A full, uncut version of this review is on the [url=https://otomelovers.com/2026/02/03/loser-named-hana-review-by-celtic7guardian/]Otome Lovers website.[/url]
[h3]Introduction[/h3]
When I read the two-sentence summary of this game on Steam, I was immediately concerned. "Loser Named Hana is a friendship-building visual novel. You respond to an ad advertising $100 a week to be the lonely college student, Hana, friend." An error before even making it to the game? Still, I went in with as optimistic of an outlook as I could. Unfortunately, Loser Named Hana had flaws that went just beyond its technical writing. Its characterization and story left me wanting at best and disgusted at worst.
[h3]Graphics[/h3]
One aspect of this visual novel that I sincerely enjoyed was Hana's design. She's cute in a dorky fashion, just as I would hope from someone like her. Her outfits are colorful and unique without being outlandish, the bandages and missing tooth give a good portrayal of her klutzy nature, and she has a large variety of great expressions. Also, the cartoonish art style used for all the characters is appealing to me. The characters outside of Hana do not show up for very long, but for what little time they are present, they have memorable designs.
The backgrounds are more of a mixed bag. Some of them work, such as the art used for legally-distinct Minecraft and at the beach. Others were not as good, like the convention backgrounds and at the party. The latter was especially bad; apparently the frat party with cheap alcohol had a conductor for their band, along with a blender that towered over their coffee machine and crumpled construction paper in their shopping bags.
[h3]Sound[/h3]
Let's talk about the voice acting. Hana is specifically described in-game as having an obnoxious voice. They succeeded in this by giving her a high-pitched voice that sounds completely unnatural. In terms of being accurate to what they want for the character, the dev struck gold. In terms of my enjoyment, I struck bedrock. I would have much preferred if there was no voice acting at all. That way I would be left to imagine just how bad it might be without my ears having to suffer for it. Oddly, outside the first conversation with Hana, she has no voice acting. It's fortunate for me, but it also makes me question even more why they have her talking at first.
As for the other characters, I'm not sure why two were given voices while the rest were not. There's nothing wrong with these two voices, but they feel pointless to add at best. At worst, it's jarring to suddenly have dialogue being voiced when it rarely is otherwise. The good news is that you can skip all of this by simply turning off the voices from the menu. The bad news is that if you actually want the voice acting, you're in for a rough ride.
The music is forgettable. None of the tracks are going to stick with me, though they at least were fine as background tunes. The exception is the overly-sad music box-like theme that plays during Hana's infodumping about her tragic backstory. It felt like that track was trying to carry the emotions of that scene to such an extent that it was comical.
[h3]Gameplay[/h3]
Loser Named Hana loves to give the impression that you have lots of choices. This is shown by how your character can be customized. Getting to type in your name and username is good. The problem comes with how your character identifies themselves and their job. You get tons of options, from cisgender to agender to transgender, and you can pick pronouns. All it does is have Hana briefly comment on your choice. If you say you're working, you get 25 different choices for your job, and once again, they get a single acknowledgement at max before not mattering.
The game tells you outright that your personality types can be: Kind, Mean, Neutral, or Playful. Depending on which you pick, your character will have some lines change. However, this is inconsistent, and it makes for tonal whiplash in a lot of scenes. For instance, at the beach scene on my first run, my character was nice to Hana for most of the event. Then Hana drops her ice cream, and you choose whether to give her yours or get another one. I decided the nicer option was to get her a new one. This led to my PC ranting at her about how this was more like a babysitting job and she'd have to pay double the amount of the ice cream to get a new one. What the bloody heck happened to make the PC suddenly become so vicious?
Something else that stood out is how the game told me that Hana would not leave you. I dislike this for multiple reasons. One, it's telling me that my choices ultimately don't matter much in the long run. Two, it's giving away how the ending will play out. Three, whether the dev meant for this or not, it feels as if I'm being given permission to abuse Hana because, hey, she's so desperate for a friend that she's fine with this! If a game gives me options to be a jerk, I want to have guilt for choosing those options. Instead, I don't have to care, and that breaks immersion.
On the technical side, the summary was indeed a forewarning of typos being in this game. There were also two glitches that I ran into. One was that if you pick the Nurse job option, the game acts as if you chose that and then the Data Entry option. The other, which is far more glaring, is that if you pick your convention activities in certain orders, then the scene with the actress will play twice.
[h3]Story[/h3]
The game has five 'acts' that make up the plot: the PC meeting Hana, playing a game, going to a con, going to the beach, and going to a frat party. Some of this is fine in theory. I don't expect a world-shaking story from a game focused on befriending a single character. The strengths should be in the characterization more than the plot. In execution, it could have been far better.
Hana feels more like a caricature than a character. She's got an overly high-pitched voice, she trips over nothing, she drools over all the mainstream nerd culture hits, she constantly self-loathes herself out loud, and she's got her 'quirky' love for dead animals. Those should be character traits, not the character themself. I think this could have been strengthened by having some different activities. Perhaps Hana could ask to pick up roadkill, find fossils, or visit a museum. I would much rather have had one of those over the frat party, which made no sense to me. The beach scene is also atrocious. For my full spoiler thoughts on these story issues, check my uncut review.
[h3]"Woke"[/h3]
When you are asked for your character's gender, there is another option: "I don't want woke content!" Bemused, I decided to select that first. My curiosity was 'rewarded' with the developer telling me I was a loser and closing out the game automatically.
First of all, if your game is closing itself automatically, it'd better have a good reason. Second, why does this option even exist? Third of all, if 'anti-woke' people are losers, does that mean Hana is 'anti-woke' as well?
I guess putting in trigger warnings would have been "too woke" though, seeing as there is no mention of the game containing elements of death (by childbirth and alcohol), suicidal idealization, and abuse.
[h3]Conclusion[/h3]
Loser Named Hana had the potential to be a cute story about befriending a shy and self-conscious girl with many wholesome moments. Instead, it's a shallow experience that stretches itself thin. There are too many issues with its gameplay and story for me to be appeased by its adorable-looking protagonist. I suggest saving your time and skipping this one.
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