LOVEPICAL-POPPY!

Again, SMEE does make me grin like an idiot throughout the game with typical SMEE-ish vibe. Come, SMEE comrade, and don't fret about changing art style. You will love it alright.

So... let me start this off by saying I'm a big SMEE fan. I love their past work a lot. Fureraba, Making * Lovers, Sugar * Style, Harem Kingdom, they're all gold comedy VN's. That said, I was always aware that after Sugar * Style, SMEE seemed to have lost both their artist and their scenario writer. Now, having read this, the first work without them involved, I can sadly say that my worries were vindicated. The artwork is a half mimicry of their old style, with changes. The faces look similar, clearly meant to emulate the old style's brand identity, but the coloration is vastly different, and the actual posing of the characters is *awful.* I think we're dealing with an artist who can draw well on the surface, but doesn't understand the theoretical side of artistry. All the CG's are *super* awkwardly posed. The loss of the scenario writer is felt the most. The usual "SMEE humour" that's part of their brand is gone. There's a few moments that are kinda quirky like it, but it's an absolute shell of what once was. Having read Amanatsu, which their former scenario writer worked on and 100% feels like you're reading a SMEE title, I'm convinced that man was the core of what made SME…

Really good routes and cute romance

surrealism art style

LOVEPICAL-POPPY! was a very enjoyable visual novel, pretty much what you would expect from SMEE. Pretty sure most people know what they're getting into with this one, and I'd say my expectations were met, if not exceeded. All 6 routes were quite good. Miu's was probably my least favorite, although that has nothing to do with the route's quality but rather my own personal preference conflicting with Miu's character. My favorite would be Nozomi's, which did slightly feel like the true route based on the common route. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the side routes were. Tanpopo and Ayako's route were really quite good for being side routes. One thing I should note is that the common route was quite long, I think about 10-12 hours for me, compared to the individual routes which were relatively short. I don't think this is a bad thing, as much as it is just different from some past visual novels I've experienced. I do enjoy a strong common route, so I didn't mind the common route being long. Overall, very recommendable for any fans of moeges, as it is up to par with SMEE's other works.

As another VN from SMEE- this felt like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back compared to Making*Lovers (one of my favorite VNs). Not a bad read if you're new to SMEE's brand of wacky rom-com humor, but as someone who loved Making*Lovers, I finished this wanting a bit more. Let's start with the improvements over Making*Lovers. The only reason why I hold Making*lovers in such high regard is solely based on the Karen route, there were 2 routes that were such a slog to read that I gave up half way (namely the Mashiro and Saki route). On the other hand, LOVEPICAL's lows weren't as bad as Making*Lovers' (I'll go over which route I had issues with later on) and the routes were consistently enjoyable. Another thing they did right were the side characters (Ayako and Kuma san) and dorm roomers themselves, the dorm and H&B felt like a tight knit family, rather than the hollow institution that was Ninki Seiyuu's dorm. Lastly, the gimmick of LOVEPICAL are the speech bubbles that appear over the heroine's minds, revealing their thoughts to the readers if clicked on. I felt like this added alot to the immersion without interferring with the overall pacing of the scenes. Now onto the less good. Al…