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[boysenberrybunny]

BLANK Mini-Review

(10/10)

TWs: Unavoidable death, imprisonment, mentions of illnesses

Average route time: Around an hour and a half to two hours.

Link: https://maneki-mushi.itch.io/blank

BLANK by maneki_mushi is an unconventional but nonetheless extremely poignant and heart-wrenching experience. Even being on a call as I played, cracking jokes, I was still teared up by the end and struggling to keep it together. The routes are much better enjoyed with little to no idea of what’s going to happen ahead of time, so I’ll only be giving a brief overview of the game!

In BLANK, we follow our protagonist as they wake up in a completely blank environment, unable to feel much of anything or even see their own hands or body when they look down. Encouraged by an unseen voice, you begin to create a world around yourself, resulting in one of four versions of the same man to appear depending on what you wished for. As they try to keep you happy, you slowly begin to realize that something is wrong. Bits and pieces of your old life come back to you. Where are you? Why can't you remember your own name? Who are you? The world suddenly unravels, and you're forced back into the empty white void, alone, except the voice in your head, not even your memories intact to keep you company.

Praises for the game are PLENTIFUL, from the beautiful visuals, to the extremely fitting music, to the poignant and touching writing! Despite the personality changes between each 'route', there was still a clear, underlying desire and drive between all of the versions of the man, bringing them together as a truly fascinating and tragic character. The music cues also did an incredible job in subtly shifting the mood from comforting to unsettling in the blink of an eye. Truly, I wish I could fully express my admiration and love for this game, but if I said anything too specific, I'd be scared of spoiling the whole thing!

Overall, this is easily one of my favorite games of all time, let alone one of my favorite visual novels. I'd HIGHLY recommend this to anyone with one and a half to two hours free who enjoys unconventional and tragic storytelling.

(For those curious, my route order was 'Aventure', 'Comfort', 'Creation', 'Materials', and 'Nothing', though I'm unsure how much that matters!)

[boysenberrybunny]

Under Maintenance Review

(7.5/10)

Features:

-Portrait/character customization (female only)/The ability to disable your portrait

-Accessibility options (including OpenDyslexic and Atkinson Hyperlegible fonts, large text available, darkmode/lightmode options)

-POC protagonist (optional)

-Partial voice acting

TWs: Suggestive themes/content, Mentions of divorce, Minor psychological abuse, Strong language, Mentions of alcohol/alcohol use

Average route time: About an hour

Link: https://undermaintenancestudio.itch.io/under-maintenance

Under Maintenance by GameMaintenance (on Twitter) was a pleasant and unexpectedly delightful experience, featuring three (as of the latest update) loveable men to pursue! In 'Under Maintenance' we follow our heroine, whom you can minorly customize, bored and alone after her favorite otome game goes down for maintenance, leaving her to decide how to spend the rest of her night. You have a choice of either using the dating app directly or going straight to the bar (where you end up on 2/3 of the app routes anyhow.) Of the two options, the bar one is vastly more interesting, allowing for better, more interesting interactions and a slightly more organic set-up for each route. Either way you slice it, there are three options as of the latest build; Tristan, the unconfident and somewhat pathetic (yet oh so endearing) divorcee, Theo, the trustworthy, wonderfully easygoing and traditional mechanic, and Luca, the flirtatious bartender with a heart of gold and an incredible talent for piano.

Going off of visuals alone, I anticipated Tristan to be the nerdy option, perhaps a bookworm or gamer of some sort. The intro of the game hadn't set my expectations particularly high, having some hit-or-miss humor with the protagonist, and the references in Tristan's opening messages reminding me more of cringey roleplay than classic videogames (though I suppose I'm simply not old enough to understand the references.) Despite these hurdles, the route quickly picked up steam, and we were introduced to Tristan via an open mic night. As he rattled off his routine, I found myself having to pause every few moments to cringe, finding it strangely endearing and horribly cringeworthy at the same time, something relatively common throughout Tristan's route, and something his voice acting helps to sell remarkably well. He is established as an adorkable 'loser' of sorts, and goes on to be heckled, which you (luckily) are there to defend him from, allowing the two of you to finally spark up a conversation. Through a series of goofy misunderstandings and hijinks, he proves himself throughout the route as someone who's tragically unlucky and miserable, beaten down at every turn in his life, yet who still tries his hardest to impress and please you. Sadly, he doesn't get as much time for development as I'd like, remaining relatively meek and sad up until the ending, although he still manages to realize that it's not entirely too late for him, as the two of you move in together and Tristan begins to pursue college, moving the both of you toward a much brighter future.

