I've been in mood to feed my romantic sacherine sap loving heart, and korean furry romance visual novel managed to standout in market saturated by standard anime girls. Really enjoyed my time with this one, I might have been hungering for fish out of water on alien world romance story lately, and this is close enough I suppose, its probably counts as scifi at least. And on plus side, its artstyle managed to get pass my easily embarrassed prude part of brain that already feels flushed at lovey dovey wholesome date activities. Lot of visual novels have that barrier where I first need to get pass my first impression at storefront before finally trying out the game and giving writing chance to make me love the characters. Store page here says their goal was to make you immersed in setting and I do feel like they succeeded here, the world in the game is really goofy and wacky and its just easy to roll with it.
Anyhoo, its not really dating "sim" per say, its one of those "linear romance visual novels where at one point you choose from route split whose storyline you follow"(in chap 4 you get two rounds to choose a scene between characters, then at end of chapter you choose out of those chosen characters whose route you want to continue), it does have a very simple management sim minigame that is fun enough distraction, but very much afterthought (as in you just need to set up few things, then you just alternate between clicking "work, rest, work, rest, work, rest" ad infinitum). The minigame does have its own sets of characters who have just single sprite, but do have small three part stories. Lot of them feel like they could be dating sim characters in their own right, or at least rejected dating sim character ideas devs had but liked enough to keep around as minor characters, but they are fun and charming enough and comedy skits aside they do also some world building for this wacky world. The character designs for them do feel bit more like "they just allowed artist to go wild", since lot of them are of similar style and fashion.
Anyhoo, game's main focus is on funny shenanigans, emotional story beats and the lovey dovey romantic chemistry build up moments. I ended up installing the free dlc since I figured out "Eh its not listed as adult only in steam, so it gotta be very tame" and uh... I'm probably not the one to judge whether this is "tame", but clearly steam's logic is "If genitals don't show up, its fine". Like BG3 and DA games have more graphical scenes technically, and they aren't adults only either, so that checks out? Still though, H scenes here feel like they either weren't there originally or were written in manner they'd be easy to cut or skip? I think they do emotional intimacy well, but not sure how they compare to genre standards.
But I digress, I do feel like story is kinda missing a connecting line between story and MC? Like, not necessarily saying the game needs a true ending after completing all three routes or anything, the MC is plotwise there clearly for excuse to have human male have cute dates with three furry women and then once writers lured you in, they reveal aim was to make you to cry. (I cry easily, so it wasn't hard to get me cry in all three routes, 10/10 I love crying in romance stories :P) But there are compelling questions raised in the routes about what kind of accident MC got in to end up as "barely unrecognizable" and what kind of person they used to be before amnesia, that don't really get connected. That originally made me think when playing them through that there would be a mystery with interesting answer. Basically, the MC's backstory and memories don't matter since even though MC isn't complete self insert, they are backstory wise clearly meant to be complete blankslate and finding their true backstory isn't really relevant to story's goals. But as result it feels like there was bit of wasted opportunity to have even more emotional weight there to MC himself, still the three routes are really good besides that, I just think a connecting thread for three routes would have been the final missing spice.
Anyhoo, speaking of MC, yeah, they serve the usual "well meaning goofball who tries to be above influences" role you see with lot of blankslate SI protagonists, but they are also really funny snarker who initially doesn't want to be here and is open about it. As usual for genre, their writing style shifts between routes a bit (I feel like its most consistent from start to end with Namo's route because they essentially have matching personalities: snark at each other, but not in mean manner. With Kiwi MC is kinda just the straight man because Kiwi's personality is that goofy it kinda weights dynamic heavily to that side and Sani's route is only one where I feel like MC's writing notably shifts because nature of the relationship with Sani shifts heavily compared to dynamic from chapter 1-4.), but not to extend where they feel out of character. Its part of why I think writing quality is really good here, the character voices feel consistent. Anyhoo, basically, the MC has lot of personality and that is half the fun with seeing them interact with other characters, but as said earlier narrative doesn't put lot of care into fleshing out WHO they were. Maybe its just result of comedic or chemistry writing here being good, for faceless backstory-less nameless amnesiac protag I really enjoyed this one as a character.
I guess I start with Sani Yang out of main girls, the titular mad scientist here is funny in that in some ways she feels like THE "main girl"(game is named after her), but she is rather unusual as one and it doesn't feel like she hogs spotlight from other two. At least I can't think of many examples of main girl whose role is "older inexperienced woman with strong maternal side" as their main target audience. Her H scenes feel most abrupt (first one of them follows from scene where they say good byes with basically "I changed my mind and cheated rules to give us extra time") and while her route has really good sappy romantic scenes, it also feels like it bit cheats to have MC develop crush on her at start of chapter 5 fast to move plot faster along.
Namo feels more like a regular "main girl" in a way and she gets to be first character you meet and first character you go to infiltration mission with. As said, her route feels most natural "from strangers to lovers" storyline out of these ones. She did end up being my favorite just because her personality is good dynamic match for mc and her target audience seems to be for those looking to go on date with since her scenes are mainly roleplaying different kind of couple dynamics rather than goofy fanservice cosplay outfits like with Sani or that plus ghost girl mystery with Kiwi. Her H scenes also feel like most natural, but I'm not shocked if you'd told me they weren't there originally. Both of them follow "the characters do something kinky that is more akin to intimate cuddling, then after that scene they get carried away and do lewd things" format, the first scene basically reads as foreplay for the H scenes.
Kiwi is weird one in that she is the super fanservice heavy comedy character. She is really funny overall, but her main thing is that she insists calling MC little bro and MC kinda grudgingly goes along with it because she is that desperate to have "family". Her route is very heartwarming found family story, but it doesn't really feel most romantic(it feels less like MC develops romantic feelings for her and more that he gives up because the weird super hot woman is still hot) and H scenes also feel like they could be easily cut with rewrites.
Overally all three characters are funny, well written and their stories' emotional beast are great, even if it sounds like I have clear favorite there. Also, wondering if some of voice actors here are in Limbus Company as well? I could swear some of them sound familiar
