Pivot of Hearts

Pivot of Hearts is a story about finding love again with a wholesome, positive vibe filled with a unique cast of diverse characters. A great read! ✨ [h2][u]The Story & Gameplay[/u][/h2] In this novel you play the role of Wén Xiàn, a taiwanese-brazilian game dev who has been out of the love game for a bit due to the ending of a painful past relationship. However no matter how hard we try, love will eventually find us. Wén reconnects with an old flame Etsuko from his past at the same time forming a new friendship with his new colleague Cauã. The story goes back and forth between the present day and Wén’s highschool days that introduce you to some of the friends in his life that go way back and establish how he met Etsuko. Interwoven throughout the main story is also a fun d&d campaign that the group engages in which I found to be really fun. The gameplay portion is done by tarot readings (there is a great tutorial if you wish to engage with it but it is optional that explains the basics of tarot cards). So your answer corresponds to each suit of the tarot with each meaning something different like hearts for an emotional response or spades being more logical. Your choices will lead to bonus points you gain in one or more of the suits that allow you to make certain choices (or lose out on dialogue options if you do not meet the required points needed). [i]I will admit I am still trying to get all the endings. It is a matter of picking the right choices to have enough points to pick the right dialogue options. There is probably a proper sequence of responses to lead to each ending that I am still trying to work out.[/i] 🌶️ Spice Level - mild. There is nothing graphic in this novel, overall it is extremely wholesome with just the right amount of caring and affection between characters. [h2][u]Settings & Features [/u][/h2] Settings & features include; text options (speed and skip choices), language, display options, screen quick flashes on or off, audio controls and control options for mouse, keyboard and gamepad. You can hide the hud by pressing H. [h2][u]The Visuals & Audio[/u][/h2] The first thing that caught my attention was the art style of this novel. Really beautiful illustrations for both the main characters and the backgrounds. I also loved all the cg’s that you can unlock. There are slight animations to the sprites as well such as facial expressions. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3483662556 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3483662944 There is minimal voice work (like some grunts, or ahhh’s but not fully voiced). You can turn these off in settings if you wish. The soundtrack is pretty good, and sets a wholesome, upbeat vibe. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3484616575 [h2][u]Wishlist[/u][/h2] The art is so beautiful in this game I do wish there was a gallery. You can see your achievements list in the game (the same ones you unlock through Steam) but when you click on them it does not enlarge the artwork. Hopefully they will add an art gallery to highlight all the gorgeous art and backgrounds! [h2][u]Overall Experience[/u][/h2] The humour in this novel is light-hearted and enjoyable and the writing is so well done. The cast of characters is diverse and interesting, I loved every single one of them. The relationships that developed between Wén and his potential two romanceable choices (one female choice or one male), are believable and relatable. [i]I also love the character of Siguard (wish I could have romanced them)![/i] This novel also features the beautiful and colorful culture of São Paulo through traditions, rich artwork depicting foods and environments and events the characters attend. A great first main visual novel by [i]Dragonroll Studio’s[/i], I hope to see more in the future.💖 [hr][/hr] IndieGems wishes to thank [i]Dragonroll Studio[/i] for providing a free review copy for this game. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. [/quote] [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]

