[i]Speak of the Devil I: A Deathly Proposition[/i] is a kinetic visual novel developed by Husky-Leaf Studios and Sku;Te and published by Husky-Leaf Studios. You take on the role of Michi, a male high school student who's in despair because he wants a girlfriend, seeing that it's close to Valentine's Day. He goes about his daily routine, dealing with his stepsister's (Aiko's) perverted antics and teasing from his childhood friend, Mayu. As he visits a cemetery on a club outing, at the urging of the club president, Sayuri, he finds a book, which he mistakes as one of his textbooks. (The club is a supernatural one that investigates ghosts and such.) However, the book turns out to be anything but an ordinary book, and it actually ends up changing Michi's life forever. However, this is where I'll end my story synopsis, especially seeing that this is a kinetic story and all. ;)
As for the gameplay, the story is linear, so there are no choices presented whatsoever. You simply play through the story from beginning to end. There are a total of 20 scenes (which are the equivalent of short chapters) with a few CGs presented, which can be viewed in the Extras section on the Main Menu after they're unlocked. Although there is no voice acting, there is a varied soundtrack. In addition, there are lots of Steam achievements although they won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "Steam is learning about this game".
Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my thoughts. After reading the description on the Steam store page, I found this visual novel to catch my interest, and thankfully, the developer was very kind to send over a review copy. With that said, I'll first go over the story. The beginning of the story is a bit typical of some visual novels. The generic male protagonist feels depressed because he's single and he doesn't have a girlfriend. (Of course, we can anticipate that things aren't going to stay that way.) However, I did enjoy the humor from various characters, even if some of the characters, like Michi's stepsister Aiko, say perverted things. For readers who are sensitive to issues like [spoiler]possible step-sibling romance, nudity, or such[/spoiler], it's best to keep this in mind. As for the characters, while Michi is pretty much the generic blank slate male protagonist, the female cast is quite varied. I mentioned Aiko earlier, but there's also Mayu, Michi's childhood friend whom Michi has had a longtime friendship with, even before Michi and Aiko became step-siblings. Then there's Sayuri, the club president who's enthusiastic about finding anything related to ghosts or whatnot. She's the typical leader who can keep everything together. Hiroko is the girl from the wealthy family who's also popular at school. However, she wants to join the club and even feels a bit shy about doing so, which made me want to get to know her better. Finally, there's [spoiler]Levi, the succubus whom Michi ends up being ensnared by and kind of forced to make an agreement with her, as she's aware that Michi wants a romantic relationship. Although I don't normally like pushy characters, I found her to be quite interesting to the point that I wanted to witness more of her involvement in the story[/spoiler]. Even though I don't want to spoil the ending of the story, I will say that I like the cliffhanger, and seeing that this is part one of a series, I'm excited to find out what happens to Michi as he [spoiler]attempts to pursue love[/spoiler].
As for the writing, it's paced well. All the story events take place in the course of one day, and I never felt that things felt slow or dragged out. I did notice some typos and grammatical errors, though, which could use some polishing. I want to note that at the time of this review, I played and finished this visual novel before the release date, so perhaps the errors will have been fixed already or they will be fixed in future updates. As this is the developer's first game release, I can forgive this.
In regards to the art, I thought the sprites were done well. I'm not a fan of a couple of female sprites, but that's because [spoiler]it's a personal preference, as I'm generally not a fan of big chests for females[/spoiler]. The backgrounds are simple but clean, and the CGs especially are drawn well. Colors feel appropriately used, too. Regarding the music, I like that the soundtrack is varied, and the tracks feel appropriate in the scenes they are placed in. It can feel a bit weird when the scene suddenly changes from a tranquil one to a horror-filled one and the track changes reflect that, but again, that might come down to personal preference.
Overall, would I recommend [i]Speak of the Devil I: A Deathly Proposition[/i]? If you're a fan of visual novels and you want a story that is short (it took me less than an hour to complete the story), has humor, and has the promise of romance, then I think this is worth taking a look. For the developer's first game and release on Steam, I enjoyed this visual novel, and I'm looking forward to future releases in this series.
Finally, I want to give a major thank you to Husky-Leaf Studios for the review copy, and I would love to see a part two and to find out what happens to Michi. ^^
[quote]Flying free and writing reviews solely for [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url].[/quote]
