As We Know It

As We Know It

I saw this tagged as “sci-fi” but I don’t know if it should be categorized as that. It’s a post-apocalyptic story, but the science/technology in it isn’t fictional at all. Anyway, it’s got Mad Max: Fury Road vibes, but takes place within a setting similar to that District 13 underground city from The Hunger Games. The implication is that climate change eventually impacted the livelihood of humankind, and for some, the answer was to move into underground city shelters.

Good Stuff

  • Racial diversity. More than half of all the characters are not white.

Real player with 20.6 hrs in game


Read More: Best Character Customization Romance Games.


I played Pinewood Island first and had high expectations for this one! I bought it during a sale since I couldn’t bring myself to buy it at full price!

Long story, short? I really enjoyed this game! Customization of your character was simple but I felt it added to the immersion of the game! The plot is phenomenal and I wanted to know more and more about the world we’re in! As of writing this i’ve gotten 2 out of 30 endings; 30 endings?! That’s insane but it shows how much thought went into this!

Real player with 10.1 hrs in game

As We Know It on Steam

Pinewood Island

Pinewood Island

Hello Steam user who is wondering if this little visual novel is worth their time. I’m going to tell you right now that the short answer is yes, especially if you’re a fan of the mystery genre.

Pros

– The story and mystery. Okay so if you taken a look at the plot synopsis you can pretty much see the standard murder mystery scenario. Group of people in an isolated location, somebody gets murdered and things go to hell when people start playing the blame game. Pretty standard set up but thankfully it’s executed well. It actually took me at least three different play throughs to figure out the murderer was which thankfully means the mystery itself is not to easy but it also means that it’s not too hard to figure it out either. The story itself is a little clunky at times by and have a good flow once it gets going and it’s pretty fun to play through even though you have to do about four times to get all the endings (I’ll complain about it later though so…).

Real player with 10.7 hrs in game


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Picked this game up after it had been on my wishlist for a while and I checked the store page to see it had no reviews yet. Decided I had to give it a go myself and leave a review so there was something here for people to go off of.

If you want a synopsis, you can read the descriptor, it’s not a super complex or original idea. It plays out fine enough though, I found it pretty enjoyable from the run and a half I’ve done so far. It doesn’t seem like choices are super duper important aside from boys and knowing what’s going on, but they impacted a few things aside from stright up bad ending, or continuing on the plot so far.

Real player with 7.2 hrs in game

Pinewood Island on Steam

Tailor Tales

Tailor Tales

Neil: In comparison to the rest of the routes its not my favorite but its not bad at all. it was fun to play. Its a relatively cliché rich boy forced into the family business but wants to do something else. The conflicts are mundane compared to the others but on its own its a fine little story to read. His cousin is probably my fav character from his story line and her antics are pretty funny and shes got more personal problems i sympathies with more and got attached to her, wanting her to have a good ending as well. If Neil had more of that he would be a more memorable route because HE would be more memorable but still would recommend playing his route just to read. As an opening story it got me interested in seeing the other route’s stories.

Real player with 99.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Character Customization Romance Games.


Overall I like Tailor Tales. The Writing is solid, The UI fits the genre and The Gimmicks are cool.

Design portion Pro:

I like the “design portion” of the game. It’s really cool to have to be a tailor like the protag.

There are SOOO many choices for everything I really like it.

Design Portion Con: Sometimes its really difficult to understand what the colors/designs are Supposed to be in the studio. I wish we could pay to have it precisely identified to finish the client.

When it gets too complicated, I’m just too frustrated by every little detail that I just delete the clients till it’s just one, no patterned piece.

Real player with 54.8 hrs in game

Tailor Tales on Steam

Too Many Santas!

Too Many Santas!

A Christmas wish come true, or a holiday nightmare?

You don’t know what’s worse: your love life or your toy store’s sales reports. Desperate for some yuletide loving (and some new customers!), you make a wish on a Christmas Star.

That’s when your store is visited by not one, not two, but SIX Santa Clauses. It’s simply TOO MANY SANTAS! Can you watch all of them and run the store at the same time? Or will you be caught up in the sweet Santa romance?

Too Many Santas! The short visual novel where YOU get to date Santa Claus! And Santa Claus, and Santa Claus, and Santa Claus…

Sexy Santa. The best-looking Santa of the bunch has a great body, along with some killer dance moves. He tends to get overly flirty with the customers, though. You’ll have to keep a close eye on him!

