• Price: $14.99 USD (currently on sale for $11.99 until November 15th)
• Developer: Hanako Games
• Publisher: Ratalaika Games
• Release Date: October 25, 2024

A review code was kindly provided by PR Hound on behalf of Hanako Games and Ratalaika Games. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Content warning: rated T

From the developer behind Long Live The Queen and A Little Lily Princess, Cute Bite is a visual novel in which you must raise your deaged vampire mistress and help her regain her former strength. Manage her schedule to raise her stats and earn some money; there are over 20 different endings to unlock depending on your choices.

Your character initially serves a Master Vampire, receiving an extended lifespan in exchange for her service. One day, something happens that exposes the Master to sunlight, reducing him to dust. Without the vampiric connection to keep you alive, you’ll soon perish.

There is hope though – the Master has a daughter, who’s been locked in the crypt and deprived of blood. Help her unlock her adult form and powers once more so that she’ll become strong enough to establish a new blood bond and keep you alive.

And thus begins a year of growth. You get to tell your vampire (default name: Buttercup) what she’d been like before she lost her memories and powers. They give you several rounds of choices in the beginning of the game that will affect Buttercup’s stats and responses to your management.

At first you can only schedule 2 daily nightly activities for the week, but eventually you get a third slot when nights start getting longer. I liked having the additional slot while it lasted. You can decide which classes you want Buttercup to take; tutors will come to the estate at night to teach her, increasing her stats in a variety of areas.

You’ll need to pay for her tutors, but unfortunately she’ll have to work to earn money for her education, as the estate’s funds were used for repairs after the incident that killed her father. Each job has its own stat requirements and pay rates, and I like how the game displays her likelihood of success in a job based on her stats.

It’s also nice that her stats will still increase a little even if she fails a job for the day. I will say that I was sad that there weren’t any scenes depicting her employment like they did with her classes. I think that was a missed opportunity.

Besides money, Buttercup also has to have enough energy to study and work during the week. Her Temperance and Endurance stats are connected to her Mind and Body parameters, and if either go down to zero, their max value goes down and she’ll have to rest for a week. I wish we also could see a projection of how much her body and mind will decrease before making schedules.

She can feed from your character if her energy gets too low, but that reduces the amount of time you have left until the lack of blood bond kills you. 😱 To more easily restore her energy, Buttercup needs to go hunting for humans. You get several tries at feeding on a human – you might not find anyone and return home empty handed.

When you encounter your unsuspecting prey, you must choose 1 of 6 attack styles based on the combination of two of her stats. You may or may not be able to view the human’s stat values. It’s riskier to attack when you can’t see their stats. Usually, it seemed like the one with the higher value in that category would win.

A successful hunt will replenish Buttercup’s Mind and Body. (And to add insult to literal injury, you’ll also take some of their money when they’re unconscious! 😱) I did wish that we could continue hunting after the first successful hunt, as one human doesn’t always restore enough energy.

Eventually, your activities will be noticed by a dangerous adversary who is much stronger than your usual human, and they’ll start showing up everywhere you go. It might be better to regain your strength elsewhere.

I absolutely loved unlocking the ability to attend balls; as Buttercup hilariously observes, etiquette will prevent people from making a fuss if she “kisses”/bites their hand for some blood. Your success at feeding here also depends on your stats. Continuing to interact with a victim after a successful feeding increases one of her stats.

There are quite a few options for restoring Buttercup’s energy levels at the end of a week. I was a little disappointed with the shopping option. They do sell an item that restores her energy, but it’s pretty ineffective. The rest of the inventory is limited to 5 fairly pricey items that only provide a small increase for certain stats.

I’ve played a handful of Princess Maker-type games before, and those had a couple of different clothing options for your daughter/charge. Cute Bite unfortunately doesn’t include that feature. I wanted to see more items at the store, as well as the ability to give Buttercup gifts more than the one time I could give her something for a holiday.

Although you only have a year to raise her, there are still some fun holidays to celebrate, which are accompanied by some lovely CGs. You can unlock additional CGs by entering a romantic relationship with one – or more – of the tutors.

I believe all of the romantic relationships are with other women. Thankfully, Buttercup doesn’t get together with anyone until after she’s unlocked her adult form again. The relationships are a fun, albeit shallow, addition to the game; I especially liked Vasilisa, the lore teacher.

I do wish that we had at least a second year to manage so that we could have more time to interact with the other characters – romanceable or not. I think my biggest issue with Cute Bite is that it is rather “bite-sized” as far as story and character development is concerned.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it; I just wanted more scenes with Buttercup. Depending on which stats you focus on, you can at least find out more about events such as the old master’s demise.

The vampire theme is an interesting way of handling the fatigue system in this kind of game. I liked the writing and game mechanics overall. The character portraits are pretty, and the chibi versions of Buttercup working and learning are absolutely adorable. The soundtrack complemented the theme well, too.

Once you complete your first playthrough, you’ll unlock the extras section, which contains the ending CGs, special CGs, and a checklist of special tasks you can complete. There are a decent amount of endings with the relationship sub-endings, and the shorter play time allows you to experience them using less time.