VN - Others - Completed - Café Stella and the Reaper's Butterflies [v1.31] [YuzuSoft]

To me this was the weakest Yuzusoft game I've ever played, I typically enjoy Yuzusoft games and have been playing them for years but this truly felt like all the weakest parts of Yuzusoft accumulated into one boring game that drags on forever.

For one, it is conceptually uninteresting and takes itself even less seriously than other titles. Usually Yuzusoft games are light hearted romance moeges with a sprinkle of story thrown in but this one is even more half-assed and lazy than they usually are, everything about the story is ridiculous, uninteresting, boring, flat and it doesn't even try that is when there actually is a story most of the time it's extremely boring slice of life which is a slog to get through . It isn't funny, there's nothing to look forward to, there's nothing fun about the story, the half-ass concepts it's trying for aren't even well-executed. This results in one of the most boring visual novel's I've had the displeasure of trying. This is absolutely made worst by the bad cast of characters.

The cast of characters also felt the weakest it ever had. Besides Suzune (who didn't even get a full route sadly) I genuinely did not care for a single character which has never happened in a yuzusoft game before, they typically manage to make a likeable, interesting cast but here is a cast of boring cliche-riden characters thrown together with no chemistry with one another.

For the positives, it's the positives that comes with every Yuzusoft game, the game has top tier production value with amazing art, UI, QOL features, voice acting, sprites and backgrounds. However, good production value cannot make up for the game's bad story and characters and certainly do not make it stand out from Yuzusoft's other titles which have similar production value but are better in both departments. Play Dracu Riot if you want Yuzusoft at it's best with plot and Senren Banka for Yuzusoft at it's best with characters and amazing production value. Both make this game look poor in comparsion.

Café Stella is more Yuzusoft, and regardless of your feelings on said statement, there's a lot to appreciate here, and the overall quality presented, surpasses much of its direct competition. The real issue harming Café Stella, is the outlandish supernatural setting, leading to some convoluted plot points/twists, which are straight-up nonsense, and have next to zero entertainment value (to put it differently, the scenarios are the real weakness).

Positive:
- Yuzusoft production values - Not much to say, as far as VN's go this is a major production. It's easy to take the technical side of things for granted, but at the end of the day VN's are more than just prose, and Café Stella is a firm reminder of that reality.
- "Natsume" - There is no perfect heroine, even immaculate 2D girls are unable to please everyone. With that said, there are favorites, good combinations, top contenders, and there's bound to be a place for "Natsume" among those. Looks, V.A, personality, make for a character that is difficult to forget.
- Vanilla H-scenes - They are great within the traditional VN scope, and tend to feature "tame" tags, and a "pure love" approach to things. Surprisingly, the best 18+ in Café Stella comes from the "pink loli", in the short side route, and i did not saw that coming, when i read this.
- OST - Absolutely underrated, the number of good tracks in Café Stella is impressive, and it's not just the ever present "emotional piano", there's enough diversity here to surpass your expectations. Do check it out on YouTube, probably the best by Yuzusoft.

Negative:
- The supernatural is dumb - I don't have any other way to put it. Dracu-riot has worldbuilding going for it; Sanoba witch has a unique premise; Senren Banka is traditional Japanese... Café Stella has no excuse, and what you have here is bordering on idiotic or offensive to your intelligence. It's a shame.

Score: Café Stella is a 7/10, and a good VN. Forget opinions on "dev policy", this is a superior VN, and a worthwhile experience. Unfortunately, the stories they come up with are getting crazier with every new title, but even that is a personal remark, that doesn't detract from one simple fact: These people know what they are doing. Recommended to everyone, especially people who never heard of Yuzusoft.

This review is only for the common route.

To say the MC has no personality would be a huge understatement and while he does get a little better as the game goes on hes still very lacking.

Standard collection of girls, all around the MCs age(even through it wasnt necessary), all are walking cliches (Tsundere Heroine, Mischievous Heroine, Childhood Friend Heroine, etc), personally i didnt find any of them interesting enough to want to play there route as none of them has any real story in the common route.

