Lesbian Visibility Day Special: Heaven Will Be Mine Review (Yuri Visual Novel)

Welcome to EVN Chronicles’ 2019 Lesbian Visibility Day Special! Last year, to celebrate this lovely occasion, I wrote a short, impromptu rant about yuri, its inherent ambiguity when it goes to the representation of lesbian romance and the major role it plays in the EVN scene. Having little to add to what I said in that post, this year I’ve decided to use this opportunity to give the spotlight to a game that contributes to the LGBT+ themes in Visual Novels in a particularly interesting and compelling manner. During this day, which is meant to show a real and diverse portrait of the lesbian community, it’s only fair to focus on a game that breaks away from the fetishising conventions of Japanese yuri media and offers meaningful commentary on the challenges people belonging to sexual minorities face. And the fact it also includes some very unique and memorable portrayals of f/f romance is the kind of bonus probably none of us would ever mind…

                Of course, one could say this is cheating on my part, as I review yuri games all the time (and probably read more of those than any other kind of VNs) and there’s nothing “special” about me taking look at another one. However, Worst Girls Games’ Heaven Will Be Mine, which I will talk about today, is a very unique title, completely unlike the cookie-cutter f/f romances that dominate the visual novel scene on both Japanese and EVN side of things (and, by extension, my blog’s output). It’s also, when it goes to visual style and writing, a direct continuation of another excellent, similarly-themed game, titled We Know the Devil. While mostly focusing on HWBM, I’ll use this opportunity to talk about both these games, their peculiar, but the extremely creative and memorable approach to the visual novel format, and the messages they convey. So, I hope you’ll be willing to join me while we take our time and explore those two unusual pieces of yuri content.

We Know the Devil used very minimalistic visual assets, but combined them with abstract writing and atmospheric music to a great artistic effect

 

We Know the Devil was released in late 2015, before the Worst Girls Games was officially established as a separate label, but featuring the same two people, the writer Aevee Bee and artist Mia Schwartz, as its primary creators. The VN, while very short (less than two hours to fully play through) and minimalistic, managed to stand out with its striking visual style and surreal storytelling. The simple, black-and-white lineart sprites, contrasting with photographic backgrounds and distorted side characters made for a very unique and deliberate aesthetic, while their expressiveness and excellent use of music made the whole experience surprisingly atmospheric. Its story, involving a group of three teenagers begrudgingly participating in a “summer scouts” program and being stalked by “the devil”, is extremely metaphorical, written in a style that at first can feel confusing and alienating, and only uncovers its primary themes and meaning behind its story elements over time. While demanding, it’s in no way this kind of obnoxious piece of “modern art” that is utterly devoid of meaning and makes the extravagant form its only goal – while I usually suck at deciphering poetic metaphors, I was able to understand most of what the game tried to tell me after completing all the four routes once (there’s one for every one of the three main characters and the true route, which resolves the game’s plot).

                The themes of the game are obviously connected to the LGBT+ issues, but not limited to those, with problems like fear of intimacy, fear of exclusion and inability to express one’s feelings also playing a major role. Every heroine personifies this kind of challenges, which might be especially important for queer adolescents, but not necessarily unique to them and because of the highly metaphorical narrative, the message never feels heavy-handed or moralistic. There are also smaller touches, like a beautifully-written romantic scene between two of the main girls, very indirect but extremely clear and impactful in its delivery. Things like this are the reason I consider We Know the Devil to be one of the best short-form VNs I’ve ever read and an impressive artistic accomplishment, even though it’s not without issues and I have a bit of a problem with its price tag – $8 might not be very much, but for a game that can be easily finished in an hour by a fast reader, it might still be just slightly too high of a pricepoint.

