Our Home, My Keeper

[b]Note:[/b] A very wonderful friend gifted me a copy of this game. ^^ [h1]A sweet yuri story that has a few unexpected surprising twists. XD[/h1] [h2]Introduction[/h2] [i]Our Home, My Keeper[/i] is a kinetic, yuri visual novel developed by Studio Élan and ebi-hime and published by Studio Élan. You take on the role of Paige, a young, successful writer who has recently moved from London to the English countryside town of Eltram, partly because she hopes to get out of her current writer's block. However, she has trouble settling into her new home, even having random nightmares on top of her already struggling to write a new story. Paige's despair gets very bad to a point that things would have turned out tragically, had not a fairy (whom Paige later names Faye) rescues her. Faye then explains that she's the house's protector and she tries her best to keep the imps, beings who prey on people's negative emotions, away. Despite these unusual turn of events, Paige may just find the inspiration for her new story and also, fall in love along the way. ^^ With the gameplay, the story is linear, so no choices are present. You play through the game from beginning to end. Several beautiful CGs are shown, and there's a varied soundtrack although no voice acting. Also, Steam achievements are available, but they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "Steam is learning about this game". [h2]Review[/h2] I've enjoyed a lot of visual novels by both Studio Élan and ebi-hime. It's pretty obvious for those who've followed my reviews and curator. XD Thus, I was ecstatic when I first learned about this collaboration from these two, which resulted in [i]Our Home, My Keeper[/i]. Probably goes without saying that I wanted to read this as soon as I could, and thanks to a wonderful friend, I got the chance to do so. [h3]Story and Writing[/h3] The story starts off a bit slowly, introducing us to Paige and her new home as well as her best friend, Niamh, although she's a minor character. After Paige finishes moving in, Niamh gifts her a very special doll crafted by her own hands, as Niamh is a famous dollmaker. When Paige's random nightmares happen and then she gets rescued by Faye, who inhabits the doll, that's when events start to get interesting. The story has a few scary moments with regards to Paige's nightmares and a bit of backstory about Faye and the previous house's inhabitant as well as a pivotal point that happens very late in the story. Overall, though, it has a sweet, lovely tone with a happy ending. As for Paige and Faye, I enjoyed witnessing their blossoming relationship and how they complement each other well. Faye has a happy, optimistic view of the world that contrasts with Paige's more practical view. Of course, Faye's attitude rubs off on Paige, and that could contribute to her eventually being able to write again. Their romance is very sweet and cute, which is my favorite yuri. As for the writing, the pacing is good. The quality is what I've come to expect, as I've read a lot of ebi-hime's VNs. I didn't notice any typos or grammatical errors, so if they were present, they've since been fixed. The length of the story is on the short side, but I like that I was able to finish this in a few hours. It took me around 4 hours to do so although I am a slower reader. (I like to take my time to fully enjoy and take in a story. ^^) Also, I'll just quickly mention that I had no problems unlocking all of the achievements. [h3]Art and Music[/h3] The art is quite beautiful. The sprites are done in the usual anime style, and they're drawn and colored well. Also, the backgrounds are drawn and colored well. Especially, the CGs are absolutely gorgeous, and I like the artist's style. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3721367939 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3721368080 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3721368260 In regards to the music, the tracks are lovely to listen to, and they have a great variety. They're placed well in the scenes they're in, and there's even a vocalized track in the ending credits, which I thought was a nice touch. As I mentioned earlier, there's no voice acting, but it's really not necessary in order to enjoy this story. [h2]Conclusion[/h2] Would I recommend [i]Our Home, My Keeper[/i]? If you're looking for a short but sweet yuri visual novel, you don't mind the few slightly, briefly scary scenes, you especially enjoy VNs by ebi-hime and/or Studio Élan, and/or you like getting those Steam achievements, then this is worth checking out. For the asking price, it might be a bit steep, but considering the high quality and how much time and effort was put into this VN, it's up to personal discretion. Of course, you can choose to wait for a sale, and it's in a couple of Steam bundles. ^^ [quote]For more detailed, fully complete, high quality reviews like this, please follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url], prioritizing heart and soul always. ^^[/quote]

This is a good yuri visual novel. Having ebi-hime and Studio Elan making one together is a real treat. It has a great OST, good art, and engaging characters. However, I felt it has some pacing issues. For a relatively short VN it takes way too long to get to introduce the love interest and plot, and then the plot and romance drama is resolved a little too quickly, and it's followed by a long and largely superfluous epilogue. I would have liked to see the main elements of the story breathe a lot more, as I'd love to see more of Paige and Faye coming to know and understand one another. It's definitely a good experience overall, though.