Theo was the next route I pursued, and given that I had played the app prologue first, I was misled (purposefully) by his bio to believe that he would be the extremely flirtatious and pompous route. If one were to take the bar route, however, they would much more quickly see his true colors as a very down-to-earth and likeable guy. Either way, his friend sets the both of you up without either of you being any the wiser. The development from here is quick, a large amount of it happening offscreen with the two of you 'talking for hours' to get to know one another. Some inconsistencies in his introduction aside, Theo proves himself to be a very sweet, loving person, caring deeply for his family and the people around him to a near fault, tossing aside his own desires at times for this reason. Additionally, his route provides a good number of goofy moments, such as his dorky pick-up lines or his complete tech illiteracy, and his voice acting does wonders to sell the character as real and genuine. By his ending, he hadn't changed much personality-wise (though this isn't a problem, given that he didn't have many issues to start with in that department), simply becoming more tech-literate and fully committing himself to the protagonist, as well as giving a second chance to interest in learning to play the drums. His ending is rather satisfying, giving a sense of warmth, comfort, and closure for the couple, as everything seems to tie itself up in a neat little bow.

Luca was the route I was expecting the most from, as I had no idea what to expect based off of his app profile, having only his photo on the title screen to go off of. Regardless of which prologue you follow, you meet him at his bar, where he works as a bartender. As you get to know him, you find out that he's smart, charismatic, handsome, popular, talented with piano, family-oriented, good at teaching kids... and boring. On the whole, Luca has few downsides to his personality, taking everything in stride and never showing much vulnerability or interesting character development, his only notable and memorable personality flaw being that he has immense trouble pursuing what he wants outside of romantic contexts, as well as trouble turning people down. As the route progresses, nothing much changes with him, even as you learn more about his backstory considering his dreams of playing piano and how it contrasts with his desire to take care of his aging mother. Sadly, his writing, and at times stilted or awkward line delivery/direction, did little to help his character, feeling overall a bit cliche and lackluster despite having several charming moments as well. Upon reaching the end, nothing has really changed with Luca, with the protagonist having to be the one to step in and tell his mother that he needs to make his own decisions, ironically making it feel like the protagonist's decision, especially considering how this is what triggers his best ending. The both of you then move west to stay together as Luca finally decides to pursue his interest in piano, wrapping up in a decent enough manner with the both of you content with one another, pursuing your own respective passions.

Despite only having three official routes at the moment, there IS actually a very short, secret fourth route for a character I have yet to mention! Mark is a character who's been dealt a rough hand in life, your stock-standard smalltown bully, someone who probably peaked in high school, and yet he still manages to captivate my interest. He appears briefly on each route, heckling Tristan, insulting Theo, and being a general nuisance to Luca, with the protagonist telling him off each time. The only way to access his 'route'/ending is to go with him in chapter two of Theo's route, wherein he'll bring you two up to a make-out spot. He confesses, interestingly enough, that he hasn't been able to get you out of his head ever since you met at the bar, and whilst the two of you don't get much time to spend together after that, what brief time you DID have together managed to quickly and skillfully establish his character. His voice acting is also some of the best in the game, tying with Tristan for sheer believability and character established.

The Problems With Under Maintenance are plentiful, but easily fixable in most cases. One of the problems I noticed almost immediately was that the protagonist is unbearably horny and somewhat annoying. They spend the introduction/first date portion of every route trying to get into the respective guy's pants, something which I found a bit irritating and frustrating. Given how the game already has an abundance of choices, it would be nice to have some choices here to take things a little slower so that you could better immerse yourself in the character and routes depending on how quickly you wanted to try to take things. Of course, with most games, more agency and less obvious bad choices would also be appreciated, though this isn't entirely necessary.

