I backed this game on kickstarter and have no regrets. I good day to day management sim with waifus that have good stories and different personalities. Your days are split between talking to your chosen waifu, training your skills and going through battles to earn money for a satisfying gameplay loop.

I would recommend doing the challenge mode because it makes everything feel better paced story and gameplay wise.

Reminds me of Huniepop a little but less overt.

Whipped my pp out waiting for H-scene.
6 hours passed, sitting naked while chuckling to punchlines, no H-scene yet.
Turn out this is a really great VN. No regrets.

Came for the Plot, stayed for the plot

Well, now I’m craving a reverse harem.

Love Esquire starts off on your birthday. You’re just a lazy farmboy in Caerulia that dreamed of becoming a knight since you were little. Well, your birthday comes with good news and bad news. Good news, you’re now squire! A knight named Hugh decided to take you as his squire and this is your glorious debut. You’re now one step closer to your dream. Bad news, a war is coming up. Yep, couldn’t have picked a better time to become a squire. You see, there is a horde of barbarians named the Gegners that are dead set on destroying everything in their sight. With this massive threat, Caerulia actually forges an alliance with another kingdom called Alkosi despite their troubled history. The war is set to begin in four months so in this time, you’ll have to say goodbye to your darling cow Bessy, train up so you’ll hopefully survive the war, and get laid so you don’t die a virgin.

Considering that you only have four months before you’re sent off for war, time is precious. A part of Love Esquire is about managing your time wisely as mostly everything you do will move time forward by at least an hour. Traveling between areas takes 1-3 hours depending on how far away you are, training takes a big four hours, campaigning takes time, and talking to the dateable ladies takes an hour. So once you get the feel of everything, you’ll plan out your day or even week. Especially when each day ends at midnight and it’s best you get home at or before then. Sure, you can stay out and not return till right at midnight, but there is a penalty. If your arrival time is after midnight, you’ll sleep in and wake up at noon rather than 6am.

With a war right around the corner and you being a squire, it’s time to train up. Considering that you have many aspects to take into account and you most likely want to romance one of the ladies, you thankfully only have three stats: Charisma, Strength, and Intelligence. You can train up your Charisma at the Tavern to improve Hugh’s damage input, Strength at the Barracks to improve your and Hugh’s damage input, and Intelligence at the Archives to increase how much you heal for. Of course, training doesn’t only cost time but gold. While you do unlock different training modes that let you gain more EXP, these different modes also cost more gold. Sooner rather than later, you’ll run out and then you’ll have to either sell items you find or go out and fight enemies with Hugh.

What’s the point of training if you can’t get practice fighting actual enemies am I right? Well, Hugh will also run campaigns almost every day. Though, you have to be at Caerulia’s Outskirts before noon or he’ll leave without you. There are 15 campaigns, each unlocking as you complete the previous one. Campaigns are basically your main source of gold and where your stats will be used the most. Though, rather than you fighting, you’re supporting Hugh like the good squire you are. As Hugh is only set on attacking, you’re tasked with making sure he doesn’t get his butt kicked. If you want Hugh to take a turn without damage, taunt your enemy and take it instead. Cheer Hugh on with boobs so he’ll attack all enemies (and hopefully wipe them all in one go). When you two, but mostly Hugh, are in need of some health, it’s your responsibility to heal. Once an enemy dies, they’ll leave behind some gold. Since Hugh doesn’t pick it up himself, it’s also up to you to loot the gold. If you’re dedicated to maxing out your stats so you can survive longer you’ll eventually be able to limit break an action, which is the more powerful version. So doing a limit break heal will heal you two more and give regen for a couple turns.

While you’re not the one attacking during combat, you have to figure out what action to take at a given time and even plan out your actions in the later campaigns. Are you going to risk looting or cheering this turn or are you going to play it safe with one of the other actions? Should you prolong the battle to get more gold or just get it over with before Hugh dies? Just make sure you train up and you should make it out fine. If enemies happen to overwhelm you and Hugh faints, you can always train and try again. Luckily you do get gold if you fail, but not as much as you would if you succeeded.

When you’re not training or going on campaigns, it’s time to chat it up with the finest ladies in Caerulia. You have five romance options consisting of a smallfry (Vel), a reclusive nurse (Giselle), two princesses (Beatrice and Kamala), and your sister Amy (wait what). This is actually the best part of the game since the writing here is fantastic. First of all, you’ll have to build up your relationship points with the one you want to go for and to do that, you have several ways. Each day, you’ll be able to talk to them about a certain topic and gift them an item with the more they like it the more points you’ll get. Their arc scenes, which becomes available as you increase your relationship level, gives out the most points as you’re going through their story and being there for them. The arc scenes in particular also determines which ending you’ll get (bad, friendship, or romance) depending on which dialogue choice you choose in certain scenes. Lastly, there are special scenes that are hidden here and there to give you more scenes to enjoy and gives you context on what they’re doing between each arc scene.

