Welcome back to Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu! Today we welcome back Eleanor, who has graciously offered to cover a new Yuri Visual Novel. You all know the rules – please give her a warm welcome and take it away, Eleanor, you have the mic. ^_^

It’s nice to be back. This time I’m reviewing Perfect Gold, a Yuri visual novel from Filipino developers Yangyang Mobile. Quite the contrast from my last Okazu review, which took me all the way to London to review the British Museum manga exhibition. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @st_owly. I mostly post about anime and manga, but also some silly stuff too, especially on Twitter.

“In this short, coming-of-age yuri visual novel, play as Marion LaRue and Audrey Clary as they explore the magical city of Castlecoast and get a second chance at love and friendship.” – Description of the game on Steam.

I don’t remember exactly how I ended up backing the Perfect Gold Kickstarter, I probably saw it, thought “that looks cute” and backed it. It’s also really nice to have a visual novel that isn’t 18+, and is instead just completely adorable. Now that it’s been released, I’m very glad I did support it, and I’m going to keep an eye on the developer to see what they do next.

The gameplay alternates between the points of view of the two main characters, Audrey LaRue, an enthusiastic country girl who’s come to the big city of Castlecoast to study at the prestigious LeFay Academy, a school of magic and alchemy. Marion’s rival/love interest is Audrey Clary, aka “Princess”, a girl from a noble family who’s expected to be top of the class, follow her parents into the alchemy business, and to marry a suitable boy her parents have picked out once she’s graduated from the Academy. That is, until Marion comes along and changes all of that.

The game is set in a medieval Europe-ish inspired world with alchemy and magic, but also has some modern concepts like magazines and photography. Background art of the various areas is neatly done, the music is Celtic folk inspired and perfectly pleasant to listen to. The characters are very nicely designed and their facial expressions are lively and interesting, particularly Marion’s. I especially enjoyed her surprised/embarrassed face. The voice acting is polished and each character is distinct. My only (very minor) gripe, being British myself, is Audrey’s posh British accent isn’t quite right, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the game too much.

Playing through the game, I found the story in the first half a bit slow, but towards the end I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. The story utilises a lot of flashbacks to show how the relationship between Audrey and Marion evolved to what it is in the present, and the way the characters react to certain situations certainly seems believable for teenagers who aren’t quite sure how love works yet. Audrey’s inner conflict between what’s expected of her by her family and what she wants to do is especially well done and the highlight of the game for me.

The other thing I really liked about the game is that LGBT+ people and same sex relationships seem completely normal to most people (apart from the rich alchemist families). One of the professors at the academy uses they/them pronouns, and it isn’t commented on at all by anyone, other people just use “them” perfectly naturally to talk about the character. Another minor character calls Marion and Audrey a cute couple with no judgement attached.

For an evening’s escapism and something cute to make you squee, it’s worth getting. It’s currently £5.79 on Steam ($7.19 through June 14th, $7.99 normally) for just the game, or you can get a deluxe bundle pack with the soundtrack and a digital art book for £14.79. ($19.69 on sale, $23.99 normally.)

Ratings:

Art – 8. Nothing revolutionary but perfectly pleasant and well put together with nicely styled character designs.
Story – 7. Took a while to get going, but a very cute first love story once it did.
Characters – 9. The characters were my favourite part of this game. Marion and Audrey were realistic awkward teenagers, and having been an awkward closeted teenager myself once upon a time I found them very relatable. The other minor/side characters were well written and helped the story flow along nicely too.
Service (level of salaciousness) 2. Marion’s big sister Simone makes an appearance towards the end, and she gave me a lot of “oooh tall pretty goddess lady” vibes, but there’s not even any cleavage anywhere and the most you see on screen is a kiss between Marion and Audrey. I would have no problems whatsoever letting a young teenager play this.
Yuri/LGBT+ – 9. Major points for casual non binary inclusion and homophobia not really being a thing in this world.

Overall – 8. A cute way to spend an evening.

Erica here: Thank you very much Eleanor, for the lovely review. How excellent that the game is on sale right, so people can  enjoy it even more. Happy Yuri VNing  for Pride month.^_^