Thank you Aksys Games for sending us this game to review!

7’scarlet was originally released for the PlayStation Vita in 2016 and received positive reviews. Two years later, it made its way to Steam though the porting job is messy to say the least. I’m happy to report that the newly released Switch version runs much better than the PC release. However, there’s a $20 price hike.

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I completely forgot about this game that I reviewed six years ago. In my defense, I’ve reviewed hundred of games since then so I don’t have the memory capacity to remember everything I play fully! With that said the story is still good and most of it came back to me as I replayed one of the routes (Hino).

The story is about a girl whom you get to name whose brother went missing in the mysterious town of Okunezato last year. Her childhood friend, Hino, offers to take her there to investigate on their break. Your character’s memory isn’t the best and she has blocked out some traumatic events that others are aware of. For example, she’s not sure why, but she doesn’t like strawberries though that was not always the case. Throughout the many different routes this visual novel offers you’ll learn how that came to be along with the origins of her memory fragments.

7’scarlet is an otome visual novel meaning that it’s a reverse harem with most of the male characters being dateable throughout the different routes. Not all of them are available from the get-go. You have to complete one route before the next one unlocks and each of them offers a bad, normal, and happy ending. Thankfully, when you begin a new game you can begin after the prologue or at the beginning of that character’s route to save time. Like other visual novels, you can fast-forward through the text that you have already read.

The characters are tropish with some being more interesting than others. Your childhood friend is a jock who has been in love with your character for a while though she’s oblivious to it. She can also date a smooth talking chef, an intellectual med student with glasses, a clumsy guy who attracts cats, and the hotel owner who is quite frankly a spoiled jerk. There is a true ending route that’s pretty heartwarming. Once all of those stories are cleared, a new route/character becomes available. After all of the routes have been played, all of the story holes will be filled.

The endings are determined by how you answer various questions throughout the game. There are multiple guides and walkthroughs available to assist you in getting all of the endings and associated character CGs (cutscene graphics) unlocked.

From a moral perspective there are several things worth mentioning. Romance is possible and thankfully it’s just limited to kissing. Some of the kisses involve tongues though. Killing and murders are another prominent theme. Though blood isn’t shown (other than the screen flashing red), it’s described in great detail. Language is used as well with d*mn and *ss showing up occasionally. Alcohol is consumed though I don’t recall any of the characters getting drunk. There are references to other gods and ghosts.

7’scarlet is great when it comes to the visuals and voice acting. The artwork is good and the movie cutscenes are a nice touch. It was nice to see animated fireworks instead of a still frame of them. The characters have different facial expressions, with and without blushing. The Japanese only voice acting is well done and conveys the characters' emotions nicely.

I spent over eighteen hours playing through all of the routes and endings when I played it on PC and enjoyed the story thoroughly. The Switch version is much better stability-wise than the PC port and I recommend it despite the price difference. I lost my game progress on the Steam version multiple times which is frustrating. If you enjoy otome visual novels, 7’scarlet is worth looking into.