Arcade Spirits
First things first: I really, truly enjoyed this game. That maybe sounds like an understatement, but I think it’s worth stressing: Arcade Spirits is just. so. enjoyable. It’s good-natured, goofy game about pursuing your dreams and the power of friendship as much as it is a dating sim, and I was completely charmed by the total sincerity of its story and characters. My literal only complaint is that I couldn’t spend more time with all of them (more on that below).
Arcade Spirits’s core cast is obviously the main draw, and in terms of characterization, the game really delivers. I was really impressed by how the game avoided obvious dating sim archetypes and introduced a lot of depth to characters I wasn’t certain I would connect with (particularly Ashley and Teo). I also appreciate how the game doesn’t shy away from more serious issues, particularly in Percy and QueenBee’s routes – it’s not a coincidence that these are the two routes that I think are the game’s strongest, and it has a lot to do with how Percy and QueenBee’s problems (and dating hang-ups) are rooted in real-world issues. The overarching plot is goofy (in a good way!), but the characters feel grounded and real, and you’re encouraged to take them seriously in ways that I think really, really work.
– Real player with 37.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cute Romance Games.
I’ve only had the time to sit down and play through this great game once, but I feel like it’s given me a pretty good grasp of the game as a whole. And I love it. I’m a huge fan of visual novels and throwing in a dash of romance is…just another nail in my coffin. I’ve been following this game for a while now, exactly how long I can’t say, but I’ve been waiting. And it was worth the wait. I’ve never played a visual novel that has allowed me the customization this game has. I found I was playing me rather than playing the who can I romance game VERY early on. Sure, the game has it’s issues, and I’ll detail the good and the bad shortly, but I highly rec the game no matter what I say below. If you’ve got a hankering for a good story, high amounts of customization, and arcade game references abound this game is for you. And never fear, I’m leaving spoilers out of my lists. (As of writing this review there were still some wrinkles in the game but the dev team seems very on top of it when it’s reported. Don’t let the fact they are there dissuade you from buying the game.) I will update this review pending further play time and any additional content that might get released.
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
~Be a maid in the Demon World~ The Secret Café of the Demon Angel Hero.
While the English Translation could use a good deal of refinement, This is a Decent Business Sim.
The Evening activities are quite well done.
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cute Management Games.
TL;DR: Recommended ONLY when on sale, maybe around 30% off or more. It doesn’t worth it in full price.
Pros:
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Cute girls.
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Good moving image H-scenes.
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Good optimization unlike other H-game on steam that use Unity as the game engine. I often found H-game that use Unity will gobble up your cpu to 100%, but not with this game.
Cons:
- The SLG part are very lacking, mainly you will use your money to cook the menu then use the remaining money to increase the stats of the girls, increase your manager level, and customize your cafe in that order. You don’t really need to put much thought to play the SLG part which is the main point of the game and this is a problem.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Date Night Bowling
The arcade bowling is solid - I can consistently get strikes, but curving/spin isn’t particularly intuitive. Unfortunately, each character has a single phrase you have to confirm through every single time they come up to bowl. You have to play as everyone in single player before they’re available in vs. mode (whether AI or human). The minigames are fun and themed to the bowling alley. Achievements, at least at launch, appear to be not be functioning. If you’re looking for some casual arcade-style bowling, you’ll find it here - everything else feels a little thin.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cute Bowling Games.
