Lets talk a little about Yume no Ukihashi

It's been three days and I've already finished a guy's route.  I'm just flying through this game.  I figured that there should be 34 different endings but they're actually really easy to get. Please forgive the low quality phone screenshots.
wow this game is so different from 5.  The first thing to throw me off was the right to left lay out.  5 was laid out very western and It's all I've ever known with games.  Yume no Ukihashi on the other hand was absolutely jarring to me.  Trying to figure out things like how to battle and how to arrange my parties was a nightmare at first.  It took me about an hour of messing with everything and reading the kanji till I became comfortable with it.  Second throw off was the lack of chapters.  You roam around the map with the guardians from the first three game and look for event / face-your-fear boxes.  To get them you have to fight onryou with them until they mention something to you.  A red dot will appear on the map.  You do have story events but you can go to them whenever.  The whole visual novel element is gone.
The world map by the way is like a maze, this whole game reminds me so much of the movie labyrinth.  Most of the time it's hard to keep track of where you are and you have to make guesses on where the events are taking place.  Getting to them is a chore and getting back to the middle is a nightmare.  By the time you get back to the center, another event has popped up somewhere.  That's the worst part about this game.  The best part about it though is the wheel system.  There are so many wonderful guys to choose from.  24 from all the games up to 3.  I can't even imagine what it would look like if they added the guys from 4 and 5.  WHOAH THERE.  So the wheel system works with the element system that I saw used in 5.  Rock is weak to wind, wind is weak to grass, grass is weak to fire and so on.  The trick of the wheel system is arranging the guys in a way where you can turn it and get the best possible team of three no matter what element you come across.  There was a really fun dynamic between choosing your favorite guys and making a strong team.  I spend most of my time trying to get the perfect set up where I have one person to heal, and no weak elements in a team.  It's rough because not only is the opposing element weak but attacking a monster with the same element as your man is just as weak.  When you go into battle you have the ability to turn your wheel and choose the best three depending on the element.  However, once you start a battle, you can't switch any of the guy's spots.  It's a really fun battle between trying to get events, make a strong balanced wheel and court your favorite guys.

The battle menu confused me at first because I was reading it from left to right. I didn't pay attention to any of the Kanji first battle (which I knew which is really stupid of me) and told all the guys to run.  It was a painful battle.  I had to remind myself that everything is from right to left and suddenly the whole game layout made sense.  On this menu there is a very mysterious option to encourage your party.

you can tap the encouragement but if you speak into the microphone, more will show up.  It's interesting to say the least but I haven't figured out how to correctly use the microphone feature.  It's fun to shout Japanese at my game and have it do stuff though.  As for other features, there are no quick saves like in 5, you can save whenever and load whenever so it's just as easy as having a quick save feature.  The three main girls have different stories and one special ending as a group with their Hachiyou.

It's really interesting playing this game and having the original Hachiyou group act like actual dating sim characters.  I'm just... in shock.  Yasuaki with his head in your lap!? WHAT.  Tomomasa picking you up and saying cute things to you.  While stuff like this happened in the manga and anime it didn't feel so... I don't know.  It was all at the character of Akane, but here, it's you.  It feels so strange.  I like it.

AND FINALLY

The thing that threw me off the most.

Yasuaki's cute smile.  WOW he is expressive in this game.  I was not expecting that at all.  His sprites are my absolute favorite... I think I might be a yasuaki fan again.  Maybe I can just like all of these sweet babbys.

Well, most of the sprites are okay, but they really should have redone them all to match and make some of them not so... ugly.  poor Tenma and Shimon.  they are hideous.

The guys from three stand out especially.  I hate their noses... Am I really not going to buy the most praised Harutoki game because I hate the guy's noses?  hmmm....

So you finish the game and escape the dream that you're all trapped in and

Actually, no.  Every one forgets the whole thing ever happened.  poop.