Another problem I had was with how little development it felt like there was. The routes were somewhat short, though they still had a decent amount of content, but despite this the character change still felt underwhelming in places. This could easily be fleshed out with a few more events happening in each route, showing a slower, more fluid change, rather than the semi-abrupt shifts towards the endings. A few examples of this could include helping Tristan become more confident by supporting him and coming along to one of his improv club outings, listening to Luca play piano and giving him some critique over that, and either helping Theo babysit or listening to him play the drums and supporting him that way. This problem, however, is not nearly as egregious as it is in other visual novels I've played, and I still find the experience enjoyable, nonetheless.

As mentioned several times in the review, I'm not the biggest fan of Luca, and whilst this isn't a 'problem' per se, I figured I'd still share my feedback on him in this section. Luca is a man of many talents and positive character attributes, and despite a few cute moments regarding him joking about lactose intolerance or teasing the protagonist, he overall felt very flat when compared to the other two (technically three) options. His problems felt repetitive, and where we could've had a moment to admire his piano playing and how he takes time out of his day to teach kids, we were instead subjected to yet more anecdotes about his popularity with women, something that I felt was brought up a bit too frequently. Of course, I have no problems with a character being popular with women, but when it's brought up so often, it begins to feel like the character's only purpose is to be the stock-standard attractive, perfect man to swoon over. The issue of Luca feeling two-dimensional is not something that has an easy fix, or even necessarily NEEDS to be fixed (as it is just my opinion), instead being a wider issue with his overall writing and characterization. Luca, quite honestly, just doesn't feel like he has much agency in his own route. Even Tristan, someone who's chronically shy and socially awkward, feels as though he has more agency and willingness to do things than Luca, whereas Luca simply feels like things just happen to him or around him to further his story. You talk to his mother and convince her that Luca knows what he's doing and can make his own choices, you encourage him to follow his interest in piano out west, and whilst you also do somewhat similar things in the other two routes, those routes at least feel like the boys involved have their own lives going on, that things are actively changing and happening, whereas Luca feels as though, if you were to not interact with him, his life would remain stagnant. I feel as though this could be fixed if Luca were to simply make some more of his own decisions, and if there was less of a focus put on his popularity with women. Something as simple as him choosing to go west as his own idea and asking if you wanted to tag along would do wonders for his agency, or maybe even something like him having gained the confidence because of your encouragement to tell his mother himself that he knows what he's doing and can make his own decisions.

Praises for the game are SUPER easy to come by, and that's visible at just a glance of the title screen! As you complete routes, the boys' portraits light up, something I've always been a massive fan of. As well, the game's soundtrack is incredible and very fitting, perfectly setting the mood for each route. The characterization for MOST of the boys is also super consistent and enjoyable, and I can't help but find myself extremely excited for the eventual Mark route. Under Maintenance also features many adorable CGs that, incredibly enough, are super flexible according to however you design your protagonist, not shying away from keeping them in the frame, but instead completely changing the coloration to match whatever you'd chosen! Additionally, it's also nice that there's so many choices and endings, and so many ending cards as well, most of them having something funny, interesting, or satisying about them.

Overall, I'd happily recommend the game to someone with three or so hours open who enjoyed titles like Adopt-A-Boyfriend or Cryptid Coffeehouse!

[boysenberrybunny]

Adopt A Boyfriend Review

(7.5/10)

Features: -Portrait choice (masc leaning or femme leaning) -Pronoun Options (He/They/She) -Partial voice acting TWs: Mentions of abusive relationships, Mature/suggestive themes/content, Mention of BDSM dynamics Average route time: About two hours

Link: https://lunamakaio.itch.io/adopt-a-boyfriend Adopt A Boyfriend by LunaMakaio was a pleasant surprise of a romantic vn, featuring such lovely benefits as customizable pronouns and a choice of portraits! In this game, the protagonist makes a spur of the moment decision at 3 AM to sign up for a dating service where they're paired up with (and made to live with) an animal person of the organization's choosing. All seems to be going well until TWO men end up showing up at the protagonist's house, and due to a careless decision to throw away the welcome pack, the protagonist is forced to choose for themselves which man they'd rather invite into their home. There are two very lovely boys to choose from; Amaris the flirty, mature bunny boy and Kujo the reclusive, talented cat boy.