![Winning Love by Daylight [Ep 1 Demo]](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1539780/header.jpg)
Winning Love by Daylight [Ep 1 Demo]
In all honesty for a two person project (coding\story\writing and artist) it’s pretty good. The character designs and personalities are interesting and some character powers are pretty unique. Like (spoilers) but someone being a siren was in my opinion a pretty under appreciated thing, and being able to sing people to sleep is pretty interesting. though my main gripe is in certain story skips and dialouge. Like for example, the protagonist is told in a huge moment of exposition that shit is wack and the world might end and that he/she/they might have powers. thing is somehow everyone else in the story knows this later on. Without the protagonist ever explaining that to them. there are also times where the dialouge is akward at point but i think that adds to the charm of it. Like characters are all highschoolers, it makes sense that sometimes the conversations are kinda stiff and akward cuz that’s how it would actually go in real life. Like if a goth girl who most likely is a fan of arson came up and started talking to you, of course you’d be a bit akward in your speech. But my last two complaints about it are the music and facial expressions. In all honesty, the music is terrible, it’s better than that royalty free ukelele from hell but im sure theres other stuff out there you can use without copyright. mainly the music I’m talking about here is the resting abd casual time music, it’s a weird mix of meowing and beeps and i often found myself turning the music all the way off and playing my own mix. And the complaint i have abnout the expressions is later on in the story, i don’t have any complaints about reused assets especially in visual novels, but (spoilers ahead here) maybe after a character like willow loses a loved one maybe don’t show a kind of ‘meh’ face when what she feels is true sorrow. You see that sorrow shown later on but my point still stands. other than those (admitibly small things for a game made by two people with one doing most of the heavy lifting) I think it’s a great game and absolutely my new fav comfort game. good work on the game guys hope you get episode two out soon :)
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
This is overall an ok experience. I’ve only played through it once and it’s not really that long but there are a lot of different choices and I assume tons of backstories to discover. The characters are overall pleasant to talk to but the story doesn’t really come together well. It feels as if every choice somehow expects me to have taken all the previous options as to create a more authentic group feeling from knowing the characters. That is to say, a lot of characters I hadn’t interacted with were friendly to me and I to them and I even knew their secret or something at times. This made no sense from what I had played. Usually visual novels circumvent this by having routes and a long intro section as to establish a backstory. This is not the case here at all and the game has tons of choices early on. I would assume that at least the first one is just for flavour but overall it starts too early for meaningful ones or doesn’t incorporate the choices made on future events. Another big problem I had was figuring out how fantastical the setting is. From the start I was expecting a normal world setting with abnormal characters but later on it seemed that supernatural phenomenons were actually canon and well known. This was quite a jarring switch for me and I couldn’t really figure out if the early events were just not the kind of abnormal people were used to or if the setting was inconsistent. The plot later on felt really quite weird but I was imagining some kind of child detective setting and therefore not as unusual for this group or something, even if I wasn’t even aware how close they were. Overall it felt like I was supposed to have read the web comic or played out each choice to be eased in. The story itself felt quite unengaging and frankly unrealistic from my point of view. The only truly engaging part was just at the end of the demo, which was too late. Apart from that, the art looked quite good but there were tons of small problems, some weird lines in some character’s drawings, some really rough edges on objects, a character’s art was extremely blurry and the way side character’s were displayed was inconsistent and the distance to the camera was very different to the main cast’s. Also there was a clock which was quite wide. There also was a night sky picture that certainly didn’t seem drawn and was fairly low quality. There was a rain scene in which the rain drops' position resetted on the next text box. I’m looking forward to how the finished release will be.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
ChronoClock
ChronoClock is very enjoyable visual novel. In fact, its such treat, i am totaly in love with it.
Its moege in its best form! If you are not looking for anything complicated and just want to have fun, i would be hard pressed to think of another VN with such high entertaiment value!
Character design is higlight of this VN. All the characters are incredibly well written, they are also out of usual stereotypes which makes interacting with them really refreshing. For example Makoto is girl with yakuza background, who has quite oldtimer beliefs and holds honor and chivalry in high regard (also she is totaly crazy into rabbits), then you have Misaki who at first glance is tsundere, but when teased a little she comes out spilles out her real feelings (come on, honest tsundere? you have no idea how fun she is), or Cro who is goddess but due to certain circumstances she becomes human girl and is expiriencing everything “human” for first time.
– Real player with 48.3 hrs in game
It’s a very enjoyable and straightforward game where you always know on which girl’s route you are. It took me 36 hours to complete.
Story.
I won’t write any details here but I’ll say it’s mostly slice of life type of story. The game promises you it’s nothing serious but that doesn’t mean you won’t cry. I did. It just means there are no bad ends.
Characters.
You have your typical anime archetypes: tsundere, overly attached sister, shy girl, blonde from overseas, etc. Despite beign clichéd they are not boring by any means, in fact I feel each one of them brings something fresh into this pungent bog of stereotypes. There are 6 girls to court, 4 initially available and 2 unlocked after.
– Real player with 36.9 hrs in game
Eternia: Pet Whisperer
I’m not a particularly big fan of visual novels but the premise of this game most definitely is my thing.
! You get to rescue talking, time-travelling animals that live forever. What’s not to love? Who wouldn’t want to take them all home?
The game is charming and sweet, utterly bonkers and very funny - there’s been so many laugh out loud moments for me throughout the game (especially the reference to the size of ratty nads!).
