There are a couple of things that have to be cleared first before continuing with my review.
I suggest you first watch at least the first season of the show before even considering of playing this. However if you already enjoy the Date A Live anime then this VN will be right up your alley. This product is clearly aimed at the fans of the franchise, hence making it a pure fan service product in the truest sense of the word. Speaking of which...
In case you couldn't tell by the tags at the top, there is no H content here. Zero, zilch, nada. Date A Live is NOT a hentai franchise. While there is a fair amount of ecchi content present, it never verges into 18+ territory. It isn't even a raunchy ecchi like Highschool DXD, so there are no naked breasts either. If you came here to fap you will most likely be disappointed.
With that out of the way let's get down to business.
This is a VN/dating-sim hybrid. There are portions of story that you have to go through, but every now and again the game will let you decide which girl you go on a date with during the course of the day. The choices you make will impact the ending that you will get. I suggest you use a walk-through if you want 100% completion because the choices do get tricky in certain parts. But in general continuing to go on dates with the same girl each day will eventually give you the ending with that particular girl.
This is actually a 3-pack. It contains 3 VNs, however the order in the main menu is wrong. I don't know why they did this because this can lead to massive confusion as they are all connected to one another and playing them out of order will make little sense. The correct playing order is Rinne Utopia -> Arusu Install -> Rio Reincarnation. Let's talk a bit about each:
1) Rinne Utopia (takes place between season 1 and season 2 of the anime). This one introduces a mysterious new character named Rinne, who claims that she is Shido's childhood friend. Shido himself also seems to recognize her as such. Fans of the series know that no such character existed previously so the main story revolves around the mystery surrounding her. You have to unlock all previous endings before unlocking her route. As a character Rinne is the, you guessed it!, childhood friend archetype. She is a very kind and motherly person with a nice touch of naughtiness to her in the right moments.
The other girls' routes are also pretty good. In fact out of the 3 VNs this one has the most romantic development with them. So if one of your waifus is from DAL then this VN will give you the opportunity to romance her to your heart's content. As a small spoiler, even though you don't get to see any H scenes, that doesn't mean that Shido is forced to stay a virgin forever...
2) Arusu Install (takes place between season 2 and season 3 of the anime). This is the longest of the bunch. I think it can take even up to 40 hours if you want to be extremely thorough and listen to every line. The story now takes place inside a virtual world. Ratatoskr want to train Shido further and so they develop a VR dating-sim called My Little Shido 2. Yea, it's pretty funny. Obviously something goes wrong and Shido gets stuck in the game. The other girls rush in to help him and so now they are all stuck inside a dating-sim. Yo, so I heard you like dating-sims so I made a dating-sim so that you can play as a dude who is playing a dating-sim.
Inside the game they meet a mysterious girl called Maria Arusu who says that she can help them escape, but first she wants Shido to teach her about love ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°). Shido later meets another girl called Marina who strangely enough looks a lot like Maria. Maria is more of a kuudere type (but not as much as Origami), while Marina is a classic tsundere. I liked both, but Maria was my favorite among these new girls.
There isn't as much romantic stuff going on with the original girls. Their content revolves mostly around slice-of-life. I was a bit disappointed to be honest but I guess they wanted to do something different from Rinne Utopia. On the plus side this is also where the game ramps up the fan service so enjoy pantsu shots and side-boob shots galore!
3) Rio Reincarnation (takes place between season 2 and season 3 of the anime and AFTER Arusu Install). This one was very, very short. I think it takes only like 5 or so hours to finish all its content. It ties in the story that happened in RU and AS. The new character this time around is a little girl called Rio who calls Shido... Papa. Before you disgusting degenerates even think about it, no, you don't date Rio. Rio is precious and should be protected at all costs.
There's not much to say about this without spoiling anything. Suffice to say that this was the most emotional one out of the three, and for me it was a satisfying ending to the trilogy tying up all loose ends.
Now on to the technical aspects!
When it comes to its visuals this VN stands on top of its competition. The sprites are beautifully drawn and well animated. They have both lipsynch as well as breathing animations. Props to the devs for this, and I wish more studios would take note. In fact this VN might have spoiled me and from now on if I don't see VNs with animated sprites I might consider it as a negative, The CG's are also very pretty. I'll admit that the ones in RE lack a bit of detail, however the ones in AI and RR more than make up for it. There is plenty of wallpaper material here for everybody. Hats off to this artist!
The sound is also well done. The VA's from the anime make a comeback and they sound just as good as ever. If there's one nitpick that I would have is that the soundtrack does not rise up to the standards that the anime had. The anime OST is simply amazing but here there were only a few tracks that stood out, my favorite being the ending cinematic theme.
The controls are good and I was able to set up a comfortable reading speed for me. This might not seem much, but some VNs can't even get this crucial aspect right, making reading them a not very comfortable experience.
I will be honest, taken at its face value this VN would not be worth 5 stars. It is a competently made product, but I'd be lying to say that the story and writing were so good that it would make it a must play for everyone. However taking into account that this is a fan service product I have decided to give it full marks because it achieves to do exactly what it wants: to give fans more of what they want.
As I said in the beginning if you like the Date A Live anime or light novels then you simply must play this. If you didn't like the anime then don't bother with this one.