Situation and story are nothing but an ridiculously flimsy excuse of forcing the MC to spend time with the girls and there is no plot beyond that in the common route.

The writing is so bland it almost hurts to read (what would your reaction to finding out god is real? bet it wouldnt be so what does you cafe need help with), girls 100% believing in and trusting the MC after meeting him for less than an hour, the rest is just boring small talk.

Choices are hard to figure out for this game as they dont seem to have any direct effect until the end and on that it does have one bad end and one normal end but they are so short they are almost nonexistent.

Story 2/5 (not much)
Sex N/A (not in my review)
Characters 3/5 (standard collection)
Art 3/5 (average)
Choices 1/5 (difficult)
Kinks 0/5 (none found)

awful. just awful.

prologue tries to sell you a really nice premise: time looping. events happening a second time and trying to change those events for the better? where have we heard that kind of... oh yeah, steins gate.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's all. time looping is no longer in the picture. the rest of the VN is just 90% being boring cafe SoL stuff that managed to be worse than GochiUsa (the anime. duh), 5% being the mc as virgin soyboy very desperate to get laid, 4% girls are just plain rude and always talk down to the mc for being a pervert, and yet somehow gets the girls . and 1% shinigami "plot". oh you're asking what happened to the steins gate like prologue? nothing. it's almost like it's made to entice you and then decised that you only deserve shit dumped at you.

disgusting.

Ok this caught me completely of guard by just how good this turn out to be. I was expecting an average kinda experience but this completely off the chart good. The story was really good, it didn't left you hanging instead gave you a completely and proper ending . Music was good and Art was an eye candy as expected of yuzusoft.
Overall 10/10 There is nothing i can say bad about this VN, i totally recommend it, it absolutely worth the time.

Generally a pretty average novel. Although in my opinion its one of their better works. Atleast I didnt get bored doing all the routes. The girls are all nice and unique in their own way and the art is pretty good as well. Overall I'd say its worth your time

Female characters good and have depth at least until they get intimate where they suddenly become weak willed bimbos that have zero self respect or pride. Unfortunately yet another bland MC that thinks no means yes and bullying partner is romantic. While the general storytelling is good the writer clearly has no intimate or romantic experience and this writing is mood killing cringeworthy totally destroying story. The attempt at sexual innuendo as humour feels more like a creepy old man and fails badly even when initiated by the women.

I understand making MC's relatable but you have to wonder just what these developers think of their target audiences with these type of MC's.

Interesting story with good characters. It made me feel emotions happy/excited/etc but it also got repetative and annoying at times. Some things felt rushed and/or super obvious. Some characters felt as though they lacked emotions at key parts. Overall though I like it and would recommend if you enjoy cafe type VNs.

3.5 but I rounded up to 4 because it had a footjob scene.

Another VN set in cafe, but this time it focus more on supernatural stuff. I like how this VN handle the plot of each route. It balance between the girl issue and MC's relationship. Overall pretty good.

I like each of heroine here, but Natsume is the best girl.

Good read, this time YuzuSoft break out of their usual school + secretful protagonist

Although there's a secret too this time but it's not focused on there and it's not school setting (although some of the heroines are on school)

They're also bold on Mei's appearance, and if I'm not mistaken she's the first heroine who's tanned and has tanlines (yes, sexy even with her small breasts)

And generously, the side heroine got 2 scene, although it's been like this since their previous work "Riddle Joker" so it's nothing new but still good to have

Summary: This time they're putting some bold moves and it's been a good read for me.

This is probably the best Yuzusoft VN I've read. At the very least, it comes on par with Sanoba Witch (Another great Yuzusoft VN you should read if you haven't). If you have read a Yuzusoft VN before, you already kind of know what to expect. The story is nothing to write home about, but that's just how Yuzusoft is. It doesn't need to be anything special; the plot is just there to make the romance a little more interesting. All of the girls in this VN are charming in their own way. Yuzusoft is usually good at making me want to fall in love again, but they really outdid themselves this time around. It's so good that I actually want to buy this just to support the company - and I've never bought a game with porn. Don't miss out on this VN, it's definitely in my top 5.
Also Natsume is best girl.