Ayumi, a demure pushover submissive and loyal to abusive man after abusive man, a situation the script considers negative when that abusive man is Toyotomi but true love if he is Koudai, is easily the worst of the main cast. Her story route involves a unique degree of rape and obnoxious melodrama framed around communication failures. Her incompetence at her job gets many people killed at the Geo Technics construction site, a crime the story seems to consider irrelevant because Ayumi would prefer the company not search for Hypersense Stone. That she is Takuya’s stepmother also lessens Ayumi’s appeal.
However, I am willing to buy Ayumi and Takuya’s relationship. Because Koudai is a creep, Ayumi is closer to Takuya’s age than her husband’s. Koudai started his relationship with Ayumi while he was her professor (!). Since Ayumi and Takuya are both sexual young people who have not known each other that long, I would be willing to forgive the inclusion of this pairing or even consider it a (mildly) clever way of featuring an incest scenario in the rotation of porn situations without actually ruining the protagonist by having him engage in incest—were it not that this was all buildup for Takuya fucking his daughter.
Even Ayumi has her moment when, at the end of the Kaori route, she reveals she is aware that Koudai is up to something and covers for her stepson while he uses the Reflector to escape the swarming guards.
Each character in the ADMS section, even Takuya’s lovable sidekick Yuuki, would be stronger and more interesting if allowed space to breathe in their own narratives without Takuya as an anchor around their necks. Eriko alone, the goofy undercover time cop (who rejects the label “time cop”) and teacher by day and sexy detective by night out to avenge her lover and stop the same bad guy as Takuya and, unlike Takuya, actually succeeding at stopping him, could support her own, much better story. She could star in a better erotic story, even—Eriko has her hair combed over her eyes like a true shitty eroge protagonist.
Eriko’s job is basically the premise of Double Cross. But the lack of a penis to penetrate each anime girl or a man to leer at her may undermine her true purpose: masturbation fuel in a sleazy porno. The presence of more likable characters results in YU-NO feeling even grosser, reminding me that I could be spending tens of hours with someone who is not Takuya. Conflicting with sincere investment in any character is that they can be accessed only through the window of Takuya.
Setting aside the unsavory Epilogue for now, there are no happy endings. This is not in itself a flaw—on the contrary. But in YU-NO it seems unintentional, a fruit of a hacky designer once again not thinking the scenario through. After completing the Epilogue, the player can return to any other route and see its “true ending,” as described in the “Gameplay and Presentation” section. Could these be other possible outcomes for the other Takuyas on the indefinite timelines?