First, I'll cover Amaris, a kind and very caring bunny man. I got about what I expected at the start, with him going out of his way to give the protagonist everything they could've desired and flirting with them frequently. As you get to know him, however, you begin to learn that he's actually quite self-conscious, and absolutely determined not to mess things up with you. He has several cute moments, including an adorable date he sets up for the both of you at the park, as well as a few interactions centered around his job as an elementary school teacher, showing just how caring and loveable he can be. By the end (and after I had accidentally gotten his bad ending first;;) he seems to change for the better, becoming more genuinely confident around you. Additionally, we get a rather cute CG of him and the protagonist under the stars.

Next is Kujo, the cagey cat boy. Extremely reluctant to open up, it takes a bit of time for him to adjust to living in the house. His interests are unexpected and very refreshing, and he has a pretty well-fleshed out backstory and sympathetic motivations for wanting to do things correctly with the protagonist. Not much happened in his route, as you spend most of your time at home, but once you do get out of the house you have quite the nice time together! The pacing in this route feels rougher and too fast-paced at points, but the voice acting does wonders for holding it up. Another cute CG ends off the route and the game as a whole!

The Problems With Adopt A Boyfriend aren't too terribly noticeable if you don't come looking for them, most of the time. The main issue is that the routes are somewhat empty, with nothing much happening to establish the deep connection we see by the end of the route aside from several decisions made in passion. Of course, there's one or two cute dates, but that's not exactly enough to fall deeply in love with someone. It would've been nice to see one or two more dates with some slower development, but honestly, it doesn't really detract from the experience. It's still a very, very cute and fun game! Another issue I have is that, due to the fact that there's only three choices per route, it's easy to mess up and not realize it until you're already at the bad/undesired ending. I feel as though 2/3 should be good enough for the good ending, or, better yet, there should be more options and variety, as in its current state there isn't much reason to replay the game aside from the voice acting and character designs. (In an ideal world, we'd also have a route with both boys, but that's neither here nor there.) A more serious issue is something related to the in-game logic of why Kujo signed up for the dating service. He mentions that his therapist urged him to sign up. Now, keep in mind, this service has Kujo moving in with the protagonist. This sounds weird, but not terrible, at first. As we progress through Kujo's route, however, we find out that he was previously in an abusive and toxic relationship where his partner would try to control him in various ways, something he had an extremely hard time getting away from. You can see where the issue is here, given that the therapist's advice could've easily led Kujo into the same exact situation all over again. Even if a person passes a background check (as is required by the agency in-universe), it doesn't mean Kujo is necessarily 100% safe. It was irresponsible and extremely strange for his therapist of all people to tell him to sign up for it. This can easily be fixed by changing it to having family or a close friend suggest it, or Kujo coming up with the idea himself. Or, rather, by being acknowledged in-game as something that was probably a bad decision.

Praises for the game are still easy to come up with, despite those issues! Something I noticed immediately was just how good the designs were, as well as the immaculate voice-acting! The programming was a little off in spots, resulting in voice lines playing at the wrong time or bugs in the dialogue, but with how good the voicing was, I hardly even noticed. As well, both routes are entirely unique from eachother, not re-using essentially any content from one another. I also like the environments and all the subtle moments that result from them.

Overall, I would recommend this game to someone with around three hours open who enjoyed titles such as Cryptid Coffeehouse, or more faintly Cinderella Phenomenon (particularly Rod or Karma's route, although these aren't quite as in-depth.)

[boysenberrybunny]

3 Seasons Review

(7/10) Features: -POC Protagonist -Pronoun Options (He/They/She) TWs: N/A Average route time: About 45 minutes to an hour

Link: https://hamiltonhour.itch.io/3-seasons Three Seasons by HamiltonHour is a fun and light-hearted, albeit short, experience! Here we follow our protagonist, whom you can name and select pronouns for, as they go to supposedly be interviewed at Three Seasons Inc., only to be whisked away into the elemental realm. Stuck there for "a week", you meet our current three choices, Yuto (the Winter Spirit), Sol (the Summer Spirit), and Rye (the Fall Spirit.) Let's start with Yuto!

Going into it, I expected Yuto to be cold and closed-off, as he claimed the others described him as 'cold-hearted.' I find this a bit odd, as he doesn't ever really act that way, always acting about as kind and open as the other two, although in a much more responsible manner. His route has some cute date moments, but, like the other two, it is tragically short, and I feel as though the development from strangers to lovers happens much too quickly. As well, he comes out of his shell extremely fast. Even so, his unexpected cheekiness gave this route a certain special something that I find mediocre romantic visual novels often lack.

