RENAI BAKUDAN

I am probably the first Japanese lesbian to play this game. From a Japanese point of view, I enjoyed this work very much! I dare to write about the Japanese aspects that other reviews have not mentioned. First, the background art is by a Japanese creator and is a paid item. So, it has an almost exact Japanese-ness to it. However, the text on the signage was well adjusted to fit the world of this piece, which I liked. Love hotels, karaoke, several unique nightclubs, doujin comi-cons, and other Japanese things that Japanese people have never cared about are all here. Some of the settings and depictions are not true, but that is perfectly acceptable. Rather, it is a very interesting game with ideas that were not available to the Japanese! Lastly. I am a butch who loves butch and Natsuki's story saved my heart. If you are interested in those stories, I hope you will enjoy them. If there is one thing that could be improved in this piece, it is one.I would have liked many more single pictures other than the sex scenes.There are many powerful scenes that cannot be conveyed by text alone. However, if it were to be realized, more staff members would be needed , so I have no doubt that this is the best and highest performance they developers can give right now.

Trying to articulate my thoughts as much as possible right now, as a huge Noodletub fan who has been following them since 2021 and whose favorite game ever is Love Bakudan.... I really loved Renai Bakudan so very much!! As always it's a lesbian game made for lesbians and by lesbians. And the fact that so much passion goes into creating these characters, their relationships, and even their entire world, really makes these games stand out in the best way possible. I still think they're hidden gems, all of them, and I'm so happy to see more people play them! At this point I finished all routes, unlocked almost every book, and seen all of the extra scenes. Without spoiling anything major, yeah, it's not surprising that the newest Noodletub game has once again made me super happy to play it! It's really nice that there's an extremely good balance between not needing to play Love Bakudan to "get it" and enjoy it, making it super friendly for newcomers, while also being really good for the fans who did play Love Bakudan and wanted to see more of its characters and world. In more general aspects, I also think that the years of experience and bigger budget made the game flourish like never before! It looks great, sounds great, and reads great! Even if I think people shouldn't miss out on Love Bakudan, it's definitely much bigger and more grand than it's older sister! The addition of Tokugawa Blues as an unlockable extra was also very nice and fun, as someone who has been a massive fan since its first free release back in 2022. It's a great source of lore and interesting bits for the people who play Shizuka or Mirai's routes, and wished to see more of their backstories... along with the rest of the yakuza characters and those related to them as well, of course! It's such a better and more interactive way to read it, and it's now much more accessible to Noodletub fans... what's there not to like?? It seems people overlook this little extra that the devs made in their spare time as a bonus, so I'm here to praise them for this wonderful addition! I really like Juri as a protagonist and I think all routes are neat in their own way! Some are more fun and silly, and some are more serious, angstier and edgier... but there's a nice balance to all of it and I feel like there's something for everyone. I can't say more without getting into spoiler territory, so... yeah, it's good lol So far my own personal favorite route is Shizuka for so many different reasons, but it's a route that really sticked with me followed very close to Ten's, which I didn't expect to love this much at all! I loved meeting the new characters. I loved seeing characters that used to be exclusive to Tokugawa Blues get so much love (and even a few mentions that made me chuckle when a certain someone didn't make it to the final game!). And I really, really, REALLY loved seeing some returning faces from Love Bakudan. It felt so nostalgic to me, like seeing old friends again, and I couldn't stop smiling and laughing as I played through the game with my own friends who love this lesbian universe as much as I do. Sadly some of the crew from Love Bakudan is missing, or partially missing, but they were still able to do so much with those who made it that it's genuinely impressive! It truly feels like an amazing extended universe of characters I've loved for so long, old and new! (I was overjoyed when I saw a certain ex-mob boss and pink haired lady return to finally make their peace with each other, even having their own moments here and there and a happy ending in a certain route, as someone who has always been a huge fan of that rareship hehe) I can yap all night long about how much I loved the game after waiting for something like it for- what? 4 years? damn!- and I know I can never do it justice to how much I really enjoyed it and the feelings it made me feel, and even less to how much it meant to me, so... If you're a fan of lesbian visual novels, please give this one a try! And thank you so much for making this game a reality, Noodletub Team. Please keep doing what you love, because I know I'm not alone when I say that I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience it!