Just like We Know The Devil, Heaven Will Be Mine is full of symbolism, abstract visuals and cryptic pieces of storytelling which might, at least initially, utterly confuse you

 

Heaven Will Be Mine is, in many ways, a direct continuation of We Know the Devil, being drawn by the same artist and utilizing the same, abstract writing style. While the plot and setup seem extremely different at first glance, with the leading theme of mecha and struggle between three factions over the future of humanity, the issues hidden behind those metaphors are fairly similar, dealing with the body, relationships, otherness and different strategies of dealing with society’s pressure. Every one of the three main characters, rather than symbolizing a problem, represents an alternative solution for their joined struggle (developing beyond the constraints of Earth’s society and facing a sudden request to come back and conform to it, with an underlying threat of rejection and violence if they don’t comply), while the “battles” between them are basically flirts and conversations, where they work through their relationships and try to convince each other on what path they should take. This “struggle” of ideas and affection is regularly contrasted with the very real existential threat that the Earth’s retaliation might bring and it’s up to the player’s choices what path all of the heroines will follow. There’s also a layer of more subtle metaphors, for example, connected with the mecha (“ship-selves”) and different ways of controlling them. I often had a much harder time deciphering those, but in general, the game offers a lot of interesting details to think through and while I’ve noticed some confusing inconsistencies in the narrative, I don’t think any of it is just random gibberish some would make it out to be.

                In the game, you can “play” as each of the three girls and each of those scenarios, outside of constant interactions with other two pilots, offers insights into the history and goals of your current character’s faction, along with details of her personal backstory. All those are presented through e-mails and chats with other members of the faction, which add a lot of reading material beyond the core “mission” dialogue (going through it all is pretty much necessary to make sense of the game’s convoluted setting). This is also probably my biggest gripe with Heaven Will Be Mine as a whole, as while its surreal storytelling is something very enjoyable in short bursts, the game uses it on a scale much bigger than We Know The Devil, with over 10 hours of content, replaying which is also made quite slow due to the game being made in Unity and lacking some quality-of-life functions, such as conveniently skipping already read text. It may be less of a problem to people more adept than me in reading through poetic metaphors, but after a few hours it becomes hard to follow the cryptic dialogue and abstract plot development, and make any sense of much of them. While full of captivating moments and interesting ideas, the game grows just slightly too big for its own good and indulges itself in its extravagant storytelling a bit too much – one of its predecessor’s strength laid exactly because it was able to balance its demanding form with relatively smooth and brief delivery of its core message, while here it will take you a lot more effort to get to the truly meaningful parts, at least if you’re going in blind.

While in We Know the Devil the romance was mostly just implied, here flirting and relationships between the characters a major part of the story

 

The audio-visual side of the experience is absolutely brilliant, even though it uses a similarly minimalistic and rough style as We Know The Devil. The CGs involving mecha are low on detail, but just like the character designs, they have tons of personality (and this can be understood pretty literally, as the mecha and their pilots are very heavily connected in the narrative, the former being pretty much an extension of the latter). The music is, once more, great and in combination with the surreal backgrounds and dialogues makes for some incredibly atmospheric experience – I think even if I understood even less of the game’s story, I would still enjoy the mood it manages to create. Just like We Know the Devil it also doesn’t avoid some “bold” visual gimmicks, for example intervening child-like, crayon drawings on paper to every ending sequence. I’ve seen these elements being ridiculed by some reviewers, but they’re very deliberate and I haven’t seen anything in the game that would really clash with the overall aesthetic and climate. While the line between minimalism and subverting visual conventions of the genre, and simply being crude and ugly is always thin, both Worst Girls' games are consistent and engaging to the point I’ve got completely immersed in their narratives and rarely thought about their peculiarities beyond the initial "shock". In my opinion, that’s exactly how this kind of game should work and the best possible testament to its creative success.

