Leap of Faith is in many ways a pretty unique game in VN land. But despite all the gushing praise it receives it's far from perfect. To properly review this game I have to talk about the story in detail, so expect spoilers, if you don't like spoilers you should probably stop reading now.
As mentioned Leap of Faith is pretty unique, at least in some ways. At the heart of the story is CeCe, a young woman who suffers from clinical depression and who wants to take her own life. This part of the VN was inspired by the suicide of the developer's daughter. However, since this is a VN it can do what real life can't, it can be a fantasy and thus CeCe will not die.
And the game will also at one point break the 4th wall and tell you that the suicide of the daughter was the main reason to make this game.
So given the heady subject you absolutely have to be prepared for some gut punches and pretty dark moments. Chances are CeCe's story will make you pretty emotional, it may even make you cry. A lot.
However, even though CeCe is in many ways the main character here, you don't play as CeCe of course, you are the male MC, and unlike in so many other VNs the MC is a pretty decent and great guy. However, he too has his own inner demons, like CeCe, while he's not suicidal, he is still cast adrift, without direction, he is still suffering greatly from a bad breakup with his girlfriend Stephanie who left him without a trace two years ago. This curveball ruined the MC in many ways.
To make matters worse the MC was laid off from work and now he has nothing in his life. He's alive. But he doesn't live.
That is until one night he walks for a bit, comes to sit at a bus stop and finds CeCe nearby, who is about to jump from a nearby bridge. The MC senses something about her and ultimately saves her life when she's jumping.
And this is the beginning of the tale of the MC and CeCe.
You can then decide to enter a romantic relationship with CeCe or to be a trusted friend without any romantic entanglement.
Things will not be easy, CeCe is clinically depressed, she suffers, she has huge issues, but despite all that she's actually the catalyst who helps people get better. All the while you may think the MC is saving her, and in many ways he does, but ultimately CeCe saves him, she gives the MC's life new meaning, a new direction, a purpose and ultimately happiness. Of course this will in part depend on whether or not you romance CeCe. If you do then her romance will be somewhat complicated - but ultimately very fulfilling.
This part of the game is what makes Leap of Faith unique, memorable and truly great. It's a pretty unique story, something you don't find often in VNs.
However, this is not all you get here. Leap of Faith ultimately suffers from something so many other VNs also suffer from: it wants to be too many things at once. Maybe in an attempt to broaden the appeal of the game.
You see, there's this deep, meaningful and dramatic story about CeCe... and then Leap of Faith also wants to be Notting Hill, the Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts movie. And it wants to be so many other things as well. And in this other part of the game Leap of Faith makes use of the same porn tropes you can find in virtually any other game. And unfortunately some of the arcs you get here are outright groan inducing and silly.
Let me explain:
the Notting Hill part of the game has the MC meet this international super pop star Lexi. Lexi immediately feels attraction for the MC (because he treats her like some normal woman and doesn't fawn over her).
She then invites him over to her mansion, to spend a few weeks with her, has him flown over, but of course the MC can bring along all of his friends, including CeCe.
In isolation the Lexi part of the game is ok, it's a more or less sweet riff on Notting Hill and the ultimate fantasy about dating someone like Jennifer Lopez or Katy Perry maybe.
However, there's this huge thematic and tonal disconnect between this part of the game and the CeCe part of the story.
But it doesn't end here.
There are more love interests.
There's this pseudo lesbian couple Robin and Kira. I say pseudo because just like in any other VN they are of course hot for the MC and want to jump on him. You can romance them both and become a throuple. If you feel like it. Or you can be a good friend and help them overcome their relationship issues. The latter route is ok, it's also the least silly of all the sideplots, since it's, like CeCe's story, pretty grounded.
Then there's your highschool friend Linda, she was best friends with the MC and she was so much in love with him... but never really told the MC. She's also best friends with CeCe. Actually, Leap of Faith tries its best to connect all the characters, so nothing is ever truly separate here. You don't get compartmentalized paths here, everything is interconnected and everyone knows everyone else eventually.
Anyway, Linda's path is pretty silly, one major plot point here is a cheap plastic cereal box ring the MC once gifted to her... which she later in life wore as some kind of pussy ring, and subsequently lost... so you want to get back the plastic ring for her. This involes a male NPC and not everyone may like that part of the story (but there's no NTR here, everything is resolved pretty nicely).
