The title says
it all, really. Kotodama is a cute and fun little game that offered me a
couple of lovely playing hours; and yet, I forgot it as soon as the cartridge
was out of my Switch, and I could totally have lived without ever touching it.
Heck, it left so little imprint on my gamer's soul that I actually have trouble
finding something to write about it!
If I had to find one word to sum up that game, it would be 'half-baked'.
There's some potential in all areas, but that potential is mostly squandered
through lazy and/or uninspired design decisions. Like, why is the perfectly
decent story ultimately full of loose ends? Maybe there's a sequel in the
pipelines; but that's no excuse to butcher Kotodama's main story. Why
doesn't Satsuki Kujo have a secret of his own despite being one of the seven
main teenage characters? Seven mysteries for seven characters would be perfect,
wouldn't it? Well, the developers obviously thought otherwise. Why do nameless
characters have faces for a change, yet look so much creepier and freakier than
your usual faceless VN grunts? Jeez, I think I prefer blank face models after
all. Last but not least, why is the resident puzzle game so shockingly
simplistic? I'm no expert in that field; but even I can see that any free
puzzle game is ten times deeper and more complex than Kotodama's
barebones take on Candy Crush.
And that's not all, folks: the production values are crappy as heck (coming
from Piofiore, this was really a shock for my retinas), the
soundtrack is quite forgettable and the art style is utterly vanilla. But there
is worse: to hide the fact that Kotodama is really a very short game,
the developers injected it with a copious amount of fake longevity. Once you've
gone through the story once and landed a totally unskippable bad end, you're
faced with a crap ton of minute key dialogue choices. And let me tell you:
while there is little to no leeway regarding the right, good-end-delivering
choices, most of those choices are so prosaic and pedestrian that there are no
clues whatsoever to guide you. Here's an example: as you meet one of the seven
main characters for the first time, you're given the choice between "Hi,
I'm MC" and "You like animals?". Only one answer will lead to
the good end; but good luck figuring it out. Let's face it: most of the 'right'
choices are completely random, and exist solely to make you play longer than
you should.
Reading all this, you'd think that I totally hated Kotodama's guts; and yet, as I mentioned earlier, I had a really good time playing it. Despite its many flaws, Kotodama ultimately oozes a pleasant and heartwarming atmosphere; it's a zesty little game that doesn't take itself too seriously and cheerfully pokes fun at VN and fan-service tropes. Since I mention this, I was genuinely surprised to see the indignation generated by Kotodama's fan-servicey bits: while I saw these as innocuous and more humorous than lewd, many reviewers saw them as utterly filthy. To each their own, I guess; suffice to say that I was not bothered in the least by the stripping sequences — all the less so as my eyes were usually glued to the grid.
Well; looks like I finally managed to write something about Kotodama, now didn't I? I'm honestly not sure I'll ever touch that game again; but it will go down in my gaming history as a pleasurable experience. Now, do I recommend it? Not quite. Unless you're a hardcore VN aficionado, want to own every VN ever released or harbour an extreme Japanese school life fetish, there's really no reason to own that particular game. On the other hand, I liked it despite being none of these things, so... Well, it's up to you and your own gaming instinct, I guess. With that said, I'll see you soon with my gaming instinct's freshest catch, dear fellow gamers!
Kumiko5 December 2020 at 14:27
Wait, so there's only two male characters, and one of them doesn't even have a route? I like the puzzle mini-games, but yeah...pass. Luckily I hadn't bought this yet because I did not even think this one even had a male route to begin with, but given the rest of your review, it's not worth to buy it just for one route.
Isleif6 December 2020 at 15:35
Even if the game boasted perfect parity, it wouldn't matter, because the routes are not romantic. It goes as such: as the faceless MC, you can be a male or a female, and you're basically a closeted pervert who likes to mentally strip their classmates — ALL their classmates. And well, stripping them in your mind is basically the full extent of the romance in Kotodame, so... yeah. Half-baked game, as I said.
Kumiko6 December 2020 at 21:36
Oh. I thought
it would just be a slightly more serious version of Huniepop, but still focused
on the characters. But it seems to be a completely story driven game (and not a
good one from your review), only they wanted to keep the fan service in so they
added weak stripping mini games. That doesn't sound like one of the worst cases
of tonal dissonance I've ever heard, not at all...
Yeah, pass. Honestly, I'd rather have the stripping mini-game as its own game,
more developed of course, but at least then it wouldn't get in the way of
anything. Basically, I want huniepop with some male characters I guess, and
this ain't it.
Isleif7 December 2020 at 10:45
Yup, Kotodama is really more of a classic VN with bits of puzzle game sprinkled on top. I like that mix allright, but everything should have been more polished to make Kotodama a truly memorable game.
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