Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Celebrating All Things Romantic: I Love You Colonel Sanders!

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 142020
 

When I Love You Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator was announced, I wasn’t too interested, but for some reason I know people who wanted me to play this.

So I decided to make it my Valentine’s Day review and see what this official KFC dating sim was all about.

You play a blank slate protagonist attending a 3-day cooking class. You’re quickly introduced to your best friend, two bullies/rivals, your dog professor, and a few other classmates (including a robot). Then another student walks in: Colonel Sanders, who immediately captures the attention of everyone due to being the most handsome, charming, majestic student ever to grace the halls of the school.

The main reason I wasn’t impressed when the game was announced is because I feel there’s been a trend of “It’s a visual novel, but you’re dating [insert weird/random/unexpected love interest here]!” games that try to capitalize on having such a wacky premise while missing the genuine heart things like Hatoful Boyfriend have.

On one hand, I want to say I Love You Colonel Sanders! is soulless, but on the other hand, it’s so bizarre it does manage to be funny at times simply because there’s no way to predict what might happen next.

It feels like someone took a bunch of romance visual tropes, some anime references, and a dash of random goofiness, and mixed them all up in a pot with Colonel Sanders.

Van Van the Man Man clearly wandered in from a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure parody.

Half the things that happen in this story make zero sense, and I couldn’t help but feel it was an intentional attempt to parody visual novels where wacky things happen. Colonel Sanders himself is portrayed bizarrely, as the narration is over-the-top in making him out to be nearly superhuman, yet takes a few jabs at him for being narcissistic enough to view himself the same way.

Add in the fact that answering a cooking question wrong can make Colonel Sanders immediately reject you forever, and he isn’t really likable… except that the narration and your protagonist’s thoughts keep claiming he is.

There are choice and multiple endings, as well as several points where you can get a game over. There’s no way to make a manual save (you can open a menu if you find the exact spot on the menu indicator to click, but it doesn’t have a save option), which is frustrating, but there’s an auto-save ahead of each point where you might fail.

I didn’t feel the need to get more than one ending. As a visual novel, I Love You Colonel Sanders! lacks the substance to really be good; as an extended commercial/marketing stunt, it’s amusing enough.

Celebrating All Things Romantic: A Kiss for the Petals – Remembering How We Met

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 122020
 

The next visual novel I decided to read for this month’s celebration is the first yuri visual novel I’ve read, A Kiss for the Petals – Remembering How We Met.

This is actually part of a series (A Kiss for the Petals) and is set as a prequel to the other stories about Risa and Miya, two girls attending the same school.

The story begins in the present with the two of them together as a couple, but the changing of seasons makes Risa think back to the day she first saw Miya, and then the bulk of the story is a flashback about how they first met and got to know each other.

It’s another kinetic novel, so there are no choices, and it took me a little over an hour and a half to read. Most of it is told from Risa’s perspective, with a handful of scenes from Miya’s. The switch to Miya was sometimes so brief that it was a little jarring, but not too bad. Although the two characters are very different from one another, they’re both likable.

What surprised me the most is that for all I’m counting this as part of our romance celebration, it’s… not really a romance.

Risa and Miya are dating in the present, but the flashback itself really is how they met, not how they became a couple. For all intents and purposes, most of the visual novel is a friendship story, showing how they went from having a rather contentious relationship to being friends.

While this was just a short prequel story, the others in the series are supposed to be more fleshed out.

I enjoyed this one enough that I’ll probably look into the next, so consider checking out A Kiss for the Petals – Remembering How We Met if you’re looking for a cute yuri visual novel that’s mainly focused on friendship.

Celebrating All Things Romantic: KARAKARA

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 102020
 

A while ago, I got a visual novel Humble Bundle that came with a bunch of things I’d probably never have picked up otherwise, including KARAKARA.

Since it’s a romance visual novel featuring catgirls, I honestly expected it to be a lot like Nekopara, which I reviewed a couple years ago: silly, cute, not a whole lot of substance if you aren’t interested in the 18+ version.

There are some definite similarities, especially in regards to how its romance and fanservice are handled, but it’s actually quite distinct. Aside from anime catgirl fanservice, the two visual novels don’t really have much overlap, and KARAKARA has a much more defined plot despite taking me less than 2 hours to complete.

KARAKARA is set in a post-apocalyptic world where an unknown Disaster wiped out most of civilization, and humanity’s efforts to survive resulted in hybrids like our catgirl love interests here.

The main character runs a diner in Sagami Francisco (the result of American and Japanese survivors of the Disaster coming together) along with his friend/employee Lucia, and they routinely deliver food to the people who live in town. One day, as they’re driving, they encounter a girl named Aisia sleeping alongside the road. Since she has nowhere to go, they take her in as a new employee, and the story largely deals with how this changes their lives.

It’s a kinetic novel, so you don’t make any choices, and while it’s mainly focused on romance and comedy, parts of the plot were surprisingly interesting.

Click for major KARAKARA spoilers
I really did not expect this game to involve vampires.

Even when they talked about the vampire rumors early on, I didn’t think that was actually going to become a part of the plot.

Vampires?!

Catgirl vampires?!

I was baffled when I realized it was actually going in that direction.

In short, KARAKARA is a cute, sweet story that has an interesting enough plot across its few hours that I’ll probably pick up KARAKARA 2 at some point to see how the plot progresses and hopefully learn more about the world.

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