Nova Hearts: The Spark Review by Amjara
In Nova Hearts: The Spark get your super hero vibe on while you & your friends take on the villains invading Vermilion!
The Story
This review covers the first chapter of the story with the rest coming out in the future. However what I played felt very fleshed out, with beautiful artwork and very well written.
At a party, hooking up with old friends in your hometown, you and your two besties are hit with a mysterious force that transforms you all into heroes that have to take on the evil but cute baddies invading your town from another dimension. And when you're not fighting your reconnecting with family and building relationships as you progress. As the game description states accurately, TEXT, DATE and FIGHT!
Game-play & Features
First off this game strongly recommends a controller to play, however I used a keyboard and mouse for my playthrough with no problems. However when you get to the combat parts of the game it tells you that this portion is only playable with a keyboard & mouse.
The game's settings are cleverly designed as part of your character's phone interface. It has the usual settings; volume control, language selection, and graphical choices as well as save slots, a gallery (not available currently) and where you interact with some of the text in game between characters.
Your phone is also your main connection to your friends and the community. As you progress in the game you will get apps added to your phone. One is to add upgrades to your powers, one is to stay up to date on the latest community news and one is an astrology app for relationship status. Gain affection, approval and dislike through the choices you make as you play.
My only gripe about this game is I wish I could click to make the text go faster. When you're texting between others on your phone it can seem too slow. Sadly there is no setting as of yet to let you skip text or view it faster but hopefully it is a future feature. Some of us just read fast.
The Visuals & Audio
Let me say the intro is amazing, the animation is so well done and the artwork is vibrant, catchy and colourful with some very strong Sailor Moon vibes (especially when your character transforms)! In most visual novels the characters will have some small animations like eyes blinking or eyebrow/eye movements to convey emotion however in this game the characters are alot more dynamic. The chest swells to animate breathing, the hair strands move and the eyes shift and blink. You can tell that the devs really put a lot of effort into making their characters come to life.
The characters have no voice overs but it is not really needed. They have so much character to them it is more fun to come up with how they sound in your head. Also the soundtrack is really good. Mellow and laid back when you're not in combat and jazzed up when the fighting begins.
Combat
Yes this visual novel does have some combat mechanics, nothing too complex and it is played (this portion exclusively) with keyboard & mouse. You take turns battling the enemies by selecting your power or healing powers and then pressing the space-bar to perform the action. Then the enemy takes their turn. Over and over until the fight is won.
After winning battles you gain activity points that can be used to upgrade your powers.
Overall Experience:
A really great experience and highly recommended. I will just come out and say it. As someone who has played many, many visual novels this one ranks up there in my top 5. What a blast. A fun, well written story with memorable, unique characters, a bit of superhero Sailor Moon, butt-kicking action and a great soundtrack. Overall a really fun, great game. Also CJ named his dog Ravioli…how cute is that? 💖
Otome Lovers wishes to thank Lightbulb Crew for providing a free review copy for this game.
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