Now, onto why I ended up loving all the ladies and why you should play through all of them if you decide to pick up Love Esquire. When you’re first introduced to all of them, you’ll obviously prefer some over others. I started out only liking Amy, who isn’t that hard to not like, and Giselle. Though, when I actually went for the others their characters really shined as you get to know them. While Amy is your happy go lucky sister (who isn’t actually your blood sister since her family more or less adopted you), she truly cares for you and is deeply worried over you going to war in a few months. She actually doesn’t want you to participate in the war since she’s worried over you dying like her mother and you’ll later have to deal with a family secret. Giselle is reclusive and doesn’t exactly know how to express her feelings, but seeing her slowly open up to you is a great feeling. With Giselle, you see the inner workings of being a nurse, hear her history as well as your character’s history, and the hardships she has to deal with due to her unfortunate history. Vel is a smallfry that goes between rowdy and timid, but you get to see her struggle of keeping a huge secret that’s at the heart of her story, being one of the few survivors of Bordemer (which was destroyed by pirates and the Alkosi is blamed for it), and not wanting to get involved in a group of rioters that publicly condemn the Caerulia-Alkosi alliance. Beatrice is a bratty princess, but you see her struggle of being in charge, dealing with other nobles who are constantly trying to tear her down, trying to make an impact in the form of the Caerulia-Alkosi alliance as she’s the first female ruler and wants to be a role model for future female rulers, and how the rioters affect her. Then lastly, Kamala is the Alkosi princess and diplomat that wants to experience and learn about Caerulia’s traditions and culture, but you get to learn about the hardships she faces in Alkosi, learn about Alkosi, and see the backlash she’s getting from the rioters and how she’s dealing with it.

Hold on to pants because you are in for a great story, not to mention the plethora of cultural references and gags. This game is one giant joke like the entire premise was built with dripping sarcasm.

Pros:

• Fully Voiced Acting in English and Great Quality
  
• Funny Punchlines that Made Me Chuckle
  
• Great System of Moneymaking which will make you hate Taxes
  
• Superb Combat System and by Combat I mean letting your Knight do all the work why you mostly support and try not to die
  
• Great Visual Art
  
• Great Storyline and Romance Stories which make me eager to play through again to find out about the other endings.

Cons:

• Early Stage Grinding is Brutal after the first few levels the Easy Mode while cheap isn't cost effective compared to training at Normie Mode which is the same amount of time at 250% the experience rate and after a while it becomes a pain to use that till you unlock Beast Mode.
  
• If you haven't done much in the way of romance and talking to the girls in the game the first month and into your second month will be pretty dull as you'll spend most of your time training and have no story events that trigger so I'd advise you carve out some time each day or an entire day to simple meet and talk to all of the girls as well as figure out what they like so you can improve your gains with them by speaking and giving them a gift.
  
• I read pretty fast and it seems like the auto mode did not work the entire time I played leaving me to press the spacebar like a madman otherwise I would have sat and listened to the amazing voicework more, instead it just hangs after they read the line rather than continuing on.

Based on this I'd give this game a 9.5/10 would purchase again and it is a solid by if your a fan of the Dating Sim with RPG Elements.

So, let's see here...
Really good art style? Check
Extremely well done voice over? Check
Well written dialogue and tons of story to go through? Check

This game kind of blew my mind. It is so well made, so far beyond what the dating sim genre usually has to offer, that you can get lost in the story and the decent game mechanics. And you should. Because if you are thinking about buying this game as another hentai / erotic game, this game has little to offer you. The build up and excitement portion is there. It takes effort to win a girls favour and the journey is quite thrilling. However, they are not very rewarding in terms of what you usually get and might expect from such a genre. The unlockable CGs take time and close to all of them are not erotic or even ecchi. Most of them are a fully clothed partner looking at you. So again: if you think the only value you will get out of this is the thrill of eventually unlocking adult content, this game has little for you. But if you are looking for a really, really well made dating sim, maybe even one of the best, do give this game a shot.

What I expected:
An echi game about boobs with squire jokes.

What I got:
A f**king masterpiece.

Of all the novels I've read this ranks 5th currently.
In order:
G-Senjou no Maou -10/10
Muv Luv trilogy- 9.5/10
Fureraba - strong 9/10 (though 10/10 for a moege)
CLANNAD - 9/10
And now Love Esquire- weak 9/10
( my scale becomes exceedingly harsh towards either extreme which required me to allow for some qualification of 9's since a 9.5 is unequivocally a masterpiece of literature, while a 10 is literal perfection, meaning I would not have changed anything. In general to receive a 9 wholistically requires a novel to have an absurd degree of excellence throughout, while a route can usually get a 9 if it brings a tear to my eye somehow or another. I do not cry normally. Ever. )

And in this case I can really point to exactly why I think it's amazing.
It's the voice acting.

What may be literally the best voice acting performance I have ever heard in a game.
All because they decided to ACTUALLY FULLY VOICE THE MAIN CHARACTER.
*gasp*
I know.
It's literally unheard of for a VN to be fully voiced like that.
Let alone in ENGLISH.

Alejandro Saab delivered a stunning performance that singlehandedly elevated this game from 8ish territory into 9 territory.


Unlike most novels (read ALL) where the majority of text is unvoiced, often internal monologues of the MC, in this one the game plays more like an interactive film.

