Recently finished Lover’s Enigma, a horror occult otome visual novel by @koibitononazo. I’ve been following the development of the game, which thankfully the publisher noticed and provided me with a Steam key to play it for myself upon release.
From the very start of the game, your character is coping with the recent “suicide” of your husband while also struggling with an abusive boss in a toxic workplace, along with the burden of fulfilling filial piety towards an overbearing mother who cares more about her public image and the teachings of her cult.
The plot revolves around investigating the suspicious death of your husband Kazuki. Along with Kazuki, there are 3 other prominent male love interests. Haruki, an eccentric exorcist hired by your mother. Ryota, your childhood friend that you are fake dating in order to appease your mother looking to find you a new husband immediately after Kazuki’s death. And Renjiro, your next-door neighbor who is short-tempered but you know he means well.
Gameplay involves exploring the map of the town where there are also some side events that develop separately from the main story. Your character also has a sanity meter that is affected by the choices and actions you take. Sanity determines the type of ending received as well as the success rate of certain decisions.
It’s hard to talk more about the story without spoilers, so all I can say is that the male love interests are a lot more involved with your past than you initially thought. As they reveal more secrets, you can choose to either have faith that they were keeping you in the dark for your own safety, or that they have been deceiving you to earn your trust.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Lover’s Enigma, especially since this is the first work of a newly debuted studio. Admittedly, I felt the pacing of certain developments were too fast, but they nailed the atmosphere perfectly. I did encounter some spelling and grammar errors during my playthrough as well as experiencing a bug that crashed my game once. The developers acknowledged these issues and are actively working to fix them. For $12, I would definitely say this VN is worth playing if you like horror or otome.
I’m currently fixing grammatical errors in my 200K+ word visual novel. Making a story this huge as our first debut is… a lot, especially after launch, but we’re doing our best. Hope players can enjoy it more and more! 🥰
#otome#datingsim#visualnovel#loversenigma