Koropokkur in Love ~A Little Fairy’s Tale~

Developer: MangaGamer | Publisher: MangaGamer | Release Date: 2018 | Genre: Casual / Adventure / Visual Novel | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Somewhere in Hokkaido, there is a village called Koropokkur inhabited by tiny fairies. In the distant past, they used to interact with humanity, but mankind has long since forgotten about them. The village has also put strict rules in place to prevent any fairies from leaving as they will be prohibited from ever coming back. However, thanks to a magic viewing pool in the village, it was still possible for the fairies to observe humans. Then one day a Koropokkur, named Asirrera, decides to leave the village based on an ancient legend. It stated that there was once a Koropokkur who ventured to the human world and became human thanks to an encounter with a local deity. After becoming human this Koropokkur also met a man and fell in love.

Meanwhile, in Akihabara, a man named Satoru is putting in one last-ditch effort to save his maid cafe Petit Fille. Unfortunately for him, it turns into a disaster after the arrival of Asirrera who has used her magic to take on human form. Overwhelmed by all the people in Akihabara she panics and bumps into Satoru which has disastrous consequences for him and his cafe. Asirrera is overcome with guilt over what she has done and offers to assist Satoru with reviving the cafe. However, it doesn’t take long for Satoru to realize that Asirrera is not exactly human. Life becomes even more complicated for Satoru when Asirrera’s friends, Cirta and Haruante, arrive to help out at the cafe as well.

Koropokkur in Love ~A Little Fairy’s Tale~ is the development debut of MangaGamer. Although they have many years of experience when it comes to localizing visual novels, this is their first stab at developing one. They have also opted to create an all-ages game in contrast to the adult-oriented titles that they are typically known for. Koropokkur was successfully funded through Kickstarter and we were eager to see what MangaGamer would bring to the table based on all their knowledge and experience with the genre.

Unfortunately, MangaGamer might have played things a little too safe with Koropokkur as there is really nothing here that fans haven’t already seen many times before. It’s clear that the game was made as accessible as possible to draw in newcomers, but this also means that the story is extremely generic. Visual novels set in cafes are nothing new and replacing the maids with non-human girls is also something that has been done before. As soon as Asirrera begins working at the cafe most fans of the genre will already know exactly how the story is going to play out. There are a couple of laughs along the way and the characters are pretty adorable, but this is not a visual novel that anyone is going to remember in the long run. It’s also a kinetic novel, so by the end of the rather short story, there is no reason for ever going back.

For the artwork, MangaGamer turned to Hinoue Itaru, who is known for her work on titles such as CLANNAD. She is undeniably talented, but her style is not one that appeals to everyone. However, the three Koropokkur girls look pretty cute, especially in their chibi forms. They are also the only characters in the game with sprites, apart from strangely enough a stray cat. The backgrounds are nicely detailed but rather sparse as the entire game is set in and around the cafe. Also, the game doesn’t have a lot of CGs.

Koropokkur has a decent soundtrack with the two vocal tracks, “Sunflower” and “Smile Again” in particular standing out. There’s not a lot of tracks on offer though and there appears to be one track tied to each emotion in the game, such as “Like a Flower in the Rain” for the moody parts and “Slapstick!” for the wacky moments. The whole experience is read-only as well as the game lacks any type of voice acting. Even the interface is a little sparse and lacks some of the features that we have come to expect from the genre. Not being able to advance text or view the text log using the mouse scroll wheel was particularly annoying for us as we prefer this method over clicking all the time. It’s possible to choose between English and Japanese text, but the only other options are setting the message speed and auto-play speed.

Overall, Koropokkur in Love ~A Little Fairy’s Tale~ is not a bad game, but we certainly expected something a little less generic from MangaGamer. The story tries to tick off all the checkboxes, but for some reason feels a bit hollow. While there are a few funny moments none of them caused us to laugh out loud and even the scenes that are meant to be sad failed to really move us. Perhaps it will have a bigger impact on players who are not already jaded veterans of the genre, but then again there are plenty of other titles for them to play that are much better. For a debut title, Koropokkur could certainly have been a lot worse, but with so many great visual novels on the market, it’s hard for one that is this generic to really make a mark.