Sarcasm is not interpreted from italics. Rather, it is ANNUNCIATED. A tender moment, has a tender voice, jokes include impressions, funny voices and more. And good lord, does this guy have a register.

Frankly, if you played this game muted... it would be pretty mediocre, but the voice acting is incredible. You CANNOT find another VN out there with this kind of English voice acting in it.

Moving on to routes:
Kamala 9.5/10 absolute masterpiece, best waifu, etc. Do hers first (the plot will seem less important otherwise).
Vel 8/10
Amy 7/10
Giselle 7/10
Beatrice 6/10

Harem: 10/10 Quite possibly the best 10-15 minutes of the entire game

Overall, there was one excellent, one great, two good and one okay route. And then the harem which is just a nice big cherry on top to make you fall out of your chair laughing.

But the game has more than just a few binary choices that branch you off into a route.

There is a time-management dating sim type game where you have to run around town and actually talk to people, trigger events and work out your stats (STR, CHA and INT).

These stats allow you to do better in combat as you support your knight in frankly far better turn based combat than you might expect.

I've heard people complain about the grind, or difficulty... As a veteran of the Epic Battle Fantasy series I really had no issue, and there's story mode which doubles stat gain and health to make it easier if you don't care about the 4 or 5 campaign achievements.

It's clear that they spent a lot of time working with the voice actors to get the performances down pat. And it really shows, never has emotion and humor translated so seemlessly in a novel.

Again, I would really compare it to more of an interactive movie. Sure, you can read faster than the voices, but you're doing yourself a disservice if you do.

Overall, I bought this game because it was cheap, looked interested/entertaining, and it was a FAR better buy than I could have hoped.

TLDR: The game's great, the voice acting alone makes it worth buying. And heck, it's only $25 when I would have happily paid full VN fair (~$45) for it.

There's a lot I like about this game, because there's a lot this game does well. Unfortunately, the entire experience was ruined because the one thing this game doesn't do well is gameplay. The characters are unique and interesting, if perhaps a bit tropey. The various subplots were fairly engaging. And I genuinely enjoyed exploring the various ins and outs of the combat.

But all of that amounts to basically ~10% of the game. Everything else is a dull repetitive grind. You cycle through each day visiting various locations, clicking to get gifts/vendor trash, spending money to very slowly raise your stats, visiting waifus to hear them talk about unimportant things. Every once in a while, they have a plot event that's a bit more interesting, but for the most part its a dull boring grind.

And then for all your efforts, there's no payout. I mean you'll get pics of the waifu's cleavage or pantyshots or what have you. And if you're truly depraved (like me) you can get the community modded... handholding ...scenes (gasp scandalous). But getting to that point takes literally hours and hours of grind. That's really all the game offers as payout, but I can get that in 10 minutes on other games with better gameplay and don't cost $25.

The standard gameplay loop doesn't serve to engage the player, but rather to bore them, and that wouldn't be worth playing even if it were free.

Score: 1.5 / 5

I greatly enjoyed my time with Love Esquire. It's a great addition to my list of hidden gem games.

Pros:
+Surprising amount of content. The game has 5 girls total, each with tons and tons of dialogue, character arcs, and special event scenes.

+Great writing. Stellar worldbuilding. Each girl also has a surprising amount of depth, with believable feelings, motivations, and backstories. Their arcs also come with their fair share of twists and turns, and I became really invested in these girls' stories and wanted to see what would happen to them, and that's all I could ask for from a dating sim/visual novel.

+Fully voiced. Almost every single line of dialogue is voiced. For an indie game, that's actually really impressive. The voicework is no slouch, either; it's really good, and made me care about the characters that much more - especially the Squire himself, who, while suffering from no-eyes hentai protagonist syndrome, actually has his own voice acting. His voice actor is clearly having a blast too. He really elevates the Squire from being a self-insert protagonist into an actual character with a defined personality.

+Fun gameplay. While some may not find the gameplay of Love Esquire engaging, I did. Whenever I play a game, I want to feel like I'm working towards something. Love Esquire's gameplay loop is all about that. All of the stat training goes towards preparing you for the combat minigame, which, while it starts off easy, actually requires you to strategize and minmax your stats a but towards the final levels. All of the dating sim stuff leads you to the payoff that is the girls' stories. Overall, there's just always something to look forward to while I played, and I really liked that about this game.
+Clean, colorful artwork. All the named characters look nice and are well-designed. The generic villagers, however, suffer from no-face syndrome, but this is more of a nitpick than a con because who cares about the generic villagers lol

Cons:
-Inconsistent audio mixing. Some voice lines are suddenly really quiet compared to the others. Dunno if this is a bug with the game's sound engine or if it's an audio mixing thing. Fortunately, this was rare enough that it did not impact my enjoyment, but when it happened, it was really noticeable.

-No full frontal nudity, but ♥♥♥♥ if we don't come pretty close. Stop blueballing me and show me those tiddies YangYang Mobile.

Final Verdict: 9/10
TLDR: A hidden gem if you're looking for a lighthearted dating sim with light RPG elements that has compelling characters and a believable world.

10/10 would date my sister again