Nurse Love Addiction: I'm on the fence

I'm slowly but surely getting bolder when it comes to romance games; and after cutting my teeth on your regular Otome game, I'm now ready to navigate more treacherous waters and broaden my romantic horizons in the process. And it so happened that Limited Run Games unknowingly supported those new endeavours of mine by releasing a physical version of yuri VN Nurse Love Addiction. The thing came with a hefty price tag of $ 50, which should totally have deterred me from purchasing it given that I was not even sure I would like it; but somehow, I was ready to take the risk. Fast-forward a couple of months, and NLA is now done and dusted. Did I like it, though? Well, kinda — although the things I liked about it were not what you might think of: I went in expecting a lacklustre VN with stellar romance, and what got instead was a stellar VN with lacklustre romance. Without further ado, let's get to the nitty-gritty of my NLA impressions, dear fellow gamers! (No spoilers involved, so feel free to read to your heart's content!)

THE GOOD:

That "nurse" in the title is more than just show: Despite (or maybe because of) both my parents being MDs, I have little interest in the medical profession beyond occasionally bingeing on Mystery Diagnosis episodes; but oh boy, did NLA make me wish I had given the medical field a go in my younger years. Kogado Studio went above and beyond the call of duty when it came to giving an accurate and faithful image of the nursing profession, and it's pretty obvious that they had an advisor all the way through. The game features lengthy lectures about the mundanities of being a nurse and doesn't try to sugar-coat anything, which means that unglamorous subjects such as hospital hygiene or the use of a bedpan will be touched upon. I found myself really engrossed by these well researched segments, so much so that I totally forgot that I was supposed to be here to woo cute girls and was genuinely surprised when romance suddenly popped up. Which leads us to...

The build-up is out of this world: There's a rock-solid story at work there, a story that stands on its own even without taking the romance into account. I wouldn't step as far as to say that NLA is a VN first and a yuri game second, because getting to know the full extent of the story requires romantic entanglements; however, the game really takes its sweet time to establish things and make sure that we know the characters we're going to pursue. The nurse training setting is no mere excuse to bonk girls in white uniforms, indeed; we get to see plenty of the characters' routines and daily life long before the wooing process starts, which gives the whole story a homely and cosy vibe. Another excellent point is the fact that there is no true route and that all routes coexist without invalidating each other, which is no small feat given the number of plot twists involved. There's even a route solely dedicated to MC Asuka, in which she pursues her studies and ends up on her lonesome; and while this is not the most fascinating outcome of them all, it still stands up as a perfectly valid piece of story — as a matter of fact, it's one of my favourite routes.

The production value are stellar: I'll admit it, I purchased that game first and foremost because I absolutely loved the art. I didn't even care about the story's quality — or lack thereof: all I wanted was to feast my eyes on these adorable girls and drink in those splendid soft colours. What I hadn't expected was to be swept away by the stellar voice acting and the gorgeous music, and to simply fall in love with the whole atmosphere of the game. The developers even took the time to refine the presentation and slide in lovingly crafted details; one such detail is the fact that each time you clear a route and go back to the title screen, the game's title is read aloud by the very character you ended up with — with a cheerful voice if you secured the good ending, or a dejected voice if you landed the bad ending.

THE BAD:

It's too yuri for its own good: How can a yuri game be too yuri, you may ask? Well, simply by taking for granted that all characters are lesbians and by eschewing any reference to anyone of the male persuasion. A reviewer for Gaming Age described NLA as "the tender story of a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality"; and as lovely as that description sounds, it couldn't be further from the truth. Asuka doesn't come to terms with her sexuality at all, because the game treats lesbianism as the default sexual orientation: the characters never display a shred of confusion, surprise or embarrassment at the mention of lesbianism, and they all pretty much act like girl-on-girl action is the most natural thing in the world. Even worse, the writers went out of their way to avoid showing males or even mentioning them: characters have sisters, female friends and 'parents' (supposedly both female) but brothers and fathers are nowhere to be found. Now I can imagine nursing schools not exactly brimming with men; but are you trying to sell me an hospital without a single male MD or patient or an anime convention devoid of male otakus, game? Does this game take place in our world, or in an all-female dystopia? If the latter is true, then it should be stated; and if the former is true, then the world and the characters' actions should be more consistent with what we're used to. Now don't get me wrong, dear fellow gamers: the last thing I want to find in my yuri VN is a social commentary on lesbianism. What I do want to find in any VN, on the other hand, is narrative consistency — and NLA painfully lacks some. No matter how you look at it, that game's story reads like the wild fantasy of a lesbian teenager who just cannot come to terms with the fact that 99% of humanity remain out of her bonking range. For 50 bucks, I certainly expect more than a slice of immature yuri fanfiction that can be found for free on the eponymous website, thank you very much.

L'amour is just flat: One undesirable consequence of NLA's all-encompassing lesbianism is the total absence of any sort of tension in the love stories. Since romancing a girl is such an obvious thing in NLA's weird parallel world, there are no barriers to overcome in order to win the heart of your beloved and secure a happy relationship: no personal mental hurdles to conquer, no prejudices to fight against, no opposition from parents — just nothing. To say that this sorry state of affairs makes NLA's take on l'amour dreadfully boring is an understatement. This utter lack of stakes in the romance department is further worsened by the fact that characters seem to accept any sort of deviant relationship in a perfectly good-natured way. Incest, adultery, S&M, teacher-student relationship? Hey, no big deal! What matters is love, right? Heck no, game. Having my sister, my teacher or my classmate who already has a girlfriend make a pass at me is a very big deal indeed; and if you want your bloody romance game to be any thrilling, you should make sure that it comes across as such. Because the way things are, I simply cannot be bothered to root for all those vapid relationships that flow as effortlessly as a bunch of arranged marriages.

Too much shock value: NLA is a game that tries way too hard to be clever and edgy, and it often comes across as gross or corny — or both. Like, I'm fine with the notion of Asuka giving mouth-to-mouth to her love interest right after said love interest vomited — I mean, this is a life-or-death situation and the characters are nurse trainees, right? What I'm not fine with, on the other hand, are lovingly detailed descriptions of how Asuka laps up — in every sense of the word — her love interest's vomit just because well, she loves her. Now that's disgusting, and utterly unrealistic to boot. Then you have those embarrassing scenes where Asuka and her lover du jour look each other in the eye and chant each other's names with increasingly breathless voices, complete with cheesy close-ups — right, I get it: you're getting horny and you're gonna bonk, okay, now stop it please. I won't quote any more examples to avoid treading on spoiler territory; but suffice it to say that NLA is a game that can ruin the mood in a single scene or sentence like no other VN I've read.

At the end of the day, would I recommend NLA? Hard to tell, really. There's some good in this game, but there's also an awful lot of bad. In the end though, I still like it more than I dislike it; and I'll certainly replay it one day, if only for the enchanting atmosphere, the lovely chara design and art, the engrossing segments about nursing and the few endings I enjoyed. I'll see you soon with a route report brimming with spoilers, dear fellow gamers. Thanks for reading, and be m guest anytime!