Note: A kind friend gifted me a digital copy of this game. ^^

Romeo Must Live is a comedic visual novel developed and published by Little Black Book Entertainment. It is very loosely based on Shakespeare's famous Romeo and Juliet, and you take on the role of Romeo Montague, who has fallen in love with Juliet Capulet and wishes to marry her. Rather than go through the traditional route of secretly getting married and so forth, Romeo and Juliet want to get married with the blessings from both their houses and to do so peacefully. Thus, Juliet suggests that Romeo enlists the help of General Negroni, a retired mercenary who is known for being the smartest man in Verona and can help people out with their problems. That's the basic story premise, so I'll stop my synopsis here to avoid spoilers. XD

In regards to the gameplay, several choices are presented as you progress through the story. Depending on the choices made, you'll get one of ten endings, which are tied to Steam achievements. (There's one additional Steam achievement for starting the game.) At the time of this review, Steam achievements won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "profile features limited". A few CGs are present as well although they can only be accessed and then viewed afterwards in the CG gallery by installing the 18+ patch. In addition, a few tracks are present but no voice acting.

Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my thoughts. This visual novel caught my interest after a friend gifted me a copy and I had a chance to read the store page for it, despite that by now, there have been many unique takes on Romeo and Juliet. However, it was only recently that I got around to playing it, as I felt like playing a game on the shorter side. With that said, I'll first talk about the story. Even though it's based on Romeo and Juliet, it barely has anything to do with the original play. Actually, all you'd need to do is change the characters' names and maybe the names of places, and you'd have a passable story. Although I liked the idea, the comedy felt like it was bordering too much on the slapstick side at times. Negroni's plan to help Romeo win over Juliet's father was convoluted, but to the credit of the writer(s), this is directly stated by one of the characters at some point. Also, I played the story with the 18+ patch (despite that I didn't want to, but I'll give more details later), and the sex scenes felt fan servicey and lackluster. They really aren't necessary to progress the story. In addition, even though it's Romeo's goal to marry Juliet, the story steers things in a direction such that Romeo would be better off marrying one of the women he meets along the way. Of course, the best ending is to have Romeo and Juliet get married, but it does take quite a bit of work to get there.

As for the gameplay, this is where I have problems. Although I did obtain all of the Steam achievements, it isn't actually possible to do so unless you install the 18+ patch. Otherwise, the game softlocks, particularly when you're going down the happy ending with Romeo and Juliet. This annoyed me quite a bit since if a game has the option of an adult DLC/patch, I usually choose not to install it since I feel like it tends to lean towards the fan service side of things. Of course, I don't mind adult content, and I've certainly played and reviewed my fair share of games with them, but I don't like it if you're not really given the choice, which is what happened here.

In regards to the writing, it's passable although nothing spectacular. Several typos, grammatical errors, etc., are present, which could definitely use an English proofreader to fix. However, the pacing felt fine, and events never felt dragged out.

Regarding the art, I liked how well drawn the sprites and backgrounds are. The colors feel soft, and you really feel like you're in 16th century Verona, Italy. I just wish that there had been more CGs, especially since the ones that are present are in regards to sex scenes that Romeo has with various women. With the music, I noticed that only a few tracks are present. However, they feel appropriate for the story's setting. As I mentioned earlier, there's no voice acting, but it isn't unusual for a lot of indie VNs not to have them.

Overall, would I recommend Romeo Must Live? This is one of those times that I really can't. As much as I wanted to like the story and give it a chance, the one thing that dragged things down for me was the 18+ patch since I needed to install it in order to get all of the achievements. (Yes, the patch is free, but as I said earlier, I'd rather choose not to view 18+ content if the option is given, generally.) Also, since the game took me around 2.5 hours to complete, I can't recommend it at the current asking price. If you choose to purchase this game, definitely hold off for a good sale.