                It’s not hard to deduce, at this point, that I wholeheartedly recommend playing both We Know the Devil and Heaven Will Be Mine – optimally, in this order, as going into the second game without being at least somewhat familiar with its authors' style can be pretty harsh. Even though I can easily imagine many people finding Worst Girls’ games pretentious or getting scared away by their LGBT+ themes, I think that when approached right, they can be enjoyable for the vast majority of potential readers. They don’t simply push an agenda or plainly convey stories of queer characters, but touch on the very personal and deep experiences and anxieties that being in a minority group, or simply not conforming to society’s norms and expectations in some ways can come with. Both these titles are, behind their heavily-stylized façades, extremely humane and relatable stories, which also defy the fanservice’y conventions and gameplay mechanics typical for VNs. They let you explore their narratives through decisions, but not simply create pairing or unlock kissing CGs, as most yuri VNs would. They let you determine the character’s futures, but not their personalities and identities. For all these reasons, I think they’re among the most valuable and compelling representations of lesbian romance within the genre and exactly the kind of games that should be celebrated today – and something every VN fan, even regardless of their stance on yuri, should consider checking out.

Final Score: 4/5

Pros:
+ Unique climate and visual design
+ Very good and excellently utilized soundtrack
+ Unique and compelling approach to LGBT+ themes
 
Cons:
- Often confusing and at times inconsistent narrative
- The extreme stylization can get tiresome in the long run


VNDB Pages (We Know the Devil, Heaven Will Be Mine)
Buy We Know the Devil & Heaven Will Be Mine on Steam

Cursed Lands Review (Visual Novel/RPG Hybrid)

Note: To learn more about this series of games, check out my reviews of Loren: The Amazon Princess and Tales of Aravorn: Season of the Wolf

Winter Wolves’ series of RPGs set in the fantasy world of Aravorn, starting with the highly-appreciated Loren: The Amazon Princess, have a long and rich history, with three “mainline” games released over six years and many visual novel and dating sim spin-offs, and a direct sequel to The Amazon Princess, Reigns of War currently in development. Combining expansive, turn-based RPG adventure with compelling VN-style storytelling and multiple romance options (including sex-same ones), they were a particularly ambitious and notable additions to the EVN market – especially in 2012, where the first title appeared and the Western visual novels were still at their infancy, they had few serious competitors within the niche and gathered enough attention to establish Winter Wolves as a major brand within the niche.

              Still, while many VN fans have been charmed by the epic story of Loren, a lot of them also expressed their disappointment towards the different tone and smaller cast of its immediate successor, Season of the Wolf. While I personally found that game much more competent when it goes to RPG mechanics and having a different, but very interesting appeal story-wise – rather than a grand adventure, it was a very personal story of two elves twins living on the fringes of the world of Aravorn and overcoming hardships with a small band of companions – it undeniably underperformed both when it goes to sales and reception by the players. The third game in the series, Cursed Lands, was released in may 2018 and quite visibly aimed to return the series closer to its roots, at least when it goes to scale and climate of the story. With a main intrigue that can decide the fate of whole kingdoms, a set of locales already well-known from Loren and the player leading a team of up to 9 companion (5 of them romanceable), it looked like a project that could recapture the magic of the first game and convince the previously-disappointed fans to give the Aravorn RPGs another try. And considering the developer’s claims about its sales and my impressions, they might’ve actually pulled it off.

The numerous call-backs to Loren: The Amazon Princess will make Cursed Lands more enjoyable to those familiar with the original game, and especially the extra stories from the Castle of N’Mar DLC

 

Story-wise, Cursed Lands is a prequel to Loren, taking place around a decade before the events of first game and unlike Seasons of the Wolf, it’s strongly connected to the original story, happening in the same areas and featuring some of the same central characters (notably the human archmage Apolimesho and the Amazon queen Karen, who we can for the first time observe in her prime). It’s also full of smaller cameos and references, which will make it significantly more enjoyable for people already familiar with the series – it’s not by any means unplayable when going in without context, but the full meaning of some scenes and conversations will be lost on new players. The main intrigue features our highly customisable player character (you can choose their race, gender and profession, which all come with their pieces of backstory and unique dialogue) by chance stumbling upon a group of imperial soldiers escaping from swarms of undead in the lands around the cursed Castle of N’Mar. After helping them to leave the area with their lives and fighting off a vampire that pursued them, our PC is hired by the Empire’s Council to gather a team of adventurers and infiltrate the undead’s fortress – at first to gather intelligence, but as the vampire threat escalates, to vanquish them once and for all.