100% completion took 70 hours; measured with GOG Galaxy.
I suggest you first watch at least the first season of the show before even considering of playing this. However if you already enjoy the Date A Live anime then this VN will be right up your alley. This product is clearly aimed at the fans of the franchise, hence making it a pure fan service product in the truest sense of the word. Speaking of which...
In case you couldn't tell by the tags at the top, there is no H content here. Zero, zilch, nada. Date A Live is NOT a hentai franchise. While there is a fair amount of ecchi content present, it never verges into 18+ territory. It isn't even a raunchy ecchi like Highschool DXD, so there are no naked breasts either. If you came here to fap you will most likely be disappointed.
With that out of the way let's get down to business.
This is a VN/dating-sim hybrid. There are portions of story that you have to go through, but every now and again the game will let you decide which girl you go on a date with during the course of the day. The choices you make will impact the ending that you will get. I suggest you use a walk-through if you want 100% completion because the choices do get tricky in certain parts. But in general continuing to go on dates with the same girl each day will eventually give you the ending with that particular girl.
This is actually a 3-pack. It contains 3 VNs, however the order in the main menu is wrong. I don't know why they did this because this can lead to massive confusion as they are all connected to one another and playing them out of order will make little sense. The correct playing order is Rinne Utopia -> Arusu Install -> Rio Reincarnation. Let's talk a bit about each:
1) Rinne Utopia (takes place between season 1 and season 2 of the anime). This one introduces a mysterious new character named Rinne, who claims that she is Shido's childhood friend. Shido himself also seems to recognize her as such. Fans of the series know that no such character existed previously so the main story revolves around the mystery surrounding her. You have to unlock all previous endings before unlocking her route. As a character Rinne is the, you guessed it!, childhood friend archetype. She is a very kind and motherly person with a nice touch of naughtiness to her in the right moments.
The other girls' routes are also pretty good. In fact out of the 3 VNs this one has the most romantic development with them. So if one of your waifus is from DAL then this VN will give you the opportunity to romance her to your heart's content. As a small spoiler, even though you don't get to see any H scenes, that doesn't mean that Shido is forced to stay a virgin forever...
2) Arusu Install (takes place between season 2 and season 3 of the anime). This is the longest of the bunch. I think it can take even up to 40 hours if you want to be extremely thorough and listen to every line. The story now takes place inside a virtual world. Ratatoskr want to train Shido further and so they develop a VR dating-sim called My Little Shido 2. Yea, it's pretty funny. Obviously something goes wrong and Shido gets stuck in the game. The other girls rush in to help him and so now they are all stuck inside a dating-sim. Yo, so I heard you like dating-sims so I made a dating-sim so that you can play as a dude who is playing a dating-sim.
Inside the game they meet a mysterious girl called Maria Arusu who says that she can help them escape, but first she wants Shido to teach her about love ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°). Shido later meets another girl called Marina who strangely enough looks a lot like Maria. Maria is more of a kuudere type (but not as much as Origami), while Marina is a classic tsundere. I liked both, but Maria was my favorite among these new girls.
There isn't as much romantic stuff going on with the original girls. Their content revolves mostly around slice-of-life. I was a bit disappointed to be honest but I guess they wanted to do something different from Rinne Utopia. On the plus side this is also where the game ramps up the fan service so enjoy pantsu shots and side-boob shots galore!
3) Rio Reincarnation (takes place between season 2 and season 3 of the anime and AFTER Arusu Install). This one was very, very short. I think it takes only like 5 or so hours to finish all its content. It ties in the story that happened in RU and AS. The new character this time around is a little girl called Rio who calls Shido... Papa. Before you disgusting degenerates even think about it, no, you don't date Rio. Rio is precious and should be protected at all costs.
There's not much to say about this without spoiling anything. Suffice to say that this was the most emotional one out of the three, and for me it was a satisfying ending to the trilogy tying up all loose ends.
Now on to the technical aspects!
When it comes to its visuals this VN stands on top of its competition. The sprites are beautifully drawn and well animated. They have both lipsynch as well as breathing animations. Props to the devs for this, and I wish more studios would take note. In fact this VN might have spoiled me and from now on if I don't see VNs with animated sprites I might consider it as a negative, The CG's are also very pretty. I'll admit that the ones in RE lack a bit of detail, however the ones in AI and RR more than make up for it. There is plenty of wallpaper material here for everybody. Hats off to this artist!
The sound is also well done. The VA's from the anime make a comeback and they sound just as good as ever. If there's one nitpick that I would have is that the soundtrack does not rise up to the standards that the anime had. The anime OST is simply amazing but here there were only a few tracks that stood out, my favorite being the ending cinematic theme.
The controls are good and I was able to set up a comfortable reading speed for me. This might not seem much, but some VNs can't even get this crucial aspect right, making reading them a not very comfortable experience.
I will be honest, taken at its face value this VN would not be worth 5 stars. It is a competently made product, but I'd be lying to say that the story and writing were so good that it would make it a must play for everyone. However taking into account that this is a fan service product I have decided to give it full marks because it achieves to do exactly what it wants: to give fans more of what they want.
As I said in the beginning if you like the Date A Live anime or light novels then you simply must play this. If you didn't like the anime then don't bother with this one.
100% completion took 70 hours; measured with GOG Galaxy.