Saintly Santa. With his Bible and Baby Jesus stockings, Saintly Santa wants the holidays to be HOLY days! He’s having a bit of an identity crisis in his new surroundings. Is he the answer to your prayers?

Sleepy Santa. This Santa is pretty tired, but who cares? His beard is AMAZING! You could watch it all day long. If he needs a nap that badly, he can be YOUR cuddle buddy…

Sassy Santa. Hey, who let this guy in here? Sassy Santa is always ready to dish out insults and put-downs to everyone who comes by. Can you rein in his sharp tongue, before he scares away all your customers?

Sad Santa. Poor Santa is sad, and you’re determined to figure out why. Everyone should be happy at Christmas! Maybe your love will be enough to cure Santa of the holiday blues?

Secret Santa. Part spy, part jolly old elf, Secret Santa is all business. He’s extremely busy on an important mission, but he refuses to tell you what it is. Will you be the one to crack his secrets?

Key Features

  • Six Santa Clauses to date, with 12 naughty and nice endings to unlock!

  • A customizable main character—choose any name and any pronouns you want!

  • Over 250 original photographs, bringing the characters and scenery to life

  • Lots and lots of Christmas music! Too much Christmas music!

  • A 23,000-word script—so it won’t take a whole holiday season to beat

  • From the creators of Cat President , The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved the World , and other fine weird visual novels.

With tons of laughter and love, Too Many Santas is a visual novel you can enjoy all year round!

Too Many Santas! on Steam

Our Life: Beginnings & Always

Our Life: Beginnings & Always

A masterpiece

I am - and I cannot stress this enough - utterly and irrevocably in love with this game. Now, I might be biased, seeing as I grew up on a coastal tourist-filled town, but this game just evokes such a nostalgic feeling deep within me. It has made me reminisce quite a few things about my childhood and overall early - and not so early - life, and has given me plenty of food for thought. Now, to get a bit more into detail, I’m gonna list all of the pros and cons I can think of:

Real player with 495.1 hrs in game

Don’t write reviews too often, but this game is an absolute masterpiece. From the cute interactions between the characters to the extreme amounts of customization, this game might aswell be perfect. (And it’s still in development!)

GENERAL GAMEPLAY:

In the game, you grow up alongside the love interest, Cove, as you gradually become older. Overtime, you form a stronger bond with Cove and can, eventually, start dating him. But this is entirely optional! You can decide to stay as friends, or even not be interested in him whatsoever. (Although, that would break my heart.)

Real player with 259.4 hrs in game

Our Life: Beginnings & Always on Steam

Witches x Warlocks

Witches x Warlocks

Witches & Warlocks is a lovely little Halloween game by the developers of Royal Alchemist – basically a simplified, cute variation on that dating sim, quite different in tone, but sharing its high-quality art and solid writing. It follows the story of Fay Nightshade, a witch whose hobby of matchmaking couples all around their fantastical town made them grossly neglect their magic studies. To not get expelled from school, they have to quickly learn spells and prepare herself for a major practical exam, while managing their potion stockpile (necessary spell reagents) and money (used to buy extra potions). Each of the four romanceable characters, who are willing to help the protagonist in catching up, has five spells they can teach them – learning most of those from a love interest unlocks appropriate romance ending.

Real player with 9.6 hrs in game

It’s honestly one of the cutest wholesome visual novels I’ve played in a while.

I really like the art work and the gender option on how you create your character. The fact that you can be male presenting with a female or gender neutral voice and have she/her pronouns was awesome. Also has they/them pronouns.

The voice acting is pretty good. Having 2 male, one female and one non-binary character as a potential interest was very much appreciated for me. You rarely ever see that. So far I’ve only cleared 2 routes, but i love the stories and dialogue between the main character and the love interests. It doesn’t take much to do a run through, my first play through was about an hour, but that one route made me interested in the others and i’m going to complete everyone.

Real player with 6.3 hrs in game

Witches x Warlocks on Steam

Magical Diary: Horse Hall

Magical Diary: Horse Hall

OK, so even if you aren’t into Harry Potter Fanfics, and even if you’re a guy, there’s something to enjoy in this game. (You know, so long as you’re a guy who is fine with playing a female character trying to get a date in a very LGBT-friendly setting.)

