Developer – Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sting

Publisher – Idea Factory International

Platforms – PC (reviewed), PS4

Review copy given by Publisher

What would you wish for if you had three wishes? That’s the scenario that DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia chooses to investigate with several heroines. When the main protagonist comes across a box with a heroine, they open the box. At first, nothing is inside but they dream of someone who can grant their wishes. What they wish for, the consequences, and what that means for the future are investigated.

DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia is a visual novel that takes place after a thirty-year long conflict. The protagonist, Shido, is settling down into regular life and enjoying his time with friends. But it becomes apparent that Shido’s life is anything but ordinary thanks to the women in his life. One day, Shido wakes up and discovers a strange box. He opens it with one of the heroines and nothing happens. But later, the heroine is visited by a strange wish-granting entity and the story begins.

There are nine characters whose stories you can investigate and fifteen different endings. That’s lots of replay value with the story, spending hours on each path. Each story is also unique despite starting with the same premise. Characters have their own desires, wants, and goals, giving you nine different stories with the same premise. While that may seem excessive, the visual novel does its best to make each story stand out.

While heroines sometimes mix with each other’s stories, you only focus on one heroine at a time. After choosing them at the start, you are locked into their route for the remainder of the story. This means each heroine gets a “What If?” scenario-type story instead of seeing the same story from different perspectives. The variety prevents the visual novel from getting stale too quickly by providing unique takes on the wish-granting scenario.

Unfortunately, the variety’s advantage disappears if you are not familiar with the DATE A LIVE world. The story makes few attempts to provide exposition, only giving you a library to read on your own time. The library also doesn’t clarify much, being a quick guide that glosses over crucial story details and events. This means you could go into the story blind or miss the significance of what the characters talk about.

It’s possible to mitigate the lack of exposition if you view the novel’s events as a separate story. But there are still too many details missing and characters talk as if you already know. This makes it difficult for players new to the series to jump in. It’s easy for you to get confused or miss out on crucial aspects.

This normally wouldn’t be a big deal but all characters have multiple endings. Sometimes it’s not exactly clear what triggers a good or a bad ending. The clues are subtle and depend on the personality of the heroine. What you say to a heroine can drastically change their fate but there are few opportunities to decide. That makes it hard to reload and establish what went wrong because you might not be sure.

Thankfully, there is an option to skip text you’ve already seen to speed through scenarios. You shouldn’t use it too much on newer stories because you can miss crucial details. It’s best to experience each story as it goes well with the voice acting. The designs of each character shine when you sit down and go through the novel like you were reading a book. It’s not an action-packed game despite the mentions of combat, but something you play at your own pace.

Fans of DATE A LIVE will enjoy Ren Dystopia and the stories it has to offer. If you aren’t familiar with the franchise at all, reading the library might help get you up to speed. But it’s a visual novel that’s hard for new players to jump into and that takes away some of the appeal. If you ever do become familiar with the world of DATE A LIVE, jump back to Ren Dystopia. You will find the enjoyment grows and you won’t feel lost half the time.