Nova Hearts

I feel harsh putting a thumbs down since it's really not [i] the worst [/i] game I've ever played, but my disappointment in Nova Hearts is so immeasurable that I can’t help but not recommend it. For some positives, the art and character designs are great! The cast feels diverse and silly, I liked most of them on a surface level. The music, backgrounds, and combat animations are very stylized and fun. This game is nice to look at, no complaints in that department. Even the UI is responsive and matches the theme. I liked it! However, that’s all the nice ♥♥♥♥ I have to say about it. To start with the obvious, a lot of people mentioned the combat in their reviews because honestly it's the worst part about this game. It’s slow and painfully tedious to understand. You are constrained to a literal timeline at the bottom of the screen that can be slightly sped up, delayed, or even disrupted. It sounds cool in concept, but it’s not cool at all. Every ability you use costs a number of turns to “prepare” and that will plop your characters “turn” on the timeline. Everyone's first “turn” is to “prepare/plan” what you wanna do on your next turn. The combat is to rinse and repeat that process. The character attacks (or heals/buffs) and then you “plan” the next turn on the timeline. However, since all the abilities have set “prepare time”,[b] that can never be upgraded by the way [/b], a lot of time your character is going to die before you can heal them, they are going to attack before you can buff them, or the ability is going to take 6 turns before it goes off and it's SO SLOW to kill anything. Honestly, nothing about it was fun. Then, to make matters worse, the enemies can sometimes just disrupt your turn entirely, meaning you don't GET TO ATTACK. And when they are hitting you for half your HP, [b] that can never be upgraded by the way [/b], one turn wrong is all it takes to make you restart. I managed to get to the end of the story in 7 hours and honestly, it's due to the fact I could skip the combat entirely. Just an instant win button. I’m not even kidding. But that still didn’t even save the game for me. After deciding I’m going to skip the absolutely abysmal combat every single time, I still felt like the game didn’t give a ♥♥♥♥ about what the player actually wanted to do. Do you really like character X? You can’t talk to them until they are relevant in the story. Do you not like poly relationships? Too bad almost everyone in the game is into open relationships. (no shame, just where are the options???) I personally decided to go exclusive with May (I got the achievement for it) and EVEN SHE tells you that you can cuddle and kiss other people. Just no bedtime tango. AND even choosing to shoot down the poly request between CJ and Will, I still kissed her at the end. I won’t say more than that cause spoilers, but like what the hell? How is this LGBTQ+ friendly game so short sighted? There is so much more to being gay, trans, queer, than just flirting and sleeping with everyone. It's almost insulting. Regardless, I think I could speak on my disappointments about the game forever. I wanted a cozy, mysterious, gay love story where my MC is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ magical girl and fights evil. And all I got was a bunch of horny characters that talk about how hot everyone is and a half baked story with a rushed ending.

[b] Recommended... but this game has some issues to be aware of. [/b] I really love this game. The diverse characters and magical girl concept stole my heart. The cut scenes are gorgeous! The turn-based combat was such a fun spin on the visual novel dating sim concept. As a lover of both turn-based/action RPGs, visual novels, and dating sims I found the combo unique and enjoyable. I loved the mystery of Luce's secret friend and the story as a whole, I loved the interactions between all the characters and building my relationships with them and discovering which responses worked best with each one. Most of the hours I've played has been trying to find all the possible endings and special episodes for each character. I really wanted to see where each path took me. What effect would rivalry have on my interactions with characters? Where would max friendship or love take me? For a more casual playstyle, I found this game to be super enjoyable, and while the combat could be challenging, you got xp towards your abilities to help make them stronger when you failed which helped a bit for additional attempts. The devs also added an "Instant Win" button for those who prefer no combat, which was also a nice touch. Unfortunately, if you're a completionist (like myself) some of the special episodes / achievements seem to be broken currently, which is sad, because I was so close to seeing all of them. There is still hours of fun to be had in this game even with the issues though, so I'm marking this as "recommended" on my review instead of not. [u] Issues I Encountered [/u] [list] [*] All issues I encountered are documented here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2506290/discussions/0/798964126635407475/ [*] [i] Posted the link to the discussion instead of including them in my review because it contains spoilers!! [/i] [/list] [table] [tr] [th]For more reviews and recommendations check out the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45071674-Under-Starry-Skies/] Under Starry Skies [/url] curator page![/th][/tr][/table]

I got this game in a bundle with Boyfriend Dungeon, which i am a HUGE fan of. And the premise seemed very similar, and in a lot of ways, it is! I think the art is really pretty, though sometimes looks a bit AI generated but i'm probably wrong. The writing is fun and the characters feel interesting. But the combat is a SLOG. The combo attacks are fun but otherwise it just tales too long and isn't dynamic enough for me. I also wish you had a bit more control over where and what you do. I know it is a visual novel, but it really did kinda feel like you have no REAL autonomy outside of who you decide to flirt with, which i found frustrating. Also not huge on the player character being so set for us. I thought it would be similar to BF Dungeon where you can customize your gender and appearance, but I guess not. Which is fine, just not for me. All to say, it's a fine enough game but if you came here because you saw this and BF Dungeon bungled together, they are not similar past surface level stuff.