Ok so first this game isnt a game. It is just a novel with a few full screen illustrations and nothing more. Literally a light novel that honestly would have probably been more suited as a paperback with color fold out illustrations or a kindle book. Its advertised as a 75K word count linear visual novel with zero choices. I honestly had never heard of a VN like that before and said hey lets try it. 12 hours later, reading out loud for my stream I realized I hated it. There are so few scenes of the main couple doing anything romantic that its such a waste, and the game seems to have been proofread by ai because the amount of typos, double sentences( yes you read that correctly) and weird punctuation, honestly, it made this so hard to read it hurt. Run on sentences everywhere. The typefaces used, lack of proper kerning, lack of commas, etc. Its just a slog. I feel like it was written by a person but the studio didnt want to waste money on proof readers and then just used ai agents to make sure it was ok and those agents messed up the script. The script was not rechecked after proofreading by an human, and then just copy and pasted into Ren py (The main VN software companies like this use which is open source.) I honestly cant recommend this. Spoiler There is one "chapter" where the fae needs a new body and there are 3 bodies to choose from. In any regular VN this would be when you save scum and pick a body and then get a bunch of divergent paths with gallery image unlocks. The script even fakes you out by making it seem like you might be able to pick the new body of the fae but then 2 seconds later she just picks for herself and you go back to reading for 6 hours. It felt like a slap in the face. Yes it's advertised as having no choices but, and i mean this seriously, this point in the story felt like the devs were laughing at the reader like the imps tormenting the main cast whispering," Haha you thought you had purchased a game, too bad go back to rereading the same sentences over and over as characters regurgitate things from previous chapters almost like ai wrote this."

TL;DR Amazing art and music, adorable game, such a cute premise and solid writing, although too short for my liking. My review will be split up into non-spoiler and spoiler sections: NON SPOILER Art: The art is absolutely top notch. The designs for the characters are so adorable. It’s hard to not fall in love with Faye. I enjoy unique eyebrows and so Paige’s design initially drew me to the art when I first saw screenshots on social media but my heart was captured by Faye. Music: Really great mix of piano and atmospheric tracks and fantastic ending song. Story: The characters are delightful. I appreciate the simplicity of the setting and the story leans into a very sappy sweet place while nicely contrasting it with some darker themes. I absolutely love the premise of meeting this a doll girl Faye in the English country side. SPOILERS: ------ Art: The fact that 3 of the 4 girls depicted in the story all share the same fringe haircut was pretty funny, clearly madi the artist’s preference for this hairstyle is undeniable. Luckily it’s an adorable style, but hilarious to have Faye be so similar to Niamh. Music: There’s some great tracks in the OST- some great atmospheric tracks like Apparition and Unease is PERFECTLY unsettling really enhancing those sections of the story. The OST strikes such a great balance between the heartfelt cutsie moments and the more serious moments. I’m particularly a fan of the ending music by Singto & Moon Jelly. Story: The parts I loved about the story was of course the premise and the build up to each reveals. Great detail like the indulgence in descriptions of tea. Despite the length of the novel, there was still enough time to build anticipation for the reveal of the doll coming to life. Niamh’s character was intriguing. I was left wondering about her and Paige’s past relationship. That question lingered because of the visual similarity between her and Faye. I’m also curious how much of ebi-hime’s own experience with burnout/writer’s block made its way to the story. It was so cute and wholesome how Faye can only inhabit the doll because it was made with love. A very touching nod to craftsmanship. My critiques story wise- while I loved where the story went in regards to the history of the house and the mystery of Faye’s relationship with Elise, I wish we’d had more time to explore the challenges a doll and a girl’s relationship. It draws up so many questions- Why does Paige accept a talking doll so quickly? I’d want to spend hours talking with Faye learning about the spirit world and that magic is real! All while questioning whether loneliness has driven me insane. This is a personal taste thing, but having Faye become full sized effectively made her just like any other human girl since the story never explored the nature of her body being a doll. I wish the story had dived deeper into Paige trying to make her relationship with a doll sized girl work. Maybe Faye couldn’t make her tea, but she could fix the broken teacup with her tiny hands. We only got 1 kiss!! (at least depicted in a CG). I was hoping for more romance in general but it really felt more like a fluffy mystery with cute characters. Ultimately critiques aside, the interactions between Paige and Faye are so so cute, ebi-hime made Faye so lovable and I really enjoyed the read.

A bit disappointing for the doll perverts maybe, but otherwise a sweet and charming little love story. Short, good artwork, and pleasant music. Another fine visual novel from Studio Elan and Ebi-hime.

If you'd told me a couple of months ago that Studio Élan and Ebi would be collaborating, I'd have laughed. And it happened... what can I say? A masterpiece. I only have one regret... how much I would have loved it if they'd given voices to the characters in one of Ebi's stories. I hope this little wish of mine can come true in the future. 10/10 (there's no extra with Ebi's thoughts. Very, very sad)

A lovely yuri story between a writer and a fairy

Studio Élan X ebi-hime的夢幻合作，一個妖精附身到前女友送的人偶的故事。一開始還以為故事會圍繞著主角Paige和Faye以及前女友Niamh展開，結果並不是，整個主線是跟著這個家過去發生的事有關，當然最終依舊是完美的雙向救贖百合故事(只是壽命論...算了通常沒提到就不要去細想)

I love both Studio Élan and ebi-hime so I'm happy to see that they collaborated on this! As I had hoped/expected from them, I enjoyed the characters, writing, and art. To be honest, I had very lofty expectations, hoping this would be the best of both Studio Élan and ebi-hime... I wouldn't say it met such dreams, but I still liked Our Home, My Keeper. I wish this game had voice acting like most of Studio Élan's other works, especially with someone as bubbly as Faye.

I too want my own brownie in my cozy cottage (but minus the imps please, they're giving the itch).