Pivot of Hearts Review

Why not both?

I’m probably starting this out with what can be taken as controversial, but I’m not into polyamorous relationships. I personally wouldn’t want to be in one and I do not subscribe to the idea that it’s perfect and solves all the problems. However, it’s not my business what kind of relationship someone has with their significant other and if it works for you, that’s great. Just don’t be demeaning towards me. It also probably isn’t a surprise that I haven’t interacted with that much media that had a poly relationship. Only two really come into mind, but there could be others where it was more of a background thing or just not coming to mind right now. Plus, I don’t think there has been a dating sim that included a poly relationship (whether it was side characters being in one or an ending you can get). So Pivot of Hearts is somewhat of a first for me.

Also, while Pivot of Hearts isn’t an otome game I’m still going to use some otome terminology and review it like I review otomes (but with some changes of course).

In Pivot of Hearts, you jump into the mind of André Wén Xiàn, or simply goes by the name Wén. He’s also known as edgelord magical boy heheh (yeah I’m never gonna let him live that down). Taking place in Brazil during June, Wén finds himself neck deep in his work. You see, Wén is a programmer and he is actually developing games for a small, young indie game studio. He’s even one of the oldest employees and was there when it was being built (which I’m not sure if that makes him a co-founder or not). We never hear the name of the indie studio, but they do focus on mobile games and over the couple years they had some projects that just didn’t pan out. Thankfully, they did release a mobile game that was addictive and successful enough that it not only helped keep the lights on, but allows them to invest time and effort into a game with more creative freedom. That game is called Healing Quest, which is a simple RPG that’s described as taking an original take on the classic genre while keeping that nostalgic factor. Development started six months ago, but that doesn’t mean Wén doesn’t have game breaking bugs to contend with and a whole backlog of bugs and tasks he needs to get into. Not to mention that the studio is so small he has to wear both the lead programmer and lead artist hat (despite having rudimentary art skills and not knowing the best way to describe things to those on the art team). Thankfully, the success of their previous game also allows them to hire someone new. Someone that is an artist and can lead the art team as the new lead artist; taking some weight off of Wén’s plate and helping the studio become a more well oiled machine.

Don’t worry, it’s not all work here. Bárbara, one of Wén old friends, texts him out of the blue to catch up and offer him a seat at her table for a TTRPG called Castles and Champions (yep, there are video game references here and don’t worry they’re not obnoxious) as she’s cooking up a campaign. Remembering all the times he played with Bárbara back in the day, which by the way she’s the game master, he agrees. He knows that there are two other people joining, but he’s willing to still do it despite Bárbara wanting to keep it a secret. Once session day comes, he’s greeted by another old friend, Etsuko who he drifted apart from and hasn’t seen or talked to for a decade. Giving him a chance at reconnecting with someone he thought he would never see again while also playing a cool campaign.

As you progress through the story, you’ll join Wén as he hangs out with friends, deal with the stress of an upcoming deadline as he tries to make a dent in his backlog of bugs, reconnects with old friends, play a totally not DnD campaign, has memories from his high school days surface again despite wanting to bury them deep in his mind, contend with nightmares as he struggles with aspects of his past, has fun, and find some unlikely romance. Wén never would have expected it, but he’s in for one interesting month.

Before going into my thoughts on, well, everything, there are a couple gameplay aspects that I want to mention. Pivot of Hearts is a visual novel so you will have choices pop up often for you to pick what Wén does or what he will say (and they do actually represent what he says). Though, there is a twist. Pivot of Hearts has a tarot-based card system in place. It’s basically just a mix of regular cards with the classic suits paired with Minor Arcana to give them meaning. Which in turn, has them associated with the different choices you can pick. Barbara is the one that introduces this to you right at the beginning. Clubs, associated with fire and creative energy, is tapping into your motivations or finding the impulse to move you forward. Or impetus as Wén summarizes it. Diamonds, associated with earth, is about putting in steady effort not wealth. It’s also summarized as steadiness. Hearts is associated with water and about getting in touch with your feelings and opening your head. Which, you guessed it, is easily summarized into emotion. And finally, Spades which is associated with wind and is all about dialogue, reason, knowledge, and truth. Also known as logic.

