[b]"A kiss is a secret told to the mouth instead of the ear; kisses are the messengers of love and tenderness." - Ingrid Bergman[/b]
[i]Con Amore[/i] is the only otome VN hailing from Team Taju, and it cannot be called a spectacular first trial. As far as the VN genre goes, we are already at the point that players would prefer some character depth concerning romance options, and even other route independent characters. The title of the game means "with tenderness", yet here things are pretty basic in a not so "tender" way, leaving the game with no replay value and no way to empathize with the characters. There is a wardrobe function, which can alter the affections of the chosen romance - which is a nice enough option, yet even that part of the game is pretty limited.
Here, we take the role of Claudia, a college student who majors in music. She attends a rock concert of the famous star Zeal, with her roommate, Bae - which ends up introducing both Alex and Daniel into her life through a series of awkward encounters. There are some "not so mysterious mysteries" engulfing both men, and you'll be free to make them hopelessly in love with you in the span of a week, if you chose you answers in conversation right. You mostly chose either your school – Alex’s environment – or your work – Daniel’s environment – which will end up bringing you together. Other than these beaus, and your roommate, no other character has any depth, any impact or any meaning. You chose whom to pursue and get your happily ever after.
About display... well, I really have nothing pleasant to say. There are only 4 character avatars to begin with, and even their facial expressions are not that various, and they do not even change posture. Background art is pretty generic, and for a game about music, the soundtrack isn't even the slight bit impressing. The writing is riddled with spelling mistakes, and even repeated words. I really wish they'd pick a proofreader before publishing these things. Conversations themselves fail to set any kind of mood, and aside from a couple of main events, all small bits of occurrences are left unresolved. You get you happily ever after with your beau - or belle - and that's it.
Aside from your usual choice options, you are given the option of picking what you'll be wearing for that day from some really limited options, and within all, only 3 pieces end up affection or event related. The game - even with the wardrobe function - feels unfinished. It's as if they imagined it to be more as they started, yet they got bored and wrapped it up clumsily in the middle of things.
Well, [i]Con Amore[/i] ends up being an excerpt out of a 90s romantic comedy, and not in a good way either. The awkward social interactions, the dashing businessman, the insecure poet, the last-minute fight based on a misunderstanding and the romantic make-up convo - this VN has it all. It simply chews on the thousand-year-old formula with some cartoon figures. Color me not impressed at all.
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