              At first look, the layout of the story is not particularly unusual, but features some interesting elements – the protagonist acts very explicitly as a mercenary and, to a large extent, relies on cooperation from people on the fringes of Aravorn civilisation: shamanistic nomads, universally-despised naga, pirates and assassins being only some of his associates along the way. While gaining renown during the game due to their successes and receiving a more formal position on behalf of the Council, they’re still mostly an expendable hireling, that have to thread carefully every step of the way to not get sacrificed for the Empire’s interests, or even being silenced for knowing too much about the threat of N’Mar. This theme even extends to the professions you can choose when creating your character (which even includes a very “respectable” craft of a debt collector), and the ability to become a vampire – not necessarily as a way of abandoning your mission or turning against your allies, but a source of additional power and a path to follow after the antagonists of the story are vanquished.

 

Mutually-exclusive recruitment opportunities in the first chapter add a good deal of replayability to the game, while the “visual novel mode” makes experiencing alternative story paths convenient even if you get tired of Cursed Land’s RPG gameplay

 

The companions, as I’ve suggested above, to a large degree escape the typical VN tropes, with the two naga exiles, Sylrissa and Enok, being probably the most unusual elements. Still, even beyond the rare chance to romance snake-people, the personalities and backstories of most of the characters managed to surprise me at least to some extent and I enjoyed the small-talk happening between them and the protagonist. This is, by the way, one of the most contentious elements of the game, as many players were bored to death by long, casual conversations that usually are only very vaguely connected to the main intrigue, but are meant to both explore the backstories of the companions and create opportunities to gain affection points with them, if you lead the conversations properly. The topics vary from the meaning of leadership to the bread-baking much-ridiculed in many reviews (that part will be appreciated by all that tried baking their own bread and failed miserably, which was my experience multiple times), but I don’t think I’ve found an instance in which I’d really dislike those interactions. Most of the conversations were really well-written and led me to understanding the characters better – the amount of this casual dialogue might be overwhelming to some, but I think it fitted the story and played an important enough purpose to be justified.

              The companions are also an important source of the game’s replayability, as they can be recruited in different orders (those you skip on in the first chapter will only be available after completing special missions in the second one) and these choices often influence their stories quite significantly (this especially applies to the female dwarf Dalsyra, who might feel like a throwaway character if you recruit her late, but has a very interesting secret you can uncover by teaming up with her earlier). There's also, in line with Winter Wolves' tradition, six different romance arcs – two gender-specific, one exclusive to elves and three with bisexual love interests available for any PC. All of them are pretty minimalistic, with three scenes and a short epilogue after finishing the game for each (mostly nicely-written and featuring some very pleasant-looking extra CGs), but considering the overall number of romance options, it’s still quite a lot of content to explore. Checking out all these alternative paths is made significantly easier by the “visual novel mode”, which let’s you very conveniently skip through most of the gameplay sections of Cursed Lands and focus exclusively on the story content, nearly turning the game into a pure VN – as there’s nearly no story bits or meaningful interactions showing up during the fights, there’s very little you can actually miss by choosing this option.

The romance arcs are the most minimalistic out of all three Aravorn RPGs, but include some rarely-seen variety (such as naga love interests) and fun scenarios

 

Cursed Lands’ turn-based RPG gameplay is a very direct continuation of what was done in the previous two games, and while it’s way more polished than in Loren (there, classes and gear were extremely unbalanced and the sense of progression very weak), it forgone some of the more compelling elements introduced in Season of the Wolf. The latter featured very limited health and mana regeneration between fights (you could only fully heal by eating expensive meals or progressing a day in the overworld, with every major goal placed on a timer), forcing you to use your time and resources very carefully and making every encounter meaningful. Cursed Lands features time progression, with three chapters (moon cycles) of 30 days and a difficult quest at the end of each one of them. However, considering there are no limits on health/mana regeneration and only very few quests force a time skip, for the most part, this system is meaningless – and especially so in the first cycle, as you have only a handful companions and there are relatively few story events popping up during the whole period. This is actually a major issue, as after the very decent introduction, the game shows itself from possibly the worst side in those first hours, which I think is one of the reasons many people dropped it with a somewhat negative impression of the whole experience. The other downgrade is the possibility to only use four characters at in combat, compared to six in the previous games and the elimination of row-related mechanics – in both Loren and Season of the Wolf you could pace the more squishy characters in the second row and shield them from certain attacks, but here this is absent, giving very little meaning to party formation and greatly eliminating a lot of interesting tactical options (like row and lane-oriented AOE spells and attacks).