There are two different choice types you can get. There are the ones where you will gain cards and ones where you will spend cards. Not counting the tutorial segment, the two choices that don’t give or take anything, and the confession choices, you actually do get an equal amount of gain and spend choices. You know when you’ll gain cards when all the choices require no cards. It is hard to tell what cards you’ll get, as you’re not told before picking and it often doesn’t give you what you expect, but I did like how when you are given them, you’re given a reason why through what Wén took away from that choice. You will then get to spend these when choices that require them pop up. You can go down that branch if you have the required cards (like two Diamonds or a Spade and a Club) which can lead you to a branch in the conversation, lead you to a CG, or even lead you to a whole new scene. However, you won’t be able to pick it if you don’t have enough cards. There will always be a choice that doesn’t require any cards…but it’s not an ideal choice.

There is a Love Catch system here. The choices that pop up while you’re in a scene with Etsuko or Cauã will give you a chance at raising your affection with them…or lower it. Usually, you’ll know if it will as the majority of choices that require you to have the needed cards are during moments where you gain affection. However, there are a good amount of these where you’ll get multiple choices and you have to pick which one you think the other would like. If a choice does raise affection or lower it, you are notified soon after if you got an affection point (or love point as this game calls them in an achievement description) or if they didn’t like it and you got penalized for it.

Well, it’s time to go into the love interests (or LIs)! Technically the LIs here have no character routes. Pivot of Hearts just has a main story and picking who Wén is asking out is basically treated as a choice branch that is remembered (haha that last part was a bit cheesy). That said, there are five endings that you can get depending on your choices. Two good endings where Wén does end up with one of the LIs, a locked third good ending that unlocks once you get one of the aforementioned good endings, and two bad endings. I’m not going to spoil what the locked good ending entails, but knowing that this includes a poly relationship…you can probably guess.

Etsuko

First up is Etsuko! Technically you don’t officially meet her until after you meet Cauã, but she does technically appear first through a flashback. Also she has seniority over Cauã as she’s Wén’s high school friend. Thought I was going to say childhood friend huh? Well, that title goes to Barbara (I think). Anyway, Wén met her sometime during high school and they were good friends and spent a lot of time together alongside Bárbara as they all had similar interests. However, it changed when Wén started going out with his ex where they hung out and talked less and less until…they stopped talking altogether. Then a decade passes with them not talking. Wén probably thought he would never see her again, but thanks to Bárbara extending an invitation to join her table for a Castles and Champions campaign he got to reconnect with her after all those years. It even goes smoother than Wén thought it would as they just slide into their old dynamic (though if you’re eagle eyed you’ll notice that Etsuko does keep some distance up until a certain point).

Etsuko turns out to be the same as she ever was, which brings Wén comfort, but at the same time different. Etsuko is a very familiar and welcomed presence in Wén’s life, but it’s almost like he’s learning about her all over again. She’s still as passionate and thoughtful as she once was, while still having that bite to her when she needs to chew someone out. She’s still interested and involved in the same things as before, like CnC (totally not DnD lol), playing campaigns with Bárbara as the game master, still in a band playing drums (a different band than before, but still in a band), and she still practices and performs Taiko. She still enjoys knowing that her friends like her performances, she’s still strong, and she still tries to keep it cool when she gets super nervous. However, Etsuko is also different than she was 10 years ago. She’s friends with other people and she has history with Bárbara and her new friends that Wén is left out of due to being gone from her life for 10 years. She also had her own growth and came to realizations that also helped her forgive Wén. It was honestly really nice reconnecting and relearning things about Etsuko. That sounds weird since she’s just a character, but the game does a good job with making you feel like you know her past self through the flashbacks.

