Girlish Grimoire Littlewitch Romanesque: Editio Perfecta

Developer: LittleWitch | Publisher: JAST USA | Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Visual Novel /  | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

Taking place in a magical world called Stella Mundo and casting you in the role of a young wizard named Domino, Girlish Grimoire Littlewitch Romanesque: Editio Perfecta is a “raising sim” style visual novel developed by LittleWitch. The game was released quite a while back in Japan, but thanks to JAST USA it has finally been given a full English translation. As the “Perfect Edition” moniker implies this version is packed to the brim with extras such as four additional routes taken from the game’s fandisc as well as an all-new game route.

The story centers on Dominos desire to study an ancient Dark Tower which is said to hold plenty of lost magical knowledge. As Domino is the youngest wizard to ever become an Archmage he feels that he deserves this privilege, but the corrupt Council of Archmagi has other ideas. They reluctantly agree to his request to inhabit the tower, but task him with tutoring two troublesome students while he is there. One is the daughter of a noble family, Aria Vancleef and the other is Kaya Xavier, an orphaned girl with quite an unusual heritage. Normally it would take decades to train the young girls, but Domino is given only three years to do so. With the odds stacked against him Domio must ensure that the girls attain their true potential while also discovering what secrets lurks in the heart of the tower.

Girlish Grimoire Littlewitch Romanesque: Editio Perfecta (which I will refer to as GGLR from here on out) features quite an interesting storyline, but the plot never grows into something bigger or more epic. Instead you are presented with a slice of life experience packed with plenty of humor and a couple of interesting twists. Players expecting some vast overarching plot to tie everything together will probably be disappointed, but the abundance of characters, quests and events in the game had me hooked from start to finish. The game has twenty different endings to unlock, some of which are romantic and some that are not, as well as the four extra scenarios that are available after completing the main game. Although GGLR promises about 40 hours of story and gameplay the actual total is actually much more if you are a completionist and want to see everything it has to offer.

Chances are though that unless you are very lucky or using a guide you won’t come close to seeing everything during your first playthrough. During my first attempt I bumbled through the game doing quests at random and ended up seeing only a fraction of the more than 300 CG scenes. With a total of 79 quests to complete and 100 spells to learn you had better have a clear strategy in mind if you plan on unlocking everything.

The game presents you with a limited amount of turns and it is your job to figure out how to use them effectively. Since you are in charge of your pupils’ schedules you can teach them new spells if they have the right requirements or send them out on quests. These quests can provide you with new quests or items, but require certain spells in order for the girls to perform them. Quests can also expire, so if you dawdle too much and don’t teach them the required spells in time the quest is gone for good. Learning new spells requires spirit points and these are obtained through arguable the most unique and addictive aspect of the game, the dice mini-game.

Typically in raising sims the act of improving character stats are often repetitive. This is not the case in GGLR though. Each girl is given three dice and the spirit power unleashed by each throw is determined by the sides of the dice. Initially you will only be able to extract limited spirit power from the dice, but once the girls start learning spells that influence the dice the real fun begins. For example, if Aria’s dice comes up with two books and a crown she will earn three spirit power, corresponding to the symbols. However, after she learns Ambulo Aqua this same combination will cast a spell which creates a magical pool on the playing field and cause dice that lands in the pool to generate extra spirit. Half the fun in the game is teaching the girls new spells and then figuring out how to use these during the dice mini-game to rake up obscene amounts of spirit power. Of course, if left to chance you probably won’t achieve the desired results, so you can cheat a little by nudging the dice into position. However, mess with the dice too much and you will start losing spirit power, and once they come to a stop the turn is over. With some practice you will be able to get exactly what you want an as your arsenal of spells increase so does the possible combinations.

You get 6 throws with the dice with the spirit power total tallied up at the end and added to your existing pool. What makes these scenes stand out even more is the effects that accompany the spells. Most of the game features 2D visuals and no animations, but many of the spell effects during the dice game are 3D. Dice can be hit by fireballs, explosions, feather whirlwinds, blocks of ice, electrical shocks, water fountains, bubbles, musical notes and much, much more. Since the girls have their own unique spell trees the combinations that are available is quite impressive. You can also select the teacher and room for the dice mini-game which influences what symbols will appear on the dice. It is hard to describe just how addictive the dice mini-game is, but suffice to say that I spend a lot of time scribbling down notes and trying different combinations to figure out what yields the best results. I was actually disappointed to find that the four extra scenarios omit the dice game and instead focusses on pure storytelling.

Visually the game is a work of art and features beautiful artwork by the very talented Oyari Ashito. The watercolor style art used for the visuals really sets the game apart and makes each scene a joy to behold. Sadly there are no animations, but with twelve beautiful woman showing up at the tower the variety is definitely not lacking. Another visual element that stands out is the comic book style speech balloons that are used for conversations instead of the traditional method of displaying the text at the bottom of the screen. This style works well and makes the scenes feel a bit more dynamic despite the lack of animations. If there is one thing about the visuals that might raise some concerns it is that most of the girls appear to be very young. This is an adult title, so the inclusion of 26 H-scenes shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it is definitely not a game to play in the company of sensitive viewers or if you are offended by nudity. The H-scenes are actually not very prevalent unless you focus on increasing your relationship with certain girls and during my first playthrough I only encountered about three. The extra scenarios does contain a lot more of these scenes though as they tell a linear story. The scenes are also completely uncensored, but quite tastefully done despite how explicit some are. In addition, for each spell that you teach the girls a “spell card” is unlocked and some of these also contain very risqué images or even outright nudity.

All the text in the game has been translated to English, but the original Japanese voice overs are retained. The game also contains plenty of catchy tunes and considering the amount of time you will spend playing you can be sure that a few of them will be stuck in your head by the end. I was quite impressed by the amount and variety of sound effects in the game and these definitely enhanced the experience. Everything in the game is completely mouse driven and apart from the dice game the pace is quite sedate making this a very relaxing game to play.

GGLR managed to hold my attention thanks to its large cast of interesting characters, all with their own motivations for showing up at the Dark Tower. From princesses and catgirls to elves, angels and even a fairy queen, there is rarely a dull moment. Due to the length of the game you’ll encounter quite a few of the usual story clichés found in the visual novel genre, but there were plenty of scenes that brought a smile to my face and I’m not just talking about the ecchi ones. Overall, GGLR is a great combination of excellent visuals, great audio and addictive gameplay. The dice game adds a whole new element to the experience and the limited amount of turns means multiple playthroughs are required to see everything, which boosts the replay value. Anyone that want to enjoy this game, but have reservations about the H-content should keep an eye on Steam for the upcoming all ages version of the game which will remove all the adult elements.