Finished Bengarachou. Excellent read, Mareni did a great job of drawing me in with the nostalgic atmosphere. The game is about the MC returning to a hidden town he occasionally visited in his childhood and searching for 珍奇物品 vaguely described in his missing uncle's notes, finding out about their supernatural properties and completing his own notes about them. Each chapter from 2-5 (there's 7 and a short interlude) focus on one of the four heroines and one 珍奇物品. It's sort of like a ladder structure with the way you're getting to know and fuck each heroine in their own chapters, but they also all have their own endings that you select near the end. The structure means there's pretty minimal interaction between the girls which isn't a huge deal but I think it would've been nice to have a bit more of that. I found the searches for the objects very enjoyable to read, the blend between reality and supernatural was done well and kept me excited about what would be next while keeping me guessing about the secrets of some characters and the town itself. Shirako's chapter was my favourite with the town's state of being stuck in the past challenged by the winds of change and modernization. Both Shirako and Tomohisa's views come from their 懐古趣味, and that is what Bengarachou explores as a theme.
The last chapter is pretty much the same thing no matter which girl you pick. You get their second h-scene, a mostly identical sequence of scenes except for some minor changes to account for the girl, the same plot reveal scenes and finally the heroine's own ending. Tooko is very clearly the main girl and has a fitting ending to the chapter and the game as a whole to match. Shirako also has an interesting ending herself it feels like it's a bad end even, but can you really call it one when both Shirako and Tomohisa are happy with their decision?, and while Emilia and Matsumi both have much more standard endings, they contrast well with the decisions Tomohisa makes in the former two and still relate to the central theme in their own ways. They're all very short but that was fine to me.
Minor complaint, Tomohisa's uncle is very much involved in the plot and we get some revelations about him at the very end, but for someone playing a big role behind the scenes it feels like we didn't learn enough about him and his past and his relation to Tooko. That's a separate story to tell I guess, but I wish we had a bit more related to him. Also having male characters being unvoiced is sad but it seems to be standard for railsoft games. It's less of a big deal in Bengarachou since there aren't many here though.
The BGM is excellent by the way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAsGcDNaK18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wo4VPDzrho
And the OP is one of my favourites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFUpsE5UaI