Death Match Love Comedy! Review

An apple a day keeps the Tororin away!

I’ve been looking forward to Death Match Love Comedy ever since it was announced that it was going to be localized. I just found the concept of a protagonist blowing up whenever a girl confesses to him to be pretty funny and I even found the trailer to be pretty funny as well. It seemed like a visual novel I would enjoy and sometimes you just need a lighthearted comedic story to break up the serious ones. Then I learned it was from the same writer as Raging Loop and it sold me on this game even more. And recently I even learned this game is also connected to Raging Loop, which is pretty cool. Have I played Raging Loop? No, not yet. Though, hopefully I will before the year ends. This does mean I can’t really talk about the connections between the games, but I will say that you don’t have to have played Raging Loop to enjoy this game. Which, considering Death Match Love Comedy released before Raging Loop, makes sense. Though, now that I think about it, I wonder if playing this game first and then Raging Loop was intended and the criticisms I heard people have with Raging Loop is due to Death Match Love Comedy only now being localized. Hmmm.

Before we get into my review, I wanted to first mention that I will try my best not to spoil anything that happens in the second half of the game. It will play a part when I talk about my thoughts on the story, but I won’t mention any specifics. Just what it overall did for the story and my personal thoughts if I feel the need to mention specific events (which I’ll keep vague).

Well, let’s get into it. So, how was Death Match Love Comedy and is it worth picking up?

In Death Match Love Comedy we jump into the head of Kei Yagi as his life starts to take a crazy turn. Kei is a teenage boy attending Misasagi High, a not quite prestigious school but does provide generous accommodations for high achieving students, and if you asked how he would describe himself in two words he’d say cool and cute. Granted, most of the time that’s not exactly the case haha. It’s been roughly two weeks since school started and while Kei can’t exactly say his life has been normal, I’d say his time at high school has been so far. Sure, his legal guardian is still the eccentric Suzu Toro who is the school’s nurse/physician and is also commonly referred to as the school’s unofficial mascot Tororin by the students, but Kei has made a friend in the form of Asuka Hirakoba. The first proper scene we actually see, and is the one where all the main characters get introduced in, starts with Kei and Asuka having a passionate discussion about boobs and what resembles them the most based on both appearance/feel and metaphorically. After roping in some girls into the discussion and thoroughly annoying another, something that Kei never would have expected happened. A girl suddenly comes in asking to meet Kei in the courtyard to talk in private, clearly hinting at wanting to confess her feelings for him.

And it’s not just any girl, but THE Rumiko Tsuno. The elegant, sophisticated girl who is also known as the Priestess Princess due to being an heir to a shrine and being a top class cutie. She’s also the girl Kei has a crush on, so much so that he hasn’t been able to say a word to her. Is he dreaming? However, before he’s able to pack up his things and head to the courtyard another girl walks in. One that he has a long history with. Otoba Shirotsume. She’s the polar opposite to Rumiko both in how Otoba and Kei have known each other since they were kids and the very girl that takes every chance she gets in beating him up. Which that last part is actually his fault due to what he did to her while at school. After punching Kei in the gut, the plot twist of the century for Kei happens as Otoba hints at wanting to confess to him as well and, when Kei’s like no way, she suplexes him and drags him to the courtyard herself. When he next comes to he finds himself in front of the two girls as the soft rays of the sunset casting over the courtyard. As he can’t contemplate the idea of these two having business with him, they both confess their love to Kei at the same time. Where, right as the last word leaves their lips, Kei proceeds to explode. Like, literally explode.

Don’t worry though, it gets reversed as a strange entity connected to this phenomena gives Kei a freebie, or a free trial in its own words. After time is restored to before it happened, Kei is in total shock and, as he looks at the girls, he finds them in shock too. It seems like Otoba and Rumiko remember what happened as well. And not only that, but four other classmates stumble out from their hiding spot. The very people he was just talking to in the classroom: Asuka Hirakoba, Shinoka Kudan, Miya Togo, and Ryuto Arisu. Well, I guess explaining it away as some kind of stress induced hallucination is out of the picture.

From this point on, these seven characters form an unlikely group to get to the bottom of what happened. Despite most of them not being directly involved, everyone technically has some sort of connection to either Kei, Otoba, and/or Rumiko, they all team up not only to investigate the curse Kei suddenly finds himself with, but to help prevent it from being set off. After all, the warning lights Kei finds on his arm when he wakes up and the entity tied to the curse isn’t sufficient enough when the curse seems to also cause the girls to go into a love crazy state where they try to confess to Kei by any means necessary during the evening (which the others decide to call it Berserker Mode). They may not have all started hanging out together without the Death Match Love Comedy curse, as Rumiko dubs it as, but now they’ll be spending a lot of time together figuring it all out and stopping any explosions from happening. Hey who knows, maybe they’ll even see each other as friends.

