Review: Lovekami

In the future of a slightly different Japan, the gods (kami) come down from the heavens to live once again amongst the people. However, the gods lack the basic common sense for living in the human world, so Amaterasu proclaims that they should be educated so that they can live alongside humankind. As a result, Souta's school becomes the trial case for the new program, and his school life takes a rather hilarious turn.


Plot 8/10: Really, I'm giving this score mostly because of Tsukuyomi's path and the sheer hilarity of this VN. As a break from my usual dark choices, this eroge was perfect. It's story is light and for the most part cheerful, without turning into a sex-romp like most games geared toward the 'megami-fetish' crowd seem to end up being. It's references to Shinto are fairly accurate, and for those who are interested, it explains some of the oddities that are hard to figure out using wikipedia and whatever random books on the religion end up in your local public library. The heroines and other characters have lively personalities that interact very well with each other, and the individual heroines' stories are interesting in and of themselves, even though there is definitely a level of absurdity to things overall. The protagonist is a hot-headed, dense type, though oddly it doesn't come across as painfully as most such protagonists tend to do. He's definitely an idiot, but he's also an idiot you'll end up liking despite yourself.

Visual 8/10: Hrm... what can I say about this? The appearance of this game overall is fairly good, with the chibis and chibi-cgs being outright hilarious just to look at. In addition, the other CG's, while not the best I've ever seen (considering the VNs I've seen in the past, that isn't an insult at all) are also good looking and definitely grab your attention.

Sound 7/10: In terms of voices, this VN did a very good of fitting VA's to characters, each one seeming to fit into their individual personality and body type quite well. In terms of soundtrack, the funny and cheerful tracks that make up the majority of what's in this game are good but sound exactly like you would expect to hear in any given light and cheerful eroge. The few serious soundtracks were once again somewhat generic but well suited to the scenes they were fitted to.

Overall 7.5/10: Overall, for those looking for a light game to play that isn't a sex-romp, and for those who have a thing for Shinto, foxgirls, and the like, this is a good choice. I can't recommend it to people looking for a serious or tragic experience, because this really isn't that type of game. At the same time, there are no real fight scenes and most of the game is seemingly constructed to make the player laugh until his ribs crack open. From that perspective, I could have probably given this a better score, but I'm reluctant to give that high a score to a game that isn't technically one of the best games I've ever played.


Note: Yeah, I figured I would go ahead and review this, even though I don't normally review the light eroge I play. I originally just wanted to play this to wash the rather nasty taste of Kourin no Machi (no fault of Akabeesoft there, I was just not in the mood for being depressed) out of my mouth, but this game turned out to be enough of a winner that I went ahead and played all four paths.