Gods of Love: An Otome Visual Novel

I wanted to love this game, but sadly it fell flat in every aspect except the artwork. I was one of the few who paid extra to help support it on kickstarter. I was hoping the writing would improve from the demo but sadly it didn't even though the devs finished the game three months early. The writing is childish, there are many plot holes, and the universe isn't properly introduced. I finished 1.5/4 routes and needed to take a break, it was just that bad. Again, the art and concept is amazing but it wasn't properly executed.

Looked through my notes and found out I actually didn't write a review for this game. So here I am organizing my thoughts from half a year ago playthrough xD I backed this novel on Kickstarter. I was lured by a pretty art mainly. I had to support the chance to romance those handsome gods. Believe me, I wanted to love the game. I still think the idea is amazing, unfortunately its realization kinda failed. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1965419669 If you are fine playing something lighthearted, just for the sake of gazing at stunning Gods, this game may be not that bad. It's also a good choice if you are an achievement hunter. Despite the dev's policy to sell the guides, there's a free steam guide now. So, during the sale one can buy easily skippable story and add one more 'perfect' game in the steam profile. I guess my praise stops here. I wasn't a huge fan of the story itself. While beta-testing I encountered many typos, I guess they are fixed now but the very writing seemed poor, at some point it became hilarious how many times the word 'discord' was used, for example. English is a beautiful language, quite rich with synonyms! I usually enjoy even boring stories just because I read them in a foreign language, so no matter the contents it's a nice practice for me. In this case writing seemed too simplistic. After the first playthrough nothing really changes, the story feels too repetitive and may be just practically completely skipped. It looks as if no real effort was applied to this story. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1994614801 Some thoughts about MC. I saw some positive reviews praising a strong-willed MC. For me she was no exception, sadly. She joined an endless list of annoying female characters. Quite often she is too harsh and even rude, with that terrible disgusted face expression. I can understand the appeal of playing as MC with a really strong personality after so many meek shallow female MCs, especially in Japanese VNs. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2015056683 But I see a contrast situation here: male characters are weak, miserable and pathetic. And they aren't mere mortals, they are Gods! Why can't the characters be shown like equals? Because for me it's equally unpleasant to interact with pitiable characters regardless their gender. I play otome to enjoy some heartwarming romantic relationship, and it's impossible to experience when MC is too strong serving as crutches for her too weak, psychologically damaged love option. Sadly, it was such a huge disappointment I decided to refrain from supporting any other projects on Kickstarter. The game is not even cheap to recommend it for the sake of pretty art. I've played too many shallow stories and actually enjoyed them thanks to enjoyable visual part but not in this case, not for this price. [table] [tr] [th]More thoughts about the game in a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/readingnook/discussions/0/1746767652249675263/] Reading Nook [/url][/th] [/tr] [/table]

Decent game, I liked it well enough I guess. Art was the best part, story was a little weak and repeated itself for each route. The characters were decent, but the game was pretty dang short. However the fact that you're selling the strategy guide instead of offering it for free is shady af, so big yikes from me.

Eh.... well, all the negative reviews are right, sadly. The art is pretty but the story is, well, bland. Too preachy. There's no depth. And everything happens too fast. And like someone else said, the dialog being 'modern' doesn't fit. I hate to say it but this one is only recommended if it's on sale and, like me, you collect otomes.

The Gods of Love Review There were a number things that I thought that the developers of “The Gods of Love” did quite well. The artwork was lovely. The characters, for the most part were dynamic and original and different from each other. BUT, in respects to the length of the otome novel this is where the good meets the bad. On one hand, the story didn’t drag on with boring long drawn-out content. I find that, nowadays, if I am not immediately drawn into the story within the first couple lines I tend to get bored easily. However, the feeling that corners were cut were...painful. You can tell the developers put some real heart into it, but so much more could have been done to make it much more. In summary, Thalia is the healer with exceptional healing powers giving the other gods the impression that that there is a goddess in their midst. All of them immediately begin pursuing her in the hopes that they may gain themselves a life-long romantic companion. However, there is an old feud between the gods and Thalia must first mend their hearts if you want to reach the canon end. The courtship happens fairly quickly. You try to play hard to get, but the reality is that it feels like total of three days pass before everything quickly wraps together and you find yourself at the end. This, in turn, affects the conflict, the plot, and the characters themselves. When each god complains about the feud they have with the others they each sort of become a little childish about it. It is not something I expect from gods that lived for centuries and should have the dignity and maturity levels beyond whiny squabbles. Each one of them whines about being innocent victims severely hurt by their brother’s action when some of the charges are actually quite severe and beyond themselves. In retrospect, some of them DO mention they are not completely innocent of their end of the feud, but they sort of act like it. [spoiler] It doesn’t matter that worlds were almost or even completely destroyed. The fact that the other god has done them injury is the greatest injury of them all. They complain about those destroyed worlds and their issues, but it is obvious what really bugs them more. I love my brother, but I am mad because he threw a temper tantrum at me instead of talking to me about his feelings and where he was coming from. The conflict is resolved once most of them admit they overreacted instead of talking honestly to each other. Once that happens, each one is so thrilled to have their brother’s love again and the fact that hundreds or even millions of living creatures were once destroyed goes out the window and are forgotten. [/spoiler] AND....that’s it. There is not much more to say. This is pretty much the entire gist of the novel. And I feel a little bad for this review as I did enjoy some things in it. I also liked Thalia. She wasn’t like some female leads that I’ve read in other otomes novels that are childish and stupid and annoying. But I have to be honest about how I would have felt if I had paid money for it. I owe it to other people I represent. I have seen longer more developed otomes (minus the drawings as they were done quite well), and games in general that are priced much cheaper with much more content and game play value. Based on everything – I would have been choked if I spent that much money on it. Still, I will neither recommend nor sway you from giving it a try, even if this review might seem like it. There are cute moments and hell, far worse out there, but I do think it is overpriced - especially if I compare it to Amnesia or Cinderella Phenomenon.

