Strawberry Vinegar Review

"Lovely Strawberry"

Campaign

Strawberry Vinegar is a lovely visual novel based around two girls and their love of food. The first of them is a young girl named Rie which enjoys cooking food, she is a young yet quite mature individual. The second is another young girl named Licia but she is quite different in the sense that she is a demon which has come to reap the other girl's soul. This starts things off between the two as Licia has decided not to reap Rie's soul in exchange for Rie cooking her food for one week. The story does a great job of keeping the focus directly on the relationship of these two individuals across the given week as learn about each other and interact on a constant basis throughout the day. Aside from the relationship of these two characters the food obviously is a big aspect of the game as well since everyone cooks and the two connect over the food they create and enjoy over the week. At first I questioned the vocabulary of Rie considering her age, though the story quickly developed and grew around her over the week so I learned aspects of why she was able to articulate so well. The narrative also covered many interesting topics that were hinted at well, but perceived by a young perspective since the story was directly told from Rie's perspective. The story had a great length to it fully fleshing out the story and not keeping things too long or short. It was the perfect length with multiple story routes that could branch out into a number of endings so there's some replay value if you'd like a different ending though I was more than satisfied with the ending of my particular narrative between the two.

Gameplay

The game looks beautiful with the drawn backgrounds being enchanting and realistic looking at the same time. There were so many great looking dishes of food present throughout the story which really captured the essence of what was discussed in the story and even went into extra depth in what was in the food. There were many options for editing the text reading and the pace of the game itself as you read through it. The game blended artwork and the visual text together quite well with a variety of warm colored environments that worked perfectly together. The menus were also full of additional bonus things to check out like art or information about the general story which I definitely suggest checking out after completion.

The Conclusion

Strawberry Vinegar certainly surprised me with its perfectly well done visual novel that perfectly blended great artwork with a lovely story. I definitely enjoyed the experience and was more than satisfied with the ending I received through my playthrough. There are of course many ending options available within the game depending on your choices throughout the experience. I really enjoyed the story and seeing the interactions between these two characters over the course of the week. Their relationship was really well crafted with various routes to take and lots of delicious looking food thrown into the mix. It was a great visual novel which I thoroughly enjoyed and I definitely suggest checking it out if you enjoy these types of games.

Strawberry Vinegar for PC
Review code provided by Sekai Project

Rating Overall: 9.5