- Last Stanza – PC Review - December 30, 2018
- Hard Work – PC Review - November 3, 2018
- Magical Star Pillars – PC Review - October 1, 2018
Genre: Casual, Indie, Simulation
Developer: Matchasoft
Publisher: Denpasoft
Release Date: Sep 15, 2018
Edited by KnightAvenger
Hard Work is a short visual novel by Matchasoft, published by Denpasoft. The game follows Gary Stuart, an overrated gigolo that runs a sexual counseling agency. The story is very basic and almost non-existent, serving only as an excuse for the main character to have lots of sex with three girls.
Although the story may not be a big deal, the writing itself is pretty good, especially the dialogue, which is the meat of the non-ero scenes. It’s consistently funny and often full of puns.
There are, as mentioned already, three girls you can be with, meaning three separate routes, one for each of the girls. Aside from a bunch of choices presented in a short amount of time near the end of the prologue that decide which of the three girls you will be going for, there are practically no other choices. A couple here and there but none that really affect anything much.
The girls themselves are pretty clear archetypes, and while they’re written well, I wish there were more options to choose from in regards to the routes. Aside from the three girls, there are also side characters. Some of them, like Rose, I wish had her own route. But even so, the three routes present aren’t really bad.
The ero-scenes are plentiful, each girl having a number of different ones. The girls all have their own themes in the scenes, with different fetishes being in the forefront, such as with Katya the theme being public sex, for example. The scenes are all consensual, and although there are themes to each of the girl’s scenes, the different fetishes that they satisfy are nicely varied, with some fetishes I don’t see very often in VNs. There is also an option for a cum countdown which makes a number appear in the upper left corner of the screen for when the character is close to an orgasm.
The ero-scenes look amazing, just like the rest of the game, with a very high quality anime look that is often moe. The only complaint is that it can be a bit generic of an artstyle, but due to how well it’s pulled off, that is not a big deal.
Where the game does kinda fail a little is the sound department. While the music is nice enough and varied enough for the amount of content there is in this game, the issue comes from the lack of voice acting. Now, voice acting itself isn’t mandatory for a game like this but is something that really makes the experience better. Even so, I could let it go if there weren’t random sound effects thrown around throughout the game. Of course, contextually, they make sense to be placed where they are, such as when rain is falling or someone is cumming, but when combined with the lack of voice acting, they sorta start to feel somewhat out of place, especially the sound for cumming which is this really strong *squish* sound which just feels really awkward and cartoony.
The common route is relatively short and it then branches off into one of the three different routes, which are all comparatively similar in length, as they are structured the same, more or less. They are also pretty short, leading to the game overall being rather short and focused very much on just sexual content, which is to be expected from a game in which you play as a “sexual counselor.” Once you’ve completed the three routes once, all CGs and everything will be unlocked in the main menu.
All in all, it’s a good sex-focused eroge VN, it looks nice, the writing is funny and often works. Were it not for awkward sound effects coupled with zero voice acting, it would be an easy recommendation for the price of $15 (USD) on Steam. As it is, I recommend you wait for a sale but to definitely get it if you like this sorta thing.
Pros:
- Looks cool
- Writing is funny and often full of puns
- The visuals are great
- The music is nice
Cons:
- There is no voice acting at all
- Sound effects don’t sound bad but feel awkward due to no VA
- Although the visuals are nice, they do, sometimes, feel generic
Faris gives Hard Work a Drastik Measure of 8.6 out of 10 (86)
