“The sum of the squares on the imoutos of a love triangle is equal to the square on the osananajimi.” - Pythagoras, ancient Greek thinker.
Sankaku Renai, or Love Triangle Trouble as it is known in the ingles, is love comedy visual novel that plays it by the book. It knows what it is and doesn’t try to overstretch its bounds and because of that manages to hit all the right beats just right.
Our MC, known to everyone around him as Sosuke. He’s a high school student living in a rural town together with his dad, his step-mom, and of course his step-imouto. He is an otaku just like 99% on protaginists in these kinds of visual novels who is also a member in the school’s otaku club, where he spends his free time together with his friends talking about anime, reading manga, playing games, and other assorted dorky shit. Things seem to be going along smoothly until one day he comes back home only to see that his blood-related-imouto has entered the picture after several years of absence… Yup, it’s one of those games.
This is a comedy centric novel and compared to most titles in the genre I found it to be among the funniest, for one main reason. See, there is this big discussion in the weeb world pertaining to translations and how literal or “adapted” they should be. This is one of those that is heavily adapted. Even with my limited knowledge of le niponese I know for a fact that many of the lines in the game were not translated ad literam, but instead were changed in a way to be more funnier than what they originally were. This reminds me a bit of the Highschool DXD dub which is notorious for being laugh out loud funny, but also one that takes many freedoms. It’s easy to understand why this approach can go wrong, but in the case of Sankaku Renai I think that the translators did an outstanding job overall. The comedy is laugh out loud funny, and I also didn’t notice many currentyearisms either, at least not too many and not too cringe for me to have made a mental note of. Not only are the situations themselves funny, but the game also likes to break the fourth wall on many occasions. For example there’s this guy who is the president of the otaku club who is just called “Prez” and at one point the other characters even note the fact that his real name is never mentioned once in the entire game. At one point his label in the game’s interface changes during one of the gags and the other characters point that out too. Personally I find this type of fourth wall breaking comedy to really funny if done right, and Sankaku Renai is definitely one of those that do.
The characters are also very tropey as one might expect. There are actually six girls that you can romance, but only four of those have real routes. The other two are more extras.
Nanaru is the step-imouto and judging by her twin-tails you just know that she is a tsundere. She is very easy to trigger by others and Sosuke knows exactly when to push her buttons which constitutes the subject of many of the gags that pervade this novel. I love this character. Her voice actress also killed it with her performance. Second best girl and one my favorite tsundere characters in the medium for sure! She would have been best girl, but there is another that took that spot. The funny thing is that not only do the parents not mind the two of you going out together, they actively encourage it too! Talk about progressive, sheesh… And speaking of which…
Suzu is your blood-related-imouto. Yup. No ifs, no buts. No long lost secrets, no unexpected twists in the story. Just a plain standard imouto. On the surface she seems like your average adorable little imouto, but on the inside. On the inside awaits DEATH! Ok, it’s not that dramatic, but there’s definitely a bit of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hide thing going on with her. Now if you’re wondering what the parents think about this, well it’s actually never addresses. Compared to the other girls the romance with her just sort ends at one point, meaning that there is no real conclusion to the story. I don’t understand these sorts of devs. On the one hand they want to appeal to a certain segment of the market, but then they half ass it. Either go all the way or don’t include the fetish. Her route kinda grossed me out ngl, but I knew what I was getting into when I started the VN so I’m not going to be hypocritical and complain any further.
Shiina is your senpai and she is horny. Like really horny. She is short with HUEG tits and an insatiable appetite for echhi, and it just so happens to want your bad. Her favorite past time is playing eroge and making lewd jokes about them. This girl is probably every coomer’s wet dream. And then you get to her route……….. and it turns out it was all just a front and she is actually very shy and gets easily flustered. Sigh. At least they didn’t give her a dick so I should be grateful for that I suppose. I understand what they were trying to go for with her character but I just don’t think that she turned out that compelling in the end. Still she is a fun character overall and is the one who creates most of the jokes. She also is the one who breaks the fourth wall the most. In fact when you meet her she flat out tells you what choices to pick during the game to get to her route!
Maho is the osananajimi and best girl. There. End of story. Normally I don’t really like this archetype as I find them quite safe and boring but with her I’ll make an exception. She is so incredible she is easily in the top 5 for me in the medium. She just ticks all the boxes for me. Long red hair, slender figure, likes games, is a total bro, and gets flustered easily thus making her a prime target for Sosuke’s teasing. One of the few osananajimis done right. Hats off, Asa Project. Also when she’s wearing that skimpy chinese dress. Dayum.
Olivia is a petite gyaru foreigner who is really into cosplay and constantly wants to get Maho to try it out. Can’t say I blame her. I want to see Maho in sexy outfits too. I did not enjoy this character very much. She came off as a bitch most of the time and I hated her lisp too so I ended up skipping most of her voiced lines. Her route is short, like one hour max.