TL;DR: Do NOT buy this game for its full price. It's not [i]terrible[/i], so if you still want to try it out, wait for it to go on sales. This should not be more than 5€/$, and some games for this price are a lot better. Alright, so, after playing for a few hours and finishing 3 out of the 5 different routes, I feel like this game can be enjoyable if you consider it as a tacky parody of an erotic otome. Let me explain. Most of the game's bad points have been developped in previous reviews, and the most recurring one (and the worst) is that the writing is terrible, scenario-wise and dialogue-wise. It is. First of all, there's little to no introduction to the world you jump in. No opening scene, no opening credits, as soon as you press start you're teleported to Thalia, and 30 secondes later you meet your first God who's acting like a total creep. In a few lines you learn that you're a healer, that deseases have been spreading, that you have super secret magical powers and that gods exist and interact with mortals. Wow, alright. Let's not go too much into details; everything is rushed. The relationships are rushed, the story is rushed, even the decisive scenes between the characters are rushed or even [i]skipped[/i]. Moreover, I've tried at least twice to go back on a choice to see the differences, and the following dialogues were [b]exactly the same[/b] every time. Either I encountered a bug, or the writers were lazy af. I could have liked the game if the purpose was to enjoy an erotic fantasy with mighty, handsome, horny gods, since for this type of story there's no need to beat around the bush, but even that part is rushed and mostly bland. The sexual tension is built up all along the story (which, let me remind you, is pretty short and overly [i]rushed[/i]), but when the time comes to finally act on it, we jump from "yes, I'll sleep with you" (which is still optional) to a CG of the next morning in bed. No description of the act, no internal dialogue to express how it feels to be touched by your lover, no special CG, nothing. The best thing I can mention about the story is that Thalia is actually an interesting character, and you have the possibility to scold, rebuke and refuse the gods' advances when they act like creeps or whiny children. And it happens. So it's not an erotic game, but a bad romantic game, and a terrible visual novel story-wise - exception made for the design. Which is why I call it a joke. From what I can see on steam, the development studio is specialized in Bara/BxB erotic games and has rather positive reviews on these games. They tried their hands at a GxB otome with the same codes (and maybe with even less erotism, I don't know since I haven't played the other games, but they seem more explicit), and failed at it.

tl;dr--buy this game if it goes on sale, but I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it. pros: the art is beautiful, the cgs are beautiful, the sprites are interesting and have fun facial expressions that I haven't really seen in another otome. the story is interesting and I liked the lore behind the gods. I liked the MC as well--she was a rounded, believable character. cons: way too short, given the price when compared to other otomes that cost as much or even less. transitions between scenes were often rushed in a way that made it seem like the writers ran out of time. imagine you're reading a story and the whole time a character is talking about a significant person from their past who you never meet. suddenly, the character has an opportunity to meet this person again, and you, the reader, think you'll get to meet this person as well, but then the story cuts to the day after with the characters basically saying "well, that was fun!". this game does that. there's also a couple typos and sort of weird turns of phrase that I wouldn't mind from a free game but seems very unprofessional for one I paid $16 for. the smut happens off-screen, which didn't bother me but seemed odd given the premise of this game, and you only get 2-3 cgs per route, some of which are used multiple times. when there are so many good free otomes out there, I don't think you should pay for this one, and I wish I would have read the reviews before I bought it instead of going off the consensus.

