Perhaps it comes from my long years translating and selling visual novels, Japan’s interactive multi-story love-simulation games, but it’s my personal belief that any problem or challenge in life can be overcome, depending on how you go about attacking the problem. Put another way, any desired ending can be reached by figuring out the best combination of choices to make doing them in the right order, just like in a good eroge. I remember back when I first started university, receiving my Japanese textbook which was filled with writhing snakes I later learned were hiragana characters, and I prepared to drop the course in the first week, certain that no one could possibly learn this incredibly difficult language. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was a bunki-ten, a “choice point” for my life, just like you see in any visual novel, and happily I decided to remain in the course.
Life is full of “choice points” just like in eroge. Unfortunately there’s no save game option.
