Metro PD: Close to You Kimura Main Route Impressions and Review – Spoiler Free

Basic Premise: A young policewoman transfers to a large city’s detective unit, investigates a string of crimes, and falls for a fellow investigator.

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Positives

• The dialog, comedic timing, and tone work beautifully. Many of the tropes and plot elements could have been eye-rollers , but the execution is fantastic.
• The MC, as in Kirisawa‘s and Nomura‘s routes, is awesome. She’s good at her job, clicks well with the other detectives, and acts like a reasonable, multifaceted individual. I can’t recall one instance that I thought “Who DOES that?!”
• Kimura feels like a person despite all the stock elements used.
• The mystery plot ties in nicely with the characters.
• The localization and proofreading are nearly perfect.
• Both endings are adorable.

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Negatives

• The 1^st Unit Detectives are so incompetent that it may break your suspension of disbelief. It didn’t particularly bother me because the tone is snappy and they’re called out on it, but YMMV.

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Bottom Line: Highly recommended. I’m off to play it again.

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Voltage’s Metro PD: Close to You is available on iOS and Android.

To Love & Protect Maxwell Main Route Impressions and Review – Spoiler Free

Basic Premise: The MC discovers she’s the president’s daughter and must now be protected from his enemies.

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My general impressions of the app and other route reviews can be found here.

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Positives

• The MC has a part-time job and is competent at it.
• The antagonists are amusing, and the peril scenes contain some good jokes.

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Negatives

• The MC and literally every other woman in the game is attracted to Maxwell, and the MC keeps nattering on about how physically attractive he is. The art style is something I had to work very hard to ignore so having this repeatedly brought up is jarring.
• Many of the choice moments have no selections I found reasonable.
• Maxwell himself is like a robot – a boring robot who announces his personality traits and spits out his history without building a friendship or relationship first.
• Very little time is spent with secondary characters or any of the other bodyguards.
• I’ll let Maxwell tell you my main problem with the story: “I’m starting to think Felix is better suited to be your bodyguard than me. Actually, I’m sure that at this point, anyone else would be a better choice.” Without going into spoilers…he’s not wrong. He fails on such basic protocol levels (and physical confrontations) that endanger his charge that he should have been suspended if not fired. Instead he’s patted on the head. ARGH.

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Bottom Line: Not recommended.

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Voltage Entertainment USA’s To Love & Protect is available on iOS and Android.

True Love Sweet Lies Sakuya Main Route Impressions and Review – Spoiler Free

Basic Premise: The MC helps a group of detectives solve a mystery in exchange for their protection.

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Positives

• I ❤ the MC during the prolog and, for the most part, during the main story. She’s funny and smart without being perfect.
• The translation is well done and keeps the proper comedic timing.  I laughed several times.
  

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Negatives

• The entire route is incredibly random: characters, plot points, scenes, emotions, and motivations just appear without buildup or transitioning to the next. Why do the two main leads ditch their undercover post? Why does the MC care about Sakuya and his brother? Why don’t they investigate further into Why does our previously non-nonsense MC meekly submit to such unreasonable demands? Why does she decide to keep living with the group? Why is the goat getting aroused at the modeling session?  Your guess is as good mine.
  
• This randomness can make the plot and characters distant and forgettable; I had to play the route a second time before I could even start my review. I genuinely could not remember anything distinct about the route besides the goat and that one picture shows the MC’s eyes. I couldn’t even remember Sakuya’s name.
  

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Everything Else

• Rather than receiving a “normal” and “better” ending at the route’s end, in this app the choices net you a “sweet” or “bitter” ending. I was disappointed to find that “bitter” does not mean a relationship blow-up or rivalry romance (why, yes, I do miss Dragon Age II‘s companion system), but a different nice ending. Once you unlock both endings, there’s a short video. But, for just $2.99 extra, you can skip straight to the other ending and unlock the video AND get an extra ending. Yeah… no.

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Bottom Line: Give it a try if what you want is a fun MC and a few snort-worthy moments. Skip it if you want something with a little more substance.

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Voltage’s True Love Sweet Lies is available on iOS and Android.

Enchanted in the Moonlight Chikage Main Route Impressions and Review – Spoiler Free

Basic Premise: Ha! I just looked up the name of the main demon character in Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom to explain the setup…and found that his name is also Chikage. XD Now that I’m done laughing: the premises are very similar. In exchange for marrying and having a child with a supernatural creature, the main character will be protected from all others wishing to use her blood/power for their own ends.

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Positives

• The story is well translated, has several funny moments, and executes some of my less favorite tropes well.
• The MC’s slight sass, direct chattiness, and willingness to involve herself with others contrasted with Chikage’s detachment had me grinning the entire time. I love this girl, and I love the central relationship.
• The fairy tales referenced have the original darker endings.
• The music fits the scenes. I usually mute Voltage games, but I left the volume up for this one.

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Negatives

• In the prolog, the MC isn’t particularly reasonable, proactive, or self-possessed. Chikage puts it best: “What are you, an idiot?”
• The main antagonist is unnecessary.

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Everything Else

• As in all well-done love triangle scenarios, you may wish the MC ends up with the rejected suitor rather than Chikage. It didn’t bother me at all, but YMMV.

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Bottom Line: Highly recommended.

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Voltage’s Enchanted in the Moonlight is available on iOS and Android.