              Coming back to the time mechanics, the only thing they genuinely influence is the arena battles, where you can fight with a chosen amount of monsters for experience and reputation (the latter influence the prices in shops of the area where you through, with three cities having their own arenas, different in the types of monsters they spawn), three times per day. This is the game’s only form of grind and quite possibly my sole biggest issue with it – the arena battles are extremely boring and unrewarding, giving you little gold and no items, but are still pretty much necessary to keep your team strong enough on the harder difficulty levels. They also disable probably the most interesting and fun addition to Cursed Land’s combat, that is protagonist’s social skills – powerful abilities connected to your starting profession, which have different success chance depending on enemy traits and morale (this decreases with damage and can even make some enemies flee, earning you an automatic victory), and can do unique things such as stealing utility items from the enemies or even charming them to fight for your side. Without them, arena fights devolve into a soul-crushing source of tedium and I honestly couldn’t stomach them anyone after the first full moon, even when using the most convenient enemy setups and player team compositions. While generally, the RPG parts of the game are competent, it’s hard to me to recommend playing it on any difficulty other than easy, or maybe normal, as that’s the only way you can effectively avoid the arena and genuinely enjoy the game, as the quests and story-related encounters are way more interesting and nowhere near as time-consuming.

The party formation, character skillsets and time-limit mechanics feel like a step backwards from the Season of the Wolf, but are still superior to clunky and unbalanced RPG gameplay of Loren

 

When it goes to production quality, Cursed Lands uses the same artstyle as other games in the series and is possibly the best iteration of it so far, despite some of the assets being clearly repurposed from Loren. While some people complain about the unattractive designs of non-romanceable characters, there’s a lot of personality to them and I don’t remember any that would really feel “off”, while I had this kind of issues with both sprites and CGs in the previous two games. And speaking of CGs, the stylistic inconsistencies that plagued the previous titles, with illustrations not really matching the sprites and even looking awkward, weren’t really an issue this time around. The biggest issue I’ve had with the visual side of the experience was that the protagonist only had a character portrait and never showed in CGs, but that’s a clear consequence of the newly-added customisation. As always, the overworld map and the UI feel somewhat archaic, but in a way that is at least partially a deliberate, stylistic choice on the part of the developer. I also never struggled with the UI the same way I did in Loren, but I’m not sure whether that’s due to genuine improvements or just the fact I got used to it while playing the first two games. The music was climatic, enhancing the light horror tone of the story, but wasn’t particularly memorable, while the game also skipped on a certain long-established sound component of the series, that is including character voices in battles (there was never any voiceover in the beyond that). It’s not a major issue from my point of view, but something to consider if you’re a fan of Winter Wolves RPGs and expect this element to be included.

              In the end, I find Cursed Lands to be a highly satisfying and interesting game, but this is said mostly from the perspective of a VN fan, who treats the RPG parts as a flavour placed on top of the story content. If I treated it as a “proper RPG”, I would have to count the near-obligatory arena grind the lack of interesting options to boost your characters besides the main questline as a major drag. I’ve found the story here compelling and disagree strongly with much of the criticism that was aimed against it, so if you’re looking for an interesting narrative and characters, I can recommend it wholeheartedly. If you’re searching for high-quality gameplay… It’s a much harder sell, although not a hopeless ones either. Despite the few glaring issues, it’s an all-around competent and rather memorable experience, one that makes me really hopeful towards the upcoming “proper” sequel to Loren – whatever specific issues I might’ve had with each of these RPGs, returning to the world of Aravorn is never something I could easily skip on.

