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!)

One of the visual novel bundles I got also included two of the LoveKami games, so I decided to give LoveKami -Divinity Stage- a try.

LoveKami is set in a universe where the goddesses have decided to learn about the human world by sending down fragments of themselves to take on human form.

The start of the visual novel is packed with explanations to set up the premise and explain why a majority of goddesses have become idols (like, in the musical performance sense). One of the most popular Divine Idol groups is holding a contest to choose a new member, and you play a young man who ends up helping two idols in their attempt to win.

It’s largely a kinetic novel, with only a single choice partway through that determines which of the three romance routes you end up on.

Unfortunately, despite the amount of detail it puts into justifying its idol goddesses and how their powers work, the story is pretty bland. Two of the girls want to win the contest and need your help to do so. The third is a member of the group holding the contest, and she has her own struggles to deal with.

The problem is the story just doesn’t do much. One of the three routes features a serious conflict in the character’s life, as well as a handful of scenes from her perspective, but the other two don’t. It has some funny moments, but not enough to carry it. Overall, it was just… boring.

Onto some positives!

Since this game is all about idols, there are a few musical performances, and the songs are catchy. The music is good, and that helps bring it to life. The art is also nice, and it has a high amount of fanservice, which should increase its appeal if you want a game with cute girls in revealing clothing and suggestive poses (no 18+ version in English, though).

But if you aren’t in it for the fanservice, I find it hard to recommend LoveKami -Divinity Stage-.