Agent of Love

It took me a long time to start on this one, even after someone drew my attention to it several times. I made an informed guess what kind of vn this was. Through my professional reading career (haha), I have slowly shied away from a certain market that often reminisces of the mobile otome scene. Therefore, having a pay per story game already felt like a drag. But, I sucked it up, and bought a story. I bought the one that I already knew would piss me off. Why choose it? If a game can come back from pissing me off, it has potential.

MC, a detective, is sent by her adoptive dad (the police chief!) to solve a specific case, which brings her into the company of one of the distinguished gentlemen. A setup that already felt incredibly voltage - especially since all the male choices were perfectly predictable walking tropes. There’s no sugarcoating it - the story I read first starts with sexual assault. I think I get what the creators were going for, but the plot holes that followed failed to get them there, and the fact that all it took was a few seductive glances and some nice eyes to let MC just...randomly forget what happened between them, as well as the ongoing manipulation that followed - I can’t begin to describe how frustrating this was. Pair that with obvious plot twists and some deep holes in the story, and it’s a perfect storm. The second story did not start much better, with immediately predictable moments and writing that continued to be shallow and frequently awkward - and drawn out unnecessarily (I swear at some point even the flashbacks had flashbacks…). As far as art, the backgrounds are obscured photographs (which I keep seeing more and more), and some of the avatars feel a little off - but overall, I don’t mind their style. There is one other story I want to read. The completionist in me is cringing, but I cannot justify paying 5 dollars a story and there don’t appear to be sales.