Final Score: 3,5/5

Pros:
+ A varied and interesting cast of characters
+ Solid writing
+ Good sound and visual quality
 
Cons:
- Mostly underwhelming RPG mechanics
- Extremely boring arena grind
- Slow first chapter


VNDB Page
Buy Cursed Lands on Steam

Sable's Grimoire – Tix's Route Review (Visual Novel DLC)

Sable’s Grimoire was, in my opinion, one of the most interesting and enjoyable OELVN releases of 2018 – the expansive, story-driven VN with a very unusual approach to the theme of monster girls impressed me both with the sheer amount of content and the stories it told. Featuring various mature themes but essentially devoid of sexual fanservice (if you didn’t read my original review, check it out here – it also includes a lengthy interview with the game’s developer, Zetsubou), it was a rare kind of uncompromising project, which didn’t really cater to the reader’s expectations or insert elements that would help it become commercially successful, but rather followed its creator’s particular vision, to a very compelling and fresh-feeling effect. Even with the basic premise – a human student entering a magic academy dominated by demi-humans – sounding relatively standard, the VN itself was, in many ways, unlike anything I’ve read within the EVN scene.

            Another significant detail about the Sable’s Grimoire, signifying its relatively non-commercial nature, was the promise of free updates from the developer, which would expand significantly on what was already an impressively-sized VN (over 20 hours of content) with additional story routes. First of these was meant to be the story of Tix, a short-tempered, but cheerful pixie, who because of an administrative mistake becomes the protagonist’s roommate – a route originally planned for the main game, but cut out because of the already-prolonged development cycle. In January 2019, 8 months after the game’s initial release, the promised update was finally made available, adding around 4 hours of new content and full heroine arc for Tix. So, how does it compare to the rest of the game and how much does it add to the already awesome value-proposition of Sable’s Grimoire?

Tix’s route’s leading themes makes it slightly more „spicy” and romance-oriented then the most other ones in Sable’s Grimoire, but it’s still very far from becoming an eroge

 

Tix, while not one of the main heroines of the base game, was still a memorable and important character, acting as one of the first characters Sable meets in the Amadronia Academy and sharing a room with him through much of the story. Interactions with her were a significant part of the game’s narrative and certain decisions by the protagonist could even make her quit the Academy altogether, signalising that player's choices had real consequences in the game's world. Like most other female characters in the story, she showed a lot of personality (making up for her small size with a fierce temper and effective use of physical-augmentation magic), while also having an absolutely gorgeous visual design, definitely among the best ones in the game. The old content also provided the basic premise for her story – the expectation, brought by her race’s dependence on “foreign” males for reproduction, to quickly get pregnant and return to her community, with Sable, as one of the very few humans in the Academy, being the prime candidate to sire her children.

            The route itself, quite predictably, also centres around Tix being torn between her ambitions of learning magic and rising above her socially-assigned role, and the (frequently and categorically expressed) expectations of her family and people of her village. Sable, caught in the middle of this conflict, does his best to help Tix achieve her dreams (while refusing her repeated advances), while predictably misunderstanding some of her issues, misinterpreting the peculiarities of the fairy culture and at times making an even bigger mess of things through his meddling. As every other arc in the game, it’s solidly-written and includes a few (minor) twists, while also staying true to the general tone of the story. It focuses quite a lot in exploring the modern-fantasy setting, while Sable is still driven nearly-exclusively by his ambition and thirst for knowledge, and being an utterly unromantic individual because of that (which is particularly visible in the context of Tix’s growing affection for him). 

