Romance Detective

Detectives usually have a hard time figuring out the clues to a case, especially since they usually have to work on the most difficult of them as well. Intuition has a lot to do with it, luck can come in handy every once in awhile, and it’s definitely a plus if you have a creative mind. On the other hand, detective work is not as glamorous as depicted in most movie montages.

Romance Detective is an interactive visual novel in which you’ve got to help a detective duo pinpoint suspects and get to the bottom of interesting cases. Although most visual novels just go on without you, this one requires your input every now and again, mainly because you have to do some actual detective work. It’s not a puzzle game per se, but at least you get to interact with the characters a little bit.

The story is not very complicated either, since your only goal is to find the one responsible by analyzing the clues and interrogating the characters you come across. Speaking of which, you can pick up items and present them to other characters in order to get more information about them. This can also help you uncover liars and maybe even pinpoint a suspect later on.

Even if the gameplay features the occasional interaction, most of it goes on without you, although the story itself is pretty engaging to read. Hence, your time is usually spent clicking through the dialog boxes and waiting for the game to ask something of you. You can control the text speed from the settings panel, just in case you do not want to click at all and just watch the story unfold.

Speaking of which, the graphics are not exactly extraordinary, but they are very cute and colorful, which is exactly the purpose. The characters are adorable, and it’s difficult not to have a smile on your face while you are playing along. The same goes for the soundtrack, which is very engaging and happy, exactly as it should be to keep you in a good mood.

In the end, Romance Detective is not the kind of game that creates eternal memories, but it can be the perfect distraction for a lonely afternoon. Moreover, you can also have fun with the actual investigation.