Title: 金色ラブリッチェ
Developer: Saga Planets
Release Date: 22nd December 2017
Age Rating: 18+
Length: ~30 Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
With their signature mix of comedy, quirky heroines, and a surprisingly emotive story, Saga Planets are an eroge brand to be reckoned with. Kiniro Loveriche (Kinkoi for short) is one of their most beloved titles so I had high expetations going in but did it manage to live up to their usual standards?
Sylvia
As mentioned, one of the main things that I enjoy about Saga Planets games is how fun they are – the characters are memorble and the humour is pretty constant throughout the early game. The game is super silly a lot of the time but I think this just makes the emotional gut punch better in the route it happens.
Yes, Kinkoi follows the classic Saga Planets formula with a cutesy and fun exterior hiding a game that will probably make you cry at the end. I love their other games like this (Natsunagi, Hatsusaku) and Kinkoi can absolutely compete with those. The game managed to convey its message of “living for the present” and the concept of your “Golden Time” pretty well.
Reina
There are four main heroines + one sub heroine. The main quirk being that all the main heroines are blonde (not like this is a bad thing), plus Akane as a side heroine who you could maybe call strawberry blonde?
All the heroines are really charming, as you might expect from a Saga Planets game. My personal favourite was Sylvia due to the large role she plays in much of the game, and just her overall antics with protagonist Ouro.
Their routes, however, are a little bit unequal in quality. Sylvia’s route was solid, if a little drawn out. Heroina’s route was fine, although was spoiled a bit by my playing Sylvia’s first. I really liked Akane’s route but it was just too short. Ria’s route was amazing, absolutely the reason to play this game. And finally we have Reina, who despite being such a fun and enjoyable character barely even felt like the main heroine of her route – it was quite the let down.
There were quite a few side characters, most of whom were likable enough. I’m definitely looking forward to Sylvia’s younger sister Caminal’s route in the fandisc – she’s so cute!
Akane – you deserved a longer route!
Despite the large number of artists working on the game, it still manages to retain the typical Saga Planets style and looks pretty good. The SD CGs are particularly cute.
The BGM was also of good quality – I really like Golden Time in particular. The vocal tracks are also pretty memorable with all of them being great.
Author Sakaki Kisa clearly has a thing for 3P scenes as they feature in most of the routes. Like with Ambitious Mission I personally didn’t really appreciate their addition as they didn’t add anything to the story/romance most of the time, and just detracted from it in one route to be honest.
Conclusion
My Score: 8.5/10
Despite some areas where the game lacks (Reina’s + Akane’s routes), Kinkoi is absolutely a game that is worth playing for its warm atmosphere and true route. If you like other Saga Planet games then this should absolutely be on your radar, and I would recommend this game to anyone that likes nakige.
In terms of where I would rate this in their catalogue, I’d put Kinkoi as Saga Planets’ second best just behind Natsuyume Nagisa in my opinion. It’s pretty close though.
I bought this game in a set with the fandisc which I do plan on playing this year so hopefully it manages to be fun, although with the cast of characters in Kinkoi you’d have to do something really wrong to make a bad game.
Saga Planets has pretty much solidified itself as one of my favourite, if not most favourite eroge developers after this, although writing this review just makes me sad that they haven’t announced a new game since the Anmitsu fandiscs – maybe soon??
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