I don't usually write reviews for things I don't like but here I am. I got this game only because it was in a bundle and wasn't expecting anything in particular from it, I knew I probably wouldn't even have liked it.
Half an hour later and having finished playing, the only thing I'm sure about is that [i]Tokyo Hosto[/i] managed to make me hate it more than every other vn I've ever played in my entire life. And boy, do I have my fair share of visual novels played!
I won't even be talking about the art style or the voice acting or the plot itself since they are not the reason of my dislike of this game.
The first thing that made me cringe so hard was at the beginning: there's an option on the main menu that you can select so that you will know what [i]host clubs[/i] are. You get a narrator speaking but there are neither subs nor written text. The same thing happens with an introduction at the start of the game.
Uh, excuse me? If I'm pretending to have something from a visual novel, that one thing is written text! Not everyone can understand spoken English so well and the nice thing about this genre of games is that it's hearing impaired friendly since, you know, you're supposed to read written text for every line of dialogue and narration!!
How difficult would have been to add the text in the voice-over narration since it's already present in the most part of the game?
Not even 5 minutes in and you find out that this game is homophobic. I don't even think that this was what the author(s) intended to happen but the final result disturbed me in a way that other works usually don't manage to.
The main character gets introduced to the owner of the bar, called Toby '♥♥♥♥' Lau. Who is not gay [b]at all[/b]. In fact, he becomes horrified at the mention that he might be gay. He is obviously the most heterosexual man ever. And don't even dare to do something so indecent as to suggest that you don't mind having male clients! You are not in [b][i]that kind[/i][/b] of bar.
It is later explained that '♥♥♥♥' Lau has his nickname because he owns a house?? Duh.
The thing that makes this whole scene a disaster is that Toby is supposed to be a closeted gay character—for example he has a tattoo with the name of his supposed partner/crush—but his voice actor and his dialogues and story in general give this character no other chance to escape from the one-dimensional Hysterical Gay Man™ trope.
In [i]Tokyo Hosto[/i] you can only press 'enter' every single time you want to read a new line. Considering also that there does not seem to be a skipping function, it's really easy to press 'enter' one time too much—expecially while replaying already seen text—so you'll end up having accidentally clicked (by pressing 'enter') the first option in a choice selection that will probably reveal to be the wrong choice and will make you start the same scene again. And while replaying it by having to continuously press 'enter', you'll find yourself pressing that button one time too much [b]again[/b]. Welcome to replay hell.
There are lots of amateurish visual novels better than this. In fact, I am now convinced that all the other amateurish visual novels might be better than this. Go find some free vn, it will be better than this one for sure.
If you just spent 5 minutes by reading this review, don't bother spending 5 other minutes of your life by playing this. Drink a healthy herbal tea instead. I love you. Take care.