[b]Why not both?[/b] In Pivot of Hearts, you jump into the mind of André Wén Xiàn (aka Wén, aka edgelord magical boy). Taking place in Brazil during June, Wén finds himself neck deep in his work. You see, Wén is a programmer and he is actually developing games for a small, young indie game studio. They’ve been working on a simple RPG game called Healing quest for half a year, but Wén has found himself drowning in his task backlog. Thankfully, the studio was able to hire someone new. Someone that is an artist and can lead the art team as the new lead artist; taking some weight off of Wén’s plate and helping the studio become a more well oiled machine. Don’t worry, it’s not all work here. Bárbara, one of Wén old friends, texts him out of the blue to catch up and offers him a seat at her table for a TTRPG called Castles and Champions. Remembering all the times he played with Bárbara back in the day, which by the way she’s the game master, he agrees. Little did he know that it would allow him to reconnect with someone he thought he would never see again. As you progress through the story, you’ll join Wén as he hangs out with friends, deal with the stress of an upcoming deadline as he tries to make a dent in his backlog of bugs, reconnects with old friends, play a totally not DnD campaign, has memories from his high school days surface again despite wanting to bury them deep in his mind, contend with nightmares as he struggles with aspects of his past, has fun, and find some unlikely romance. Wén never would have expected it, but he’s in for one interesting month. Before going into my thoughts on, well, everything, I wanted to mention the choice system. Pivot of Hearts is a visual novel so you will have choices pop up often for you to pick what Wén does or what he will say (and they do actually represent what he says). Though, there is a twist. Pivot of Hearts has a tarot-based card system in place. It’s basically just a mix of regular cards with the classic suits paired with Minor Arcana to give them meaning abd thus associating them with the different choices you can pick. There are two different decision moments you can get. There are the ones where you will gain cards and ones where you will spend cards. While you’ll know what cards you need to pick a choice, you won’t know what cards a choice will give you. Just that if a decision has all choices that require no cards, you’ll gain some. You can still progress through the game if you don’t have the required cards, but it’s not the ideal choice and often the choices that require cards give you affection points/send you down a branching path. [code]💜 Check out a more in-depth review at [url=https://witchsreviewcorner.com/2025/08/06/pivot-of-hearts-review/]Witch’s Review Corner[/url] 💜 [/code] Overall I ended up enjoying both the story here and the two LIs. I liked the approach Pivot of Hearts took with its storytelling and it was impressive how it managed to hook me. I came for the joke early in the story that made me laugh for a minute straight and stayed for the interesting story and characters. There are a lot of layers to the story and it does a good job with having everything be related in some way and feeding into our understanding of Wén and his backstory. It also did a good job with not feeling like you’re being left out despite the characters having pre-established relationships. I think my favorite aspect is how you can see that Wén did grow since he broke up with his ex, but he hasn’t quite noticed it yet as he’s focused on his negative aspects and spirals easily. Also absolutely loved that Wén got to find out how other people perceived him and I think it helped a lot with him becoming friends with his coworkers. I also liked the romance and how it wasn’t the main focus until the end when it was the last thing that needed to be resolved. Well, technically, the romance and story gets equal focus at one point, but technically it didn’t tip the scales to qualify as the main focus. I feel Pivot of Hearts just has some possible annoyances. Like the card choice system can be a bit annoying when you can’t pick the choice you want to, you can end up with an excess of certain cards, and you do have to do a lot of planning if you want to get all the Affection Points. It was more annoying since there were no guides for the game when I played. You may not like how Etsuko or Cauã explain to Wén the relationship they’re in. I can see some not like the not DnD campaign (and honestly, even I found myself not really paying attention at certain points). Lastly, taking away the UI doesn’t take away what day and time of day it is. Which is annoying when you want to screenshot a CG. The localization here is pretty good. There are a handful of mistakes, mainly towards the end and in the different endings, and a couple weird spots that surely were a mistake; but I didn’t find that it hurt my enjoyment of the game. Since this does take place in Brazil there are some cultural aspects and locations those of us that don’t live there probably won’t know about, but I do feel the game did a good job bridging that gap. The text itself doesn’t go into it, but there are glossary blurbs for the various cultural aspects and locations that the characters visit and talk about. For me, it was enough. I’d say the only thing that someone can be confused about is pouring beer for others if you haven’t consumed other pieces of media where they do this too like Japanese or Korean media; and why Wén has a Brazilian and Chinese name (which personally I haven’t seen before, but this does get explained later in the game with Etsuko). To tie everything up in a bow, I liked the game’s visuals, music, and writing style. The art style is really nice and I loved how diverse the character designs were and how the major characters got multiple outfits. Some backgrounds do look a bit out of place, but it makes sense once you learn that they’re based on photos. I do also appreciate the little details like the campaign having a different font for the text and how the texts Wén gets has that phone overlay. The music is nice too, it does hit that vibe that the locations or scenes give off pretty well and they were pleasant to listen to. Finally, I really liked the writing style here. It has a really nice flow to it that makes it almost addicting to read and I liked the humor that was in the script. There were so many moments where I found myself laughing and I spent a lot of time reading Pivot of hearts with a smile on my face. [h1]Verdict[/h1] Despite playing a bit of the demo and picking this game up purely because the game made me laugh, I was still a bit worried that I would end up not liking it. Luckily, my worries were unfounded as I ended up enjoying Pivot of Hearts quite a lot. So much so that I completed the game in two days and went to get all of the achievements (which I feel doesn’t count as three days playing the game considering I got the last achievement at 5 am). If it wasn’t for the need to sleep and eat, I would have played this nonstop. Like I mentioned before, Pivot of Hearts surprisingly had an addicting aspect to it. I’m sure it helped that I really enjoyed how everything was written here and I found so many aspects of the game relatable. I also enjoyed the romance here, despite being someone that’s not into poly relationships. So yeah, I’d say Pivot of Hearts is a lovely visual novel that I easily recommend picking up. It also seems like the demo will stay up, so you can even see if the story will interest you by trying it out yourself! [code]💜 Check out my other reviews at [url=https://witchsreviewcorner.com]Witch’s Review Corner[/url] or visit my Curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28714255/] The Witch’s Corner![/url] 💜 [/code]

