Purrfect Date - Visual Novel/Dating Simulator

Based on the premise alone, I was expecting this to be wackier/more ironic, and I probably would have believed that even more if I’d seen the trailer. Honestly, though, I kind of love the way this game commits to the bit. It’s silly and lighthearted, but it’s by no means a sh*tpost. In just a single playthrough, you get to play with multiple characters and pair them up with the cats of your choice. Even though the player characters are a bit cut and paste, it’s fun to play matchmaker thanks to their expressive avatars, and the cats all have great personalities. The character expressions are silly, and sometimes the writing has flashes of self-awareness, but the characters, their relationships, and the premise itself are taken seriously, albeit presented in a light-hearted tone to soften it. The more serious elements might have felt a bit out of place, but the game is not embarrassed by them nor does it dwell on them too long, so you buy it. There are only a couple short moments that might feel off depending on your tastes, especially that scene [spoiler]where a random cat gets murdered during a surgery.[/spoiler] One might expect a visual novel that’s neither here nor there on the silly scale to feel awkward, but it strikes the right balance, breezy and cute. This was going to be a solid recommendation until I went back to see more endings and secrets. Unlike other visual novels, you can’t jump around the story for different endings. That’s fine; you do have to manage your choices carefully if you’re aiming for the “good” ending, but aside from a couple of confusing choices in research/recon, it’s pretty easy to attain. If you want to go back and unlock all of the endings and secrets, however, you’re going to have to do a handful of restarts and tap through a ton of repeat text. You also have only one save file and no skip option. I appreciate the desire to make the storytelling aspect something you have to commit to rather than a puzzle box to scrape every piece of content out of, but if you want to have multiple endings and unlockable secrets, you ought to make compromises for convenience’s sake. So I recommend this game if you want to do a playthrough or two to see what the characters and the humor is like, and doubly so if you’re a furry who likes non-anthro characters (It’s not horny, normies, chill). If you want the good ending and don’t like mashing through text, don’t be afraid to look at a walkthrough. As for completionists, you might want to steer clear.

I liked this game a lot... mostly. I would say that the title is a bit misleading, as it's not as light-hearted and dating-sim-y as the title suggests. It definitely is on the dark sinister and investigation/visual novel side of things. A title that reflected that better would better prepare players, versus pulling the rug out from under folks looking for a straight-up light comedy. (content warning: notable harm to animals) I really liked the use of multiple player characters over time in each full run. I also loved the "meow" songs -- fun music in the game! This game would massively benefit from a "skip dialog" feature. You are very likely going to need/want to play multiple runs, and by the 4th run hitting next over and over and over again for hours gets tedious. The ending didn't quite stick the landing for me, but overall it was still a fun game. I wish I were catified!

Meow

Interesting blend of romance and horror visual novel. A skip button would be nice after the 6th playthrough. I hope once I beat the game, I get to vivisect Pawpur, he deserves it!

Very disappointing.

A frustrating to play visual novel. Sometimes text boxes don't move forward at the same speed, or jump ahead. There are messages that pop up on screen that I don't have the chance to read because I clicked twice earlier and it's loading those clicks. No skip function. A lot of repetition.

Будет русик, попробую. Идея забавная.