I suppose the dev included these very lighthearted, humorous plots to balance out the very dark and at times very sad CeCe story... but again, I feel this creates a huge tonal disconnect.
However, the story involving the MC's ex-girlfriend Stephanie takes the cake. It's just plain ridiculous and the worst part of the game. Now Stephanie herself is ok, she's pretty, she is ultimately revealed to be sweet and nice, but her story is just nonsense. I will spoil it here...
Stephanie is a female Jack Bauer, a counter terrorist agent... and the MC is (was) on a watchlist. Why is he on a watchlist? Because his father had some shady business in the Middle East or so and transferred some money to the MC's bank account when he was young. So CTU put Stephanie on the MC in college, she did actually fall in love with him, but when CTU eventually decided that the MC is not a terrorist she had to leave... without a trace.
I don't know what made the dev write this part of the story. It's just plain crazy.
Now once you get over all that Stephanie is pretty great. But her scenes are still pretty limited.
One more word about Lexi, who is the second major attraction of this game, behind CeCe. Her arc is somewhat ruined for me because Leap of Faith once again does something so many other VNs also do... it is obsessed with making characters bi-curious.
Apparently it wasn't enough that we have two pseudo lesbian bi-curious characters with Robin and Kira... no, Lexi is bi-curious too.
Imagine this: this super pop star falls for you, or so you think, and you have good reason to think so. Imagine you have no romantic feelings for CeCe and actually like said super pop star back. She invites you over to her super pop star mansion, has you flown over in her private jet... treats you like a prince and makes it pretty obvious she's super into you.
And then one fine evening you walk in on Lexi making out with her best friend Holly.
What would you feel and think? "Yay, awesome, wannabe lesbians who cheat on me are HOT!" or "WTF.... I need to get out of here! I am devastated!"
You see, the MC in this game is a decent guy, he's actually pretty great, even though he is a bit mopey early on for reasons mentioned previously. What I am saying is, you have reasons to believe he's looking for actual love and romance. And he was hurt before when the love of his life, or so the MC thought, leaves him.
Why would ANYONE like him then want to engage with a super famous pop star who gives you the green light and makes it super obvious she wants you... only for her to then fool around with another woman, which is basically cheating. Would you think she's potential life partner / wife material?
Sure, if you are in it for the money and the potential fame, you may still go ahead. Or you think having a bi-curious girlfriend is hot. But anyone else would find that behavior inexcusable.
Well, I never romanced Lexi, so her shenanigans only made me roll my eyes, but these lazy porn tropes, lesbian threesomes, bi-curious love interests who have the hots for their best female friend, haunt Leap of Faith's other half of the game, the half not involving CeCe.
And again, it creates this huge tonal disconnect.
Anyway, for me any potential romance with Lexi is ruined and made impossible by her silly behavior. In my opinion it was a major mistake to make her bi-curious. We already have two bi-curious characters in the game.
But no, the game gives you even four of them, because Lexi's best friend Holly is yet another potential love interest. The MC can pursue her... but only when he basically cheats on Lexi.
That means only CeCe, Stephanie and Linda are straight. Robin, Kira, Lexi and Holly are bi-curious.
And not all love interests in this game are created equal. Not all love interests have good stories.
CeCe - the star. The unique selling point of the game. 5 stars. Her story is why you want to play Leap of Faith
Lexi - very over the top unrealistic pop star dating sim. And sadly she cheats on the MC with her female best friend. Lexi is otherwise a sweet character, she's well written, but her romance is more or less ruined for me. And her ending when you don't romance her is even more ridiculous. 3 stars.
Linda - the cereal box ring plot is just plain silly. Also, Linda cannot compete in the looks department with any of the other potential love interests. She's otherwise sweet and likable, But her story is easily the most forgettable. 2 Stars.
Kira & Robin - the stereotypical pseudo lesbian couple. But their arc is still pretty good and grounded. If you don't romance them you can help them overcome their relationship issues, which is pretty unique, they don't disappear off the face of the Earth if you don't romance them. 4 stars. But ultimately both Kira & Robin add little of actual substance to the story. Their plot is good, you will probably like it, but again, this is CeCe's story, not theirs.
Stephanie - Stephanie is super sweet, super pretty... and has by far the most stupid backstory. This has no place in a game like this, in a game that is about clinical depression, suicide... the whole female Jack Bauer CTU backstory is just ridiculous. The actual romance part with Stephanie is ok, but I cannot take her part of the game seriously. 1 star.