Akane is a fujoshi which would normally place her at the bottom (heh) of the barrel but she is actually a really funny character. You’d think her gay jokes would get old soon but somehow they managed to stay entertaining throughout. Her route is also only about an hour long.
The only other notable characters who also have sprites are the aforementioned Prez who ends up the butt end of the joke on many occasions, as well as Sosuke’s parents who are also very well done. The routes themselves aren’t that noteworthy though. I mean don’t expect any memorable stories here, but the comedy stays good throughout so I guess that’s all that matters. You have a common route at the beginning, which then splits of into to other main routes: the sister route (with Nanaru, Suzu, and Akane) and the friend route (with Shiina, Maho, and Olivia).
The VA is very well done, especially Nanaru, Maho, and Prez, but all of the actors did a tremendous job here. The music is unfortunately completely forgettable. The sprites and CGs are gorgeous. My only complaint is that the main girls only had two sprite variations and the rest of the characters only had one. I think they could have added one more for each but hey, you can’t win ‘em all I suppose. The backgrounds also look good for the most part, except for one scene where they were supposed to be at a crowded event but the background showed only an empty hallway. I though that was a bit jarring and out of place.
The H-scenes are vanilla and plentiful. The main girls get four each, and even the side girls get two each so there’s enough coom material for you coomers out there, as long as you’re not expecting anything wilder than a footjob, but you probably weren’t.
The interface was good as I was able to set the auto reading speed to just the right pace, however it does have this weird “feature” where you can’t overwrite saved games. The game ran well on Linux, with the caveat that I couldn’t get the intro movie to play. I have no idea what dll I was missing, oh well no big issue.
Overall Sankaku Renai is a very decent entry in the never ending moege scene. Its biggest pro by far is the comedy which is a lot better than most of its peers, thanks to the very loose english translation. NekoNyan did a good job with this title IMO.
Girl ranking: Maho > Nanaru > Shiina > Suzu > Akane > Olivia
Verdict: 3.5 stars but it gets another .5 star for Maho alone . An excellent addition to a coomer’s collection. People who come to this one searching for a fun time with lots of lewd jokes will be well served. If you want something more serious though you should look elsewhere.
Total read time: juuuuuuust under 30 hours so it doesn’t overstay its welcome, measured with Lutris, read at an average-to-quick pace and skipping many of the moans.
Sankaku Renai, or Love Triangle Trouble as it is known in the ingles, is love comedy visual novel that plays it by the book. It knows what it is and doesn’t try to overstretch its bounds and because of that manages to hit all the right beats just right.
Our MC, known to everyone around him as Sosuke. He’s a high school student living in a rural town together with his dad, his step-mom, and of course his step-imouto. He is an otaku just like 99% on protaginists in these kinds of visual novels who is also a member in the school’s otaku club, where he spends his free time together with his friends talking about anime, reading manga, playing games, and other assorted dorky shit. Things seem to be going along smoothly until one day he comes back home only to see that his blood-related-imouto has entered the picture after several years of absence… Yup, it’s one of those games.
This is a comedy centric novel and compared to most titles in the genre I found it to be among the funniest, for one main reason. See, there is this big discussion in the weeb world pertaining to translations and how literal or “adapted” they should be. This is one of those that is heavily adapted. Even with my limited knowledge of le niponese I know for a fact that many of the lines in the game were not translated ad literam, but instead were changed in a way to be more funnier than what they originally were. This reminds me a bit of the Highschool DXD dub which is notorious for being laugh out loud funny, but also one that takes many freedoms. It’s easy to understand why this approach can go wrong, but in the case of Sankaku Renai I think that the translators did an outstanding job overall. The comedy is laugh out loud funny, and I also didn’t notice many currentyearisms either, at least not too many and not too cringe for me to have made a mental note of. Not only are the situations themselves funny, but the game also likes to break the fourth wall on many occasions. For example there’s this guy who is the president of the otaku club who is just called “Prez” and at one point the other characters even note the fact that his real name is never mentioned once in the entire game. At one point his label in the game’s interface changes during one of the gags and the other characters point that out too. Personally I find this type of fourth wall breaking comedy to really funny if done right, and Sankaku Renai is definitely one of those that do.
The characters are also very tropey as one might expect. There are actually six girls that you can romance, but only four of those have real routes. The other two are more extras.