The character creator is fun, if a bit limited. The sheer fact that it has a character creator at all is a big advantage this game has, and I have no idea why it’s not a more popular idea. Most accessories, however, have to be purchased in-game, and have stats associated with them, so if you wanted to wear glasses, you can, but they cost money, and if you wore some stupid-looking giant star glasses, you might get more of the stats you want… Cat paws look dumb, but they give massive boosts to (nature-related) Green magic, so it’s sometimes that old World of Warcraft “killer clownsuit” choice between aesthetics and effectiveness.

Real player with 88.5 hrs in game

If you enjoy the simulation genre, then I recommend picking this up. My feelings are mixed about the game, but you will probably get a good laugh out of it anyways. I’ve put a lot of hours into this game and replayed it a bunch and have enjoyed it each time.

PROS

  • Variety of choices about spells, activities, which person you’d like to romance, etc. Many of the cut scenes and events also give you options.* Replayability. The game isn’t very long, but becuase there are so many choices, you may find yourself wanting to play again.. just to see what it is that you could do differently.

Real player with 14.1 hrs in game

Magical Diary: Horse Hall on Steam

Signed and Sealed With a Kiss

Signed and Sealed With a Kiss

I actually love this game! Its the first game i was very willing to spend my money on and it delivered! The MC is actually refreshing, she’s not your typical happy-go-lucky MC that you usually see, matter of fact, i wouldn’t say she fits into a trope at all. She actually has depth to her character, and a reason for why she acts the way she does. And i definitely feel as if many people can relate to her, emotion-wise.

The boyfriends are great, they are the only personality tropes in this game and i live for it!! Its worth mentioning that they have their fair share of issues to, that they’re able to express and share with the MC, which i love. I love each and every one of them, My main boys have gotta be the Flirt and the Bad Boy though. I would write about them but we’d be here for a while.

Real player with 26.2 hrs in game

I consider myself a lover of Visual novels and saw that many of the old reviews are outdated since the updates have been put into place so would give my two cents. As someone who fresh and having played this game for the first time let me say it quite addicting and so fun to play.

There are four new personalities for the MC, Moody, Cheery, Detached and Flirty. Moody kind of well- Moody and probably was the original default personality that everyone ranting against. Cheery actually a very decent and nice person who has no idea how to handle things, detached is the sane one that questioning life choices… And Flirty is the thirstiest of them all and made me laugh quite a bit. Also it is quite good at allowing you to choose the right pronouns and anatomy which also gives some nice variety!

Real player with 16.8 hrs in game

Signed and Sealed With a Kiss on Steam

Pulse Cage (The full game) contains 4 games in one

Pulse Cage (The full game) contains 4 games in one

In this game you can dress up your character and make choices for her too. You read and make choices in this visual novel to get 1 of 4 endings per chapter. This is a unique visual reading experience wrapped up in an interactive game about a chain-letter of love and darkness.

Here are some features and gameplay:

1. 2 dress up events, where you decide what your character wears

2. A total of 78 Action and Dialogue choices

3. Multiple ending 11 and over 14+ CGs to collect

4. Spending time with you love-interests go on over 8 dates

Pulse Cage (The full game) contains 4 games in one on Steam

Princess Battles

Princess Battles

Fun game, would be great if it were a little longer but definitely worth buying and playing. Yes, you have to deal with a bratty princess to start out, but there’s actual choice about which way she develops. She isn’t a pushover, which is rather nice. There are a number of interesting endings, which add to playing time and value.

Artwork is very nice, main story and story arcs are well done, card battles are slightly repetitive but the difficulty progression is good (especially the first time through). And despite the repetition, I did find the card games fun.

Real player with 18.9 hrs in game

I was hesitant to buy this. The price seemed a bit expensive and what little I saw of the writing seemed a bit simple. I say seemed, because actually I had a ball with this game! The graphics are pretty, and I love the different dresses for the MC! All of the characters, including the MC, are really likable! Gerald is my absolute favorite, I was smiling through all of his scenes! (I will say it felt more like 3 love interests, not 4). I love that we get extra stories and free play mode. The card battles are fun, and I like that we can customize our deck in free play. The difficulty felt right, since I lost as many times as I won.

Real player with 16.8 hrs in game

Princess Battles on Steam