Hello Friends! Today I want to share with you a demo that I
recently played called XOXO Droplets. It’s a visual novel style, dating
simulator/otome game created by GB Patch. The MC(main character) is a girl who
is, quite frankly, a real jerk. She is being transferred to a new school, but
her parents will only allow her to stay if she doesn’t make everyone at the
school hate her, like she has apparently done previously.
***This entry IS a part of an initiative run by the developers. You can find the information on the initiative
*here!* ***
Since she has such
trouble making friends, she is put into a special group of kids at the school. Lucky
for her, this group is nothing but boys! Cute boys, even. However, she has her work cut out for
her, because these guys are just as big of jerks as she is, perhaps even more
so. The cold shoulder, insults and general air of unpleasantness doesn’t
dissuade your MC, no sir. In fact, it may just make her try even harder.
I was drawn to this game at first by the art work. I’m a
sucker for cute otome boys, and most of these boys are super cute! I don’t
really care much for Pran or Nate in terms of appearance, but that’s fine.
Someone else may find them cute. To me, that just means there is something for
everyone! There are several other characters to build relationships with, like the
guys and gals that belong to the different cliques, but to be honest I didn’t
mess around with that so much. I wasn’t quite sure how the clique system
worked. I kind of just… randomly did whatever. There didn’t seem to be any
consequence for when I had the clique bars drop to zero.
The music fitting in most cases. I am a big fan of piano
music so I found it relaxing and pleasing to listen to. I can’t help but feel
that some places, such as “Fuchsia” which is supposed to be like a hip trendy
place where teens hang out, the piano music doesn’t quite fit. Maybe more of a musical variety would be beneficial.
I played through the game 3 times, getting all of the boys I
liked except for Shiloh. My first play through was with Bae. My second was for Everett and my 3rd was with Jeremy.
Each of the boys brings something different to the table, and I liked learning
a bit about them. I would have liked more back story, but this is just a demo
after all.
Bae is definitely my favorite of the guys. I couldn’t resist his snarky grin and his cute little pet names for everyone(Starfish, Cookie, Dear, etc.). I also love that he works at a daycare, and that kids love him. Big, tall, mean Bae may just have a soft spot, eh? On top of that snarky charm--LOOK AT HIM:
Source: Screen Captures from Game
One things that I wanted more of, was more choices. You have
choices during school days that alter your status with the cliques, but I
wanted more choices with the boys. The dialogue feels almost static otherwise. Most of the conversations were I felt, "Oh I'll have to make a choice. I better think carefully about this..." the MC simply answered herself. Other than
the boys’ individual dates and events, everything is the same. It makes
replaying the game for the other guys seem sort of monotonous. The skip bottom
is great as it allows you to skip through those monotonous part, but I’m
wishing that I didn’t feel like I wanted to skip them.
A little thing I didn't get was that the swear words were censored with asterisks in the game. This seemed pointless since I (and most players, I'm sure) can already tell what the words are. It may have to do with ratings, maybe? Or an act of courtesy, but it seemed pointless to me.
I hope in the full version to see more choices for us to make with our character, perhaps so more diverse music selections, and perhaps more visual representation of the cliques.
All in all, I really enjoyed the demo and I'm looking forward to the full version of the game when it releases. I would recommend that if you are a fan of otome games, or want to try one, to give the demo a play. You can go to Itch.io to download the demo
*here*. The characters are diverse, and you can be as much of a jerk as you want(or maybe could be, if there were some more choices). I want to see where the story goes from here.
Happy Gaming, Friends!
Bell
See the Gaming in Pajamas Compendium
*Here!*
