The Language of Love is a visual novel by ebi-hime and Ratalaika Games about a young man depressingly aiming at getting a career until the day he meets his neighbor’s daughter… and her mother. Find out more in our The Language of Love review!

Mitsuki moves from the country to Tokyo to attend a rigorous cram school, with the hopes of passing his university entrance exams next spring. He soon finds, however, that his other classmates treat him like a social outcast, being the oldest at his school by far. It proves impossible to make friends, and Mitsuki consigns himself to an isolated, lonely existence…

 

The story is about Mitsuki, a young boy who moves from the country to a city near Tokyo so that he can eventually get into a good university. His goal is to study to have a decent career, or at least that’s what he tries to tell himself. He’s 23 years old, and thus much older than all the other students in his class and didn’t have a chance to make a bond with any of them. One day, as he was walking back to his apartment, he hears a kid’s voice in the playground nearby and decides to take a look at what’s going on.

In the playground, he finds Tama, a young girl looking for her lost keys so that she can go back to her apartment to wait for her mother, who’s been gone for over an hour. After trying to help her find her keys – to no avail – he invites her over to his apartment so that she doesn’t end up standing alone in the rain since she lives in the same block as him. Later that night, her mother eventually knocks at his door, and for the first time in a while, something changes in Mitsuki’s attitude as he finds a particular interest in Kyouko, Tama’s mother. From there, you’ll get to see this relationship evolve, which I won’t talk more about as to not spoil things.

With this game being a visual novel, it’s a release that is a lot more about reading than about performing actions. In fact, there is nothing else to do other than reading in this game! Generally, visual novels have some interactions for players to get involved with the game. Sometimes it’s dialogue or action choices that will orient the story one way or the other. Sometimes it’s puzzles that you have to solve to progress through the story – I’m looking at you Zero Escape series! – so there’s at least some form of interaction from the player. For The Language of Love, you will only be reading through a ton of text, doing its visual novel genre justice.

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Unfortunately, this game didn’t do it for me. I wouldn’t call myself a huge visual novel fan, but I do enjoy playing them, as was the case of Coffee Talk, which I reviewed a few months ago. There are probably people that will enjoy the story and style of this game. Reading walls of text for 5-6 hours without any additional actions on my end, without being able to make choices or perform any additional actions, was not a pleasant experience.

On the plus side, though, this one has the typical Ratalaike Games trophy list we’ve come to expect, and due to how the game is nothing but reading, and reading, and reading, getting the Platinum is rather straightforward since all you have to do is finish the story. Moreover, if you’re a trophy hunter who is looking for a quick Platinum, you can actually toggle the settings so that you can start the game, press the R1 button to speed through the dialogues, and the Platinum will be yours in under 5 minutes.

The Language of Love was, unfortunately, a disappointing experience for me. Its story might appeal to some fans of the genre, but if it doesn’t grab you right away, it won’t be something you’ll like by the end of it.

 

Disclaimer
This The Language of Love review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Ratalaika Games.