Where do I even start? Love Spell: Written in the Stars is such a lovely otome game with a magical touch and I couldn't stop playing until I finished all routes. I always loved the fairytale theme and, therefore, I knew right away that this game will be right up my ally ever since I saw the Kickstarter page back then. The premise itself already sounds intriguing: A romance game where the heroine can cast her love spell on any guy she wants to date. Although the spell might not last forever, I would still kill for having such kind of ability. After all, one can always dream, right?


Love Spell: Written in the Stars opens with introducing the heroine who is unfortunate in many ways and has a lot of troubles. One day, however, something lucky happens to her for once when she saves an old lady who turns out to be a witch. As she is grateful to the heroine, she awards her with a book. However, it's not a regular book as it's, in fact, magical and can cast a love spell on anyone whose name the heroine writes inside. Anyway, before reading the manual of the magical book, and knowing its purpose, she gets drunk in a local pub and doesn't remember any happenings anymore after waking up.


So, Love Spell: Written in the Starts starts slow. There are a lot of slice-of-life events available at the beginning where the heroine slowly gets closer to her love interest. Understandably, a love story has to somehow develop at first, especially as the heroine wasn't close to most of the characters before. For every route, I had the impression that the feelings of the cast were genuine and I could easily understand the reason both of them started to fall for each other despite having a rough start.

Anyway, let's come to the next aspect: The comedy. I loved the writing style of Love Spell: Written in the Stars as it felt so refreshing. You see, the comments of the cast sometimes felt so on spot and I couldn't resist smirking throughout the comedic scenes. It was easily relatable to me because I agreed with one or another silly remark of the heroine as well. These scenes truly made the game feel so light-hearted which I appreciated as it was a joy to go through each route.


While this visual novel doesn't have a lot of story progression in the first half of the game, the second half greatly picks up its pace. It's almost as if there was a genre shift and twist and turns are getting introduced that spice up the happenings. I found this was a positive aspect as after the heroine grew close to her love interest, emotional scenes with misunderstandings, action, and, most importantly, drama start to take place. That being said, I found the plot twists were quite predictable, however, I still managed to enjoy the story and I absolutely loved that every route didn't only revolve around romance but it's still noticeably the main genre in this game.


First of all, I loved the heroine. As aforementioned, I could relate to her a lot and it's immediately noticeable that she has her own mind. It's refreshing in contrast to a lot of games where the heroine is rather quiet and rest assured: In this case, she is anything else than a passive character. Furthermore, she has her own goals and dreams she is determined to fulfill and it was easy to fall in love with her myself as I went through the troubles and struggles with her.

And that leads to my next point: Philia. You see, Philia is a penguin and a dear friend of the heroine. While they cannot stand each other in the beginning, thanks to the threats of the heroine, they slowly became closer to each other. It was noticeable when I started a new route and got very confused when they didn't like each other until I remembered that it was the same in the previous route I went through. Nonetheless, it was weird for me to see the two of them not getting along anymore, but that only means that the development well-done.


My answer would be yes and no. Overall, each route introduces a new story and each of them follows different events. While each love interest is entirely different from each other, there are still events that appear throughout the game again and again. Examples of that are the very first meeting of Philia and the heroine, the introductions of the love spell, and the happenings regarding it. I also felt like each route followed the same concept of introducing a villain and then defeating them which made the happenings less entertaining for me once I figured out the pattern. Furthermore, the same puns get used over and over again so I didn't find them funny anymore after playing through all the routes.


After the prologue, the player can select which guy's story they want to pursue. There are four routes and a secret route available in total. Whilst choices are implemented in the game, they have no impact on the plot except for the very last one which determines whether the player will receive the bad or happy end. However, it's very obvious which choice will lead to the desired end.


Graphic-wise, Love Spell: Written in the Stars is stunning. However, there are only four CGs in total available for each guy with one of them being the final screen. In short: I found there were way too few CGs available. Fortunately, none of the CGs are missable and it's possible to look at them in the gallery after unlocking each of them. Other than that, the game occasionally works with animations such as rain pouring or sakura blossoms falling or sound effects that enhanced the immersion although this visual novel sadly doesn't contain any voice-acting.

• First of all, there is no manual save available. While each chapter doesn't last very long, and the player can visit each unlocked chapter in the menu, it was still inconvenient for me that I wasn't able to save in the middle of the game.
  
  
• There is a loading screen coming up when opening the text log and, in addition to that, the game only shows the beginning of the scene's text. So that means I had to scroll all the way down each time I missed a sentence which turned out to be such a hassle that I skipped it entirely.
  
  
• The game doesn't remember the player's settings so each time launching the game I had to go into the options again to put the game on fullscreen. This greatly annoyed me, given that alt + enter didn't work and this issue sadly affected all settings.
  
  
• The secret route is incomplete as of now and there is only a prologue of it available.
  
  
• There are a few plotholes. Some things just never get explained such as why the spell suddenly didn't work the way it should, although that luckily doesn't apply to all routes. Furthermore, I wished the story of the witch was more fleshed out as the game tells its reader nothing about her story.

Love Spell: Written in the Stars is such a lovely visual novel that managed to entertain me through and through with its writing. However, there are sadly a few issues available in this game, although the technical ones were more significant for me and affected my immersion. Other than this, I had a great time with this visual novel which managed to make me chuckle more than once. That being said, Love Spell: Written in the Stars is a must-play for those who enjoy romancing guys, fueled with magic.