You can definitely tell that Wén liked Etsuko back in high school, and with her as a LI you already know that he still likes her, but does she like him still? Or are they different people now and thus her feelings aren’t the same anymore?

Cauã

Next up, and last, is Cauã. He’s the new guy at the indie game studio Wén works at. Cauã has been an artist for as long as he can remember and he’s coming in as the new lead artist. You don’t know this at first, but the studio ended up very lucky that he wanted to come onto the project as he was more than qualified. Cauã is super passionate, he’s been working with pixel art since he was a kid, he simplifies designs and animates really well, and he used to play games that used pixel art when he was a kid. He actually wanted to come onto the project because he found Healing Quest’s art style nostalgic, cute, and heartwarming and he wanted to be a part of that. Cauã also ends up being a good set of fresh eyes as you can get moments where he helps Wén spot or realize a mistake in the game’s code. Cauã also helps Wén become closer to his coworkers, which naturally broadens his world as his friend circle gets bigger.

Cauã is someone that easily gets along and befriends other people pretty fast (even with people he’s the boss of now) as he has the knack of making others comfortable around him. Cauã is sociable, outgoing, cool, suave, and he’s so nice. He’s so good that I ended up liking him really quickly. Which isn’t that big of an achievement since I get attached to characters pretty easily, but for Cauã in particular it helps enforce that aspect of his character more as you’re not just told and shown that he makes fast friends, but you also experience it yourself. Although, as much as Cauã is like a polar opposite of Wén, he soon finds out that they might be more similar than he realizes. They both can get goofy, both had and still have the same interests, they both get embarrassed and shy (granted Cauã less so), and he does feel lost and doesn’t know what to really do when he gets left out. Cauã is a wonderful guy and even I was falling for him as the story went on and you learn more about him and Wén hangs out with him more.

Cauã and Wén don’t hit it off right away, but once they do they become fast friends and, well, Wén does develop some romantic feelings for him. You will even notice before Wén even does. This does confuse Wén a bit as he never thought that he would be attracted to another man. It also does seem that Cauã feels the same way.

Usually, I would rank the LIs based on the combination of how much I liked them and their route, but for Pivot of Hearts they’re so dang close. Even the endings are really close. Plus this doesn’t have character routes, I’d say that I damn near liked Etsuko and Cauã equally and liked all the endings equally. Sounds weird for including the bad endings, but man did they make me feel so terrible seeing (reading?) Wén hurt so much. Plus, they were well written in a way that you can see him go down that path as well as the love interests. Pivot of Hearts also did a really good job in making both Etsuko and Cauã really likable and even equally likable. I genuinely liked both of them and the writers even did the impossible in making them equally likable.

So yeah, overall I ended up enjoying both the story here and the two LIs. I liked the approach Pivot of Hearts took with its storytelling and it was impressive how it managed to hook me. I came for the joke early in the story that made me laugh for a minute straight and stayed for the interesting story and characters. There are a lot of layers to the story and it does a good job with having everything be related in some way and feeding into our understanding of Wén and his backstory. It was interesting how the flashbacks were set up and it does start with that air of mystery thanks to them happening out of order. The not DnD campaign was mostly fun and I liked how it let Wén reconnect with his high school friends and meet a new friend, the nightmares were pretty interesting with how they reflected how Wén was feeling, I liked main plot where Wén and his coworkers are working on a new game which also let him meet someone new, and I liked how there was some parallelism here with what Wén went through and what a side character is currently going through. I liked Wén as a character as well. I liked being in Wén’s head, I especially liked how he wasn’t a horn dog, and I liked Wén’s growth throughout the story. Heck, you can even see that Wén did grow since he broke up with his ex, but is basically at the homestretch as he hasn’t quite noticed it yet as he’s focused on his negative aspects and spirals easily. I almost forgot to mention this, but I absolutely loved that Wén got to find out how other people perceived him and I think it helped a lot with him becoming friends with his coworkers. I also liked the romance and how it wasn’t the main focus until the end when it was the last thing that needed to be resolved. Well, technically, the romance and story gets equal focus at one point, but technically it didn’t tip the scales to qualify as the main focus. I also found so many things relatable, both in the characters and how some events that happen were similar to ones I went through.

