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• overall: B-. enjoyment: A.
• spirited heart deluxe is a stat raiser/life sim with three protagonists to choose from and 12 possible love interests, divided equally into two genders and three fantasy races. in the game's original release only male love interests existed, and the girls were patched in years later - which shows very clearly, as the artist and style are completely different. its a strange and sometimes jarring decision. the game itself, however, is very good. i adore the gameplay, and the writing is at times deep and moving -- and at other times simple and upfront, which may appeal more to some people. you have the option to toggle off certain love interests, so if you only want to see girls or only want to see boys you can.
• plot: C. there is no overarching plot, the story depends on which character and background you play as. each combination has a separate justification for why your character is here. noble families losing everything, poor parents scrounging their life savings to get their daughter a better life, etc. one thing that each girl has in common is the appearance of a goddess midgame, who gives them a task with the promise of a single wish granted upon its fulfilment. overall, i think it works very well. this kind of game doesn't need an overarching plot, but the care put into each character having separate but valid backstories is a nice touch. the goddess thing comes out of nowhere, though.
• characters: B. this game contains my favorite female dating sim character of all time, hade, so you can imagine where i stand. as a whole i think they're very good -- but there's a quality difference between the male and female characters. this is mostly down to the writers, as the male characters are nowhere near as fleshed out and three dimensional as the girls, but it still has an impact. the men's designs are very good, though (while some of the girls outfits make me roll my eyes) and the characters themselves have clear potential.
• writing: B. the game is overall very well written, interesting, and consistent despite having different writers. however, the quality of the love interests is less consistent. the female love interests, new additions in the games history, have extremely good emotional and impactful romantic arcs, with character development, real challenges to overcome, and heartfelt confessions that really sell how important the decision of who to attach your life to is. the male love interests however, do not. they aren't poorly written by any stretch of the imagination, they're simply... boring. nothing happens, there's rarely character development or deep romance. they're just there, and they flirt, and then it's done. i don't think the game suffers as a whole for it -- they are still written at the same quality as the rest, it's just the stories are uninteresting -- but it does make them much less fun to pursue.
• routes: hade > thym > ria > reid >> yana > janimee > yuza > mgorem > ramas > thofte >> frebo > leah
• gameplay: A. the main crux of the game is a stat raiser, you choose different jobs to raise money and work towards qualifying for better jobs. different love interests will hang out at different jobs, making it necessary to plan ahead for what stats you need to build. the game also has a very extensive character creation, letting you choose various parts of your backstory that affect your starting stats. now, its no surprise i love stat raisers. the character creation pushes this over the top for me, though. i adore everything about this gameplay. the balance isn't perfect, and the job minigame is easy to cheat at, but overall its a hit for me. my big complaint is that when you get the goddess endings (obtained by maxing out certain stats to get a "title") the game ends right away. ending with a love interest lets you decide when to stop, it would have been nice if the goddesses granted the same courtesy.
• art: C. when this game was first released, it only had male love interests. the 6 girls were added in a later release... with an entirely different artist. they look very strange appearing on screen together. the art for the girls is very good (and happens to be an artist i used to be a fan of), while the old art is certainly less technically polished but has a rough sort of cuteness i still like. however, the jarring juxtaposition unfortunately drags it down. there are also some tech issues with the art, some images of the main character being cut off before they're meant to, possibly a result of widening the game window without checking everything.
• sound: C. spirited heart is not fully voice acted, but it does have voiced ending narration. the quality is clear and nice to listen to, but a bit unemotional and boring. it being the only voicing in the game makes it stand out, perhaps adding some at the beginning would round it out. the music and sound design are decent. it feels unfair to give this a score for so little voice acting, but it is there.