is a Japanese

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of maj ...

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

developed by

Ram Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

that was released on July 25, 2008, for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for se ...

as a DVD. ''5'' is the third game developed by Ram, and the first to be released after an eight-year hiatus since the first release of their last game, ''Koigokoro''. The game is described by the development team as a "dramatic adventure", and a . The game bears the

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, s ...

, "Five little love tales which are likely to be buried in snow." The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...

in ''5'' follows a linear plot line, which offers pre-determined scenarios and courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the five female main characters.

Gameplay

''5s

requires little interaction from the player as most of the duration of the game is spent simply reading the text that appears on the screen which represents either

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

between the various characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. Every so often, the player will come to a point where he or she is given the chance to choose from multiple options. The time between these points is variable and can occur anywhere from a minute to much longer. Gameplay pauses at these points and depending on which choice the player makes, the plot will progress in a specific direction. There are five main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. To view all five plot lines, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different decisions to progress the plot in an alternate direction. One of the goals of the gameplay is for the player to enable the viewing of hentai scenes depicting the protagonist, Takahiro, and one of the five heroines having

sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (or coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina for sexual pleasure or reproduction.Sexual intercourse most commonly means penile–vaginal pene ...

Plot and characters

The story of ''5'' revolves around , who makes a trip to

Hokkaidō is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

, Japan with his younger sister in the winter. The two find their way to , a friend of their father's, only to realize that their visit is not expected as their father only contacted her regarding their visit that morning of their arrival. Despite this, Kaede welcomes them to stay at her farm, where the main portion of the game's story takes place, and provides them with food and shelter. After two days at the farm, Takahiro rides Kaede's motorcycle to the town's shopping district and comes upon a lively, but clumsy girl named , who collided with Takahiro and injured her leg after running downhill. Due to this, Takahiro decides to take her home where he meets her older sister . Nene, unlike Honoka, is more reliable, intelligent, and takes care of the general domestic household chores.

Development

Originally titled , ''5'' is the third and last project developed by the visual novel studio Ram, and took about eight years to develop. Much of the staff for ''5'' did not work on Ram's previous two titles ''Negai'' and ''Koigokoro''. Art direction and character design was headed by the artist Bang!, which was the artist's first work on a visual novel. Background art is headed by Torino. For work on the scenario, the author Kai returns as the only scenario writer for ''5'' that also worked on Ram's previous two titles. Hiroshi Yamaji and Kanrinin also worked on the scenario, despite the two having not been on the staff for many visual novels. The music in the game was composed primarily by

Jun Maeda is a Japanese writer and co-founder of the visual novel brand Key under Visual Arts. He is considered a pioneer of nakige visual novels, and has mainly contributed as a scenario writer, lyricist, and musical composer for the games the company ...

of Key, and VWN who also worked on the music for ''Negai'' and ''Koigokoro''. Maeda stated that he composed about twenty

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

tracks used in the game, and this was the first time he worked as the main composer on a game project. Both Kai and Torino have worked with Maeda in the past on previous Key titles.

Release history

On May 15, 2008, a free

game demo A game demo is a trial version of a video game that is limited to a certain time limit or a point in progress, which leads to the player buying the game if they liked it. A game demo comes in forms such as shareware, demo disc, downloadable s ...

of ''5'' became available for download at Ram's official website. In the demo, the player is introduced to the main characters in the game through a lengthy sequence that is typical of the

found in a

which includes times during gameplay where the player is given several choices to make in order to further the plot in a specific direction. It was followed by a second demo, released online on July 11, 2008, with edited scenario, and full voice acting with the exception of Takahiro. The full game was first released on July 25, 2008, after an eight-year hiatus since the original release of their previous game ''Koigokoro'', as a DVD playable only on a

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

PC.

Music

The visual novel has two main theme songs, the opening theme , and the ending theme , both sung by Haruka Shimotsuki. Both songs were written and composed by

of Key.

Arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orche ...

was handled by two artists, Takumaru for the opening theme, and

Magome Togoshi is a Japanese video game composer for visual novel studios. He began work as a music arranger in 1999, where he started working for the visual novel studio Key under VisualArt's to produce music for '' Kanon''. Between then and 2006, Togoshi com ...

for the ending theme, both of which have previously worked with Maeda on albums released by Key under their

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the pr ...

Key Sounds Label Key Sounds Label is a Japanese independent record label formed in 2001 as a brand of the publishing company VisualArt's. Key Sounds Label was formed to catalog and release music related to visual novels produced by the brand Key, also under Visua ...

. A

maxi single A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. The first maxi singles Mungo Jerry's first single, " In the Summertime" was t ...

titled "Kaze no Kotowari" containing the two songs was included with the game as a pre-order extra. The game's original soundtrack entitled ''Yukar'' was released in a three CD set on July 24, 2009.

Reception and sales

Based on the sales on Getchu.com, ''5'' made its only appearance on its sales ranking at the nineteenth place out of thirty when it was first released in July 2008. According to a national ranking of

bishōjo games In Japanese popular culture, a , also romanized as ''bishojo'' or ''bishoujo'', is a cute girl character. ''Bishōjo'' characters appear ubiquitously in media including manga, anime, and computer games (especially in the ''bishojo'' game genre ...

based on sales in Japan, the limited edition of ''5'' premiered at eighteenth place out of fifty.

References

External links

Ram's official ''5'' website
* {{Vndb, 834, , 5 2008 video games Bishōjo games Eroge Japan-exclusive video games Romance video games Seinen manga Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Jun Maeda Visual novels Windows games Windows-only games