Zero Sum Heart Review

Classic middle child

I still remember this game from when I played the demo last year. I remember really liking it and I still remember the beginning hour-ish of the game that the demo covered. Months later, I’m finally here playing it. It took me longer than I expected to get to it, but I did get super busy when this released, a little bit of procrastination, and a sprinkle of “what if I don’t end up liking it?” even though I know I already liked it. Well, how was Zero Sum Heart?

In Zero Sum Heart, we jump into the head of a young woman who just turned 18 during her time at boarding school. Character names in this game are weird, but our lovely protagonist is known as “I” to us players (and I’ll keep her name in parenthesis so it doesn’t cause any confusion). We came in just in time to watch her make a life altering decision. You see, “I” has not only always been the black sheep of her family, but also a loser everywhere else. She’s an outlier in her family as her heart is in charge, in addition to her being a socially awkward intovert (same girl) and feeble. Her home life growing up certainly didn’t help things as well. After 18 years of being constantly kicked down by everyone, she is done. So, she agreed to do a ritual. Which is the first scene we get as “I” goes into the same bathroom stall as her sister who is dubbed as The Witch.

What is this ritual you ask? Well, it’s an old family ritual that will make everyone fall in love with her. Well, everyone that already doesn’t love her. The Witch isn’t just doing this out of the goodness of her heart or for her sister, though. Certainly not. She’s getting something out of this too and she’s not the least bit remorseful for it. The Witch, who is already seen as the most brilliant student and teacher to grace the boarding school, wants to be seen as impressive for succeeding in a ritual that hasn’t been successful in centuries; wants “I” to owe her, and she wants to gain the most potent magical artifact known to witches. “I” does feel a bit conflicted before starting, but she is already locked in and determined to go through with it, especially when a memory comes to the forefront of her mind. The ritual is a gruesome one, but luckily is made so it isn’t painful. After taking a potion, “I” carefully cuts into her chest with an enchanted knife and plucks her heart out. Then drops it into a magical fire, which was the next step that she was getting ready as “I” was zoning out. Of course, you hear about the side effects after the ritual is complete, but it does seem like you do have some time to take things back. Our protagonist’s heart is now going to slowly crystallize over the next 30 days and there will be no turning back once the process completes.

The ritual works and while “I” didn’t feel any different, it soon certainly becomes apparent when she leaves the bathroom. It doesn’t take long for the people, and animals, around her to fall in love with her. The effects also vary between individuals as it’s based on how they interpret love rather than how the one that underwent the ritual interprets it. At the same time though, “I” starts experiencing the side effects. The worst one being a hallucination that causes those that are effected to have their faces be blurred out or crossed out. Basically, “I” develops Prosopagnosia. A week passes of her experiencing both the good and the bad, “I” is people watching when she spots someone. Someone that she can still see their face clearly. Someone that she actually knows. Well, knows about as he, of course, goes to her school. Labeled as simply Him, he’s majoring in photography and they instantly connect. Falling in love.

As the game progresses, we get to see this love story bloom. However, it’s not allowed to bloom without some conflict as “I” has to deal with the side effects of the ritual, wondering how much of it is the ritual and how much of it is actually real, her own doubts and insecurities, and those affected by the ritual that are more…intense. We also do get to see some bits of our protagonist’s past when it becomes relevant, like explaining the reactions she has or if a particular memory just pops into her head.

Every so often, you do get choices. There are dialogue choices, which are shown in the classic choice selection, and are used for you to decide what “I” says. This mainly just chances what’s said in that section, from one line to a couple, before continuing down the main script. Then, there’s action choices which have visuals to go along with the choice. These not only tell you what “I” will do if you pick it, but it has a cute visual with a doll version of “I”. I liked this back with the demo and I still like it now. The action choices do change what “I” does for that section of the game and thus have more of an effect on the story. Often being remembered, referenced later on (sometimes just a line or two, sometimes causing an alternate scene to play out), and used to determine which ending you get.

I really enjoyed the story and characters here. The demo hooked me last year, and I was still hooked when I finally played the game and didn’t want to stop playing until I finished. I even got all the endings, achievements, and wanted to try and see all the alternate scenes. While I think I was expecting the story to go a bit more into the ritual effects, the direction that it went down suited it way more. “I” didn’t seem like the type of girl to take advantage of people under the ritual’s effects and she first and foremost wanted to be loved. The love story was really sweet, engaging, and you can’t help but root for them. “I” was a great character to be in the head of and her personality fit to where it made sense why she wanted this ritual to be done and it was believable that she would go through the inner conflicts that she does. I also loved Him. He is such a sweetheart and I loved the dynamic Him and “I” had throughout the game. Not going to lie, I swooned over him a bit and he was such a green flag. The more the game progressed, and the more I learned about Him and “I”, the more I thought that they were just perfect for one another. Their love story, despite the circumstances, was so sweet and heartwarming. I really do believe that it was meant to be, that the ritual only made it easier for them to find each other, and I think they both think that this was all worth it.

There are also multiple endings, some being early deaths and some being ones that make it to the very end. I liked all of the endings and I actually the true ending my first playthrough. I teared up a bit and I was so happy for them. Fun fact, the true ending has a couple alternate scenes that can happen depending on your actions during the game (I even got one of them when I was double checking something) and they were all so sweet that I can’t decide which one is my favorite. But man, is one of the endings so devastating. Especially so if you think back on it, maybe play through it again, and notice some possible signs that makes the confusing conclusion not so confusing.

I also want to mention how good the writing style is and that I really liked it. It has a bit of a weird flair to it that made it unique and the game’s writer did a great job at naturally conveying information both directly and indirectly. It says a lot that “I” never refers to The Witch as her sister outside of telling us that she’s her sister, that their brother rarely is mentioned and you can tell his relationship with his sisters are different based on how they refer to him, and the way you know just enough about all the characters that appear that you pick up on the implications and foreshadowing. There are also some pretty funny lines sprinkled in, which fit really well with the mood of the scene without taking away from it.

The only negative that I have is that in one of the ending paths, you can have one story item that you shouldn’t have. I’m not sure if it’s intended or not, as there’s one ending branch where it brings in the fact that you don’t have it, but I just handwaved it as something that was retrieved during a timeskip.

Also, one of the complaints that I had, space bar activating auto mode, isn’t a thing in the full game! Yay!

To tie everything up, I have to say that I really liked the music and art style. The soundtrack was perfect for this game as I felt it gave an otherworldy, kinda ethereal, vibe. Of course, they also fit with whatever mood that the scene calls for. Like kicking it up when a tense scene happens or being creepy to really make the chills run down your spine during a chilling scene. There aren’t that many sound effects, but they were used really well here. I also really liked the art style. It’s so unique, I don’t know about anyone else but it caught my eye, and I liked the character designs here (especially all of the protagonist’s sprites). I think one of my favorite things that I noticed was that Him’s jacket has an eye on it, which I took as it symbolizing how Him really sees “I” and vice versa.

Verdict

I loved Zero Sum Heart. The story really hooks you in, it’s engaging, the love story is really sweet, and the world that this game takes place in was pretty interesting. The characters were written really well too and man, the endings that this game has. Not to mention how good the soundtrack and unique art style is. This game is truly beautiful, not only on the surface but also deep down as it asks a lot of questions about love, what it means for different people, and the journey that “I” goes through during the month that this game takes place.

Zero Sum Heart is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a new visual novel to sink their teeth into. Please give this one a chance as it’s definitely worth it.