The artwork is just lovely. A gorgeous watercolour, painterly style. Perfect for the tone of the game. The UI is simple and intuitive. The music is adorable and suits the game so well.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
This is a fun, light visual novel about bonding with talking pets, with a small amount of framing narrative and hints about the world in which it’s set (which did subvert my expectations). Each of the pets has a distinct and different (and often quirky) personality, and most of the game is learning about them by spending time with them and thereby earning their trust.
The artwork and music are upbeat and bright, fitting the general tone, and each of the plotlines moves along quickly. It’s very much a visual novel rather than a puzzle game, with your choices mostly being which pet’s storyline to follow each day, but with its brisk play time of 1-2 hours this works fine.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
I Just Want to be Single!!
A dating sim where you avoid cute babes instead of dating them?!
You are Aya - a timid, anxiety ridden mess that wants nothing more than to start fresh in your final year of high school. New school, new people, making friends will DEFINITELY work this time! But in a strange twist of fate, it turns out your new haircut is making everyone in class fall in love with you instead?!
How will you make new friends with cute girls that are looking for more than just friendship?
Key Features:
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Dating is unnecessary: negotiate out of danger using the unique convo battle system.
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Manga/Anime heavy inspired aesthetic.
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Original art and soundtrack brimming with personality.
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Character focused story with an emphasis on humor.
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A lot of jokes. No really, there’s like… five of them.
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Become friends with all of the Love Interests!
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Multiple unique endings with (almost) NO backtracking required.
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A Streamer Mode where you can be INSIDE the game?!
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You can’t date a skeleton in this game. :(
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You can pet the dog though.
Spring Flower
Spring Flower is a “template flip”, that is to say, it’s a “game” that has been produced by copying a game template or using a game construction kit, and changing a few things. In this case it was a game construction kit/template for doing a simple jigsaw puzzle with less than a handful of low res images of Manga art girls. The developer here has done this over a dozen times now:
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Sweet Halloween
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My Sweet Ants
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Mystical Lights
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Cute Girls Love Books
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Otaku Club
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
The Ditzy Demons Are in Love With Me
TL;DR: You won’t find a story if you’re looking for one. But if all you want are part slice-of-life and part romance and all the fluff, you’ll enjoy this one.
The Ditzy Demons Are in Love With Me is one of the longer VNs I’ve played, thanks to the sheer amount of content in each of them.
(mild-major spoilers ahead as I elaborate.)
The first half of the game (the common route) describes the daily life of the MC and the heroines in a more slice-of-life goofy style. Each of the girls have sufficient time spent exploring their exterior character:
– Real player with 95.8 hrs in game
KoiKuma
When the entire underworld loves you.
Preclaimer
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This is an Adult Visual Novel, which is why I consider the R18 DLC part of the whole and will include it in this review. If, for whatever reason, you aren’t interested in this kind of content or aren’t legally allowed to play it, you should look for another game.
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Since many Visual Novels are similiar in a bunch of ways, I’m gonna review this one on a few common aspects, trying to both include references to other VNs and give independent explanations.
– Real player with 46.6 hrs in game
The Mikado Birdgirl in Taichung
Review with accompanying screenshots and video in Sinical Network
https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/the-mikado-birdgirl-in-taichung-review
I recently received a free key of this game from 李處守 through my friend ipa as a translator and beta-tester for this game. The Mikado Birdgirl in Taichung is Erotes Studio’s sixth visual novel release (fourth in Steam) fitting into the romance and thriller genre with science fiction themes. This is a direct sequel to its earlier title The Leopard Catgirl in Miaoli where we follow the male protagonist Wang Cheng-En in a fictitious alternate reality where the island of Taiwan is split into more than 20 different states after every town and city voted for independence. Cheng-En had to flee his hometown of Miaoli after becoming a fugitive and joined a leopard catgirl Pisuka Riya, and a mikado birdgirl Mika, on a new mission in Taichung.
– Real player with 22.4 hrs in game
First of all this is a Sequel to “The Leopard Catgirl in Miaoli” so if you havent played that yet then I recommend checking it out before. Now to the sequel this really feels like an improved version of the first game. The few things that I didnt like about the original were fixed or just improved like the text settings, the resolution and also the translation. They also added voice acting, although I didnt really find it necessary or adding much as it was just kinda monotone. Apart from that the soundtrack was not as fitting in this one and the story was also a bit boring if I am honest cause the entire concept is just very similar to the original game with the exception that the main girl changed and that the country and the bad guys are different. The structure of the story however is quite similar.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game