Ren'ai, Karichaimashita (恋愛、借りちゃいました) Review

Back when I was playing Renai Kari, Shichaimashita (恋愛、借りちゃいました) last year, one question kept nagging at me:

“Why doesn’t this game have a harem route?”

I mean, why does the protagonist have to pick just one heroine when there are two of them throwing themselves at him? Take all the money, man. “The more the merrier” — Lau have been singing that for years, why does nobody get it?

But hey, Asa Project is a HOOK subsidiary, so of course they inherited HOOK’s fine tradition: pump out a mini fandisk within a few months of release and squeeze out whatever cash they can.

After the first fandisk starring the teacher, the second one with both heroines finally showed up…

The content here is pretty thin, which is about what you’d expect. All you do is pick one of the two heroines from the original game and continue her story.

And the continuation is really just an extension of the original routes, including the catfighting between Hazumi and Emi. Personally I still recommend the “pick the blonde, watch the redhead tear into her” playthrough — it’s more entertaining, since the redhead’s combat power massively outclasses the blonde’s.

Especially that stalker vibe of hers, always waiting for the protagonist to break up, and the moment things look bad, she’s right there asking if he wants to cheat.

Sometimes I think the “romance” in this game doesn’t even matter — it’s the pure comedic effect that pulls you in.

But that’s not the point. The game also adds a threesome route.

This 3P route picks up right at the moment the protagonist makes his choice in the original. Faced with confessions from both heroines, he does the thing most men dream about but never dare:

After that it gets very blunt — the three of them do all sorts of things together, and leave you with a loaded ending.

Sometimes you shouldn’t chase realism in a visual novel, because it was never realistic to begin with. Better to take it one step further in the fantasy world — faced with the girls you love most, don’t make the dumb choice, just boldly say the line that only Miss Wong deserves to say:

Love you, love her too.