Title: ラブラブル～Lover Able～
Developer: Smee
Release Date: 25th Feburary 2011
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 15+ Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB
After their parents decided to work overseas, Aizawa Haruki and his younger sister Kaho move towns to be under the care of their uncle. As part of the agreement, the pair agree to work part-time at the beachside cafe he owns – called Fruitia.
As he settles into his new surroundings, Haruki meets various girls – the fellow transfer student Chinatsu, shy kouhai Tsugumi, kind classmate Satsuki, hard-working older co-worker Nanako, and of course his beloved imouto Kaho who now shares a room with him. A sweet summer romance now begins!
Thoughts
Given my preference for cute and fluffy romance games, it should be no real surprise that Smee is a company of interest to me. Loverable is title with a simple premise but that’s not necessarily a bad thing – overcomplicating a story can be the death of it after all. So, does Loverable deliver the light summer love story promised?
As a moege, much of this game’s success hinges on its character interactions early on. I personally found the writing in this game to be pretty good (and quite funny). The usage of the cafe was a nice gimmick and I’m sure anyone who has worked a public-facing job could have a good chuckle over some of the absurd customers that visited. The pacing of the game overall was fine and no scene ever overstayed its welcome. Since this is a Smee game, they do have a specific brand of humour and heroines but if you like their other games then this one would likely be of interest to you.
Standard hairstyle & outfit
Alternative hairstyle & outfit
The quirk to Loverable is that, once in a heroine route, you are given a choice of two hairstyles and outfits for the girls to wear. I mean I’ll give them points for creativity as this was a fun idea and gives some replayability to the game. I personally preferred the original hairstyles on most heroines but I will say a lot of the alternative outfits were adorable. The fandisc seems to offer yet more hairstyle options but these are more up my street (twintails, lmao).
Kaho
Moving onto the heroines/routes and we begin with Kaho, the cheeky younger sister of Haruki. Since they moved towns they now live in a small apartment and thus share a room (very convenient by eroge standards). She’s pretty openly affectionate with Haruki and the two tease each other a lot. Her route lacks the moral dilemma of most imouto routes but is instead incredibly fluffy. The latter part of her route was a little silly but her route ending was great.
Chinatsu
Chinatsu is a girl who has also recently moved to the area and ends up transferring into Haruki’s class. She’s an honest, kind girl who has moved a lot due to her parents’ work and thus makes a promise that this summer she’s going to step out of her comfort zone, which is why she joins Frutia. I must admit that I originally thought Chinatsu was going to be a boring heroine but she’s genuinely hilarious during her route. She’s the most typical hook/smee heroine in the game imo.
Tsugumi
Tsugumi is a co-worker at Frutia and a kouhai to Haruki. She has been working at the cafe for longer than most of the characters so becomes a reluctant mentor. She’s incredibly shy and scared of Haruki at first but when you get to know her, she’s a very sweet girl. Tsugumi is adorable, there is nothing else to say, 10/10.
Who can say no to Tsugumi Time? (she needs to hug Haruki to recharge as she gets lonely >w< )
Nanako
Nanako is another worker at Frutia who works both the front and back of house. She also happens to live in the same appartment block as Haruki so she sometimes invites him over for dinner. Nanako fulfils the reliable “onee-san” type. Surprisingly, Nanako’s route was pretty good. I was expecting the usual trope of “older character actually being a ダメ人間” but Nanako was actually fine. She had a cute side to her and her route, while the romance wasn’t what I was expecting, wasn’t bad.
Satsuki
Satsuki is a classmate of Haruki and, since she sits next to him, helps him settle into his new surroundings. She’s pretty quiet and can be a bit eccentric at times. Satsuki absolutely gets screwed over by this game – her route is much shorter than the other heroines and she only gets a fraction of the CGs. This really sucked as she was one of the heroines I was most interested in whilst playing through the common route. I hope they fix this in the fandisc.
There’s a surprising number of recurring side characters in this game (mainly fellow employees) and they were all pretty likable/memorable.
There were two primary artists working on this title – Ameto Yuki and Hinata Momo. The artwork can definitely look a little off at times but, overall, it’s not bad for a 2011 title and I love how bright and colourful the game is. There was an okay amount of CGs per heroine (except Satsuki) but maybe a little too many HCG for my preference.
Music in this game was pretty standard BGM-wise. I liked the opening and ending songs by Chata though. The voice acting was also to a good standard.
Final Thoughts
My Score: 7.5/10
With a fun setting, good comedy, lovable heroines and decent romance, Lover Able was indeed an enjoyable game. The lack of drama makes it a good choice to pick up for a relaxing, fluffy moege. My only real complaint about the game was the length of Satsuki’s route but the rest of the heroine routes were fine.
I would recommend this game to people who are looking for something lighter to read or those already a fan of Hooksoft/Smee games, as this follows their usual formula.
This was a game I’d been meaning to play for a while and I’m glad I finally got around to it. This was the perfect summer read and since I already own the fandisc, I’ll be playing that at some point this year.
Thanks for reading!
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