Overall 6.2 Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 8 Depth 7
6.2
''It's all due to your narrow mind. I'm hungry now.'' lolid23
I'm back with another review. I'll say it right now, this is probably going to be my last review before I review Blue Reflection: Second Light, at best, I might write another review after this one, maybe two more reviews...but as I said, at best. Youkai Poetry is another visual novel published by Navila Software Japan, it's a recent game that, as far as I know, is another Nintendo Switch exclusive, there isn't a PS4 or even Steam version, this isn't Gaokao.Love.100Days, which also has a Steam version. Suggestive content? Well, it's mostly 2 images of a specific female character, those 2 images (which are used early in the game by the way) leave little to the imagination, more or less. We could say that when it comes to that kind of content (fan service), Youkai Poetry is worse than Reverse Memories. Anyway...let's begin.
Story: The description of the game on its eShop page has this sentence: ''The sound of cicadas, the breeze of summer, Meeting you is a small miracle in my life.'' In simple terms, Youkai Poetry is about a college/university student, Bu shu, meeting with the youkai Bu Heng, Bu Heng is Bu Shu's sister but of course, Bu Shu is human which means that Bu Heng (a youkai) isn't related by blood. Bu Heng warns Bu Shu of his own future using a scroll, wanting to meet with Bu Shu and telling him about his (bad) future should be the reasons why Bu Heng came to the city. Bu Shu then starts living with Bu Heng and another youkai named Ying Ning. The description of the game has a lot of errors or broken English, which...doesn't inspire confidence I know, but the part of ''it is a story about joy and healing, a story about growing up'' is at least something I'm willing to reference...because it does the game justice. Youkai Poetry, unlike many other visual novels, isn't a story that involves death or things like that, and even so, I really like the story and characters a lot, it really is a story about joy and, to an extent, growing up, and even though there isn't anything intense throughout the game, it's still a game that made me say ''I want to see what happens next!'' The events and interactions between the characters definitely serve its purpose and it's an interesting game at the end of the day. A video game doesn't need a high-stakes story or deaths of characters to be interesting or hook you, and overall, without giving more details, I definitely think that it's an 8 at best or something like that.
Graphics: I know that these names won't sound familiar, but the artists are Oisy and Sola (CG Artist)...what can I say? They did a great job, Youkai Poetry has a good and plesant art style, the 2D art isn't animated but the characters have different (sometimes funny) facial expressions, the backgrounds look great and are detailed, the game has a minimalist UI that works for the game and looks nice, and overall, it's at least a 7 in this category. What I don't like about the graphics is that 1 or 2 backgrounds look inconsistent with the rest of the game, and one specific character, only known as ''Granny'', looks like she came from another video game, the game is usually consistent with the graphics and art style but that specific character stands out like a sore thumb...she looks different from the rest of the cast, it's almost as if she was designed by someone else that wasn't Oisy and Sola... as other people have said, an inconsistent art style isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing...inconsistency can result in an unplesant art style...other than that, I definitely like the graphics and art style.
Sound: Unlike Reverse Memories, Youkai Poetry lets you listen to the music of the game, however, said feature wasn't implemented well (or something) because you can only listen to 4 songs in the game (basically 3, because 2 of them are just different versions of the same song) and the L and R buttons don't do much, ''page up/down''? Not really. The soundtrack is very enjoyable to listen to and kind of memorable, I consider it more memorable than the soundtrack found in Nekopara games, Orange Throbbing and Summer, both versions of The Summer I Met You, the music used after you give Ying Ning clothes that reminds me of Earthbound...it's an enjoyable soundtrack with memorable music to an extent. The Chinese voice acting is usually great, I guess, I'm still not a good judge of Chinese voices, in any case, listening to the voices throughout the game, I...guess the voice acting is good at least? I mean, I guess I can notice that at times, the voice actresses (the male characters aren't voiced for some reason) really put emotion in their lines, when some characters are sad or crying, you can really notice the effort in the acting maybe, but as I said, I'm not the best judge of Chinese voices and of course, I would have liked an English dub, but it goes without saying that this game will never have English voices...
Addictive: It's an enjoyable read, even though there are many errors and weird translations throughout the game. Youkai Poetry is another kinetic visual novel, as someone who finished the game yesterady, I can say for sure that, unlike Reverse Memories, Youkai Poetry never makes you choose between two choices or decisions, but even so, it's as enjoyable as Reverse Memories if not a litle better and more enjoyable, and that's defnitely because of the different story and cast, for the most part, I'm not a fan of the cast in Reverse Memories, but here? I think I like every character in Youkai Poetry, it's a great cast of likable characters. In my opinion, Youkai Poetry is worth playing at least once.
Depth: We don't have much if we talk about extras, there is only a gallery (how typical), and something that lets you listen to...4 songs. The reason why this is a 7 at best, is the fact that Youkai Poetry should take you
at least 7 or 8 hours to finish, even though this visual novel is very cheap and has a smaller file size than many other games in the genre (less than 500MB in total), if you actually read the dialogue and pay attention to the story...yeah, it's several hours at least.
Difficulty: It's another kinetic visual novel...a blank space is fine for this category.
Youkai Poetry is an enjoyable visual novel for Nintendo Switch, the game has a lot of flaws: There are many errors and weird translations throughout the game (''Are you the one live with Bu Shu together?''; ''crisps'' instead of ''chips''; ''Bu Heng seems to be lack of summer clothes indeed''; ''ha'' instead of ''huh''; ''I came out after put on my clothes'' and more), the art style is a little inconsistent because of ''Granny'' and one or two backgrounds, you can only listen to 4 songs if you choose ''MUSIC'' in the main menu and also, the game has technical problems or glitches (!), the volume (in general) is inconsistent, and when I say that, I mean...
very inconsistent...you can adjust the volume of the sound effects, voices and music, yes, but throughout the game, the volume is being inconsistent and the game is too loud, or too quiet, or the voices are barely audible, or whatever, also, the sound effects used in the menus may disappear...some of these flaws are unacceptable, I'm not going to deny that...but even with all those flaws, I enjoyed my time with Youkai Poetry, I defnitely give the game a 6.2/10 at best, the music, good voice acting and likable characters, etc...are things I like about the game and as I said, Youkai Poetry is worth playing at least once. The game has a price tag of $6.99 and in other countries, including Mexico, something comparable to that, so, even when Youkai Poetry isn't on sale, it's still a cheap game, if you buy it, you may like it...
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 8 Depth 7
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 09-30-21
Review Replies: 0
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