izigame.me

Came here expecting a silly smut game, left after becoming thoroughly engaged with the plot!
I caved in and bought the game solely because Natsuki was a romanceable character, and the premise seemed interesting. The art style for all the sprites and cgs are so charming, and all the character designs are amazing! Each character is written to have their own unique personality, and even though some fall into classic anime tropes, they all have such a humanity to them that it sets them apart from one another. I've never genuinely been invested in visual novels (which is why I tend to avoid buying them), or even other games with basically no plot for that matter, since the stories become so dry and dull to read after a while, but RENAI BAKUDAN had an actual interesting plot that had different themes and stories in each route that made me actually INTERESTED in reading the story and not just skipping directly to the smut. Heck, even if another game interests me enough to read through one route completely then drop it, THIS game interests me to read multiple routes completely through. All the collectibles and different gimmicks were such a breath of fresh air for me, since most visual novels only have the bare minimum features, which is a text box, a basic story, maybe one or two character sprites, and dialogue. I love the idea of collecting different novels to read throughout the game which are themed specifically around the girl you pick, and even more secret ones to collect if you do a perfect run. The exploring feature is something I've seen in other visual novels, but there's not really any incentive other than progressing the game. In RENAI BAKUDAN, you get to see other characters interact with each other and the player, and you even can get more collectibles if you explore all the areas completely. Even the night shift minigame (WHICH is my favorite by the way) is so unique in it's own right. There's an incentive for everything in this game, and it's playing whichever route you want however you want. There's so much to do, and it's practically brimming with so much life and passion for the craft of game-making (Metaphorically, and literally!), it truly is a hidden gem of a game! So, if you like yuri (or LESBIANISM, for you non-weeblings), an engaging plot for each character, lots of things to do if you want to 100% it (like the sweaty gamer you and I are), then consider picking this game up! I've literally only played for a few hours, so if my praise is this high, then that's gotta be saying something lmao