Gameplay
The gameplay requires almost no interaction from the player as nearly the entire duration of the game is spent on simply reading the text that will appear on the screen; this text represents either dialogue between the various characters, or the inner thoughts of the protagonist. A single choice the player makes determines which girl the protagonist chooses. There are three main plot lines that the player will have the chance to experience, one for each of the heroines in the story. To view the three plot lines to their entirety, the player must replay the game multiple times and choose a different choice at the single decision point to further the plot in an alternate direction. In contrast to visual novel adventure games where the text appears near the bottom of the screen leaving the rest of the window open for viewing the game's visual content, the text in H2O appears over the entire screen in a shaded, but otherwise transparent box. However, there is an option to hide the text in order to see the background without obstruction.
The game can be played in two modes, a Blindness Effect Mode or a Normal Effect Mode. The former takes into account that the protagonist is blind, and while he can imagine what the people he talks with look like, he cannot discern the color of the world around him, which renders the artwork in an almost black and white tone, additionally giving it a stylish and dream-like appearance. As gameplay progresses and the protagonist's condition gradually heals, this convention eventually fades away as the protagonist can now see with his own eyes the world around him. The Normal Effect Mode does not use the effect from the Blindness Effect Mode and therefore the visuals are otherwise unchanged from their originally colored state. The two modes can be interchanged at any moment throughout the gameplay.
There are three parts in the gameplay. The first part, entitled the "Past Chapter" (過去編, Kako Hen?) serves to set up the story and for the protagonist to meet and get to know the characters, especially the three heroines. Following the first part, there is a time where the protagonist must leave for several years only to come back in the so-called "Reunion Chapter" (再会編, Saikai Hen?) and meet the girls he knew before who have changed somewhat. After the player chooses one of the girls, the third part in the story called the "After Game" (アトゲー, Ato Gee?) concludes the game, which is also where the majority of the erotic content is viewable. The story consists primarily of the first two parts, which are a flashback from the protagonist's point of view. Within this flashback are around fifty smaller flashbacks from the past of the protagonist and the girls'. While the game is intended to be a serious drama, the gameplay is peppered with unrelated bouts of humor, which come with computer graphic artwork of the characters in a humorous situation depicted in a super deformed style. The pacing of the game is rather slow and tends to reuse the same flashback scenes. Additionally, certain flashbacks are viewable no matter which girls' scenario is pursued and these cannot be skipped.
There is an additional "emergency" button that can be activated if the player does not want other people to know they are playing an adult game. This option shows a random piece of artwork unrelated to the game's content out of around one-hundred images. These images are rather bizarre, one such image containing a black and white photograph of a toy horse head with red "blood" splattered around the edge of the image.
Read more about this topic: H2O: Footprints In The Sand