Recent reviews by Story

tldr; A good game for people who want to try a unique and dark visual novel with interesting gameplay elements and strong writing.

My first encounter with this game was when I played the demo last summer, which I really ended up liking and got me looking forward to the game's release. Safe to say, my hopes were not betrayed. SAEKO really shines in my opinion when it comes to the characters and general atmosphere it creates. Almost all of the little people are memorable despite their short screentime - I particularly liked Yui. Saeko herself, of course, feels like the most fleshed out character as you'd expect from a game with "Dating Sim" in the subtitle, and you can see her relationship with the protagonist evolve subtly evolve over the course of the game. It's difficult to say much more without going into spoiler territory, but it was good enough for me to keep thinking about it well after I completed the game.

On the atmosphere, the game tries and succeeds in making the player feel powerless; if this doesn't sound like something you'll enjoy, I'd play with caution. This atmosphere comes through heavily in the night segments with Saeko, which I thought were the best part of the game. Of course you want to do your best to keep her happy and avoid being sent to the beginning, but you also have some freedom to ask her some more risky questions so long as you know when to stop. Once I found this out, I really had a lot of fun in the segments. Contrary to what a few other reviews said, I didn't think that when and what responses to choose were arbitrary or even particularly difficult to guess, and I played in not my native language. The drawer segments by contrast play as a classic visual novel with some point-and-click elements, resulting in a gameplay flow and overall vibe that felt like Danganronpa in a good way, albeit with the creator's sexual preferences no longer disguised.

The music and art are also both great. The parts inside the drawer have a unique, scribbly art style that contrasts well with the beautiful pixel art outside of it. Furthermore, you get to spend much of the game staring at anime girls, which is always a bonus.

Overall, good game. Hope to see what the studio can make next.

I used this game to study Japanese. It was very helpful and I learned a lot of words, though most of them are words I can't use in everyday conversation.