Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Helping Your Boyfriend

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  7 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Oct 122026
 

Over the weekend, I saw a post about a free horror romance visual novel called Helping Your Boyfriend, so I decided to give it a try.

You live with your boyfriend, a doctor named Adrian, who takes care of you due to a condition that left you unable to walk. You also take apart old dolls for him.

(With this premise and the knowledge that it’s horror, you might already have an idea of where this is going.)

The first thing I did was turn off the voices, because the voice acting came in the form of little laughs and things to accompany the lines, and it felt more distracting to me than anything else. I also puzzled over the difficulty settings for a while, because I couldn’t see what they affected…

…until I encountered a QTE where I had to hit buttons on a timer, and then I understood why there were difficulty options.

Yes, it’s not just a visual novel. There are minor adventure game elements in certain scenes, but also sections where you need to get past rapid QTEs or die. It adds a definite sense of urgency to those scenes, although a generous auto-save means dying doesn’t force you to repeat too much content.

Helping Your Boyfriend is pretty short, under two hours to get all four endings, but it manages its time well to build up a tense atmosphere. It also got me good with a jumpscare at one point.

My biggest criticism is that on subsequent playthroughs to get the other endings, I felt like I kept needing to hit the skip text button again (partly because of the number of dialogue options, but there were also times when I couldn’t tell if it wasn’t skipping or if the text was just slow regardless) instead of just skipping through smoothly.

Overall, however, Helping Your Boyfriend is a nice, creepy visual novel with some great moments. I’d recommend it if you like horror disguised as something cute or if your brain starts vibrating at the phrase “serial killer doctor.”

Celebrating All Things Romantic: I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!!

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video Games  8 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 152023
 

Today I’d like to talk about a short visual novel called *deep breath* I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!!

Now, despite how the store page describes it, this is not an otome in any way, shape, or form.

When the description says it’s “a not-so-generic otome game” and “a spin on your average otome game,” what it really means is that it’s written with the idea that you are playing from the perspective of a love interest in an otome game while your friend is the main character.

You are Geum, a teenage boy whose best friend Emily is supposed to be an otome game protagonist, with two other guys she could become interested in. However, you don’t think they really love her, so you decide to either win Emily’s heart first or make the two guys fall for you instead.

In other words, you play a male protagonist with one female and two male love interests.

I’d go a step further and say I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!! is stronger without its meta elements. Jokes about Emily’s nickname being MC or Geum noticing she seems to be looking at invisible choices in the air are good for a smile, but this visual novel is at its best when it focusing on the routes themselves.

The routes are split, so early on you decide if you want to try to win over Emily or the guys. Choices that favor any of the three characters still show up regardless of which path you pick, so I’m not sure why it’s split at the beginning. Once you do Emily’s route and at least one guy’s route on the same save file, you’ll also unlock a polyamory route (although it’s more like a harem).

No matter which route you’re on, you get a variety of cute scenes as you pursue your love interest of choice. While simple, the stories are sweet and heartfelt, and it has quite a bit of variability in the outcomes.

That’s part of why I feel it would be stronger if it didn’t try to play into the idea that Emily is an otome game protagonist. The actual routes here are sweet and humorous enough on their own without breaking the fourth wall, and the premise works fine on its own.

I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!! is very short and will probably only take you a couple of hours to beat, but it’s a sweet visual novel with more heartfelt romance than I expected.

Valentine Video Games Festival: Blind Men

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video Games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 112022
 

Our next game to discuss is a boys’ love visual novel called Blind Men, written as a parody of spy fiction.

The main character is Keegan, a young would-be super villain who hopes to be accepted into the League of Evil by proving himself with a daring scheme.

However, when it’s time to pull of his evil plan, two enemy spies end up getting in his way.

While Blind Men is a fairly short visual novel and should only take a few hours to get all the endings, choices have a fair impact on the story’s direction. You get to choose one of two possible evil plans, either kidnapping a professor or stealing a diamond, in addition to which of the two spies you end up entangled with.

Each love interest then has a few different outcomes to his route based on your choices, along with the situation being completely different depending on which plan you picked. Some of the choice consequences felt a little obscure, but that’s not too bad when it’s so short to start with.

Blind Men is pretty funny. The whole premise of playing an aspiring super villain (who tries so hard to act villainous and not be flustered by his love interests) together with the spy fiction tropes it parodies results in enough humorous moments that it made me laugh several times.

The romance feels a little lacking, unfortunately. There’s definitely flirting, you can see some chemistry building if you make the right choices, and you might be lucky enough to get an ending with implications of romance, but it comes just short of feeling truly romantic. That might be due to the short length. If the characters crossed paths more times before the ending, the romances might feel more fully-realized.

With that said, it’s still fun. Blind Men might not do the best with its romances, but it’s an entertaining spy parody with several endings to keep you trying different paths.

(On a completely different note, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 exists! I’m so excited! It looks fantastic! Also Front Mission and Radical Dreamers and Live A Live; that was a crazy Direct!)

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