The Hepatica Spring Reviews

[h1]Short Review:[/h1] - Characters are sweethearts - Romances a bit rushed but still gave me warm fuzzies - Only choices are which character route and romance or friendship - Music perfectly suits mood - Lovely art with 3 CGs - A quick but cute visual novel! [h1]Full Review:[/h1] This is a quick visual novel, but a cute one! All three romanceable characters are sweethearts. And they all have their own struggles beneath the figurative masks they wore, pain or doubt they don't let show. I especially love Vendel! I was delighted to realize he's a troll, and that he has a TAIL! He's so adorable and charismatic and sweet and has this hidden sadness and loneliness that made me feel for him. But like I said, I liked the others too. Phyllis is kind-hearted and gracious. Lief is a bit obsessive about their work, but a sweet, passionate person. The romances felt a bit rushed since the game is so short, but still cute enough to make me smile and feel the warm fuzzies. I also really like that you can choose romance or friendship, so that you can see all the routes in a way that feels genuine to you. And whether you choose romance or friendship, you still get the same story and the same happy ending, just the relationship is different. There are three routes (one for each romanceable character), and though they share the same intro, the rest is different. They have the same general plot problem that needs solving, but the way you discover and solve the problem is different. So there's not much repeated text, which is nice. The only choices are which character route to go with, and whether to make it romance or friendship. But that's ok, this is a visual novel that's about getting to know the characters and experiencing a story with them. The fantasy setting is fun. Not much world-building, but there's magic and trolls and faeries, and I enjoyed the little mentions of how they use magic in their everyday lives. The music is perfect. It really enhances the emotion, whether it's a cutesy butterflies romantic moment, a serious emotional connection, danger, etc. The character art is lovely (though you only get art for the main three and one other), and the backgrounds are pretty. There's also a CG to unlock for each route. It took me 1.5 hours to finish my first playthrough and about 45 minutes to an hour each for the other two. About 4 hours total when you add in going back to see the friendships endings and whatnot. Overall, quick and simple, but cute with pretty art, nice music, and characters who are sweethearts! *Review can also be found on my blog (link in profile).* [h1]Accessibility:[/h1] (May not include everything) - Not accessible for blind / visually impaired players and screen reader users. - Can turn off screen shake.

I absolutely adored this game, it was like a rare animated film except its just a visual novel. I went full on romance with Vendel, as soon as I saw him in the trailer I knew he was going to be my love. The characters are charming, it sucks there wasn't more RP option but it was still a cute short game. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[I] The Hepatica Spring [/i] is a nice lighthearted novel. It's a neutral review. Nothing exciting about the plot or the whole experience but it was an entertaining enough distraction I needed. Things I enjoyed: +great color choices, a real feast for my eyes, very relaxing atmosphere (that's the reason enough to choose a thumb-up review); +wonderfully drawn sprites, so it's really a pity the quality of CGs don't match, for my taste; https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2769946281 +captivating but still light plot, perfect amount of suspense and drama; +good price for the story; +all routes and two possible outcomes (love and friendship) are well-written, there was absolutely nothing to dislike in any ending! Even that obligatory girl x girl route. Sorry, not a fan. But it was fine. Hmm, you know, rn scanning through the store page I found out “Play as any gender you please. MC has no canon gender” :)) I even restarted the game thinking maybe I forgot I could choose my gender, nope I guess I misunderstood and it just means in the story no one addressed MC directly with any specific gender. But dunno, I still felt MC was a girl, maybe it's my native lan's influence as the offered name 'Mika' sounds like female for me having that 'a' ending. Smth to whine a little :D --typos; --not enough save slots :(((; --for me the game was lagging. For example, old CGs disappear from the gallery when I open a new one or overwriting saves didn't work at some point; --not a fan of blurry/murky CGs; https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2794275160 --I didn't get enough visual part from this VN :(( I could read and read for some time and just backgrounds :(( no sprites. When chars talk, I'd really like to look at them; --quite often the emotions described and the ones portrayed on the chars' sprites didn't match; --moving bgs really hurt my eyes, I hate when it happens in novels :(( --welp, maybe it's just me and depressed mood I had while playing but the chars as usual annoyed me a lot! So, all in all, it's a pleasant enough romantic fantasy novel for a couple of evenings (don't mind my time on record). [table] [tr] [th]More thoughts about the game in a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/readingnook/discussions/0/3182360899409630590/] Reading Nook [/url][/th] [/tr] [/table]

The enby romance option thus far is constantly being misgendered by the MC. In the beginning, the text states that Leif insists everyone else use they/them pronouns to refer to them, but gave the MC ~special~ lenience to use he/him. It's frustrating to read and seems like the writer missed the point.