There are many questions that pop up as you’re playing through the game and will get explored and answered as you progress through the story.. Why do Otoba and Rumiko suddenly have feelings for Kei despite their history (or lack thereof)? Why does Kei explode when he gets confessed to? What’s the entity that seems to be connected to the curse and how does it play a part in it? Why do the girls go berserk during the evening? What caused Kei to be cursed? Is there a way to break the curse? Is there perhaps more to this than what meets the eye? How does everything connect?

I am going to start out a little bit negative here on my thoughts on the game’s story as I do feel it’s the best way to express what I thought about the game as I was playing and afterwards. I actually didn’t enjoy part of the first, I’d say, quarter of the game. To the point where I was honestly contemplating about dropping this game and was lowkey regretting my decision to pick this game up. I will say that the game starts out with a bang, literally and figuratively. I love how the game starts and it fits with this game being a comedy. The whole “Welp, I exploded. How did I get into this situation you ask? Well, let me take you back to a bit before this happened” is peak comedy writing that honestly reminded me of comedy movies that I enjoyed. I also do think that the way everyone’s introduced and the curse was also well done. However, at a certain point I did find myself not really enjoying it, feeling a bit bored, and even a bit annoyed. I’m not quite sure what to pinpoint this on. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace or mood. Maybe I didn’t like how it was being written. Maybe it was due to no progress really seeming to be made. Maybe it was due to me not finding a lot of the jokes funny. Whichever the case, I did not like it. However, I thought about a previous visual novel that I didn’t like at all at first, but then came to really love by the end. I asked myself, “What if Death Match Love Comedy just needed some time to cook?” So I kept reading and man, am I glad I did. After a while, once the game started to refocus on solving the mystery and the group started becoming friends and having fun hanging out, I started to enjoy the game. My enjoyment also stayed steady and kept climbing until it hit an all time high at the whole ending sequence of the game. Death Match Love Comedy is so amazing.

You just got to trust the process with Death Match Love Comedy. You have to let it cook. Once you go into the latter half of the game, more specifically once you get to the True Ending branch, you start to realize that everything was intentional. There is a certain beauty in the way the story is told here and I think the best way I can describe it without spoiling anything is how much the game stews in the mundanity of everyday life. The whole game has a slice-of-life comedy tone to it, with it dominating the first half and settling to being an undertone in the second half. Kei and the others are living a more or less normal school life. The crazy thing is, the game’s writer (amphibian) manages to make the more supernatural elements also feel mundane. I definitely think this is thanks to the first half of the game and the whole love comedy vibe this game has. The curse is introduced very early on and while it’s absolutely crazy that Kei explodes when he gets confessed to and he has warning lights to alert him whenever Otoba and Rumiko are around; it just feels like a part of their lives. Those directly involved have to live with it and figure out how to avoid triggering the curse; while also trying not to be too suspicious to those outside of their group. It’s just part of their lives now and it quickly just becomes normal. This game also has a lot of really subtle foreshadowing which is hidden by the mundanity of life and the craziness of the curse. You can still pick up on it, but it just feels all normal that you just chalk it up to that’s just how it is or it’s just their quirk.

It’s also kind of crazy considering how well the game transitions between the first half and the reveals that happen in the second half. Death Match Love Comedy is definitely a game where if you looked up spoilers it seems like it’s not talking about the same game. However, once you experience the reveals for yourself, it makes a whole lot of sense. Which I feel is also thanks to the curse being introduced so early on. The curse is obviously a supernatural phenomena and thanks to the narrative making it so normal, as well as some other aspects that you’ll soon learn about, to these characters and to you, the reveals that happen in the second half also feel normal. It doesn’t seem outlandish, but a natural progression to learning more about the world as you already have experience with it. If that makes sense. This game also deals with some complicated terminology, which is confusing but also makes sense at the same time. Which really goes with the whole “this is really hard to explain to those not in the know already” that you’re told when it gets explained. This also brings the mundanity theme along as those that are in that world find it normal (trying not to spoil anything here haha). And in terms of unraveling the whole mystery, it also follows this confusing but also at the same time makes a whole lot of sense through line. You find out that a lot more is connected to the curse, which the game foreshadows it all masterfully without you realizing it, and it’s kind of like a tangled web. There are a lot of aspects that are but also aren’t connected and the best part is that once you know everything, everything just clicks. Everything falls into place and it all makes sense. I’m probably seeming a little bit contradictory, but I feel that’s the point. The game’s premise itself is contradictory so why not make the very core of the game that as well.

