• Price: $19.99 USD (currently on sale for $15.99 until September 16th)
• Developer: Soft Colors
• Publisher: Ratalaika Games
• Release Date: August 26, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Ratalaika Games on behalf of Soft Colors. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

My first exposure to Aquadine was the beautiful artwork featured in the game’s screenshots. I especially loved the underwater CG on the eShop page. Visual novels with vibrant graphics tend to draw my attention, and Aquadine certainly fulfills those criteria. The game is a kinetic visual novel set in the city of Aquadine, where legend has it that merfolk lived in an underwater kingdom there in the past. Eventually, so many of them “pulled an Ariel” and wanted to go “up where they walk” that no one remained in the kingdom.

Now, the plot has you follow the story of a boy named Robin, who explains the myths surrounding Aquadine’s development for his job as a gondolier. His mother was an extremely popular gondolier herself, but she’s been hospitalized for the past few years, and now Robin is working to help pay off her medical bills. But Robin performs his job in disguise under a different name (Ciel) for personal reasons. Even his classmates don’t seem to know about his dual identities – perhaps due to his utilization of the Clark Kent effect by wearing glasses as Robin. As Ciel, he’s pretty popular – especially because he often sings on the canals. (The game is partially voiced, and they even play the song he’s singing in those scenes, which was a nice touch.)

The story starts off with the common route, and once you’ve finished that part you decide on the character whose story you’d like to discover first. This is the only decision you make in the game, as there are no dialogue options to choose from. I really appreciated how they made it so that you don’t have to start from the common route again once you complete a character’s story. Instead, they allow you to start another route directly from the character selection screen.

There are four character routes to complete in the game, but that doesn’t mean that they exclude the other three characters or even minor characters from each storyline. For the most part, I really liked the characters living in Aquadine; their antics and interactions frequently made me laugh. The writer(s) weren’t afraid to poke fun at the genre, with characters joking about things like a “mandatory beach episode.”

Although Robin eventually opens up to his classmates and even has a good time with them, that doesn’t mean everything goes…swimmingly…for him. He worries about his mother’s illness and the finances of the family’s tour business. His dual life as Robin and Ciel often makes things difficult for him. But as you get to know the other characters, you’ll find that he’s not alone in having secrets.

The storylines switch between scenes at Robin’s school and his work life as Ciel. His school environment was actually one of my favorite locations in the game, as it has an aquarium theme. (I know I would have loved being a student at this school.) Anya, Elisabeth, Diana, and Cameron are the four classmates whose routes you’ll experience, and Robin will interact with them as himself and as Ciel.

There were several characters that I particularly enjoyed in Aquadine. Robin’s grandfather is oddly endearing with his love of cartoons and frequent warnings about sirens luring Robin to his death. Anya was probably my favorite character due to our mew-tual mutual appreciation of art and cats. Her “chonky” kitty friend named Banjo was an adorable spitfire. And Elisabeth had my second favorite route – I loved her frequent misuse/misunderstanding of phrases, as well as her snarky butler, Alfred.

Some routes did seem to have more substance than others. Cameron and Diana’s routes felt a bit more rushed to me in terms of their storylines and their friendship or relationship with Robin. I liked the routes with more mermaid-related content better. And there aren’t just mermaids mentioned – there are also different kinds of spirits and other more “supernatural” elements involved with the lore of Aquadine. I liked the “slice of life” scenes, but the mermaid lore was so interesting to me that I would have preferred a larger percentage of it in the story.

My enjoyment levels for each route may have varied, but they all had several good aspects in common. For one, Robin seems to mainly interact with female classmates, but the writer(s) did not fall victim to the perverted teenage boy trope with him. Robin respects women, and he and Cameron shut down any gross behavior from male classmates. He also shows compassion for his classmates and friends when they express their insecurities and fears – whether they do so verbally or not.

I felt that overall, the quality of the writing was pretty good – I just wanted a bit more of it. Initially, when you complete a route, it will seem like it cuts off before some plot lines are properly concluded. But once I finished all four routes, I went to the main menu and clicked on “Memories,” which took me to a concluding arc with Anya. I didn’t love the way that one of the storylines ended in this conclusion, and thought it also would have been nice to have different concluding arcs for each of the four routes. There were a few side characters that I wanted to know more about, such as “Mute” and the gatekeeper (I had some suspicions regarding the gatekeeper that were never answered). However, I did enjoy learning what I did about some of the main characters.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? Aquadine is a beautiful kinetic visual novel with some fun and interesting characters. The pacing could be a little off sometimes, with some relationships feeling like they went to the “I love you” phase too quickly. I wanted more closure for a few storylines as well. But I loved a lot of the ideas here. They made good design choices from a convenience standpoint by allowing us to skip the common route for additional playthroughs. The mermaid theme was a neat concept that I liked enough to want more of it, and the character designs and backgrounds were well done. I think it can be difficult to write teenage characters well, and they succeeded in creating a cast that was more amusing than annoying. I had a good time making Aquadine “part of my world” 🎶 while I played it. 8/10