six hours at the default read settings and auto play. It’s pretty emotional, though, and there’s enough character development in that short time to let the player really care about what happens to the characters.