And this is the thing here: you cannot ignore anyone in this game. You can choose your romantic partner, but you can't avoid anyone. You cannot choose compartmentalized routes, everyone is involved with everybody else, you will always spend time with Lexi, with Kira&Robin, with Stephanie, with Linda and your best male friend, your wingman (he's pretty hilarious).
The basic story is linear. You can't pick and choose... you will always meet all characters, all characters will eventually get to know every other character, they are all interconnected. If you want compartmentalized romances... you won't get that here.
And as I tried to explain, not all parts of the game are equally great, which is an issue when you can't avoid certain characters altogether. Now the actual dialogue is never bad, it's always good, the characters are pretty likable, chances are you may hate no one, but you will certainly not care for all of them the same way and you may find it exhausting eventually that you have to spend time with a certain character when you'd rather want to focus on your actual love interest.
I venture a guess and say that most people will choose CeCe... and then a significant but smaller percentage of people will probably choose Lexi. if you choose CeCe you have these long segments with Lexi... and you may not be too interested in her, especially once you find out she kind of cheats on the MC. And if you choose Lexi you may be somewhat exhausted by the fact that you have to spend very large amounts of time with CeCe.
Any of the other love interests then play second or third fiddle. Holly is the least realized character here with the least screentime. Stephanie also doesn't have that many scenes. Linda, Kira and Robin have a good number of scenes, so if you choose any of them as your love interest it will be ok.
Ultimately Leap of Faith should have decided what it wants to be... a serious story about a depressed suicide attempt survivor who needs to heal and find happiness in life again... or a lighthearted over the top and highly unrealistic story about dating the VN version of Jennifer Lopez or Katy Perry.
And the other potential romances here are nothing unique... you can have a throuple with pseudo lesbians in virtually any other game, you can also reconnect with your highschool sweetheart or an ex-girlfriend who left you in any other game. I mean, sure, you can do that here, but why would you? These parts of the game are pretty lackluster and play second fiddle to the actual main story. You can find alternatives that have these things front and center pretty easily.
Ultimatly Leap of Faith is a great game held back by the inclusion of silly porn tropes and side plots that suffer from a huge tonal rift.
And this is why the game is not perfect. Not even close.
But it's still very unique and pretty great. However, I argue it's only unique and great if you romance CeCe and are invested in her. The game shines in these moments. It will punch you in the gut, it will lift you up, it will give you sweet and happy moments, it will give you moments of despair. It's everything you want from a good story.
Nothing else was needed here really, in my opinion Lexi should have had her own game. She is not needed in this story. I think Linda, the highschool sweetheart and Stephanie, the ex-girlfriend, are the only other female characters needed here, to create some tension. But Stephanie would need a much better backstory.
With just three major female characters the story could have focused a lot more on what's important.
For example you never get any scenes with CeCe's family, the MC never visits her home, you never get any scenes with her family, you never get any scenes with CeCe during therapy, these things are completely ignored and glossed over.
And Stephanie, who emotionally ruined the MC, is mostly just a bit player, you get an early scene with her, but then she disappears for a long time, only to reappear once you are with Lexi in her mansion, but even then interactions are limited. She deserved more scenes. Given her importance.
Linda who basically confesses to the MC that she truly, deeply loved him in highschool could have been the third option.
Lexi, Holly, Kira and Robin add nothing of substance really to the story. They offer at best a fun diversion. Maybe the dev felt the dark story about CeCe needs that. I think it doesn't.
That doesn't mean their stories are not enjoyable, but they feel like they belong in a different game.
And it doesn't stop here... I haven't mentioned a side plot about the estranged father of the MC who cut all contact with him and the mother for no apparent reason. The MC can meet him and kind of reconcile with him, the father will talk about a bit why he left... but not really explain anything. Then the MC also finds out he has a half-sister. This really amounts to nothing though. Nothing ever comes of it.
So none of that is essential to the game and none of that is ever mentioned in the ending anyway.
There are a few other things that end nowhere... like one flashback with CeCe about a razor she accidentally leaves behind in her room and that her little brother probably hurts himself with (you never see it). It's treated like a super dramatic moment, and maybe as the major reason CeCe decided to leave her home and family, because she fears she will only hurt the ones she loves... but it's never really resolved or explained.
About the ending... Leap of Faith is one of the few games that are actually completed.
