Thank you WhisperGames for providing us with a review code!

The Real Face of a VTuber is a murder mystery visual novel where you play the role of prosecutor Justin Truth. Until now, Justin hasn’t heard of Vtubers and isn’t very tech savvy. Thankfully, his helpful assistant Emily can bring him up to speed, but she demands payment for her efforts in the form of expensive food/meals. The judge is even more clueless and will have to have things explained in simple terms. If you’re not familiar with VTubers, you’ll learn a bit by playing this game.

The Real Face of a VTuber begins with Justin getting briefed on the case. However, the first mystery Justin wants to solve is finding out who ate his pudding. Unfortunately for him, the pudding mystery isn’t solved until later in the game. Justin will then be shown a picture of the murder victim. It’s quite bloody, but also strange since the victim was wearing a chicken costume. Apparently, that was normal for him as his last name was Chicken. Because of how strange this all is, Justin refers to him as Mr. C for the remainder of the game.

The VTuber agency is rather small with six other employees that Justin will have to interrogate to find clues and evidence to solve two mysteries. Justin needs to find out which employee is the real face (person behind the anime avatar) of the VTuber Kirupa, and who murdered Mr. C. Later in the game you’ll have access to a couple internet sites to gather more clues and talking points for the interrogations.

The Real Face of a VTuber is broken down into five chapters, and in order to end each chapter you’ll have to accuse someone with evidence you have collected, and back it up in court. In court you’ll have to cross examine witnesses and provide evidence to counter their statements. You have the right to stop leading questions by yelling “Objection!”. If you fail to do so, Emily will do it on your behalf, but you’ll be scolded afterward. There doesn’t seem to be any negative impacts to failing to call out an objection or referencing the wrong evidence.

There are multiple routes to explore, and later in the game you’ll unlock a hint system which can guide you through unlocking the Truth Route. I was able to see the Truth Route in less than nine hours. However, I only unlocked twelve out of the eighteen Steam achievements available. There is a guide available that can assist in unlocking them all.

I like the art style in this game, and the characters are very expressive. The internet site clones do a good job impersonating the sites they’re clones of. The VTuber avatar is nicely drawn and animated, too!

The background music is pleasant to listen to, and the sound effects are decent. There’s isn’t any voice acting, and generic bleeps are used as text scrolls across the screen.

There are some moral issues worth pointing out in this title. There are multiple instances of blood and death. Language is present (b*stard, d*mn) and the Lord’s name is used in vain. There are references to sex outside of marriage and same-sex relationships. Adult content is part of the story, and you’ll see some alluring images that show cleavage.

If you enjoy murder mysteries, visual novels, or the Ace Attorney series, you’ll want to look into The Real Face of a VTuber. Just make sure you're okay with the moral issues before buying this game. The asking price of $11.99 is reasonable and will keep you entertained for roughly nine hours.