[PC] Tomodachi kara Koibito e – Review

Title: 友だちから恋びとへ
Developer: Azarashi Soft
Release Date: 28th January 2022
Age Rating: 18+
Length: 5+ Hours
Links: Official Website, VNDB

Michinaga Yoshiki is a young man working for the game company Nozarashi Soft. He’s been tasked with heading up one of their new projects and is worried about it due to a past failure.

In order to give him some ideas, his boss sends him to a speed dating event. Whilst there he meets two women who he befriends due to them also having involvement in the game industry:

Susukawa Mizore, a serious young woman who works as a writer on a local news site. She also works as a freelance scenario writer when she can.

Amakusa Hisagi – an outgoing and cheerful girl who playfully teases Yoshiki. She works part time at a game shop to fund her fledgling voice actress career.

Spending more time with them, Yoshiki’s relation changes from acquaintance to friend, and perhaps even more…

Thoughts

I’m but a simple woman – I see an Azarashi Soft game and I buy it. Tomodachi kara Koibito e is the fourth game they released in 2022 and was the last one I had to play. With the unusual mid-pricing, did this game manage to deliver value for money and the same fluffy romance I’ve come to expect from Azarashi Soft?

What’s nice about this setting in particular is that it’s a rare one where the protagonist and both heroines are working adults. As much as the classic high school setting can be fun, these more mature characters are also charming. Considering most of the playerbase is working adults it makes more sense to have these type of settings, and I found myself relating to the characters more easily than the typical game.

Unlike the typical Azarashi Soft formula of either full price or single heroine titles, this is a mid-priced game with two heroines. I wouldn’t say this approach was necessarily better or worse than their other ventures but the game didn’t feel as well-balanced as the brand’s titles normally do.

Hisagi

The first heroine is Hisagi, the more playful and outgoing of the two girls, with almost a childish side to her. Personality-wise, I preferred Hisagi but I found the romantic development in her route to be a little lackluster – ironically the change between friends to lovers was a bit too sudden. While she was still adorable and there was a lot of fluff in her route, I was a little underwhelmed.

Mizore

Mizore is the other heroine and is more reserved and mature than her friend. The balance between her day job and also finding time to persue her passion of scenario writing was pretty well handled and I feel was integrated better than Hisagi being a seiyuu. Mizore’s route was considerably better than Hisagi’s (which pains me to say) – the romance had better development and the overarching plot of her route was better paced. The “friend to lover” section felt more natural also. It was most definitely up to the usual Azarashi Soft standard here and an excellent fluffy romance.

Being a game highly focused on its two heroines meant there was a lack of side characters. The head of Nozarashi Soft was great though.

One of the highlights of the game is the lovely artwork from Bonnie. I’m not too familiar with their past work, however, I was really impressed by their work here. The ever-talented Marotaro was also providing the disgustingly cute SD CGs. There were a lot of CGs in this game for the length of it but it definitely seemed like most were used early on in the game. I think the pacing of CGs could have been a little better but it wasn’t the end of the world.

The music in this title was fine, the only real standout track was “Evening Song” which seems to have a slightly jazzy feel to it. Voice acting was nice. No complaints.

Conclusion

My Score: 7/10

Despite some weakness in Hisagi’s route, Mizore’s route really embodied the title of this game and was an incredibly fluffy moege, as you can probably expect from Azarashi Soft at this point. The characters were likable, romance was great, artwork was adorable and the setting was a little refreshing.

I’d recommend this title to people interested in Mizore or to fans of Azarashi Soft. It’s not their best title but it’s worth the price and is a cute, relaxing read.

As far as the next Azarashi Soft game I plan to play, it’ll probably be new Aikotoba title coming out this month. Here’s hoping it’s light and fluffy reading~

Thanks for reading!