Review
Annie here!
I just played "Season One" of I Just Want to Be Single and I was thoroughly impressed.
I Just Want to Be Single!! excels in my favourite category: polish. Unlike many visual novels, it uses sound design, fun effects and a huge variety of fun drawings to keep you engaged during dialogue. It also uses a unique method to tackle cutscenes, drawing on inspiration from manga with animated comics depicting important scenes in a way that is efficient and effective.
The game follows Aya, a transfer student who struggles making friends. Unfortunately, Aya's new school is an all-girls school full of eligible bachelorettes that ALL want Aya as their girlfriend. It balances silly and serious tones very well, handling themes of anxiety and mental health along with irreverent, tropey anime humor.
Disclaimer
Let me be clear: this game is in development. Currently, they're calling the released portion "Season One" but I would consider it more of a demo. There's a good hour or two of excellent gameplay, but only a small piece that really gets into the meat of what the gameplay loop will look like once it's complete.
I still think it's worth writing about because this newsletter aims to introduce you, lovely readers, to new and upcoming indie games that are underrated or unknown. And I think this one counts!
Final Thoughts
This game is very fun to play, especially for a visual novel. If you've never enjoyed a visual novel before, there's a chance this one might change your mind. That being said, it's by no means complete. It's an excellent demo that assures me the full game will be worth the very reasonable price. If you want to wait until it's finished to check it out I'd highly recommend adding it to your wishlist or following the game on Steam, but if you do decide it now I guarantee you'll enjoy what's there.
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