Purrfect Date - Visual Novel/Dating Simulator

Purrfect Date - the very well written odd dating sim. Downsides - it's missing key components necessary for a visual novel. You can't skip text you've read before, you can't save at a decision point so it is easy to backtrack, forced autosave, requires multiple playthroughs to get all achievements. (like no dating cats/cats dump you/you reject cat feelings). Cute notes: Music is adorable if a bit repetitive. Artwork is playful and fun. Writing is excellent. But the lack of standard visual novel features kills my drive to play for more endings. Too much button pressing for content I've already read.

Based on the premise alone, I was expecting this to be wackier/more ironic, and I probably would have believed that even more if I’d seen the trailer. Honestly, though, I kind of love the way this game commits to the bit. It’s silly and lighthearted, but it’s by no means a sh*tpost. In just a single playthrough, you get to play with multiple characters and pair them up with the cats of your choice. Even though the player characters are a bit cut and paste, it’s fun to play matchmaker thanks to their expressive avatars, and the cats all have great personalities. The character expressions are silly, and sometimes the writing has flashes of self-awareness, but the characters, their relationships, and the premise itself are taken seriously, albeit presented in a light-hearted tone to soften it. The more serious elements might have felt a bit out of place, but the game is not embarrassed by them nor does it dwell on them too long, so you buy it. There are only a couple short moments that might feel off depending on your tastes, especially that scene [spoiler]where a random cat gets murdered during a surgery.[/spoiler] One might expect a visual novel that’s neither here nor there…

Note that I am what one might call a "cat-lover" There is an interesting story in Purrfect date, it's just incredibly hard to find because 90% of the dialogue is a useless waste of time. I was so bored with the game that I kept nodding off. To give a metaphorical example of how sneaky the actual interesting parts are, any task is kind of like this: Guy wants me to go to grocery store for him. Describe shopping in grocery store. You run into Aunt Susan and she told you how her kid has been throwing up so she has to take him to the doctor. As you're leaving, you note how wonderful the display of Lucky Charms looks. End segment. My reaction: Okay, wtf did that have to do with anything? Then the next one is going to the store again. Describe doing the shopping again, but the character notices the guy who gave you the list wrote it on some old notes, and you can just make out some cryptic stuff in between "milk" and "fungus cream." Gonna have to look into that later. End segment. My reaction: Okay, that was mostly boring stuff, glad I didn't skip all of it or I would have missed that cryptic bit. So some segments are completely useless, and some have hidden important parts und…

Crazy that this game doesn't have much love, I had a great time playing it with my partner. I enjoyed the weirdness and hunting for the various endings, the dialogue and character design are good, and it doesn't overstay its welcome in my opinion. Worth a buy if you like dating sim style games, or cats, or both. It is definitely worth 10 bucks.

I do enjoy it, with some caveats. I spend my time thinking "THIS IS NOT HOW RESEARCH WORKS" especially when the professor is all "our job isn't to ask questions". Your character should be able to call in the ethics board or the police as an option! And on a purely gameplay aspect, having to replay the whole thing if you want to correct something you did in chapter 4/5 is a complete waste of time. It should be possible to start from any chapter in the playthrough you completed to see other endings! Updated after 2nd playthrough: there's many different ways to go and apparently you can't win the game unless you have exhausted absolutely all options. Which would require a few more playthroughs at this time, which with no skip option is absolutely out of the question. This changed my recommendation from yes to no...

I liked this game a lot... mostly. I would say that the title is a bit misleading, as it's not as light-hearted and dating-sim-y as the title suggests. It definitely is on the dark sinister and investigation/visual novel side of things. A title that reflected that better would better prepare players, versus pulling the rug out from under folks looking for a straight-up light comedy. (content warning: notable harm to animals) I really liked the use of multiple player characters over time in each full run. I also loved the "meow" songs -- fun music in the game! This game would massively benefit from a "skip dialog" feature. You are very likely going to need/want to play multiple runs, and by the 4th run hitting next over and over and over again for hours gets tedious. The ending didn't quite stick the landing for me, but overall it was still a fun game. I wish I were catified!