Also, I don’t know how the game did it, but there is one element of the whole mystery that I just did not notice until I’m pretty sure the game wanted me to. I have no idea how I overlooked it, but man did it enhance the mystery for me.

Of course, the humor is going to be really hit or miss. I don’t think I found a lot of jokes funny, but I’m not going to lie there were a good amount of jokes that did. And after a while I transitioned to being that one friend that goes “oh my gosh” as they shake their head with a hand on their face (which the position depends on the situation), but with a secret smile. In DMLC terms, I basically became Ryuto haha. Other than that, there were a few lines with the female characters where you can tell a man wrote them, but the vast majority of the time the female characters are well written.

I do also really appreciate how Kei isn’t a super pervy character. He is a teenage boy, so he is a little bit. Heck, the game starts with Kei having a passionate discussion about what resembles boobs the most. However, I’d say it’s more on the normal side and I didn’t feel that the pervy thoughts or comments got in the way of important scenes. Yeah, Kei notices the fact that Miya has big boobs, but at the same time he doesn’t have pervy thoughts when he’s concerned about one of the female characters or saving them. It’s always at a time where it’s a more slice of life, comedy vibes where it pops in and it’s never at a time where there’s tense moments. It is also used in a way to help show you the dynamics of the characters at times, which really works and is a bit strange to say/read until you play this game. It just works.

There is a specific event that happens that I won’t spoil, but I really wanted to mention. This specific event could have easily, easily, been the “main character has pervy thoughts and does pervy actions the whole time” segment, but Death Match Love Comedy actually doesn’t fall into this pit that you do see many other stories fall into. Kei actually ends up being very respectful, he actually ends up empathizing with the female character involved and in general women, and the only time it goes down the pervy route is so he can accomplish his goal and it’s very brief every time. It is also comedic, but I feel it’s more derived by how absurd the situation is rather than just relying on the player finding these pervy moments funny (by the way, I actually did find it pretty funny). I actually really appreciate the direction this specific event went down. At this point of the story I was really enjoying my time with the game, so don’t think it was the only reason why I’m very positive on this game now, but it did stop my opinion from dropping. If there’s something I hate more than pervert characters that a story keeps shoving into your face, it’s a pervert main character that you have no choice but to hear their pervy thoughts. I’m very happy to say that Kei ended up just being a normal teenage boy that likes girls a healthy amount. And this can be extended to the other male characters both in the main cast and ones that just have brief cameos.

I do want to end this with my thoughts on the endings and the climax as a whole. The bad endings are all great and I do recommend going for all of them. A lot of them are pretty funny, with some of them being really fitting the more serious tone that it transitions to in the second half. Now for the endings proper, there are four heroine endings and a True Ending. I’m pretty sure the True Ending isn’t locked and you can technically get it first, but I really recommend getting the heroine endings first. Not only does it help with the slowly unraveling the mystery aspect, but there is some foreshadowing that happens (also, there’s some foreshadowing in the bad endings as well so that’s another reason to get all of them). The way you get the True Ending isn’t obvious at first, but it is once you start going down it and the narrative focuses on it. The best hint I can think of is that it helps Kei grow as a character and discover things about himself he didn’t know. Anyway, the True Ending branch is so amazing. The whole game leads up to it and just the way everything happens is so amazing. It’s absolutely peak writing and I could not stop reading. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and I was even fake chewing my nails cause it was so tense (I was just mimicking the motion against my joints and I just want to say there are other moments within the story that had me in the same way but not as much as the game’s climax). I even found myself tearing up towards the end of the game without realizing it twice for different reasons. It puts you through a lot of emotions, I tell ya.