While you are jumping into a character with pre-established relationships, the game does a great job in not feeling like you’re being left out or like you skipped chapters. Wén’s high school days are slowly unwrapped and out of order, but you still get the broad strokes of what happened and his pre-established friendships with Bárbara, Etsuko, and his co-workers. It also helps that in Etsuko’s case, Wén is reconnecting with her throughout the game. I guess what I’m saying is that it feels deliberate and the game still took care in making sure you’re in the loop.

Talking about the characters, I loved them all. And I’m not just talking about Etsuko and Cauã who I already went into. The side characters were all well written and while you don’t get to know them too much, they still felt fleshed out thanks to them getting tiny moments to shine. Granted, they are optional scenes, but if you’re like me and go down every choice to see what happens, you’ll see those moments. From the ones that have more screen time like Bárbara, Wén’s high school friend who is chaotic and teases him a lot but never leaves his side and acts in the best interest of her friends; to Beto, one of Wén’s coworkers who doesn’t talk much but you do see his playful side and see that he’s much deeper than you realized during an optional conversation. I also loved the dynamics you see everyone have. I loved seeing how everyone interacted with each other (Ana became my favorite out of the coworker side characters cause of her quiet mom energy she had) and all the banter that happens. I especially loved how the indie game studio Wén works at naturally felt like a family that cared for one another.

One of my worries was the polyamory aspect. While I’m not someone that necessarily likes poly relationships, it’s fine when all parties involved are fine with it (and when they all are actually fine with it not one of them agreeing despite not being okay with it). For media in particular, I want the characters to actually seem like they would be into it. I do get annoyed when I read comments on, for example, webcomics saying the characters in the love triangle subplot should just go into a poly relationship because usually the characters would not want to be in that kind of relationship based on how they were written. In Pivot of Hearts though, I definitely do see the characters genuinely wanting to be in a poly relationship and being able to keep that relationship healthy and equal. I do think a valid criticism is that you don’t really get a feel for whether Wén would be someone that would be okay with being in a poly relationship (aside from very subtle hints that don’t exactly point to only that), but the epilogue does do a great job in showing that he is, in fact, the type that would and the growth he goes through helps with that aspect. I’m not spoiling it, but I did leave confident that their relationship (relationships?) would stay healthy and happy.

The only aspect that I didn’t like is that I personally didn’t like how the reveal of Etsuko and Cauã being in a poly relationship was handled when Etsuko tells you. To me, I felt Etsuko’s reasoning was seeing the toxic relationship that Wén was in (even though any relationship can turn toxic); while for Cauã he used a toxic relationship as an example and knew it’s an extreme case. I also felt that Cauã was more understanding.

I will say, though, that I honestly loved how Cauã and Etsuko reference that they discussed the type of relationship theirs would be before they started going out (it’s more of a vocal point with Cauã than with Etsuko) and before the relationship starts between either of them and Wén they lay out that he would be going into a poly relationship. I love that they give him time to think about whether he wants to be in that relationship dynamic, give the one Wén confesses to think about their feelings, and that they say they’re going to discuss it with the other. Not to mention that it’s heavily implied that they told the other what their answer would be so they wouldn’t be caught by surprise. Communication is a pillar in relationships and it’s strong in this throuple. Which helps confirm even more that the relationship will stay healthy past the epilogue.

