Dice Rollers

《肥宅幻想流水账以及跑团log》

*This review contains no plot spoilers* Despite lacking the tag, this visual novel has the basic set up for your anime-harem dating sim: several visually distinct women with varying personalities who all happen to be stuck with the player character (PC) and are vying for his attention (just not in the usual dating sim way). While I am ambivalent toward such games, I have been on a bit of a D&D kick for the last 3yrs, and this turned out to be a decent visual novel for fans of tabletop games. I came for D&D (it really is in every way but name) and that's exactly what I got: aside from an opening segment where the PC waxes poetic about constantly comparing his life to fantasy realms, even his "mind-boggling" situation of being surrounded by beautiful women is quickly juxtaposed by the fact that they are D&D players. And he is the unfortunate DM to be stuck with difficult, finicky players with differing playstyles. I think any DM can relate to players like this, lol. It is actually hilarious from a storytelling perspective, and while normally I would complain about a lack of PC involvement in the overall story, he's such a dullard and has such little respect or knowledge of actual women that I was perfectly okay with him zoning out and just DM-ing his way through about 70% of the entire game. I can't say much for the software or general design of scene transitions, but I can appreciate the design and detail for each of the main characters and their surroundings. While sexualized in a typical dating sim way, their costume designs are quite good (one or two points aside) and the settings chosen for scenes are actually enjoyable to look at. While it is normal for female characters to have different colors of hair or styles of speaking etc, it was fun to see them interact and get upset with one another over relatable situations when playing D&D. The design choices for each character actually are visually appealing, and it was nice to see such well-drawn art in a visual novel (better than some I've seen from other visual novels and dating sims, tbh...). The storyline is the most interesting part of the game, but I'm admittedly biased towards the plotlines of games moreso than their other features. Some elements are kinda janky, sure, but there is a good bit of development once the characters start expressing themselves more and working through their issues. It is very realistic that such players would get miffed at one another regarding the jarring disparity of their own play-styles. Taking sides with characters as they rage and get upset or grow downtrodden feels much more natural given the circumstance: role-playing as a DM actually gets you feeling rather bad once you get near the end and start discovering *why* the women are acting the way they are. That was probably the most interesting thing in the endgame, that made me go back and play a bit more for the few choices the game does give you: trying to see what the story is behind each woman. And they are actually fairly compelling, which was great. Didn't really expect that from a game like this, I must admit. One of my favorite aspects of the game is the fact that throughout the whole thing, none of the women even appear to have a semblance of attraction to the PC. Which is excellent, as he is a dullard and highly uninteresting in every way. Aside from himself being a semi-decent DM and running a fair game to balance the playstyles of his group (which is really you as the player making the good choices for him) I was very relieved help these women avoid actually falling for him. They all seem to have interesting lives and good backstories, and I didn't want any of them to get stuck with this "can't even imagine a woman would play D&D out of a group of four potential players" PC. I mean really, the odds of not having at least one or two women in a group tabletop nowadays? Please. Definitely not a dating sim, but I'd say that's a good thing given the unappealing PC. I will admit that I was very disappointed that you never get to find out who that mystery 4th player from the message board was. I did expect them to show up at the end, perhaps being an actual man or another woman who perhaps was very scatterbrained or something hilarious, so never seeing the result of that set up was very disappointing. At the end of the day though, the only good thing about the PC is that you can move through his wonton monologues fairly quickly to get to the actual good content: the women talking and interacting and generally having a really good time playing D&D with each other. What's not to like about that?