As stated in the review I wrote for My Next Life As A Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance-. I am not the biggest fan of the isekai genre in anime, though some have premises I enjoy. One of those is an anime called Konosuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World. When I heard that there was a visual novel game on the horizon, I was excited to reach out and see more of these lovely characters!
Game Name: KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire!
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PS4, Nintendo Switch
Developer(s): MAGES. Inc
Publisher(s): PQube
Release Date: Feb 7th, 2024
Price: $49.99
Konosuba – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love for These Clothes of Desire! has an interesting premise. You begin the game with Kazuma and his party, Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin, finding a slate that is said to have a terrible curse on it. They are taught to use this slate to create clothing, though the curse will then latch on to one of your party members. It seems the curse will change the personality of the individual to be the exact opposite of how they truly are. The only way to rid the person of their curse is to fulfill their newfound desires in mind and body. Meaning both a new outfit and letting them give in to the new personality they have acquired.
The Good
Konosuba is a visual novel game that has a gameplay loop that isn’t just picking choices. You start the game loop doing three-day intervals of working job shifts for money or doing guild requests for materials. Each of the four main party members can be assigned to a task. If you do guild requests though, every member is required. You need these materials to create the outfits required to break the curse as well as to do outfits for site content. Each extra outfit made gives you a brand new CG image to add to the gallery with one of the characters of Konosuba wearing the new outfit.
The best part of Konosuba is being in the world of the series. Each character acts exactly as they would in the anime, and with the voice acting as good as it is, you are playing the anime. The writing of the dialogue is pretty solid amidst the typos. It is also an enjoyable experience watching the curse affect these characters and change their personalities. Watching Darkness go from wanting to get hit to wanting to hit others was a much more entertaining change than I was initially expecting.
The artwork of the CG content is fantastic. Not only is the art unique even with these same characters in just different outfits, but the posing and the framing of the art are extremely dynamic. They easily could have made the artwork just the same pose in different outfits, making it feel like a waste to get outfits, but they didn’t, and that is a great decision, in my opinion.
The Bad
When you get the side quests to make new outfits, certain materials can only be bought in Wiz’s shop. That is personally fine, however after every chapter new things get added to the shop, and other things get dropped. If you are looking forward to getting a limited amount of material from the shop, make sure you buy it in the chapter it gets added to the shop. There were times a chapter would move on, and the material I was waiting to buy would get dropped.
Character scenes, outfit scenes, and comedy scenes are generally well-written and acted. Story scenes, however, seem to be a vehicle to make the other scenes happen. This story isn’t a strong one when you look at it from a plot standpoint. I mean, Konosuba isn’t generally story-driven; it is most interesting because of the characters and how they interact with each other. This game took that a little too much to heart. Things happen in the story, and I just have to scratch my head on why they happen that way, and even when we get answers, it doesn’t answer the questions I had.
This game is aimed at fans of the series. It is not a good jumping-in spot to the world of Konosuba. They don’t do anything really to explain the world or the reasons why people follow Kazuma. We get some hints as to past events of the anime but no real explanations or glossary that helps smooth new enjoyers into this world. If you want a better jumping-in spot, look at the mobile game Konosuba: Fantastic Days or the anime itself.
The Verdict
Konosuba – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love for These Clothes of Desire! is a great game for fans, but not a great game if you aren’t familiar with the series. You can get the personalities of the characters right out of the gate, but the story and the world don’t get a good explanation. It is cool to have a gameplay loop that isn’t just consistently changing choices to see the consequences, but the novel visual elements are the better aspects of the game. The artwork, voice acting, and the moments of comedy are great, even if the vehicle of the story doesn’t get us there in a sensical manner.
Konosuba – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love for these Clothes of Desire! will release February 7th, 2024 on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Review Disclosure Statement: KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! was provided to us by PQube for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Konosuba – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love for these Clothes of Desire! is a fantastic experience if you are a fan of the anime and the world, but not one to play for newcomers to the series.
Pros
- Characters and voice acting are terrific.
- A visual novel that includes a gameplay loop.
- Great artwork and dynamic poses.
Cons
- Story is not the best vehicle for the game’s systems.
- No explanation of the world or the premise of who the characters are or why we should care about them or Kazuma.
- Time-gated shop materials.