Tix is a fun heroine on her own, but the theme of her route is probably among less surprising and interesting ones in the game

 

However, while this arc is not drastically less enjoyable or consistent in quality than the previously-released ones, it’s probably still the least impactful of them all. While Eth & Rei’s route was mostly comedic, it seriously surprised me with some of its character developments and more bittersweet moments. Other routes relied on mysteries, with sometimes multiple reveals dramatically altering their tone and putting Sable through some really extreme challenges. Here, the story wasn’t able to excel in either of those departments, turning out surprisingly straightforward – not necessarily a bad thing by itself, but in the end, it makes the whole route relatively forgettable, especially considering its linear structure (there's no branching aside from some quick bad endings). Tix also proves to be a rather whimsical and inconsistent heroine, frequently changing her decisions and attitude towards Sable – something that is inherently written into her character, but also takes away much of her agency throughout the route and makes her less sympathetic than most of the other girls.

            However, considering this route “relatively underwhelming” has to be set within the context of generally high quality and enjoyment factor of Sable’s Grimoire – while I wasn’t satisfied with it as much as I was with most other arcs, especially the “darker” and more dramatic ones, it’s a worthy addition to the game’s story and something I had genuine fun exploring. I simply hope that if we’re going to see another addition to the story, it’ll bring us something genuinely new – maybe a bond in which Sable will show a bit of his romantic side (which is not completely non-existent), or face a kind of challenge he never dealt before. Tix’s route simply introduced too little in this regard to be really compelling, at least when read as the last arc in the game. 
           It might be a while until we see another major update or continuation of Sable’s Grimoire, while Zetsubou is working on other projects, but maybe certain gorgon might still earn her place in the spotlight… For now, Tix's route is a fun-enough addition and the game itself is, of course, no less worth playing than before and presents an even more amazing value proposition. If it sounds like something you might enjoy, I strongly recommend giving it a chance.

Final Rating: 3,5/5

Pros:
+ Tix’s visual design and personality are (mostly) on par with other SB heroines
+ Solid additional drama and world-building
 
Cons:
- No interesting branches within the route
- Sable is just as unromantic as ever...


VNDB Page
Buy Sable’s Grimoire on Steam or Itch.io

Pantsu Hunter – Back to the 90s Review (English Original Visual Novel)

Indie games have for many years now capitalized on players' nostalgia and included various throwbacks to the early eras of gaming, both aesthetically and gameplay-wise. However, while you can’t take a look at Steam without finding a dozen high-quality, retro platformers with pixelart graphics and "metroidvania" design elements, this trend have very rarely found a meaningful application in the world of VNs. While there are heavily-stylized titles such as the Otusun Club’s The Bell Chimes for Gold series, mimicking the aesthetic of the early Japanese eroge, these are pretty much rare exceptions, especially when it goes to games available in the West. This, however, doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no room for nostalgic throwbacks in the Western VN community. Many of the older dating sims and VNs, like To Heart 2 or Season of Sakura are actually available in English (both thanks to early localization companies such as JAST USA and, more importantly, fan translators) and highly appreciated by the players. And we're not even mentioning the general sentiment for older Japanese media among the more experiences Western otakus.

            Thankfully (?), this potential wasn’t completely overlooked by EVN developers – in the case we're talking about today, it led the tiny team under the name of Ascension Dream to coming up with Pantsu Hunter – Back to the 90s, a semi-humoristic romance VN/adventure game with beautifully-stylized, retro visuals and a period-appropriate storyline. Drawing a decent amount of attention and going through a successful Kickstarter campaign (me being one of its backers), the game finally arrived on Steam in January 2019, receiving a heavily mixed reception. So, what went wrong with a project this straightforward-looking and how it managed to disappoint despite its impressive artwork?

Pantsu Hunter’s simplistic UI and lack of proper options menu are a nuisance, but they’re definitely not the game’s biggest problem

 

Pantsu Hunter is a Unity VN, which is something that immediately makes me expect the worst when it goes to quality-of-life features and replayability. The first impression is pretty poor in this regard, with both the launcher menu and the in-game options being grotesquely limited, with things as basic as proper volume sliders completely missing. There’s also, predictably, no auto-play, no backlog and only a very simple skip function (although the fact it’s at least there was a blessing, as tedious clicking through already-read text after every restart is something I especially abhor). It’s also not necessarily a game you want to play on a large PC screen with fullscreen mode on, as the low level of detail makes the art lose a bit of its charm in that kind of closeup. From a technical standpoint, Pantsu Hunter is slightly better than some particularly lazy PC ports of mobile games, but only barely.