Nanaru is the step-imouto and judging by her twin-tails you just know that she is a tsundere. She is very easy to trigger by others and Sosuke knows exactly when to push her buttons which constitutes the subject of many of the gags that pervade this novel. I love this character. Her voice actress also killed it with her performance. Second best girl and one my favorite tsundere characters in the medium for sure! She would have been best girl, but there is another that took that spot. The funny thing is that not only do the parents not mind the two of you going out together, they actively encourage it too! Talk about progressive, sheesh… And speaking of which…
Suzu is your blood-related-imouto. Yup. No ifs, no buts. No long lost secrets, no unexpected twists in the story. Just a plain standard imouto. On the surface she seems like your average adorable little imouto, but on the inside. On the inside awaits DEATH! Ok, it’s not that dramatic, but there’s definitely a bit of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hide thing going on with her. Now if you’re wondering what the parents think about this, well it’s actually never addresses. Compared to the other girls the romance with her just sort ends at one point, meaning that there is no real conclusion to the story. I don’t understand these sorts of devs. On the one hand they want to appeal to a certain segment of the market, but then they half ass it. Either go all the way or don’t include the fetish. Her route kinda grossed me out ngl, but I knew what I was getting into when I started the VN so I’m not going to be hypocritical and complain any further.
Shiina is your senpai and she is horny. Like really horny. She is short with HUEG tits and an insatiable appetite for echhi, and it just so happens to want your bad. Her favorite past time is playing eroge and making lewd jokes about them. This girl is probably every coomer’s wet dream. And then you get to her route……….. and it turns out it was all just a front and she is actually very shy and gets easily flustered. Sigh. At least they didn’t give her a dick so I should be grateful for that I suppose. I understand what they were trying to go for with her character but I just don’t think that she turned out that compelling in the end. Still she is a fun character overall and is the one who creates most of the jokes. She also is the one who breaks the fourth wall the most. In fact when you meet her she flat out tells you what choices to pick during the game to get to her route!
Maho is the osananajimi and best girl. There. End of story. Normally I don’t really like this archetype as I find them quite safe and boring but with her I’ll make an exception. She is so incredible she is easily in the top 5 for me in the medium. She just ticks all the boxes for me. Long red hair, slender figure, likes games, is a total bro, and gets flustered easily thus making her a prime target for Sosuke’s teasing. One of the few osananajimis done right. Hats off, Asa Project. Also when she’s wearing that skimpy chinese dress. Dayum.
Olivia is a petite gyaru foreigner who is really into cosplay and constantly wants to get Maho to try it out. Can’t say I blame her. I want to see Maho in sexy outfits too. I did not enjoy this character very much. She came off as a bitch most of the time and I hated her lisp too so I ended up skipping most of her voiced lines. Her route is short, like one hour max.
Akane is a fujoshi which would normally place her at the bottom (heh) of the barrel but she is actually a really funny character. You’d think her gay jokes would get old soon but somehow they managed to stay entertaining throughout. Her route is also only about an hour long.
The only other notable characters who also have sprites are the aforementioned Prez who ends up the butt end of the joke on many occasions, as well as Sosuke’s parents who are also very well done. The routes themselves aren’t that noteworthy though. I mean don’t expect any memorable stories here, but the comedy stays good throughout so I guess that’s all that matters. You have a common route at the beginning, which then splits of into to other main routes: the sister route (with Nanaru, Suzu, and Akane) and the friend route (with Shiina, Maho, and Olivia).
The VA is very well done, especially Nanaru, Maho, and Prez, but all of the actors did a tremendous job here. The music is unfortunately completely forgettable. The sprites and CGs are gorgeous. My only complaint is that the main girls only had two sprite variations and the rest of the characters only had one. I think they could have added one more for each but hey, you can’t win ‘em all I suppose. The backgrounds also look good for the most part, except for one scene where they were supposed to be at a crowded event but the background showed only an empty hallway. I though that was a bit jarring and out of place.
The H-scenes are vanilla and plentiful. The main girls get four each, and even the side girls get two each so there’s enough coom material for you coomers out there, as long as you’re not expecting anything wilder than a footjob, but you probably weren’t.
The interface was good as I was able to set the auto reading speed to just the right pace, however it does have this weird “feature” where you can’t overwrite saved games. The game ran well on Linux, with the caveat that I couldn’t get the intro movie to play. I have no idea what dll I was missing, oh well no big issue.
Overall Sankaku Renai is a very decent entry in the never ending moege scene. Its biggest pro by far is the comedy which is a lot better than most of its peers, thanks to the very loose english translation. NekoNyan did a good job with this title IMO.
Girl ranking: Maho > Nanaru > Shiina > Suzu > Akane > Olivia
Verdict: 3.5 stars but it gets another .5 star for Maho alone . An excellent addition to a coomer’s collection. People who come to this one searching for a fun time with lots of lewd jokes will be well served. If you want something more serious though you should look elsewhere.
Total read time: juuuuuuust under 30 hours so it doesn’t overstay its welcome, measured with Lutris, read at an average-to-quick pace and skipping many of the moans.
