Sweetcore Brews is quite a fun Otome/Yuri visual novel full of sweet little stories. Fitting of its name! You follow a witchy tea maker called Milly in a world full of cute and comedic stories – in chapter-like tales instead of a longer slow burn story.

There are two romance options available. Firstly you have Kingsley the romanceable male, a more serious yet charming love interest. The other is Zero as the female romance option – the cheeky, more carefree of the two. Unlike a lot of Otome in the market, there is little buildup to the romance. It would definitely be preferred in most cases as I’d like to have time to warm up to the character and see the protagonists’ feelings grow and develop. However we’re thrown in pretty quickly to this smut-filled visual novel, giving my first con – the fact the romance starts almost instantly from strangers.

That aside, there’s a whole bunch of chapters in this game. I’d not say a guide is really required since the choices are more linear, with the only “major” options being the more NSFW ones. The third response of each choice is often the most risque. Spice is something the market for this genre lacks, so I was pleasantly surprised and happy with seeing such content in the game, especially since the writing was done pretty well, without getting too in detail. The spicy content is mostly optional, even warning you if you make a dialogue choice that would lead to it. But do be aware that prior to these choices dialogue gets rather “suggestive” and includes discussions of sexual topics.

You have three kinds of chapters in Sweetcore Brews – what I’ll call “general route” which has no relation to your chosen route. It’s general interactions between the three characters which are often very fun to read. You wouldn’t want to be caught stuck in a karaoke room with Zero and Kingsley, trust me. Then, there are two separate paths available. One is Zero’s romance route and the other, Kingsley’s. Due to the fact they have their own paths, you can choose to switch between them any time, just make sure you do their previous chapters to progress that character’s story/.

When it comes to the characters, I originally started the game thinking I was absolutely going to be a Kingsley lover. Now don’t get me wrong I did end up enjoying his character plenty, but I also finished the game with Zero being my favourite. She’s my baby girl, and it wasn’t just Milly that she had blushing!

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Coming from mobile, Sweetcore Brews has a few mini-games that stuck with the move to Steam. The minor one is a text-based mini-game where you help customers with their problems. You’ll have to input nouns into a recipe sheet, creating your own treatment for whatever issues they have.

There’s also a match-3 mini-game that pops up every few chapters. It has a star rating from 1-3 and getting higher ratings gives you rewards. For 3 stars you’ll unlock something special from the gallery to use in the menu. Maybe art? Or a voice clip! If you struggle too much, 2 stars gives you gems for you to buy these unlockables too! The match-3 is also impossible to fail on PC, it will give you more turns until you reach the required score to progress to the next chapters. I honestly found this mini-game rather distracting, in a good way; it was enjoyable. I almost wished there was a more endless version – or a choice to play it without having to skip through the chapter each time.

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The menu system is very simple and there’s a few things you may be alarmed by. There’s only one save slot for example but this game doesn’t have an “affection” to get x route and x ending, as it is two linear paths that just unlock naturally as you progress. You can also go back to any chapter at any time, as well as replay any minigames whenever you want.

The skip function – it’ll jump up to the choice for that chapter, or until the end of the chapter if there is no choice or it has been made – automatically skipping dialogue. This makes replaying for whatever reason very quick and easy.

I understand that at the end of the day, Sweetcore Brews is most definitely not for everyone due to its lack of buildup. I simply feel more suited to this game as I can hate slow-burn and just having a pile of sweet and spicy romance stories over some delightfully irresistible love interests was fantastic to me. I’m also an absolute sucker for the match-3 puzzle which I could totally lose my time in if it had an endless mode. If you’re interested in this Otome, I’d definitely recommend it if you like straight to the point romance, or you just want some fun, absurd stories. If you like romance that develops over time or anything of the sort, however, this may not be for you. Nochi Studios, however, have a great range of visual novels that you should check out at the very least.

Review also posted on Steam ➞