With all the visual novels available on Steam, in order to stick out sometimes one has to have the most confusing art and premise. Creature Romances: Kokonoe Kokoro fits that bill perfectly. "What the hell is this?" you may ask, as you stare at the lovely art of a literal grasshopper girl. Well! It's exactly what it says on the tin! And no! It actually doesn't factor into the plot, ever.

So what could a story about a grasshopper-girl-next-door-best-friend have to offer? Surprisingly, very, very little.

The plot is the most basic, bland, and forgettable story one could imagine for this scenario. The protagonist (whose name I already forgot because he was that forgettable) is friends with Kokoro, the eponymous character. They've known each other since they were kids. She wants to go to Tokyo University after high school, and the protagonist has no idea what he wants to do. He decides he also wants to go to the same school as her, but the school is prestigious and he has the worst grades. He's constantly described as being really bad at math that I just chose to assume he couldn't even do basic algebra just so I could give myself some amusement, because the story itself wasn't amusing to read in the slightest. There is one choice in the game, but it's obvious which is the correct choice, so it essentially doesn't even matter in a plot that's already really streamlined.

None of the characters have any development or unique trait that would get me invested in them, and the romance between the protagonist and Kokoro follows the typical anime drama format that it just ended up feeling shoehorned in. There are other characters, who are also monsters, and even the protagonist's little sister is a batgirl, yet the protagonist himself is human, and this is frustratingly never explained. Is he the monster? Or is this all part of a fever-fueled dream? Find out...never!

The art is passable, but if it weren't for the art you couldn't even tell the story was about monsters in general. The descriptions never make any direct mentions to monster characteristics, and so if the art were replaced with human characters the story would have progressed the same way. The music is generic and doesn't loop, with the track ending jarringly before starting up again. The UI itself is also godawful, with no coherent design whatsoever. While not much saving would be done with this VN, the fact that the UI looks like it was thrown together in 30 seconds drags down a game that's already of poor quality.

This game is not worth the $3 or the time it takes to beat it (which is literally under 1 hr). Don't be lured in by the premise and go for better VNs on Steam.

With all the visual novels available on Steam, in order to stick out sometimes one has to have the most confusing art and premise. Creature Romances: Kokonoe Kokoro fits that bill perfectly. "What the hell is this?" you may ask, as you stare at the lovely art of a literal grasshopper girl. Well! It's exactly what it says on the tin! And no! It actually doesn't factor into the plot, [i][b]ever[/b][/i]. So what could a story about a grasshopper-girl-next-door-best-friend have to offer? Surprisingly, very, very little. The plot is the most basic, bland, and forgettable story one could imagine for this scenario. The protagonist (whose name I already forgot because he was [i]that forgettable[/i]) is friends with Kokoro, the eponymous character. They've known each other since they were kids. She wants to go to Tokyo University after high school, and the protagonist has no idea what he wants to do. He decides he also wants to go to the same school as her, but the school is prestigious and he has the worst grades. He's constantly described as being really bad at math that I just chose to assume he couldn't even do basic algebra just so I could give myself some amusement, because the story itself wasn't amusing to read in the slightest. There is one choice in the game, but it's obvious which is the correct choice, so it essentially doesn't even matter in a plot that's already really streamlined. None of the characters have any development or unique trait that would get me invested in them, and the romance between the protagonist and Kokoro follows the typical anime drama format that it just ended up feeling shoehorned in. There are other characters, who are also monsters, and even the protagonist's little sister is a batgirl, yet the protagonist himself is human, and this is frustratingly never explained. Is he the monster? Or is this all part of a fever-fueled dream? Find out...never! The art is passable, but if it weren't for the art you couldn't even tell the story was about monsters in general. The descriptions never make any direct mentions to monster characteristics, and so if the art were replaced with human characters the story would have progressed the same way. The music is generic and doesn't loop, with the track ending jarringly before starting up again. The UI itself is also godawful, with no coherent design whatsoever. While not much saving would be done with this VN, the fact that the UI looks like it was thrown together in 30 seconds drags down a game that's already of poor quality. This game is not worth the $3 or the time it takes to beat it (which is literally under 1 hr). Don't be lured in by the premise and go for better VNs on Steam.