Developer: MAGES. Inc.
Publisher: PQube
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch
Tested on: Switch
KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! – Review
Licensed games of well-known anime series aren’t always a success, as sometimes these titles feel a bit cheap or are simple releases to keep ownership of certain licenses. We didn’t know if KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! would be one of those titles, or if it would actually be a worthy addition to the source material as a standalone adventure. Luckily for us, this visual novel title with some management aspects proved to be quite entertaining.
Story
If you’re new to the KONOSUBA universe, we suggest checking out the anime first, as the game does refer to past events a lot, and it also somewhat skips the actual character introductions. You’ll be thrown in the middle of Kazuma’s isekai adventure, where he spends his time in a fantasy-like medieval setting together with his oddball compatriots. This time, Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness find a dark slab with a strange imprint on it that sounds a bit ominous. The group decides to have it appraised at Wiz’s magic shop. Wiz tells them the item is magic, and it allows them to craft outfits on the fly. The group decided to keep the slab, but little did they know that the magic tablet would attract all sorts of troubles. Apparently, the slab was stolen from a noble, and now the group is being accused of doing the dastardly deed. Now, they have to craft outfits for the noble with very strange requirements, but sadly, the tablet is cursed. When crafting an outfit, one of the people involved will get cursed and their desires are completely turned around. To break the curse, their new desires need to be satisfied in body and mind. What ensues are the typical KONOSUBA shenanigans that involve a lot of cursing, complaining, and humorous events.
As a whole, the story is quite entertaining, and the dialogues are perfectly in tune with the source material. From start to finish, the game does feel like a proper KONOSUBA adventure, and there’s never a dull moment to be found.
Graphics
Graphically, KONOSUBA left us with some mixed feelings. The visuals themselves are nice to look at, and the character designs are great, but everything feels a bit too static. We understand the static nature of a visual novel, but for a game revolving around making unique outfits, it was somewhat disappointing to only see one picture per outfit after creating it. This made the graphical design feel a bit too limited at times, and we would have loved a bit more flair when it came to the special cutscenes. You’ll only see facial animations change slightly during the course of these special segments. During the normal dialogue segments, you’ll always see the character models, which only change their pose from time to time, as well as their facial animations. Even though everything still looks great, we expected a bit more. Fans of the show will probably still be happy with the level of fanservice that is present here.
Outside of the dialogues, you’ll also have the small management portion of the game. The UI here is clear, and the small working animations are handled in a cute way. The other menus are also clear and responsive.
Sound
Clothes of Desire’s sound design is perfectly in sync with the quality of the anime. You’ll be treated to upbeat background music during the management part of the game and the many dialogues, and the music changes according to what is happening on screen. The star of the show, however, is the superb voice acting. Every dialogue in the game is fully voiced, making it feel like you’re watching a spin-off story of the show. Only internal monologues are not voiced. The sound effects are decent, but they’re nothing to write home about.
Gameplay
KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! is for the most part a traditional visual novel with a management aspect added to the mix. This means you’ll be going through a lot of conversations with Kazuma and the gang, making the occasional conversational choice, and having to decide what jobs and quests the party undertakes. In essence, the concept is very simple, but the game doesn’t allow for too many mistakes if you’re aiming for a specific character ending.
The game trots along at a steady pace, with you going through short and funny dialogues to then manage how you wish your week to progress. You can either assign jobs to every character individually for a maximum of three days per week, or you can undertake quests with the party, again for a maximum of three days. You can mix and match however you like, with going on work assignments for one or two days to then end the week with a party quest, or vice versa. At the end of the week, you’ll see what materials you gathered and how much money you have earned. In-between weeks you’ll have the option to buy additional materials from Wiz’s store, or you can craft one of the requested outfits if you have the necessary materials. New jobs that provide new materials only unlock when you either progress the story or when you craft optional outfits, which then allow you to gather materials for other optional outfits.
In the game, you have optional outfits and a main outfit that needs to be created before a certain deadline. The optional outfits allow you to grow closer to characters, and depending on what materials you use on said outfit, you might unlock a different scene upon completion. Special materials are often only available in the chapter where the optional request(s) are added. With the time constraints in place, you probably won’t be able to complete all outfits in one playthrough, which motivates you to play through the game multiple times. The game itself is only a few hours long, which makes it perfect to wade through in an evening or two.
Completing the story outfit requests isn’t too hard, but if you want to grow closer to the cast of quirky ladies, you’ll have to make the correct choices. While this sounds easy enough, it’s not always clear what conversational options you’ll have to choose to benefit you. The somewhat higher difficulty here does again add a bit of replay value, as you can just play through the game to try again.
Conclusion
KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! is a fun visual novel that respects the source materials and grants you a bit more time with the franchise’s beloved characters. The story never takes itself too seriously, but there is enough depth to the narrative and its characters to warrant a few playthroughs in order to unlock multiple (or all) good endings. If you’re a fan of KONOSUBA as a whole, we can easily recommend this newest original adventure.
No Comments