Okay, okay, now the nature of the endings. I will say that all of the heroine endings and the True Ending are open ended endings and there is some sequel baiting here. Don’t fret though, it’s the good kind that actually works. This is due to the endings all feeling satisfying, even the heroine endings where it ends it early. Sure there are a lot of mysteries to solve when you get a heroine ending, but the main conflict that you had to deal with is solved, it’s optimistic and makes you feel that they will be just fine, and they have a clear goal where you’ll know what they’ll be doing. Plus, you know there’s still more to the game and getting these heroine endings also foreshadows some big players in the mystery. For the True Ending, it’s also the same with its open ending. The game ends on a really satisfying note due to the main mystery and all of the key points that were connected being revealed and solved. It also ends on a really optimistic note, with you knowing what they’re planning on doing next, that really makes you feel that everything is going to turn out fine. The only threads that are left, which were used to sequel bait, were things that gave more context to things, but weren’t exactly needed to solve the mystery. The ending is still satisfying and it feels finished. To me, it didn’t feel like it took away from the ending and I think it really helps that you can easily overlook it and the only reason why you know about these hanging threads is because Tororin’s Nest brings them up.

Oh, and I almost forgot that I wanted to mention that I also really appreciate how the main story doesn’t have meta elements at all. There are certainly points where it does give you that impression at first, but it does well in giving you an explanation so it fits. Now the Tororin’s Nest segments are meta, but I don’t count them as part of the main story and those are pretty fun and helpful.

Well, after my passionate thoughts on the game’s story that I hope everyone enjoyed reading, let’s go into the other aspects of Death Match Love Comedy. Of course with this being a visual novel, choices will pop up every so often. There are two different types of choices: instant effect and delayed effect. They’re pretty much what you’d expect them to be based on their names. You’ll instantly see the effect of the instant effect choices and these are more associated with the early Bad Ends. These are front loaded to the first half of the game. While you won’t see the effect for delayed effect choices until later on when it becomes relevant in the story. These are also called switch choices by the game as the choice you pick will either switch it on or off, which will determine where you branch off at when the effect comes into play. These are back loaded to the last half of the game and are used to determine which branch you go down when the game starts branching off for the different endings.

On the subject of endings, each ending will give you an option to go back to the main menu, get a hint from Tororin’s Nest, or just let you go to the flowchart as the menu is left available for you to still use. I definitely recommend going to Tororin’s Nest. Tororin’s Nest basically is kind of like a meta epilogue with an omnipotent, chibi version of Tororin who will discuss what you got yourself into; give you a diagnosis on what caused it, why it happened, and in the latter half how to get to the different branches; and then tells you how big the explosion was and the casualties. I have to admit that Tororin’s Nest did annoy me at first, but after the first couple they started to really grow on me and got pretty funny.

Oh, and the four heroine endings also have epilogues that hint at some of the major players of the mystery and how their personal goals are affected based on what happened and the state everything is in.

There is also a flowchart that you can check at any time as well, which is organized by day, allows you to go back to any scene, and will let you see how each choice branches. Lastly, there is the Tips tab. The Tips tab is more of a Notes tab where Kei will take note of information that he learns throughout the game. You’ll get a notification whenever a new Tip is added (you can turn this off), you can look at them at any time, and you can filter them by read/unread, date, and/or by topic.

Other than that, there is, of course, a CG gallery where you can look at all the CGs that you encountered throughout the game; as well as a list of all the endings where you can see which ones you don’t have yet, see the ones you did, and even read through them again if you want to. Once you get the True Ending, two things get unlocked. First up is the media gallery, which lets you listen to the various music tracks that the game features (and I honestly was surprised with it being a long list). Secondly, five Extra Stories get unlocked plus a bonus one. One Extra Story lets us see what happened when during the girls’ day out that the girls never really tell the boys what happened despite the in-jokes that they now had. Two of them are related to specific characters (which are huge spoilers) and take place during the story so you can see what they were doing and thinking at specific points of the story. Two of them take place before the events of the game and gives you more insight on what you learn during the story. Lastly, the one bonus Extra Story is just a short and silly story just for fun. They’re all pretty good and are all (bar the bonus story) about an hour depending on your reading speed. You don’t need to read them if you don’t want to, as they’re not required to read to understand the story, but they do give you some added context that does enhance the story and the game’s lore.

One particular Extra Story also brings another connection to Raging Loop, hints that there was a cameo in a particular scene (which I did notice and wondered was significant about the game specifically pointing them out for a line until it got referenced in this Extra Story and looked at the character sprites for Raging Loop), and clears some confusion by stating two similar but different codenames are in fact two different people.I have also read that Raging Loop’s Extra Stories also hints at what gets revealed in Death Match Love Comedy so that’s fun. Though, it makes me even more sad that we never got a third game as it does seem like they were setting up what to expect to see in the third game.

In addition, once you get all the endings (the four heroine endings, the true ending, and all 20 bad endings), Bad End 21 gets unlocked in the ending gallery. This is basically a meta post-game epilogue, which may have been added in when this got remastered based on one of the lines of dialogue, where the characters all mess around and discuss a few last things. Aside from this having an achievement attached to it, I’d say it’s worth reading it.

As for negatives, there are a few. Like I said before, the first quarter of the game can be a bit boring to get through depending on the person, but it does soon get better. There are a few things that were a bit inconsistent and confusing in the first half (and the different kind of confusing that I talked about earlier). I did also wish that there was more background art and maybe a few more CGs. Like, I had no idea how the school infirmary is supposed to be laid out (which does become important later on). While I do feel part of my confusion on it is due to how it’s described, I’m sure another part of my confusion is just due to school differences. Switch 6 also seems to have been messed up as on the flowchart for the scene where the choice pops up it’ll say it’s switched off, but the game treats it as it’s on (and vice versa). Tororin’s Nest dialogue also references picking a specific option for Switch 6 as switching it on despite the flowchart showing it as off on that scene. I’m a bit surprised this wasn’t fixed as I got the impression from looking at Japanese guides for this game that it has been a bug since 2020. There is also this minor character named Nanba that I did not like. I originally wasn’t going to put her here as she’s tolerable in the main story, but one of the Extra Stories has her as half the focus and I just couldn’t stand her and her thoughts.

Lastly, I am so bummed that this never got a sequel and most likely never will. Death Match Love Comedy is seriously so good and while the ending is satisfying I really want to know what happens to these characters next and find out what’s up with the other stuff that the game touches on. I guess this one is a more positive negative considering you know a game is good when its ending not only turns out to be so amazing that you immediately want to play the sequel due to the open ended nature of it and some sequel baiting, but also dodge the negative aspects of the ending having those elements where it’s also fine. Still stinks though.

As for the game’s localization, I’d say it’s great. There are a few mistakes that I noticed in the latter half of the game, but that’s it.

To tie this up in a nice bow, the sound and visuals are great here. I have to admit that certain tracks were a bit annoying during the beginning, but they did grow on me and I found them pretty nice to listen to while reading. The soundtrack does give you the vibe of this being a love comedy a lot of the time and the other times are to emphasize the tense moments. The sound effects were also well done and well placed, especially with the loud heartbeat effect that comes in whenever Kei’s heart starts going haywire whenever his heart skips a beat or starts beating loudly due to the Death Match Love Comedy curse taking effect or another reason which I feel is a spoiler. It’s a shame this doesn’t have at least partial voice acting as there were a lot of scenes that I felt could have been really elevated with voice acting. As for the visuals, the artwork here is so pretty. The background artwork that we do have looks great, having the perfect amount of detail while keeping the style so it doesn’t feel out of place, the CGs look amazing and I couldn’t help but screenshot my favorites, and all the characters look so pretty. Also, I love the game’s OP and I couldn’t help but watch it every time I opened the game.

I did see the original character sprites through VNDB and aside from feeling a bit of nostalgia due to the art style, they all were beautifully updated. They all kept their charm and personality as the art style and even their poses were updated. The only aspect I’d say I wish they kept was Ryuto’s old hair color considering it fits Otoba calling him seaweed hair more, but after playing the full game I’m sure they changed it so it could fit more within all the other elements of the story (it makes sense once you know). Okay, I kinda lied. I also think Suzu’s glasses were drawn too line as every time she popped up on screen I read the nose bridge of her glasses as a nose bandage.

Verdict

Death Match Love Comedy may have a bit of a rough patch, but man is it such an amazing visual novel. This is a visual novel where you just need to trust the storytelling process and remember that this pretty much has a slice-of-life love comedy tone throughout it all. I really enjoyed the game’s story; the writing style was nice to read and fits really well with the story being told here; all the characters are all well written and reveal to be multidimensional as you hang out with them more (oops I was so passionate about the story I forgot to mention this); I loved the dynamics everyone had with each other; the foreshadowing is really well done here; and everything just comes together and gets built up so well that it makes it seem effortless. And that’s not even going into how pretty the game looks and the nice soundtrack!

This is definitely a must play visual novel, and even more so if you’ve also played Raging Loop or have it in your backlog. It’s such a shame this never got a sequel and most likely never will because this game is so amazing I was ready to immediately buy the sequel despite knowing there isn’t one.