I really wanted to like this game. It's cute and it offers a bunch of cute romance options (Hello Basile, Donald, and May) but they are dead set and determined to make you be polyamorous. It's simply impossible to have a normal conversation with your friends Will and CJ without feeling cornered into romantic conversation. It gives you the option to turn them down but they keep asking and also there is no shift to just being friendly. I hate that they force CJ on you as well since in at least the 4+ hours I've played the MC never gets comfortable with them, and CJ will be strange and awkward with you and then immediately propose that you be romantic partners. None of it feels natural or normal. I could sense they were laying the groundwork for a twist and I do think it was well foreshadowed if you're paying attention whatsoever, but the twist itself also forces you into another romantic situation you might not have wanted. Overall, the story is nearly unbearably horny. You've just come back from being gone what seems to be a somewhat long period of time, and none of your apparent best friends or those close to you (besides your mom who is a gem) want to know anything about you, what you got up to, or how you've changed, they just want to sleep with you as soon as possible. It's bizarre.

Have just finished a 6 hours long first run. I would say that I mostly enjoyed the game but their were some very great moments and some pretty annoying, which make the whole experience kinda "meh". The Pros : - Great LBGTQIA+ representation (trans, gays, polyamourous, ace...) - The dating sim part was globally quite pleasant - The art is amazing. Being a magical girl myself, I can testimony of its girliness (does that word exist ?!) - The plot, with a big reveal in the final chapter (chapter 5) that I didn't see coming, which match perfectly the magic and queer vibes of the game. - great pacing : fights, dates and mysteries come one after another The cons : - Need some balance changes : the queen is really hard to beat with her special attack canceling all of yours. I ended up in a time loop when I couldn't do anything T_T - Everything is so slow in combat : one animation after another ... just combine them. Turn base RPG are my favorite, because I can play at my own speed, but with Nova Hearts, I had to wait for the game to be ready again and again, during the fights. - The epilogue was abrupt, after YouKnowWho left, just a quick party where nothing mentionnable happened. Was this because of Luce's relationship with the other characters in my game ? Can't tell after a single run.

I'll be real. This game isn't top tier. But you know what? It's cute. I like the art style, I like being able to flirt with everyone and date most people, it's fluffy queer trash, dyed hair and pronouns and all. And honestly, I like that. If you might like that too, and aren't too fussed about whether the game is technically proficient, give it a try! If not, give it a miss.

The game is only good if you want to follow the non-committal relationship with Will route. Which is like fine but for a game that seems to base itself around being in a relationship that suits you it clearly feels like they didn't want you to do anything else. [spoiler] I entered a an exclusive relationship with May only for the final cutscene of the game to have Luce kissing will and then the game doesn't even give you a choice to follow through with the job offer that May gives you. Genuinely just really disappointed [/spoiler]

Repetitive and slow turn based combat, The romance options dont matter because of a set ending (unless my game glitched) and I dont like the game enough for another playthrough to see if there are any other endings. Shame because I loved othercide and bought this to support the studio. My very first thumbs down on steam and a solid 2/5

Que dire mise à part que le jeu était fantastique jusqu'au premier boss L*** hormis le langage des personnages c’était le seul point négatif mais ensuite hélas plus on avance et plus le jeu semble moins travailler sur les relations, les boss et la difficulté qui s'accrue sans qu'on puisse rien y faire. Pourquoi pas de cinématique pour les romances qu'on a choisit, seulement un petit rencard alors que celles en jeu sont fantastique ? Pourquoi pas d'appli pour pouvoir pex et améliorer nos compétences pour pouvoir éviter les game over en boucle? Certains joueurs ne pourront pas finir le jeu :/ Pourquoi le boss final il n'y a qu'une seule attaque d'un de mes personnages qui était utile? En plus que seul le soigneur survivent et fasse le boulot ça craint x) Les combos super idées mais au final sur le milieu et fin du jeu plus possible des les utiliser, ils étaient toujours annulé par l'ennemi.... Vraiment il y avait de quoi faire quelque chose de sublime mais quand la fin est tombé avec ma commu on c'est tous dit "C'est tout?" J'ai voulu faire 3 romances, je n'ai eu qu'un baiser de 2/3 alors que ça collait super bien avec le troisième ouvert à la polygamie... Et les persos qui parle en franglais, sms, avec des mots péjoratifs et rabaissant d'autrui ou d'un sexe, on s'en passerait sur un jeu pronant la tolérance et l'ouverture d'esprit x) Pourquoi pas de new game+ ? Et pourquoi pas de musique pendant les crédits ? Oui je les regardent parce que même si je suis déçu que ça n'a pas été poussé, j'admire le travail des devs pour le début que j'ai adoré à fond ainsi que la DA et les musiques au top! Du coup j'aurais du m’arrêter à la démo faite ya un an parce que c’était le jeu que j'attendais le plus de l'année et ça me rend triste que le reste du jeu me donne une sensation de baclé :/ Du coup j'aimerais mettre mitigé mais il n'y a que non recommandé ou recommandé sur steam car pour moi c'est un 10/20 Mais je garde l'espoir d'une suite avec la même base en plus poussé <3

Quite boring. I did not care to finish as felt like a loss of time. I also feel like Will is supposed to be the main character (or did the dev selfisert?). She is EVERYWHERE. She dated EVERYBODY. She is constantly on your screen. The MC is just kinda in the background. Also, I find it a bit of a turn off that she constantly reminds the MC that she dated (or currently dates) people that MC might be interested in - CJ, the cool guy? Will is dating him. Sacha, the curt high school sweetheart who seems to be head over heels for the MC? Will dated him. Basile, the sexy bartender? Will dated him. I think the art is great but the story and the characters suck quite a lot