For more detailed, fully complete, high quality reviews like this, please follow The Introverted Gamer, prioritizing heart and soul always. ^^

[b]Note:[/b] A kind friend gifted me a digital copy of this game. ^^ [i]Romeo Must Live[/i] is a comedic visual novel developed and published by Little Black Book Entertainment. It is very loosely based on Shakespeare's famous [i]Romeo and Juliet[/i], and you take on the role of Romeo Montague, who has fallen in love with Juliet Capulet and wishes to marry her. Rather than go through the traditional route of secretly getting married and so forth, Romeo and Juliet want to get married with the blessings from both their houses and to do so peacefully. Thus, Juliet suggests that Romeo enlists the help of General Negroni, a retired mercenary who is known for being the smartest man in Verona and can help people out with their problems. That's the basic story premise, so I'll stop my synopsis here to avoid spoilers. XD In regards to the gameplay, several choices are presented as you progress through the story. Depending on the choices made, you'll get one of ten endings, which are tied to Steam achievements. (There's one additional Steam achievement for starting the game.) At the time of this review, Steam achievements won't count towards a user's global total until the game is out of "profile features limited". A few CGs are present as well although they can only be accessed and then viewed afterwards in the CG gallery by installing the 18+ patch. In addition, a few tracks are present but no voice acting. Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my thoughts. This visual novel caught my interest after a friend gifted me a copy and I had a chance to read the store page for it, despite that by now, there have been many unique takes on [i]Romeo and Juliet[/i]. However, it was only recently that I got around to playing it, as I felt like playing a game on the shorter side. With that said, I'll first talk about the story. Even though it's based on [i]Romeo and Juliet[/i], it barely has anything to do with the original play. Actually, all you'd need to do is change the characters' names and maybe the names of places, and you'd have a passable story. Although I liked the idea, the comedy felt like it was bordering too much on the slapstick side at times. Negroni's plan to help Romeo win over Juliet's father was convoluted, but to the credit of the writer(s), this is directly stated by one of the characters at some point. Also, I played the story with the 18+ patch (despite that I didn't want to, but I'll give more details later), and the sex scenes felt fan servicey and lackluster. They really aren't necessary to progress the story. In addition, even though it's Romeo's goal to marry Juliet, the story steers things in a direction such that Romeo would be better off marrying one of the women he meets along the way. Of course, the best ending is to have Romeo and Juliet get married, but it does take quite a bit of work to get there. As for the gameplay, this is where I have problems. Although I did obtain all of the Steam achievements, it isn't actually possible to do so unless you install the 18+ patch. Otherwise, the game softlocks, particularly when you're going down the happy ending with Romeo and Juliet. This annoyed me quite a bit since if a game has the option of an adult DLC/patch, I usually choose not to install it since I feel like it tends to lean towards the fan service side of things. Of course, I don't mind adult content, and I've certainly played and reviewed my fair share of games with them, but I don't like it if you're not really given the choice, which is what happened here. In regards to the writing, it's passable although nothing spectacular. Several typos, grammatical errors, etc., are present, which could definitely use an English proofreader to fix. However, the pacing felt fine, and events never felt dragged out. Regarding the art, I liked how well drawn the sprites and backgrounds are. The colors feel soft, and you really feel like you're in 16th century Verona, Italy. I just wish that there had been more CGs, especially since the ones that are present are in regards to [spoiler]sex scenes that Romeo has with various women[/spoiler]. With the music, I noticed that only a few tracks are present. However, they feel appropriate for the story's setting. As I mentioned earlier, there's no voice acting, but it isn't unusual for a lot of indie VNs not to have them. Overall, would I recommend [i]Romeo Must Live[/i]? This is one of those times that I really can't. As much as I wanted to like the story and give it a chance, the one thing that dragged things down for me was the 18+ patch since I needed to install it in order to get all of the achievements. (Yes, the patch is free, but as I said earlier, I'd rather choose not to view 18+ content if the option is given, generally.) Also, since the game took me around 2.5 hours to complete, I can't recommend it at the current asking price. If you choose to purchase this game, definitely hold off for a good sale. [quote]For more detailed, fully complete, high quality reviews like this, please follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44702020/]The Introverted Gamer[/url], prioritizing heart and soul always. ^^[/quote]