Just Deserts (PC)

Thank you Sekai Project for sending us this game to review!

Just Deserts is a visual novel style dating simulator game where you get to date your fellow soldiers and kick some alien butt at the same time.  You have thirty days to make a good impression on your favorite girl and to defeat the alien threat once and for all.  In order to win the girls over, you’ll have to do quests and treat them to plenty of gifts and food which requires lots of patrolling of the desert to pay for it all!

The story is simple, but serviceable.  Thankfully the rest of the game’s dialogue is pretty entertaining. You’re a genetically modified male who has been deployed to a secret base in the desert to gather intel on the aliens that are attacking nearby.  Because of your genetic tweaking, you’re not affected by the coma inducing attack of the aliens and are the only hope to figuring out their weakness.  Upon arriving at the base, you discover that you’re the only guy and that your fellow soldiers are attractive and single females.  

The female soldiers are pretty welcoming and have no problems with you staying in the same barracks as them.  Jennifer is the most outgoing and asks you point blank if you’re a virgin.  The other girls tend to be a bit more reserved, especially Eve who barely talks at all.  Each of the soldiers has a different personality and unique taste in food and gifts that they like to receive.  Even if you make a bad habit out of giving them gifts they do not like, your relationship status will never dip below Normal.  The other relationship statuses include Like, Love, and Infatuated.   In order to graduate to the next level, you have to earn enough points and then go out on a date.

Relationship points are awarded by giving food, gifts, completing quests, or by doing activities with the girls.  Some of the free activities include working out or doing shooting practice together.  Those activities plus swimming can increase various stats permanently.  Boosting your energy allows you to do more activities before requiring a meal or resting for the day.  Other stats to increase include your health, speed, and accuracy. 

In order to succeed in this game, you’ll need a lot of money (Bz).  The only way to make Bz is to go on patrols.  You can have soldiers on the base accompany you and there’s the option of using repellent to reduce the chances of alien encounter if you have any on hand.  Even if you don’t fight any aliens, you’ll still get paid 40,000 Bz for your effort.  If you do battle an alien, you’ll earn even more Bz.  The aliens sometimes drop items that can be sold or given as gifts to the girls.  

There’s a nearby city with a nice mall, swimming pool, and a restaurant. Inside of the mall is a store that sells various gifts ranging from flowers to exercise machines.  Most of the quests have the girls asking for a specific item or food/beverage.  Other quests require you to do certain activities with them.  No matter what quest you accept, you’ll have to have it completed within a couple of days.  Thankfully, the quests are rated as Easy, Normal, or Hard to let you know your chances of completing them in a timely manner.  Stocking up on generic food items like mineral water and instant noodles is recommend.  In fact, you can get Steam achievements for passing out a lot of mineral water and instant noodles.

While most of the Steam achievements I earned unlocked as expected, others did not.  I never received the Steam achievement for getting paid the first time, which of course happened.  Even creating a new game save on a different computer failed to unlock that achievement.  Another nitpick is that this game doesn’t let you purchase quantities of items which would make the shopping experience much easier.  I did encounter one typo (loos instead of looks) in my play through which lasted seven hours.  There’s plenty of room for replayability by pursuing the other females, but the last boss is such a pain that I’ll stick with the ending I got.  

In order to defeat the last boss: be sure to have enough Bz to call in for battle support, healing kits, armor, shield de-activating grenades, and powerful weapons.  The knife is the only weapon that has infinite uses but it’s the least effective.   The more powerful weapons like machine guns and grenade launchers have a limited number of uses before having to pay to have them recharged.  

The aliens vary from metallic cubes and diamonds to elemental ones that hurl slime or fire.  The 2D artwork is nicely done and the female soldiers show a lot of expression and detail.  Their clothing ranges from uniforms to sleep wear and one piece swimsuits.  There is DLC available for purchase to unlock even more outfits. 

The audio is a bit of a mixed bag as some of the voice acting is a bit off.  The commander Cornelia has a botched up British accent that is gruff and harsh on the ears.  Cecile’s French accent is inconsistent at times too.  The rest of the voice acting and dialogue is great, especially during the date events where you get to learn about the girls’ pasts.  

Sadly, much of the dialogue is laced with profanity and blaspheming. Between the harsh language and sexual references, this is not a game that should be played by children.  There are sexual encounters, but I did not see anything other than some compromising positions that took place with clothes still on.  

If you like romantic visual novels or dating simulators then Just Deserts is an interesting option.  While it doesn’t have any nudity, there is plenty of cursing and sexual references to make this a title for older audiences.  The price is a reasonable $9.99.