<- Back To Masterpost

deep sea valentine (F/F)

• overall: B. enjoyment: C+.
• deep sea valentine is a short and cute dating sim about a girl trying to get a date for valentine's day. mixing VN with RPG gameplay, you explore an undersea world to find the right partner - your decisions affecting the story, and which options are available to you. the art and characters are cute and the story is simple but consistently well-written, but the gameplay is a bit buggy and walking around can be tedious at times. still, it's a cute game and i'd say it's worth playing.
• plot: C. it's valentine's day, and inia is heading out to score a last minute date with the cutest girl she sees! but... her best friend has some complaints, insisting she bring the girl home to be interviewed first. it's a simple setup; girl wants girlfriend: go fetch! it works, but if that was all, i'd rate it lower. there is more to the story, though, as inia walks around and finds herself lured into helping the people around her instead. it's simple, it's cute. it's not standout, but that's fine.
• characters: A. they're very cute. the designs are adorable, their personalities are diverse and very easily and consistently portrayed, and they're all pretty likable. ...with the exception of the boys, who are jerks and apparently criminals -- but they aren't datable, so who cares. feli suffers from a lack of screentime, making her appear comparatively shallow, but she's still cute. the protagonist is a catch too, which is always a plus. my only issue is the fact that -- despite being sea creatures, ostensibly -- they all just look like normal girls. the only character who in any way resembles their species is joru, and he's a minor character. but they're cute, so it's ok.
• writing: B. the writing is simple, but cute. its narratively well-structured, the dialogue flows well and characters are well-characterized. the way the endings work unfortunately means some girls endings are a little abrupt; feli's in particular seems to come out of nowhere when you've only just met her, but the rest are generally better. i do think triche's whole deal could be done better as well; while "your bossy friend who thinks no one is good enough for you secretly likes you" is not exactly a stretch, it feels weird to go directly from her chasing someone away to you asking her out. a little more setup, maybe an additional route trigger would help.
• routes: pris > tae >> moka > albica > triche > feli >>> sinus
• gameplay: C. the majority of the game consists of walking around a 2D map, talking to people to bring up VN style segments with simple choices. unlike many other games in the genre, your dialogue choices aren't the ones that matters; three pivotal story decisions determine what girl you'll wind up with. i honestly think this is really neat. i love the concept, and i'm always here for people meshing the rpg walkaround style with dating sims. the reason this is only at C is... it's kind of glitchy. using the run button (all but necessary, as the walk speed is very low) will prevent the location-based events from triggering, which can lead to skipping story or even getting trapped on part of the map. these are issues with the engine used, and not the devs personal code, but that doesn't make it any easier to play. the controls feel a bit less smooth than i'd like, too.
• art: A. okay, it's really fucking cute. the portraits are very stylized, with big heads and faces that might not appeal to everyone but are well done from a technical standpoint. while it may not be the absolute top of the line across the board, its well done and the coloring and designs really sell it. its charming. the pixel art maps are simple, but they work -- the character sprites have a 2000s pixel doll feel to me, but its not enough to put me off. the bright colors of the UI and text sometimes clash, but its a minor complaint.