Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity

I must say, I sure am surprised. Having read another Lump of Sugar work, I'd always thought they had potential, but just didn't quite hit it. Tayutama was the proof of that promise. For an old work, it's aged remarkably well. The artwork is still quite charming, the music is excellent as usual from these devs, and the characters are the standout. The relationships in this VN are... well, raw, in a way you don't often get. They can make you kinda uncomfortable and annoyed at times, showing how effective the writing for those scenes are. It's quite impressive, and surprising for a setting that would normally be written off as goofy. I do highly recommend it, just keep in mind it's mostly a comfy character work. A small warning, however: People who only read on Steam may well have never encountered this old quirk, but Tayutama has the old VN hallmark of reading multiple routes being a gigantic pain in the neck. The reason being for that, is old VN's didn't mark/structure their routes in a way which properly marks content as having been "read" like they do today. So from your second route onward, it's going to be up to you to remember what scenes you have and haven't read, and skip accordingly. With the knowledge that new lines have been sprinkled throughout the old scenes and are easily missable.

Solid story. Played through Mashiro’s route first, and I was surprised by how quickly the story pulled me in. There’s a scene early on with Mashiro that made me laugh so hard, and later moments hit a lot harder than I thought they would. A few scenes jump around pretty fast without much buildup, but overall the pacing is comfortable, and the characters really grow on you. I’m still partial to Mashiro. She's so sweet I just want to wrap her in a warm hug and keep her safe. Cute moments, light drama, and fantasy... The art is nice, pretty nostalgic. The highlight is the story, though. By the end, I felt more attached to the cast than I expected. A good time if you like character-focused stories.

Okay, so this is more of a first-impressions type review, but so far I’m actually really happy with the game? I’m still working through the story (I’m aiming for Mashiro!) but: - The story/writing is pretty good - The characterization is good (and it’s fully voiced!!) - The translation quality is solid - The artwork is -chef’s kiss- I think some people used to fan translations might question some of the translator choices (like some of the jokes being given English equivalents rather than kept literal or the name order), but I don’t think I’ve seen any choices that I’ve disagreed with myself. The art is so, so cute too! I like the chibi scenes and the tayutama art as well as the character art! Ameri is annoying, but I think she might get fleshed out more in her route or something… (I hope!) If you’re an adult, do yourself a favor and find that H patch too. If I had one complaint, it would be that I think maybe the development work is a little too faithful to the original Japanese game? VNs have made a lot of strides with Skip functions and I think the story was still organized in the older style of just having the same content in different chapter files or something. But it’s still playable with a route map and a bit of patience. I bought the combo package that they had on sale, but I can definitely see myself playing through the fan disc too.