Developer – Aikasa Collective

Publisher – Aikasa Collective, Viridian Software Limited

Platforms –   PS4/5, Nintendo Switch (Reviewed), Steam

Review copy given by Publisher

Mizuchi starts off with a brief introduction to our main character Linh. Linh finds herself in a dark snake pit for some myterious reason. She is a young girl that is the youngest daughter of a poor family. Her father basically didn’t want her when it was discovered she was a girl and as unwanted child she was given a name of shame. As she grew older and came to understand her name meant “more” she decided to change her name to Linh to empower herself and choose her own path in life. After choosing our name, we slowly awake from the darkness of the snake pit and find ourselves earlier in the day that led up to the beginning of our story. Linh! Linh wake up!

As Linh heads to start her day of work, she steals some fruit from a local farmer to feed herself and she gets caught red handed and begins to run away. As she reaches safety, she comes across some chicken eggs and grabs a few of those for herself as well. Suddenly she comes across a beautiful white snake that is injured, deciding to give her egg to the snake to help it get well starts a series of events that will change Linh’s life forever. She bows to the snake and finishes her work day and heads home for the evening. Arriving home there is a lot of noise coming from the front of her house, elders have gathered around and there is excitement in the air. It’s marriage season, and Linh has been selected to marry a local military man named Anh.

Anh, a childhood friend of Linh, was sent to war a while back and had come home for a brief stint and must choose a wife while he is home. He chose Linh due to their childhood friendship from the past and while the appeal of a happy new life where she will never know poverty again, Linh just doesn’t feel right about the arrangement. There is something inside of her that is begging for “more.” Interesting as that is her original name, there is a common them of wanting something more from life in general. Not to marry for money or status, but to marry for love. Mizuchi, a mix of Pride and Prejudice and Bridgerton with Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese influences, is a visual novel developed by Aikasa Collective.

Admittedly, I’m not a big fan of visual novels for video games. There typically is very little interaction and Mizuchi is really not that different in that regard. There are maybe a total of 10 selectable dialogue options to impact the story. Where Mizuchi shines is the story and presentation. From the initial twist about 15 minutes in, I was really interested to see how Linh’s story would unfold. There are a few more twists and turns that keep the story interesting throughout, but it does get a bit sluggish around the 2.5 hour mark where it becomes a day to day routine for Linh and the other characters involved. Seeing Linh grow throughout her interactions with the other characters and seeing how those characters evolve in their day to day is interesting. The themes are sometimes very dark and include much more insidious events that certainly won’t be for everyone, but also can be very light hearted and peaceful.

Honestly, I certainly don’t think that Mizuchi is for everyone. If you are a fan of Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese culture, visual novels, and don’t mind sexual themes in games you will find value in Mizuchi. The presentation in terms of visuals and the music fits perfectly with each event. The overall length is also a highlight, I would say that the initial read is about 4-5 hours and subsequential reads to see all of the additional endings skipping through all repeated conversations could make the full visual novel easily 10-12 hours. There is definitely value for the money spent. For visual novel fans, I think Mizuchi is an excellent addition to your library and is worth playing through multiple times to see the complete story and all possible outcomes for Linh.