Visual Novel Spotlight: Love At First Sight
If you’ve kept your eye on Sekai Project’s latest releases, you may have seen an unusual title peer back at you. As with many of the publisher’s smaller titles, Love At First Sight appeared suddenly and has swept up more than a few players with its unusual charm and cute lead character, not to mention other small surprises that come with romancing your elusive underclassman…
You are Mamoru, a recent-enough transfer student who’s just settling into school and getting to know everyone. On your way wandering through the grounds, you stumble across an underclassman with only one eye. But that’s not all that’s unusual about Sachi Usui; she’s perpetually covered in bruises, scrapes and bandages. Finding yourself drawn to this strange girl, it’s up to you to coax her out into the social world like you would a small, scared animal.
While Love At First Sight is incredibly simple with its story and direction, it very much still has the feel of that one route in a larger visual novel where you romance the shy girl who has problems connecting with people. How you handle first contact, get her to open up, guide her to experience new things and work your relationship out from there is all Love At First Sight is about. Understandably, this is great if Shrinking Violet types are your waifu, but fair warning that this game isn’t about Sachi having to explain her existence. That is to say, it’s not about dating a monstergirl; it’s just regular dating.
What perhaps makes the game a little different isn’t that you are dating a fetish, but that you get to indulge a little in odd fetishes between you and your girlfriend-to-be. But maybe tracing the edges of scars in a nearby dark alley is a euphemism. You never really know with kids these days. Perhaps the more important thing is that the relationship between Mamoru and Sachi feels pretty normal, the lack of focus on appearance and weirdly sexualising your anxious classmate very welcome.
Of course, the most noticeable thing about this game is the dark-looking art style that comes close to potentially creepy but still looks cute. Somehow it really works together with the doe-eyed protagonist, simple chapter start animations, all the poses your energetic friend pulls off and detailed backgrounds. What perhaps doesn’t work with the game is the music and low 900×675 resolution, but it’s not intrusive enough to be annoying, especially if you love the indie game feel.
With that said, it’s important to consider that Love At First Sight was a two month project done by developer Ray-K with help in the music department from friend kyou1110. It definitely feels like it could be made into a longer game, with choices and more scenes for that matter, but what you do get is quite nice as a romantic game that captures the feeling of teenage love.
Love At First Sight is a short, romantic kinetic novel that’s more about dating a shy girl than dating a monstergirl. Its story is simple and straightforward, never throwing out any surprises, but it keeps the cute feeling strong. Everything works together for a simple indie kinetic novel feel.
Love At First Sight is available for Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam for $9.99 / £6.99.
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