Where do I even start? Love Spell: Written in the Stars is such a lovely otome game with a magical touch and I couldn't stop playing until I finished all routes. I always loved the fairytale theme and, therefore, I knew right away that this game will be right up my ally ever since I saw the Kickstarter page back then. The premise itself already sounds intriguing: A romance game where the heroine can cast her love spell on any guy she wants to date. Although the spell might not last forever, I would still kill for having such kind of ability. After all, one can always dream, right? [h2]Fall in Love With Me.. Now![/h2] Love Spell: Written in the Stars opens with introducing the heroine who is unfortunate in many ways and has a lot of troubles. One day, however, something lucky happens to her for once when she saves an old lady who turns out to be a witch. As she is grateful to the heroine, she awards her with a book. However, it's not a regular book as it's, in fact, magical and can cast a love spell on anyone whose name the heroine writes inside. Anyway, before reading the manual of the magical book, and knowing its purpose, she gets drunk in a local pub and doesn't remember any happenings anymore after waking up. [h2]Slice-of-Life Fueled With Comedy[/h2] So, Love Spell: Written in the Starts starts slow. There are a lot of slice-of-life events available at the beginning where the heroine slowly gets closer to her love interest. Understandably, a love story has to somehow develop at first, especially as the heroine wasn't close to most of the characters before. For every route, I had the impression that the feelings of the cast were genuine and I could easily understand the reason both of them started to fall for each other despite having a rough start. Anyway, let's come to the next aspect: The comedy. I loved the writing style of Love Spell: Written in the Stars as it felt so refreshing. You see, the comments of the cast sometimes felt so on spot and I couldn't resist smirking throughout the comedic scenes. It was easily relatable to me because I agreed with one or another silly remark of the heroine as well. These scenes truly made the game feel so light-hearted which I appreciated as it was a joy to go through each route. [h2]However, be ready for some Drama![/h2] While this visual novel doesn't have a lot of story progression in the first half of the game, the second half greatly picks up its pace. It's almost as if there was a genre shift and twist and turns are getting introduced that spice up the happenings. I found this was a positive aspect as after the heroine grew close to her love interest, emotional scenes with misunderstandings, action, and, most importantly, drama start to take place. That being said, I found the plot twists were quite predictable, however, I still managed to enjoy the story and I absolutely loved that every route didn't only revolve around romance but it's still noticeably the main genre in this game. [h2]The Heroine, Philia the "Pen"-guin… And Sismance?[/h2] First of all, I loved the heroine. As aforementioned, I could relate to her a lot and it's immediately noticeable that she has her own mind. It's refreshing in contrast to a lot of games where the heroine is rather quiet and rest assured: In this case, she is anything else than a passive character. Furthermore, she has her own goals and dreams she is determined to fulfill and it was easy to fall in love with her myself as I went through the troubles and struggles with her. And that leads to my next point: Philia. You see, Philia is a penguin and a dear friend of the heroine. While they cannot stand each other in the beginning, thanks to the threats of the heroine, they slowly became closer to each other. It was noticeable when I started a new route and got very confused when they didn't like each other until I remembered that it was the same in the previous route I went through. Nonetheless, it was weird for me to see the two of them not getting along anymore, but that only means that the development well-done. [h2]Are the Routes Repetitive?[/h2] My answer would be yes and no. Overall, each route introduces a new story and each of them follows different events. While each love interest is entirely different from each other, there are still events that appear throughout the game again and again. Examples of that are the very first meeting of Philia and the heroine, the introductions of the love spell, and the happenings regarding it. I also felt like each route followed the same concept of introducing a villain and then defeating them which made the happenings less entertaining for me once I figured out the pattern. Furthermore, the same puns get used over and over again so I didn't find them funny anymore after playing through all the routes. [h2]Choices and their Impact[/h2] After the prologue, the player can select which guy's story they want to pursue. There are four routes and a secret route available in total. Whilst choices are implemented in the game, they have no impact on the plot except for the very last one which determines whether the player will receive the bad or happy end. However, it's very obvious which choice will lead to the desired end. [h2]Graphics and the Immersion[/h2] Graphic-wise, Love Spell: Written in the Stars is stunning. However, there are only four CGs in total available for each guy with one of them being the final screen. In short: I found there were way too few CGs available. Fortunately, none of the CGs are missable and it's possible to look at them in the gallery after unlocking each of them. Other than that, the game occasionally works with animations such as rain pouring or sakura blossoms falling or sound effects that enhanced the immersion although this visual novel sadly doesn't contain any voice-acting. [h2]So, now to my Complaints..[/h2] [list] [*]First of all, there is no manual save available. While each chapter doesn't last very long, and the player can visit each unlocked chapter in the menu, it was still inconvenient for me that I wasn't able to save in the middle of the game. [*]There is a loading screen coming up when opening the text log and, in addition to that, the game only shows the beginning of the scene's text. So that means I had to scroll all the way down each time I missed a sentence which turned out to be such a hassle that I skipped it entirely. [*]The game doesn't remember the player's settings so each time launching the game I had to go into the options again to put the game on fullscreen. This greatly annoyed me, given that alt + enter didn't work and this issue sadly affected all settings. [*]The secret route is incomplete as of now and there is only a prologue of it available. [*]There are a few plotholes. Some things just never get explained such as why the spell suddenly didn't work the way it should, although that luckily doesn't apply to all routes. Furthermore, I wished the story of the witch was more fleshed out as the game tells its reader nothing about her story. [/list] [h2]So, what do we have in the End?[/h2] Love Spell: Written in the Stars is such a lovely visual novel that managed to entertain me through and through with its writing. However, there are sadly a few issues available in this game, although the technical ones were more significant for me and affected my immersion. Other than this, I had a great time with this visual novel which managed to make me chuckle more than once. That being said, Love Spell: Written in the Stars is a must-play for those who enjoy romancing guys, fueled with magic. [code]𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐲 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34470115/]𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞[/url] 𝐚𝐧𝐝 [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/5413792/]𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬[/url] 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬!