My Sweet! Housemate Review

My cannibal husbando

I honestly can’t believe I didn’t know about this game before I played the demo for Online Obsession. It worked out in the end though, as I played it now, came in after it had a full rework and got additional content, and I was able to use it as a way to tide me over as I wait for the developer’s next game to come out. Plus, sometimes you just need a short, but sweet game. Well, let’s just jump right into the review!

…Also I just now realized I’ve been referring to this game as “My Sweet! Roommate” instead of Housemate until now. Whoops haha.

In My Sweet! Housemate, you jump into the shoes of a protagonist who has not been having the best of luck so far. Since you technically play as yourself here, as the protagonist doesn’t have a canon name and I usually use my own name in games, I’ll just refer to her as “you”. Anyway, you’ve been homeless for nearly a year trying to stay safe, keep your job, and save up so you can finally have a roof over your head. However, while you finally have enough money you can’t seem to find a place. Well, until now as the universe has finally decided to cash in all of your accumulated luck: you managed to find and apply to a listing the minute that it went up. Granted, the listing is a bit suspicious and you’ll be living with a rando, but hey you’ll take it. It also doesn’t take long for you to be messaged back saying that you’ll be getting it if you’ll sign the contract in the next half hour.

Despite how shady the listing was, the apartment turned out to be normal and, well, perfect. Even the person you’ll be living with, Seung-min Kim, seems pretty normal and nice underneath his tired and scruffy exterior. It seems pretty evident that the listing was shady because Seung-min was overworked and, plus, it worked in your favor as it allowed you to snatch it up before anyone else did. So, you sign the contract and you relax as you finally have a roof under your head.

However, the truth had to come out at some point and of course your luck had to have a catch to it. That very same night you signed the contract you learned the truth about Seung-min in possibly the worst way you could have. He’s a cannibal and you just walked into him butchering his latest victim. How will you proceed know this and…how will he proceed now that his secret is out?

As you progress through the story, you’ll of course have dialogue choices which will affect the next few lines of dialogue, let you learn more about Seung-min, or will even put you down the path for any of the 10 possible endings you can get. I’d definitely say that getting all the endings are worth it. There are also a few minigames that happen here and there. It’s nothing too big, they’re quick and you just have to click, but it does help immerse you and they’re pretty nice. My favorite has to be the last one.

I really enjoyed the story here, so much that I wished we had more. I really liked the premise, I enjoyed reading through the events that our protagonist ended up in, and man did they nail the dark humor here. I also loved the writing style and maybe it’s because I played the demo for Online Obsession before playing this game, but I found it pretty distinct. You can really tell how much the writers grew between games! The dark humor was also perfect, it manages to both sound like a threat and be a joke depending on the situation and how much you know Seung-min. This game definitely has that horror undertone, but it did manage to make me laugh multiple times. Don’t worry, it’s not just all dark humor. There may be some lines some may not like, but I did find that the majority of jokes landed for me. I did also enjoy all the endings. There’s a good range of romantic/platonic endings, funny endings, and lowkey horrifying endings and they were all worth getting. Oh, and I will say that this game does a good job with pacing. Everything is paced well, the timeskips were placed well and what happens during them are well explained, and no scene felt like it was too short or long.

As for Seung-min, I really liked his character. He really grows on you the more that you learn about him and interact with him. Sure he’s a cannibal, a little scruffy, can be a bit creepy, and can get a bit impulsive when he’s famished, but he is honestly pretty charming once you get past that and he is pretty considerate and mindful. And you even grow on him to the point where he wants to share his world with you which is really sweet. It was so cute seeing the signs that he’s falling in love with you. I really enjoyed hanging out with him and getting to know him as I played and picked different choices. Oh, and the way the protagonist is written is great as it both leans towards comedy and matches Seung-min’s energy well. His nonchalant nature, paired with him mostly wearing a neutral expression and awkwardness, pairs really well with the protagonist’s personality who is very expressive, to the point where you don’t even need to see her face to tell what faces she must be making, and is pretty sociable. Plus they both are considerate to their housemate. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it feels believable that they would fall in love or that they’ll do what happens in the other endings (which I won’t spoil). Also he likes cooking! Though, he really needs to stop wearing his suit while, er, preparing the meat.

I never knew that I wanted a cannibal love interest until now. Seung-min was just too charming and now I’m going to hope that one day we’ll see an Otome game with a charming cannibal LI. A girl can dream.

After you see specific scenes and endings, you’ll also unlock some artwork in the game’s art gallery! Based on some research, they’re all artworks that the developers made and posted to social media and you’re able to see most of them in one place here (there are a few that weren’t included, like the few short comics and one that’s a My Sweet! Housemate and Online Obsession crossover).

As for downsides for My Sweet! Housemate, I can only think of two. These fall more under “this would have been nice” or just a minor inconvenience though, as it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game. The first is that you will have to do the minigame sections over and over as you’re going through trying to get all the endings. This isn’t a big deal, as they’re all pretty simple, but the chomping minigame can be a bit annoying. Just make sure to save before choices and such. Other than that, I did wish there was a CG gallery so I could look back at CGs that both pop up during a playthrough and the one that represents the ending that you got.

To wrap this up, the visuals and sound here were great. I really liked the art style here and I loved the look of Seung-min’s character sprite and the CGs here. As well as the objects and the food artwork, which definitely had my mouth watering with how good the food looked. There’s even some visual comedy, like with Seung-min’s shirts. The backgrounds are simple, but it works here as it blends in well. I also like how each part of the apartment you see is paired with a specific color and how it uses that comic polka dot style so it doesn’t look flat.

The music and the sound effects here were also pretty pleasant. I thought I wouldn’t like the voice sound effect, but it was pretty nice and it does help give the illusion of how they would sound if they were voiced.

Verdict

So, yeah, all in all I unsurprisingly ended up really enjoying My Sweet! Housemate. I liked the story, the writing style, I liked the humor here, the endings were all so good, and I found Seung-min pretty charming. I didn’t even really mind that you only get the beginning of their love story as everything is paced and written so well. You also know when a game is really good when you wished there was more as you’re not quite ready to leave the characters, but also still feel satisfied. I would definitely recommend My Sweet! Housemate. It’s the perfect short, but sweet visual novel and is a great horror comedy for those craving it.

I’m also honestly looking forward to Online Obsession even more now!