Hentai Visual Novel Review: Divine Slice of Life

2.1K

Written by Jin0uga, edited by Otaku Apologist

Divine Slice of Life, a terrible hentai visual novel developed and published by Dharker Studio. Released on October 22nd, 2015. Download on Nutaku’s digital store for $10.00. Available for PC Windows, Mac OS, and Linux operating systems. English voice acting. Uncensored genitals.

Play as an ordinary man, stuck between two horny Demi-gods who want to take you as their husband. With exams coming up and a horde of girls trying to ride your dick, your semester is gonna be busy.

STORY

Aaki Taizaki is a male university student trying to get girls. The story starts off with Aaki and his crush studying at the library for an upcoming test. Throughout their study session, he tries to build up the courage to ask her out, with the intent of going home with her. Unfortunately, she’s stolen away by the university’s pretty boy.

Frustrated by his failure, he leaves the library and cuts through the park to get home. As he walks through the deserted area, he comes across two girls engaged in a battle. Aaki jumps into the fray to stop the girls from killing each other. His decision turns out to be a mistake. He gets grievously injured and falls unconscious. When Aaki wakes up, he thinks that his near-death experience was a mere dream. Then he notices two naked girls sleeping on his chest. He quickly finds out why they’re with him.

Aaki is actually the reincarnation of the Greek god Zeus. He must choose one of the girls as his wife, to ascend to his rightful place as the ruler of the pantheon of the gods. If he fails, he is stuck being a mortal forever.

The pacing of the story is too fast to my liking. Scenes seem to zoom by, and the writing makes less and less sense the more the plot progresses. Character actions don’t make any sense. They say one thing and do the opposite. Even major conflicts barely follow the story’s own logic.

There’s an early scene where Taka thinks Aaki is engaged to the two demi-goddesses. She runs away crying. Later in the story, she forcefully asks how far he’s gone with them, and barely bats an eye when he describes the sex acts he’s done with them. Another example would be Aaki’s crush, Sakuya, asking him if she’s compatible with another guy. Later on, the same guy confronts him and states that they’ve already gone on a date.

The tone of the story changes so quickly. It feels like the writer wanted to get it over and done with as fast as possible, resulting in a rushed and underdeveloped plot. Ironically, dialogue rarely gets to the point. Even the use of mythical gods should have made the story interesting, but didn’t.

CHARACTERS

Aaki Taizaki is the main protagonist and the reincarnation Zeus. He’s an underwhelming guy. He doesn’t have much self-confidence, and lacks backbone to refute baseless insults. Unlike some visual novels which give their main characters personality traits, he’s as bland as oatmeal. This kind of works in the game’s favour as players can project themselves onto him.

Yui Aphrodite is a demi-god, the descendent of the goddess Aphrodite. She’s a mature brunette and has a huge personality to match her sizable chest. She is extremely territorial of Aaki and does not hesitate to speak her mind. She is pushy and is not above fighting dirty to get her way.

Ryn Athena is another demi-god and is the descendant of the goddess Athena. While she seems as straightforward as Yui, she can be cunning, and vengeful.

Taka Shinobi is the main character’s best friend. She is very supportive of him and is quite perceptive despite her childish demeanour. I personally liked her the most. She has the sweetest personality.

Sakuya Rue is the main character’s crush. She is very popular, which made it hard for him to get close to her. She’s polite and helpful. She becomes Aaki’s private tutor.

Akame Taizawa is a mysterious girl that dresses up as a ninja. Not much is known about her except that she attends the same university as Aaki. He is vaguely aware of her existence, but only crosses paths with her after he comes in contact with the demi-gods.

GRAPHICS

The game rocks the typical anime style art. The sprites and CGs are drawn in the same style, but the quality is not consistent. Some CGs look fantastic, utilizing an eye popping colour palette, nicely drawn characters and poses. Other pieces look like someone took a crash course on how to draw anime, and used MS Paint to colour it. The transitions are beyond jarring.

I found the character designs likeable. The girls range from cute to unabashedly sexy. Some girls wear multiple outfits throughout the game. Ryn, for example, switches her battle outfit for a uniform, to blend in with society. Yui, on the other hand, looks like she stepped out of completely different era.

The backgrounds are detailed, but their colour palette is bland. Most BGs have flat colours. They looked nice at the beginning, but the more I played, the more bored I felt. I feel like beige was way too overused.

One thing that really killed the immersion for me is the text not matching the background. For example, when Aaki attends university and the background art is the hallway, there was a long stretch of lockers that resembled a high school. When Aaki enters the classroom, it’s filled with tiny wooden desks. That’s not a university class room!

SOUND EFFECTS AND VOICE ACTING (SFX)

The voice acting is mediocre. Some characters sound fine, while others are obnoxious. It’s clear that some of the voice actresses aren’t very experienced. Sakuya’s actress, for example, sounds like she’s reading off a script during a class presentation. In all honestly, I had a better time by turning the voices off.

Something else that bothered me was how quiet the girls sounded. Even fiddling with the in-game volume controls didn’t help. Adjusting the volume doesn’t solve the problem, because some voices are louder than others.

There are no sound effects. Instead of having voice acting, I’d rather the budget been allocated to sound effects instead. It would have made the game more immersive, instead of having to sit through a bunch of clashing voices and accents. Even stock sound effects would have been welcome.

MUSIC

The game’s soundtrack is forgettable. Most of the songs sound like stuff you’d hear in a department store or the lobby of a hotel. It’s not bad, just generic. At least they were mildly pleasant to listen to and not completely terrible. It also helps that the soundtrack suits the visual novel’s slice of life genre. There were only two passable tracks.

The song that plays during Aaki’s first encounter with the Demi-gods is one of the better songs. It kicks off with a rapid drum beat with aggressive hi-hat strikes. The violins in the background chime in every so often, building up the atmosphere. It’s joined by a bunch of synthesized sound effects, creating an otherworldly sci-fi vibe.

GAMEPLAY

Divine Slice of Life is a visual novel with multiple endings. Click the text box to ‘turn’ the page and advances the story. There are different choices at certain points of the game that affect which ending you’ll get.

HENTAI

The hentai scenes aren’t very descriptive, instead relying on the CGs to keep readers interested. Some are over in a couple of seconds, only showing text and CGs. In one of the earlier sex scenes for example, he supposedly fucks Yui in his bedroom. The scene cuts off with her still in her underwear. The text says that she gave Aaki a good time – that’s it. The writer skipped writing a sex scene!

Even in the meatier hentai scenes, Aaki’s actions aren’t clear and his actions are barely mentioned. I found the hentai disappointing and a total waste of some good CGs. I expect the bare minimum erotic descriptions, like the writer describing how the girls stroke Aaki, how they run their tongue over his dick, all that. It’s not the worst hentai I’ve read, but it was boring.

CONCLUSION

Divine Slice of Life is a very mediocre western hentai visual novel. The only thing going for this game is the art, but only if your standards are low. In a marketplace filled with great adult games, you have no reason to play this one over much better titles. I recommend you play something else, anything else.

You can download Divine Slice of Life at Nutaku’s digital store for $10.00.