Five Dates (Steam version)

My expectations compared to my experience with this game weren’t just wrong, they were backwards. I had expected to groan through the hackneyed attempts at humor and characterization while appreciating the increasingly dated references towards life during lockdown, but “Five Dates” excels at realizing its chipper cast and begrudges having to mention the c-word (you know, COVID). It’s pure lightweight fluff in terms of visual novels, but everyone is likable, it doesn’t go on too long, and the editing between video clips would have been seamless were it not for inconsistent lighting issues. Hope “Ten Dates” is twice as good!

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