Within the first five minutes of starting [i]Gods Of Love[/i] I had been propositioned by a moderately attractive fella informing me that I should go with him to his place so that he could have his way with me. Naturally, my reaction to this was a less polite version of “on yer bike matey”. That was certainly the only thing he stood any chance of riding after that introduction. However, did this have the effect of putting me off the game? No. By then (and bear in mind that this was literally a few minutes in) I had already been charmed by the delightful graphics, a simple and clear UI that offered [b]every[/b] function that I have come to expect from a good visual novel, and an MC who appeared to have enough about her personality that it was going to be easy to self-insert without feeling affronted by any imposed character naivete. [h1]Story[/h1] In a time of rampant disease when people across the world are dying in droves, Thalia is in great demand. For she is not merely a skilled healer, but a miraculous one. Our story begins with her visiting her “secret place” to collect herbs which she uses to create fake tinctures to cure the sick. “Fake” because she uses them as a visual diversion away from the truth – that she has been granted magical healing powers but is not permitted to reveal this to anyone. Whilst there she is visited upon by an old man claiming to be seriously ill, and she sets about curing him. However, the old man then drops his disguise to reveal himself as none other than Lysander, the God Of Love, who recognises her deceit and challenges her on it; learning of her secret in the process. As gods go, Lysander is a gossip; and cannot resist revealing the truth of Thalia's powers to his three brothers, all of whom see this as a sign that she is a new goddess, and all therefore want to woo her without delay. Throughout the following period, Thalia learns that the brothers are 100 years beyond the conclusion of a war between two of them which involved all four; and which has left a simmering hatred between them. Such open strife between the gods has now spilled out into the mortal world, causing the spread of fatal disease among the humans. Caught between healing a never-ending stream of patients in her village, bringing up her younger sister and dealing with the amorous advances of four immortal gods; can Thalia [i]also[/i] find a way to bring about cessation of hostility between them and therefore save the otherwise certain demise of mankind? [h1]Gameplay experience[/h1] Initially I was delighted by the game. It is easy to see where the budget went. The artwork is outstanding, probably the best I have seen in a Ren'py created visual novel. Consistency between the appearance of sprites and their CGs is both excellent and a rare treat in itself. I have seen some damning comments about re-use of CGs, but honestly I cannot see the problem. Not only are they a delight to view, but nobody ever complains about backgrounds being used repeatedly in any VN and they are often not as good as these. I firmly support the concept here of fair use. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2025166901 The UI is simple, cleanly presented and responds quickly. I was particularly pleased to find a backstep option available (by pressing PgUp) after playing a run of novels without this most basic of functions. There is no history log, but when you can jump back so swiftly, the need for one is all but eradicated. A 5 page gallery is also included (with 30 scenes to fill) and an assistive voice function (which I confess to not trying out). I thoroughly enjoyed my first route through the game, despite not being too pleased with the only initial romance response options being effectively “Yes” or “Not sure”. Thalia generally knows her mind better than this, I felt that was a bit of a cop-out. The story does fail in a couple of places in that you are going to get shoehorned into a romance with one of the gods whether you want it or not. True, you can ultimately withdraw from a commitment, but you cannot live your life through the story without becoming forcibly involved in a liaison along the way; effectively giving Thalia restricted free will. Subsequent plays through were a little less enjoyable, partially because most of the story had already revealed itself (although there are plenty of unique branches to enjoy; some of the passages are repeated within each route but are treated as being different so you cannot skip them) and partly because even when on an alternate route, you were being told the same thing from a different character perspective, which just wasn't enough to make it feel fresh. The other story failing is a bit of a strange one. What we have is an enjoyable tale, on the whole; and yet it is like a book with some pages torn out. There are a number of places where we have suddenly changed locations and moved on and whilst there is no information hole as a result; it nonetheless leaves a feeling of having “missed a bit”. Text quality generally is excellent. The font choice is clear and very easy to read. It took a while to find [i]any[/i] typos or grammatical mistakes at all, so much so that it became something of a personal minigame to spot them. Whilst ultimately there are some, they are so few and far between that you stand an equal chance of finding a politician who would give you a straight answer to a question. Sadly there was one horrible language error (repeated three times) which may not bother you but which annoyed me intensely and made the characters responsible appear stupid to me, like they did not understand themselves what they were saying. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2025169563 [h1]Verdict[/h1] Whilst I did leave [i]Gods Of Love[/i] running on a couple of occasions when I wasn't there, my active game time would have still hit double figures even if I hadn't, which is a respectable return on investment for this genre. Pricing is mid-range and as mentioned, it's clearly the visuals which have used the budget and you do get good value from them. Despite the enforcement of romantic engagement at the front end of the game, the MC is likeable, strong and intelligent, which always helps. The passages that you should be able to skip but can't are not too painful due to the very swift responsiveness of the UI. It's easy to fast-click through them without overrunning. Those for whom story depth and involvement is everything are likely to feel dissatisfied that they have not been given enough to really get their teeth into for their money, but as an overall package I do feel that this isn't too far away from being at fair value. If you can catch it on sale at something like 20% off, then I believe that this would be enough to fully justify the price tag and give you a few evenings of reasonably enjoyable entertainment. [quote] Please follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/4680120/]Otome Lovers[/url], if you'd like to see more reviews like this one! [/quote]

I bought this game only because of how poor it's reviews were, and wanted to see for myself just what kind of a dumpster fire we had here. I can say two things, and they are all you need to know. It's not worth the price. For only one character that has some personality, but the writing and pacing is so poor it's just not a good use of your time. Don't do the youtuber thing of "it's bad so I should play it regardless for the entertainment value". Just don't.

It's just a bad game. The premise seems promising, but the execution is a let down of massive proportions. The writing is absolutely unforgivable. Cannot be understated: I would not waste my time or money with this game again, and you shouldn't either.