Category: Review

Alright! Hinano finally released her JPMeyer sim RenAi game, appropriately called “RenAi Blogger.”

The game features multiple heroines, multiple endings, and other stuff you would expect in any other RenAi game. This includes a trap, a loli, and a meganekko or two. Probably the best part of the game is its length; it took me maybe an hour to find all the good endings and a few bad ones. Some people might complain about the game being too short, but I kind of like the brevity.

The girls in the game are all existing female anime bloggers. Well, in the game they aren’t all bloggers. That would make the scenarios kind of redundant. They’re probably just loosely based on real people as a base. I sorta just went through all of the girls’ scenarios as they appeared, more or less. CJ to Natsuko to Jen to Hinano. Man, that sounds weird.

I will say that the game is pretty well made. I didn’t encounter any bugs besides the thing flipping out when I skipped the movie (I only did this the second time I opened the program). Besides that, the branching logic seems pretty solid. Oh man, I better stop reviewing the coding and start reviewing the actual content, huh?

Okay, so I had a few issues with the main character. He’s a transfer from Ohio State? The one university that’s the mortal enemy of my Michigan Wolverines? Okay, fine, whatever. I can get past that part. Main character is transferring to NYU, so he can’t be all bad.

I won’t criticize the art since I can’t draw worth a damn myself. To her credit, Hinano’s art has gotten much better since the Anime Nano Podcast days. That’s a complement, Hinano! I thought it was funny that all the backgrounds are from photos taken in NYC. How cool would it be to have a cameo in the game at Artist’s Alley or something?

The game is easy enough. Picking the obvious choices will usually net you the girl. If only it was this easy in real life… The only time I got tripped up is when I took Natsuko’s stuff to her house and was branded a pedobear. Oh, and the other time when I confessed to her on the train. But wait, when I didn’t confess to her on the train, she confessed to me! What a double standard! Ah well, as long as I eventually found the good end. Thanks Hinano, for training me on how to legally navigate my way through the situation, if something similar ever presented itself. And I hope it never will… Natsuko also wins for having the best lol line given during her scenario (as seen above).

So overall, the game is a fun use of an hour or so of your time. It’s definitely worth it to find Hinano so you can see her go tsundere on JPMeyer the protagonist. But I’m kind of disappointed that there wasn’t a rival for the protagonist. A slick, podcasting co-host, if you will. Nah, that would’ve made the game too complicated.

Hinano deserves some major props for completing this project. If there was a donate link or something, I’d be happy to chip in for a sequel. If you’re reading this and you haven’t already played it, go grab it from here.