Love at First Sight

Developer: Creepy Cute | Publisher: Sekai Project | Release Date: 2015 | Genre: Indie / Visual Novel | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

Fukunaga Mamoru is a fairly typical student who had to switch high schools due to his parents work. At his new school, he quickly befriended the laid back Ochiai Tomoyori and energetic Tsunemi Akemi. All in all, things were going pretty well for Mamoru, but one day, two months after his transfer he has a chance encounter with a girl named Usui Sachi. Although she is painfully shy and appears very injured, she makes quite an impression on Mamoru, but then again, it could just be because of the fact that she is a cyclops girl.

Anyone familiar with the high school romance branch of visual novels will find that Love At First Sight contains all the familiar elements. Sachi might have a single, giant eye that takes up half of her face, and plenty of scars, but she is still charming enough that Mamoru falls for her hook, line and sinker. Throughout the course of this short kinetic visual novel Mamoru spends all his time trying to win over Sachi, while getting to know the mysterious girl better.

Due to the unique art style and female love interest of this game I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting such a straightforward romance story. In fact, Sachi could have been replaced with any girl that is being bullied at school without having to change anything about the story. This doesn’t make the tale any less captivating, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. After meeting Sachi in the game for the first time I couldn’t wait for Mamoru to find out more about her, but there were never really any startling revelations or big twists. Any players that are into food and scar fetishes will enjoy the writing though, as characters are forever stuffing food into each other’s mouths or touching scars! Since the story is very short and can be completed in less than two hours, depending on how fast you read, there isn’t much room for fleshing out the characters sadly. There are no alternate routes or choices to be made either, only a single path through the story.

The visuals can be summed up as “creepy cute” which incidentally is also the name of the developer. Sachi is quite a startling looking character with her huge eye and bandages, but she is also very vulnerable looking. Apart from Sachi, you’ll interact with Tomoyori and Akemi as well as Sachi’s aunt. Rui, the girl who bullies Sachi, also makes a few brief appearances.

The artwork is unique and well-drawn, but players used to the usual saccharine sweet art style found in most visual novels might find Love At First Sight a little unsettling. As far as the backgrounds are concerned, there is a decent amount of locations considering the short duration of the game, but unfortunately the resolution is restricted to 4:3. This means playing in full screen on a wide-screen monitor result in big, black bars. The character sprites are mostly static, apart from the usual changes in poses or facial expressions, but the game does feature a few short animated sequences between acts.

The soundtrack is fairly decent, but a little limited as it contains only eight tracks. The tunes are all very mellow, but fit the tone of the game nicely despite not being very memorable. The sound effects aren’t too bad either, but the game doesn’t contain any voice acting. The music and sound volume can be adjusted independently as well as the speed of the text. The game features an “Extras” menu, which includes the usual gallery, jukebox and movie viewers as well as an afterword from the author plus four short scenes that take place after the main story. There is also a “history” section that reveals more insights about the making of the game.

While I really enjoyed Love At First Sight it could definitely have benefited from a few more scenes and a more fleshed out story. As it is, the game falls into a bit of a niche as not everyone is going to find the slightly creepy visual style appealing. Fans who do love the whole monster girl premise on the other hand might find Sachi too “normal.” Provided you are not scared away by the cyclops girl and don’t mind a fairly standard high school romance storyline, Love At First Sight is still entertaining enough to warrant a playthrough.