            The main content of the game, divided into 4 chapters, is a mix between a VN and a point & click adventure game. In the first three chapters the protagonist, a handyman doing odd jobs around his community, visits three young woman to fix various problems around their houses (like repairing a busted VHS player or remove viruses from an infected computer), while also fulfilling his fetish for stealing panties – every pair of underwear is hidden either behind an environmental puzzle, or appropriate dialogue options, often including some really obscure logic or complex chains of interactions. Every scenario also has a huge number of comedic “bad endings” and one “true end”, which is achieved more or less separately from the process of obtaining panties, requiring its own, unique set of actions and pushing the minimalistic story forward. After gathering enough panties and going through all the good endings in the first three, puzzle-oriented episodes, you unlock the Hot Spring chapter, much more story-focused and allowing you to pursue a romance with one of the girls (or all of them at once).

            The gameplay in the initial chapters is definitely a mixed bag, but I actually don’t find it unenjoyable. The scenarios themselves are pretty short, so replaying them over and over again to test out new combinations and explore the lovely-drawn environments is not a bad experience, especially if you’re willing to use a guide whenever you get truly struck. By testing things out, you’ll eventually unlock both most of the endings and the extra story scenes (available from a separate menu and which offer you some backstory for the girls), most likely before the whole procedure gets really old – and past the third episode, you don’t have to worry about gameplay mechanics at all, having the ability to simply enjoy the VN-style interactions with the heroines.

The girls’ visual designs and personalities seem decently thought-out, but can’t truly help the poorly-executed story

 

Where the game truly fails, in my opinion, is the story content, which is probably one of the most awkwardly-written things I’ve read in a while. Instead of having fun with its ridiculous concept, the game starts with a heavy introduction, telling us about the protagonist’s life and his self-admitted status as a pervert who casually hunts for woman's panties, but is really just looking for love. The same extends to the in-game events, because while the bad endings are mostly joke-like and there are some recurring gags in them, the actual dialogues and stories of the heroines are devoid of genuine wit and humour. The disconnect between the silly premise and dead-serious drama are constantly visible and whenever the game really tries to be funny (I guess that’s what the scene of one of the girls puking in the car on the way to the onsen was there for), it simply falls flat on its face. The awkward phrasing and confusing flow of some of the dialogue are paradoxically not made any better by the decent-quality voice acting – it just feels even more eerie to hear those weird sentences being spoken by actual people. All of this also hardly builds towards any serious romance, because even the onsen episode is highly inconclusive and the so-called “epilogue” consists of one cheesy scene, filled completely with the protagonist’s inner monologue.

            The art definitely makes even this part of the experience slightly better, as it’s not only genuinely gorgeous but also stays true to the setting, with things like clothes and household appliances genuinely reminiscent of both 90s anime, and real-life fashion and technology of that time. Often, however, it simply feels wasted, because while the game had a lot of good concepts in its framework, the execution is consistently disappointing. Same goes for the music, which is both relaxing and fits the retro theme properly, but can only elevate the whole experience that much.

            In the end, Pantsu Hunter is a bit of a tough sell – a game with some admirable qualities and ideas, but deeply underwhelming when it goes to actual gameplay and storytelling. I can mostly recommend it to those willing to give it a try for the art alone – it’s really a joy to look at, and the developers are still working on implementing some additional eye-candy, mostly in the form of the “ero gallery”, a stretch goal in the Kickstarter campaign (not something one could easily look past, considering the artist’s genuine talent). Also, it might not be worth the full asking price of $10, but on sale is still a reasonably good value offer – if you’re not looking for a deep story, that is.

Final rating: 2,5/5

Pros:
+ Great visual design
+ Climatic music
+ Decent voice acting
 
Cons:
- Non-existent options menu and lackluster UI
- Mostly poor writing
- Inconsistent tone


VNDB Page
Buy Pantsu Hunter – Back to the 90s on Steam