Sol also managed to surprise me, given that when I had selected Yuto the first time Sol had made a passing flirtatious comment, giving me the impression that he would be the flirt of the game. Upon selecting his route, however, he had much more of a himbo energy, and was monumentally oblivious to my advances. It was cute, and despite how short and fast the route was, it made much more sense for his character to fall for someone so quickly, so I didn't mind it as much. His concern after the MC is nailed in the face with a volleyball was especially wholesome and sweet. As well, his design is one of my personal favorites.

The current final route, Rye, was fairly decent. His design was the warmest and coziest, and his office was definitely the comfiest looking. What made him stand out a bit amongst the other two options is that he had an actual plot going, separate from your own "trapped-in-the-elemental-realm" thing (this plot being his art show.) His love of art and reading was very cute, and his hopeless romantic energy was extremely pleasant, giving him an overall comforting and warm vibe, much like Fall itself. I also loved his teasing, though this is something he shares in common with the other two boys as well. His ending was the most satisfying, ending with a kiss in the rain, although I still must bring up just how quickly things escalated. Speaking of which...

The Problems with 3 Seasons. Every game, no matter how good, has problems. The first, and smallest, issue is with the textboxes. There's no easy way to tell who's talking, aside from the nametag, as all the boys talk relatively similarly. I feel as though we could benefit from some flourishes on the textbox, both so it looks less 'default' and so that we can better differentiate who's talking at any given time. Different fonts could also help add more visual interest to this section of the screen. The routes also could use a little more variety in the beginning, as they’re all a bit too same-y pre-dates. One issue with the game is that, as stated multiple times before, the routes are extremely short. The game is supposed to take place over "a week" (re: five days, re: two to three days), but due to time passing much faster in the elemental realm, it feels like we barely get any time to get to know the boys, and it certainly feels like much too little time for them to fall in love with us. As Yuto said, the time we spent together is a drop in the bucket of his life. I feel like the game would be better if the time was extended, say to a month, or if time didn't pass so quickly in the elemental realm, so that we would have more time to see these characters grow, and give more reason as to why an immortal being would fall in love with you so fast. Another issue is how useless the protagonist feels. There are two minigames wherein we do our job, and whilst functional, they (the minigames) don't add anything to the experience, both being extremely short and pointless. Were these to stay in the future product, I would recommend a wider variety of them, or perhaps a more difficult and frequent version (which would also be easier to accomplish with an extended time limit!) As it stands, the protagonist does two tasks and then nothing, and whilst I understand the justification being that they don't have magic, the other boys mention how, once teleported, the protagonist is wearing a "Spring staff" uniform. Surely, not every menial task the Spring Staff does requires magic as well? Introducing some side-characters in the form of seasonal staff (such as the Spring Staff) who you could help and work alongside would help breathe life into the game and add some variety aside from the gorgeous boys we have! As well, it would help feed into the sense of progression in the game, especially if they were to note subtle changes in the boys you pursue, something you yourself probably wouldn't notice since you didn't know them beforehand. Praises for the game are still abundant, despite those issues! The character designs and backgrounds are gorgeous, and I feel as though each office fits the boys perfectly! Despite the short length, the game still manages to be quite funny and even romantic at times, with each of the boys' dates being unique and enjoyable experiences. I hardly ever felt as though they said something out of character, which attests to how pleasant the writing can be. Additionally, I absolutely love how each boy gives you a customized piece of jewelry at the end of their route, making it all the more personal and special, as well as giving closure as to how you would find or see them again. The music, also, is nice, if not repetitive. Overall, I would recommend this game to someone with around two to three hours open and who enjoys isekai-type short stories. Please excuse any clunkiness, as this is the first review I’m posting, and I’m still working out the kinks in organization! Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again soon! <3

[boysenberrybunny]

Hello, and welcome to Boysenberry Bunny! You can call me Bunny (He/they)! Boysenberry Bunny is a blog dedicated to reviewing various romantic visual novels, something that I find quite fun and entertaining! The top of each review will feature:  -The VN/Game Title -The link to the game -The rating (1-10) -Customization options And -TWs (Can never be too careful!) As well, some reviews will feature a few recommendations of other, similar games! I hope that this will help to make your experience easier and more enjoyable! Welcome, and see you again soon!