And the ending tries its best to make everyone happy. The issue is that the game has to juggle so many balls here... you need an ending for everyone, and that means none of the characters get the screentime they deserve.
What you get is pretty great though. CeCe's ending is heartwarming, wholesome and will leave you happy. But she doesn't get many scenes. None of the love interests get all that many scenes. The bane of VNs that have too many love interests.
But still, the ending is not too rushed, you get a proper conclusion and you will be happy with your chosen love interest. You will like the ending. No matter who you choose.
A few words about the technical aspects... renders are fine. Most female characters are pretty, there are also no exaggerated body proportions here. Only Linda looks merely "normal" and cannot really compete in the looks department, but she's not ugly either.
The animations are pretty good here. The sex animations are also pretty good, however, the scenes often lack foreplay though, some tenderness, kissing, it often jumps straight to the sex.
CeCe's final (close to final) sex scene for example has no kissing, no touching or caressing really... it jumps straight to sex. So the sex can feel a bit lackluster. It's not TOO bad, it's ok, but a story like that would have needed somewhat more elaborate romance scenes with more tenderness.
Also, everything is vanilla and wholesome. I love that. But if you want kinks here then you should look elsewhere. There are no kinks here.
But you don't play this game for the sex scenes, Leap of Faith is not one of those VNs, you play it for the story.
There is also one very impressive concert animation in the last chapter, with tons of DAZ characters, these scenes are very impressive.
The game has tons of music... and as usual whether or not you like it is down to taste. I generally feel that a VN with lots of dialogue should have unintrusive instrumental music for those parts and reserve songs with vocals for special moments. Leap of Faith doesn't do that.
If you like the musical style chosen here... great... I didn't always like the chosen songs and at times I found it too distracting. Other times it was very beautiful though.
There are also songs for Lexi, the super pop star... but her songs sound pretty generic, ok, it's a little too much to actually demand billboard top 10 material written for a VN, but I found it a bit hilarious that Lexi the super star has pretty generic pop songs in her repertoire.
So where does that leave things? Who will enjoy Leap of Faith? Who may feel rather unmoved by it or not enjoy it?
You have to like CeCe. She's the focal point, the best written and best realized character here. You need to like the darker aspects of her story, the depression angle, the suicide attempts, the consequences of that, the emotional turmoil you may experience... but her dark scenes are contrasted with sweet and tender moments, even some funny moments and CeCe's ending is everything you would ever want, so the journey with her is rewarding.
But if you feel the whole clinical depression angle and suicidal love interest hit too close to home or that it's nothing you want to expose yourself to, because the story will - without a doubt - tug at your heartstrings unlike any other game... then you should probably ignore Leap of Faith.
And if you choose not to romance CeCe and instead want a bi-curious pop star as your lover or maybe you want to reconnect with your ex sweetheart who is a counter terrorist agent... the Lexi part is ok, if you can accept the porn tropes, but even here CeCe will still be front and center much of the time. You can't ignore her.
So... you play Leap of Faith for CeCe, no one else really. All other romances pale in comparison to hers. Yes, the game allows you to date several other people and it can be pretty good, but here it offers you nothing you can't get elsewhere ... and those other games won't punch you in the gut with a heartwrenching story about a clinically depressed suicide attempt survivor.
Leap of Faith will always be remembered for CeCe. Most games fail to create truly memorable characters. All the usual milfs, sisters, landladies, bi-curious love interests become a blur when you play VNs... CeCe stands out like a shining beacon. And this is the one big achievement of this game. It creates a memorable character with a memorable story. CeCe will stay with you.
Everything else here is just a distraction, at best a fun and good distraction, at worst just plain silly and stupid though.
So is Leap of Faith a masterwork? In parts, yes, absolutely. But ultimately I feel the dev did a disservice to the story he really wanted to tell by including all these other things the story doesn't really need. Yes, it will maybe broaden the appeal somewhat, because people can date the VN version of JLo or find out their ex is a secret agent for CTU etc, but these parts of the game feel like they are from a completely different game.
Overall I still very much enjoyed my time with Leap of Faith, it's one of the few truly memorable games.
But don't expect perfection here. It is, at the end of the day, also a silly porn game. And I am not sure CeCe's story needed that. I feel it would have been better not to include these other things.
So... play it for CeCe. Feel with her, laugh with her, cry with her... and in a second playthough maybe explore some other options to see the rest of the content. But really, it's CeCe's game. No one elses.