Other than that, the only thing I kind of wished was in here was seeing how Nina was doing in the present day. I do really like the contents of the good ending version of Chapter 4 (even though it’s mainly the same between who Wén ends up dating), but I kind of wished Wén had an actual talk with Nina. Assuming the talk would have gone well, I think it would have helped Wén move on even more and would have helped both Wén and us readers understand her side more. I understand why it wasn’t included, but it would have been nice.

While I was playing, Pivot of Hearts didn’t have any extras, but it has since been updated to have a gallery for all of the artwork in the game, promo art, music, and voice overs.

I feel Pivot of Hearts just has some possible annoyances. I mentioned these in their respective segments, but I’ll mention them again. Like the card choice system can be a bit annoying when you can’t pick the choice you want to, you can end up with an excess of certain cards, and you do have to do a lot of planning if you want to get all the Affection Points. It was more annoying since there were no guides for the game when I played. You may not like how Etsuko or Cauã explain to Wén the relationship they’re in. I can see some not like the not DnD campaign (and honestly, even I found myself not really paying attention at certain points). Lastly, taking away the UI doesn’t take away what day and time of day it is. Which is annoying when you want to screenshot a CG.

The localization here is pretty good. There are a handful of mistakes, mainly towards the end and in the different endings, and a couple weird spots that surely were a mistake; but I didn’t find that it hurt my enjoyment of the game. Since this does take place in Brazil there are some cultural aspects and locations those of us that don’t live there probably won’t know about, but I do feel the game did a good job bridging that gap. The text itself doesn’t go into it, but there is a glossary for the various cultural aspects and locations that the characters visit and talk about. There isn’t a glossary menu for you to visit at any time, but when it comes up in the script it does underline it so you can hover over it and get the glossary blurb about it. For me, it was enough. I was interested in knowing what the food that they mentioned was, what the festivals and festival activities were, and what the locations were; which the glossary did tell me about. It would have been nice to see real life photos, but it did save me from taking myself out of the game to look stuff up. I’d say the only thing that someone can be confused about is pouring beer for others if you haven’t consumed other pieces of media where they do this too like Japanese or Korean media; and why Wén has a Brazilian and Chinese name (which personally I haven’t seen before, but this does get explained later in the game with Etsuko).

I did end up looking up what the quadrilha dance looked like though. It sounded fun when it was happening in the game and it does look fun in the videos I was watching. To be honest, I like dancing. Mostly in private, but I don’t mind dancing in public if it’s square dancing.

To tie everything up in a bow, I liked the game’s visuals, music, and writing style. The art style is really nice and I loved how diverse the character designs were and how the major characters got multiple outfits. Some backgrounds do look a bit out of place, but it makes sense once you learn that they’re based on photos as the locations here are based on the real life locations in Brazil. I do also appreciate the little details like the campaign having a different font for the text and how the texts Wén gets has that phone overlay. The music is nice too, it does hit that vibe that the locations or scenes give off pretty well and they were pleasant to listen to. Finally, I really liked the writing style here. It has a really nice flow to it that makes it almost addicting to read and I liked the humor that was in the script. There were so many moments where I found myself laughing and I spent a lot of time reading Pivot of hearts with a smile on my face.

Verdict

Despite playing a bit of the demo and picking this game up purely because the game made me laugh, I was still a bit worried that I would end up not liking it. Luckily, my worries were unfounded as I ended up enjoying Pivot of Hearts quite a lot. So much so that I completed the game in two days and went to get all of the achievements (which I feel doesn’t count as three days playing the game considering I got the last achievement at 5 am). If it wasn’t for the need to sleep and eat, I would have played this nonstop. Like I mentioned before, Pivot of Hearts surprisingly had an addicting aspect to it. I’m sure it helped that I really enjoyed how everything was written here and I found so many aspects of the game relatable. I also enjoyed the romance here, despite being someone that’s not into poly relationships.

So yeah, I’d say Pivot of Hearts is a lovely visual novel that I easily recommend picking up. It also seems like the demo will stay up, so you can even see if the story will interest you by trying it out yourself!