Operation Backlog Completion 2026
Feb 232022
 

Last year I mentioned that I’d picked up the third LoveKami game in another visual novel bundle, so let’s keep the tradition going and talk about LoveKami -Healing Harem-.

Like its predecessors, it’s set in a world where goddesses have come to Earth to learn more about humanity.

It starts when the protagonist helps out a Tatarigami, a goddess whose powers bring trouble and misfortune, and she immediately declares herself to be his wife.

This causes conflict with the region’s guardian goddess, who is a reformed Tatarigami, and another goddess close to the protagonist (who also brings misfortune, but more in a “bad luck” sort of way than the dark powers the other two have), who then declare themselves to be his better half and mistress respectively.

As usual for the series, Healing Harem is largely a kinetic novel, with a single choice partway through that puts you on one of the three routes.

It goes all in on the fanservice, and as you might guess from the title, it doesn’t even try to pretend it’s anything other than a harem fantasy. Two of the routes specifically involve the goddess in question dealing with her jealousy of the other two, although the remaining route focuses more on the goddess wanting to do nice things for the community.

The story is lighthearted and has some interesting moments, although the romance feels a bit odd since all three are already in love with the protagonist to some degree.

(One of them is also a yandere, and her route basically runs with that as a character quirk you must accept.)

Healing Harem’s story setup makes me wonder if it would have worked better as a fully kinetic novel with all three stories occurring at the same time, since the route structure doesn’t make as much sense when they’re a harem anyway. Anyway, it’s a more interesting story than Divinity Stage, but not as entertaining as Useless Goddess.

So if you’re there for the fanservice or the jealous harem fantasy, or really like the LoveKami universe, LoveKami -Healing Harem- makes for a decent addition to the series. Are there any diehard LoveKami fans out there? And don’t forget, the previous two LoveKami games are among the prizes you can win just by leaving a comment in this year’s contest!

(Meanwhile, on the other end of the visual novel spectrum, an official tweet suggests we might actually get the Chaos;Head Noah/Chaos;Child bundle in English!)

Feb 212022
 

We’ve got just over a week left in the Valentine’s Video Games Festival, so don’t forget to check out the contest rules and prizes and join in!

Our romance game for today is an otome visual novel called That Which Binds Us, which caught my attention because of its unusual premise.

The main character is Evalise, a young woman whose boyfriend keeps getting arrested. When she goes to get him a bail bond, she meets Idris, who offers to make her boyfriend completely forget her instead.

I thought this was a pretty intriguing premise, having a protagonist already in a relationship who then causes the other person to forget her. It made me think of those what-if-we-never-met scenarios that sometimes show up in sitcoms.

So I had a few ideas about where the story might go, none of which were accurate. The core of the story is about the growing relationship between Evalise and Idris after she accepts his offer. Once you reach the end, you unlock the option to refuse Idris’s offer on a second playthrough, but he does it anyway and the story plays out differently from there based on your choices.

That surprised me a bit, that there are multiple branching paths and different endings, but not different romance routes.

It’s a bit strange, because in some ways, the second playthrough branches are significantly different, but at the same time I felt a little disappointed that it was still dealing with the same basic ideas. That might be on me for hoping for different routes. I also hoped the magical side of things would take more of the focus than it did.

Nevertheless, the romance between Evalise and Idris works well enough, and there are some interesting twists in the story along the way.

So if you’re looking for a nice romance story with a light magical twist at its premise, you might consider That Which Binds Us.

Feb 182022
 

It’s been a while since we’ve had a crowd-funding campaign to discuss, and during the Valentine Video Games Festival no less!

Love Cypher, currently seeking funding through Kickstarter, is a near-future romance visual novel set in the 2040s. You play a new student at a university studying artificial intelligence advancements.

It is a galge with four romance routes (and the possibility for more if Love Cypher should meet both its goal and subsequent stretch goals).

A demo is also available, and I played it after seeing the Kickstarter campaign. The demo is fairly short and follows the protagonist as he arrives at the university and meets the heroines.

From the demo, Love Cypher comes across as a lighthearted romantic comedy, with some silly situations and classic misunderstandings.

However, the description mentions that the advanced AI technology in this world “re-sculpts one’s identity, while keeping the individual unaware of their transformation,” which suggests there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Alongside the rom-com antics, it looks like it will deal with themes of identity and humanity.

(Nowadays I’m suspicious of anything that looks fun and lighthearted with hints of something else, but the developer has said online that the story will be philosophical, but still fun, so I don’t think we have to worry about this one being secretly depressing.)

Love Cypher will be an 18+ visual novel once it’s complete, although the demo has no 18+ content since it’s the beginning of the story.

The art looks very nice, and all around it looks like it will be a high-quality production. Although it has stock backgrounds for now, the Kickstarter page says they will be replaced in the final version. It’s tough to judge the story from the demo this early on, but the premise sounds intriguing.

So if you’re looking for an upcoming romance visual novel, you might want to check out Love Cypher’s Kickstarter page to learn more about it.