Elven Relations Review

Elven Relations
Publisher: Toothy Cat
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Genre: Visual Novel, Dating Simulation, Fantasy
Voiced: None, a song scene
Useful Websites: Elven Relations Website, Lemmasoft Forums Game Page

Sometimes, having the best relations, whether with an entire culture or one special girl, isn't so easy...

Plot 2/5:
    Plot wise, there isn’t a whole lot to it. A group of humans journeys to an elven kingdom to restore long-forgotten relations between the two cultures. After all, with bandits and monsters and only three days to woo the girl of your choice, what can go wrong?
    Then again, with guys like this on your team...

Dating-Sim Aspect 3/5:
    Dating in the game is typical, and there are only three girls, but each path has several nice CGs and good character backgrounds on it. It’s nothing too shocking, but each does have a few minor twists many players likely wouldn’t expect.

Bachelorettes:

Asilana is a young elven maiden, and the chosen ambassador to the human nation our hero comes from. She is sweet and kind, and an excellent dancer. However, this young elf girl is oddly hesitant to discuss her family...

Tohko, a childhood friend of the hero, is a young fire mage who has a temper to match her affinity. She has a fierce temper, complete with using sparks to prove her point, but she has a secret soft side, and her temper is actually quite justified.

Yurika is your commanding officer, a proud woman with a stern attitude. Above all she dislikes people usurping her command, but she secretly does like a bit of company instead of subordinates.






Graphics/Artwork 2/5:
    The art isn’t anything special, but it’s not bad, especially for a free game. If this were to be sold I would say it would definitely need improvement, but it is fine, in fact, a bit above what most free games artwork is. It’s charming and fitting, and the CGs themselves are quite nice. The characters only have rather basic expressions, sadly.
    One nice thing is the incredible number of CGs, and many of them are quite adorable. They are cute and there certainly is no lack of them, as they are scattered throughout the game.

The girls do seem to have a slight corset affiliation though...

Voice Acting 3/5:
    There really isn’t any voice acting, but you can hear a few musical songs sung during it. It’s nothing special; not anything I wouldn’t go buy a CD of it, but considering the character claims how she isn’t the best singer, I can’t complain. Quite the contrary; it’s nice to hear a character who says she sin’t the best singer and actually sounds fitting, instead of a secret diva.

Music 3.5/5:
    The music in the game is classical, but great. I stopped a few times to just let the music play, and each area gets its own nice little theme. The main theme on the introduction screen is especially nice.

Text 4/5:
    The dialogue is very eloquent. Quite nice and charming, and it really carries the story well. There aren’t any glaring errors, aside from a couple apostrophes here and there. Although some of the spellings seem a bit uncommon (realise versus realize) etc.

Controls/Gameplay 4/5:
    Overall it plays like a classic visual novel made with Ren’Py, but it does have a nice little twist: the combat system. The player can choose if they wish for an RPG style or narrative battle modes.
    The RPG battle system is turn based, with recharge bars affecting how often one can attack, in a similar style to Final Fantasy. The animations aren’t anything special, but serve the purpose. Saving frequently is recommended, since the battles aren’t exactly the easiest thing.
    One very nice addition is that battles can raise a girl’s affection as well!

Overall:
    The game certainly holds a nice promise, and it definitely is worth it’s upcoming sequel, Mermaid Liaisons. It may be quite simple, but it’s also very heartwarming and charming for a nice, rather quick game.