Reviews:Love Ribbon

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This did not suck half as much as I expected. In fact, it's quite good, if not outstanding.

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GethN7 (talkcontribs)

Incest is a twitchy topic to cover in fiction, and it can be presented either a forbidden love drama story, a hedonistic kink in which the forbidden relationship only serves to amp up the arousal factor, or as an edgy way to portray someone as a villain.

This game presents the theme mainly using the first one, with elements drawn from the other two. The main characters learn in very short order they are related yet are attracted to one another regardless, but while there is some titillation factor to this, they generally went the serious, dramatic route, with the incest being portrayed as taboo in a generally realistic fashion, with all the assorted drama you'd expect from a story that approaches a forbidden relationship.

Without the adult patch, a lot of the "kink factor" is actually diminished from the story, but even without it the kink factor of incest plays a secondary role to the plot, which was clearly devoted to the drama. Unlike the Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo games, which opts for a vanilla, drama free approach, this story takes into account the fact the parties involved are blood related and that incest has a moral and even legal taboo.

The "incest to portray someone as villainous" angle is explored somewhat as well, as both main characters don't have the purest of motives on either side of their attraction, but this is portrayed more as result of their disconnected family situation and upbringing giving them a skewed approach to relationship than outright malice on either side, with Iris heavily hinted as a closeted lesbian and Zoey as someone who wants to be far less the loner than she appears to be.

Overall, it's a nice drama, handled the subject of incest with a surprising degree of seriousness even in the best ending, and while the story has some plot errors, none are major enough to make the experience completely nonsensical.

Now, as to the other merits:

Gameplay: Typical VN fare, though choices don't appear too matter very much save for one very obvious route split choice, giving the impression this was planned a s a kinetic story and the idea of making it more interactive was added later.

Music: Not bad at all, perfectly serviceable to the this type of game.

Graphics: This was an indie title, so corners were cut in areas like scene transition, with many areas having little variation between times of day, and there is no character art save that of the main characters, which is more than adequate, and the art of them has a soft style befitting the somber, dramatic tone of the story. Animation is decent where it exists but is otherwise unremarkable.

The H-scenes have a very soft tone to them as well, and are competently drawn if not extremely detailed.

Overall: The price tag of almost ten dollars asked is a bit high. Five would be a better price range, given the level of quality, but for an indie title it's still done well enough paying full price for this in hopes of even better work from this developer still wouldn't be a bad idea.

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