(Note: This review as of now was written after having completed one of the game’s 7 routes) Love Bakudan is easily one of my favorite yuri visual novels. And I am someone that has played a LOT of yuri visual novels. Between 6 engaging romance routes (plus a bonus story) and all the additional short stories that you can unlock, it is quite possibly the most bang for your buck you can get in the genre. And yet somehow, Renai Bakudan managed to take all that and elevate it to a whole new level. It is pretty much the “Mega Man 2” to its predecessor. It is a huge step up in terms of production and presentation. All the heart and charm of the first game with a more stylish UI, cleaner art, actual drawn backgrounds, more expressive character sprites, and additional features and content to better flesh out this town and the people that live in it. I can feel the passion and care that went into this game and I’m only about a foot deep in the pool of what it has to offer. The adult content is certainly a big part of this game, but that doesn’t mean they try to rush to those parts at the expense of the story and characters. The first route I completed was Kanda’s. It took roughly 4 hours to get through and I honestly didn’t really feel it until i checked my playtime. Assuming the other 6 are about the same length, you’re looking at 25-30 hours of story before even touching the extra content. If you hadn’t played Love Bakudan… DO THAT, but you don’t have to worry about needing to play that game to get into this one. It’s less a sequel and more of a reboot/alternate continuity where the protagonist of the first game, Haruka Mishima, apparently doesn’t exist, and many of the returning cast have their backgrounds rewritten and their endings tossed out. For example: Himeko Kurosu in Love Bakudan was an aspiring mangaka who in her route you/Haruka help achieve her dream of becoming a published, successful mangaka. In Renai Bakudan however, she is the manager of the erotic bookstore in place of Haruka. Said bookstore is now also a part of Hotel Bakudan, the central setting of the game, instead of being its own little family run store. Some character endings have been carried over in some form, but I won’t spoil which ones, and they aren’t particularly relevant to this game from what I can tell. (Small correction to the above: So the very next route I started actually confirms that Haruka IS the owner of the Hotel. So she does exist, she just didn’t romance any of the returning characters as far as this game is concerned.) TL;DR Noodletub Games have taken an already great premise and elevated it. Whether you played the first game or not, anyone that calls themselves a yuri fan needs to play this game. And I’m personally looking forward to what they do next

TL;DR - I highly recommend! If you enjoyed Love Bakudan, you're also going to enjoy Renai Bakudan. And, if you like Yuri visual novels and didn't play Love Bakudan, you're missing out! Your grandmother leaves you her erotic bookstore in her will, and shenanigans ensue. Characters from Love Bakudan make appearances in Renai Bakudan, but are not able to be romanced from what I've seen so far. A little strange seeing those characters from Love Bakudan but they fit in so well; its almost like seeing old friends again. Like Love Bakudan, this is a linear visual novel. You choose who you are romancing, make choices in the mini game where you figure out what room in the love hotel you want to assign to customers based on their requests, and the optional explorations that let you see brief glimpses of other characters in different environments. Once you've picked your romance route though there are no choices that affect the storyline. I've finished one route, and am starting on my 2nd route, and so far I'm really enjoying it! There's a good balance between the characters, good writing, some subtle and some not-so-subtle nods to various pop culture references (I'm sorry but the game's version of a certain streaming service STILL has me laughing when I think about it! ) EDIT - Finished three routes now and I'm starting on #4 - my opinion hasn't changed - I highly recommend. :) So yes, I absolutely recommend this game. Thanks Noodletub, this was worth the wait. :)

I had been waiting for this game since it was first announced and let me tell you it did NOT DISAPPOINT! This game is amazing! It was worth the wait! It might even be even better than the first game. First the art is beautiful shoutout to the artist. The story as always is the perfect blend of humor, passion, romance, love, hotness, and sweet. It will make you laugh, cry, and finish all at the same time. lol It's truly a masterpiece of a lesbian VN game made BY lesbians FOR lesbians. It's rare to see this kind of representation in a game so I truly cherish Noodletub Games and the work they've done. I was obsessed with the first game and now I'm obsessed with the second game. lol For the bottom of my heart as a fellow gay thank you so much for publishing this. Just thank you.

spent 17 hours of this game looking at natsuki itou and hazuki mishima

still much yuri content still very gay A new pile of erotic books I still need to read with some from Love Bakudan too As for fav love interest with this vn, I have the yakuza pattern cuz I loved Mirai's route

big fan of natsuki

it is absolutely devastating to me that they gave hazuki a surprising amount of depth in every route ive seen so far but did not give her a route of her own. aside from that it's pretty good

i've only fully completed natsuki's route (i am absolutely going to do the rest but she has my heart completely 💜) but i had to leave a quick review; i'm so in love with the cast and the vibes of the world, it's such a feel-good game !! as someone who's starved for good yuri vns, i'd highly recommend renai bakudan:) edit: coming back almost a year later to say i've been trying to find another vn that scratches the itch renai bakudan did ever since i finished it and i've had 0 luck. genuinely my fave yuri vn of all time i miss it and natsuki every day