Уфффф. Окей *дихає* я грав в демо, але воно мене не готувало до оцього от всього, тому так: це більше нейтральний відгук, тут занадто багато "але", та оскільки я не всюди впевнений, наскільки гра просто ніц не моя й наскільки все погано насправді, ставлю негативний, бо просто не можу. Одне зауважу одразу: структури тексту та історії тут не існує й є така річ, як достобіса відсилок, це воно. [quote]This is a fan-based parody of The fan-based parody Please don't sue us We have no cash We are just fans We have no life Naruto The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show, LittleKuriboh, далі теж[/quote] Я не хочу про сюжет взагалі, його тут немає, як на мене, це абсолютно дивна мішанина з нічим не обумовлених речей й є враження, що на вас вивалюють всі інтереси команди розробників одразу, потім ще й ще, але давайте я ліпше проілюструю, ок? Це - Вен, він же Андре, він же... дуже хоче поговорити про свою колишню. А це - Ецуко, давайте разом процитуємо Утену й ще раз поговоримо про колишню Вена. До речі пародії на ігри, пародії на аніме, всім уважно зауважити, що герої - нетакусіки, затямили?!! Тепер давайте ще поговориимо про пародії, закосплеїмо ендінг оригінального Евангеліона, й поговоримо про колишю Вена, в сні Вена. Тому що купи ігор в грі, флешбеків та пасхалок ЗАМАЛО. Герої - нетакусіки, шо не ясно? *продовжує дихать* [quote]David Bowie will never understand the pain I feel inside, the pain that comes from being intensely gorgeous and loved by millions of people around the world. God I hate myself.[/quote] Загалом візуалка з технічного боку добра: мальовка, налаштування, фонова музика з текстом це не моє, але ну най, озвучення я навіть проілюструю, вимкнув його приблизно на перших 20 хвилинах, бо було враження, наче у всіх героїв чи то ковід, чи то вони ніколи в житті не розмовляли. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3637736531 Текст, якщо не зважати на його зміст, теж норм, там було з десяток десь помилок, але не жахливо, просто враження, що райтери (їх троє) ніколи в житті не читали жодної книги. Навіть роути дуже-дуже мінімально відрізняються один від одного й спроби зробити гру "не моногамною", замість просто одразу поліаморної... ну, не бачу сенсу, зате її треба хоч раз пройти повністю, щоб це все відкрити, ммм. Коротше мені дійсно зовсім нема що тут похвалити крім технічного боку, сам не знаю, як продерся крізь цю кашу, от зараз дивлюся на цей відгук й розумію, що треба міняти на негативний, бо я не можу, мені фізично зле від того, наскільки гра не працює, як історія. [strike]Гра змусила мене процитувати пародію на Наруто, все от настільки погано. *втік прикладати до хворої голови адекватне медіа, яке ніхто не пародіює, бо воно аж настільки невідоме*[/strike] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3636998387

Pivot of Hearts não me entregou um final épico no sentido clássico — ele me entregou algo mais raro: um espelho. Um lembrete de que às vezes a gente vai jogar a vida com cartas faltando, pulando diálogo sem querer, tropeçando em bugs que não afetam a jogabilidade, mas afetam a gente por dentro. E ainda assim, vale continuar jogando. Esse jogo me fez rir do nada, repensar decisões, me conectar com personagens como se fossem velhos amigos, e até sentir a insegurança que o Wén escondia entre um silêncio e outro. E quando percebi, eu também estava interpretando um papel — tentando ser mais honesto comigo mesmo. Talvez a carta certa nem exista. Talvez o segredo esteja em jogar mesmo assim. E se isso não for uma das lições mais bonitas que um jogo pode deixar, então eu não sei o que é. [url=https://www.gamerpoint.com.br/analises/pivot-of-hearts-review-pc/] Review Completa [/url]

Uma incrível visual novel, recheada de referência e ainda tem um sabor muito mais especial sendo BR ❤️

Só pelo comecinho, já dá pra ver que o Pivot of Hearts é divertido, charmoso, e cheinho de coração. Tô super animado pra jogar o resto, mas já fica aqui minha recomendação

A cute and funny visual novel. While it has an overall "slice of life" feel, it's main focus is on different, and possibly more enjoyable, ways to nurture and grow your relationship with others.

Muito massa! A amizade entre os personagens é uma das mais autenticas que vi em jogos, e a mecânica das cartas de tarot tambem é muito divertida

Can't recommend this game enough, might be one of the best visual novels I have ever played (and I just finished the first chapter!) You can palpably feel the passion and care the developers had for the world, the characters, the music, the illustrations, everything. Not to mention the ambience and themes being so unique and well-developed, this makes it a one-of-a-kind game. Can't recommend it enough, and can't wait to see what else the game has to offer

Artes extremamente lindas e cativantes, com uma historia muito envolvente. Eu AMEI!