It's been about a month now since 4.5 ended. My thoughts on it have evolved since then and I wanted to dump them here. Please ignore me if you don't want to read and obviously there are some spoilers.
BELOW ARE THE INANE THOUGHTS OF A MAN ABOUT TO GO TO SLEEP, BEWARE ALL YE WHO READ
First, the event was, on the whole, written pretty well. The concept of the event - Mika trying to give Nagisa a day off - is a good one. And it made me hyped up for more Nagisa time. Maybe we'd learn more about her and peel back some of her layers. However, it was not to be. Mika is - predictably - the main focus of the event, however it's Ichika who gets to be in the number 2 spot and Nagisa is relegated to a fairly minor amount of screentime on the whole. I like what they did with Ichika - especially her evolving relationship with Mika - but it feels strange to me that, in a Tea Party event, only one of the members is having anything of substance happening with them.
This problem is somewhat exacerbated by the length of the event itself. This really felt like a year 1 or post-Wakamo anniversary event. Without the combat spam, at least. It's a super focused, very short style of event story telling, which has its benefits, but the direction of the story - focusing mostly on Ichika's and Mika's characters - leads one to really wish that we had more downtime for the event itself. There is basically no time during the event where we get to just relax on the beach with all of them. Play some beach games. Do something. Remember Trinity Summer 1 and all the beach hijinks they got up to? Don't get me wrong, Trinity Summer 1 is kinda mid but I really wish 4.5 had carried over that aspect. This is supposed to be an event about getting Nagisa to relax, right? Why can't we see them doing that? We get a tea debate with Hasumi and Nagisa instead, which, while funny, is not really conventional beach activities, and it's also the only respite that we get before we're back to Mika working her ass off like a slave and Ichika following her around. Yes, we get some standard hijinks in the Yostar short preceding this, and that was nice, but it's also not as good as in game stuff IMO.
The budget for this event was also super low. Like, barely any unique assets for the event itself. Mostly just for the mini-game (more on that later). I get that it's just a half anniversary, but only one CG for the entire main event? Really? Granted, the mini-game has a lot of unique art assets, but I'm not so sure that makes up for it. The bluntness of the story itself in combination with the lack of unique assets makes the main story of the event feel pretty lacking in some ways. The story content itself is still good, but I couldn't help but want more. When you get Mika, Seia, and Nagisa in a tent at the end with Mika and Nagisa playing games and thinking about how they haven't played like this in years, I was finally thinking that I was going to get some downtime with these three and see them all interacting and maybe even see Nagisa's "true" self with Mika. But nope. Hard cut. Seia plays us out with a rather lame song, I have to say. Instead we move forward to after the epilogue and Kasumi infodumps us with her backstory and Megu and so on.
The mini-game was good. Maybe the best mini-game they've done so far. Card slop is always fun. The unique interactions (only partially voice acted) was also enjoyable and it's fun to see all the combinations.
Character thoughts
>Seia
Good design. Didn't do much in the event except be sarcastic and occasionally serious, and then back to sarcastic and whimsical again. I feel like she's a bit too whimsical now. The Momos were good, especially the more serious one, but I think I liked the more deadpan approach. I unironically think the Yostar shorts kind of captured her personality better. I admit this is probably a minority opinion, seeing that most people like Seia's writing for the past year, but I find her a bit irritating now. She always feels like she's trying to one-up someone in her conversations, it comes off as insecure and annoying. I can see why Mika wanted to hospitalize her now.
Don't hit me!
>Ichika
Maybe my favorite design? Really great in this event. Her willingness to throw aside her hatred for Kasumi to protect Mika's smile is a good reflection of Mika's influence as she does the same for Nagisa. Her Momos were pretty good too.
>Hasumi
Would fuck. Fat racist bird does fat racist things. Is basically there so Mika can show us her new maturity and so she debate tea with Nagisa. Kinda mid.
>Nagisa
Really don't like this design. It's tactless in a way that I don't think Nagisa should be. This COULD have worked if they had worked things in with her character more. Part of the story is that Nagisa's personality at school is a bit of a facade. Seia says she used to be someone else before taking on the role as Mika's protector and that she forgot who she was along the way. You get a peek into that, but it's just a fleeting glimpse. Maybe Nagisa's true self likes gaudy jewelry and sensual one pieces? I don't know. Boobs are too big as well and no standing variation makes this sprite shit. Mediocre momos too. Better than her base ones, but I can't help but feel Nexon just doesn't give a shit about Nagisa after all of this. Shame.
>Kasumi
She's good and fun as usual but I wish her exposition dump screentime had been more wisely used due to the incredibly short run time of the event itself.
>Megu
Boobs.
>Mika
Conflicting design. It's good, but Kokosando did some pretty mediocre sprite work for her. Even the expressions are off. We also have years of fan designs for swimsuit Mika that frankly much better. However - and this is a big however - it makes a lot of sense for Mika to look like this for the event. The entire event is her toiling away for the sake of others and getting dirty and slaving away. Visually speaking this would have worked less effectively if she had been more elaborately designed like many of the fan designs do. That being said it really did need some blue in there somewhere. And a less shit sprite. Kokosando is a fucking jobber.
Ok, and here's my big problem with Mika now. She's too sweet. Yes, the racism stuff was always overblown and I'm glad this was reflected in the writing appropriately. Yes, Mika has developed into a more relaxed, more grounded character and I think this was reflected well. But part of what Mika so enjoyable was her ability to go from a pure princess capable of nothing but smiles, to someone with empty eyes that's going to break your fucking neck for daring to put her friend's in harms way. Some of this gets played up in the fandom for sure - I do not think Mika is a yandere - but there was always this edge, this bite to Mika which complimented her purity. And this wasn't just a Volume 3 thing, it happens in Volume F when Koharu is threatened as well.
Now, she's "fixed." That Mika seems to be gone. Almost. Some of her mini-game dialogue shows that the writer remembers that she can be incredibly nasty, but I can't help but feel that that should have been present in the actual event story itself at some point. I really think she should have just kicked the shit out of the Hot Spring club after Nagisa accidentally blows up their villa. After all, they were the ones who lined it with explosives and were planning to blow it up themselves before Ichika caught wind of it. That should have been a "last straw" of sorts for Mika and then you could have had her crying scene with Nagisa after.
Her Momos, however, are amazing. Maybe even the best Momos in the game. Filled with very intricate character writing throughout, and a beautiful exclusive song to cap it off with. However, the L2D is mid. You can't even fucking see her swimsuit. What's the point of a swimsuit L2D if you can't see the fucking swimsuit? Yes, it briefly flashes her tits but that's only a cut.
That's it. Autism over.