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As I start digging deeper into the niche areas of the Switch's library, I'm starting to notice that it got several ports of games that were originally free or near-free... I'm not opposed to this as it's an opportunity for developers and publishers to make some money off of their works, but this is at least, like, the sixth game I've found that falls into this category so far. The oddly-named "Lovelydoll / Wildmachine" was originally a free Doujin game released back on PCs in 2018 by "spice+" and "offoffo" and then ported to the Switch about 4 years later at the beginning of 2022 by Regista / YMCAT.

Created with the "Smile Game Builder" program, it is a fairly short but interesting mishmash of genres but is an adventure / visual novel hybrid above all else and falls somewhere in the "Otome" category of games targeted towards females but does things the typical Otome game doesn't, which merits brownie points. "offoffo" did the illustrations for the PC game and did not collab on the Switch port, thus the art and interface was changed slightly (both are good). The PC version has since been pulled but probably exists somewhere on the dark web. Initial playthroughs are about 4 hours but the game has several diverging paths, a few "Bad Ends", and multiple endings with the game's various characters as well as epilogues to continue after the main adventure. The game retails for 1,990 yen but is frequently on sale for 990 yen.

The story takes place in the idyllic seaside port town of "Wingil", a cozy and technologically advanced place blessed by the wind where machines flourish and a young genius inventor lives. This genius, named Nordic, has spent the last ten years creating the ultimate "Mechanical Doll" to help overcome the trauma of his past and to pay off his best friend's debt, but he still doesn't know how to make her tick. After retiring for the day, the doll is possessed by a kind wind spirit (named Sylphy by default) who has been watching over him since he was little and who, consequently, has fallen in love with him and uses this opportunity to manifest a physical form. However, having never had a physical body or proper face-to-face contact with humans, she is initially overwhelmed and is gradually taught humanity by the residents of Wingil through regular interactions, events, errands, and mini-games. At this point, the Otome aspects take a bit of a back seat to broaden into a more "Slice-of-Life" piece of work where love is more of a side effect than the end all, be all, and the primary goal becomes paying off a large debt.

LD/WM is pretty charming as our pure-hearted, naïve heroine tries to understand humans but lacks general common sense (and many of the characters are pretty thick-headed as well) and coming to grips with things as she discovers there are many different types of humans from various walks of life unfolds in an interesting way. If you don't understand Japanese very well, you can even be deactivated (killed) early on leading to one of the game's Bad Ends. However, the vast majority of the game has a cozy vibe with a low penalty for failure; scenes can be saved between and even screwing up will rewind back to the decision-making phase so you can try a different outcome. Much of the game involves chatting with characters and picking choices with roughly the first hour consisting of tutorials, but when the game unfolds proper, it separates itself from the usual narrative-driven Otome game and even develops small RPG elements.

Sylphy can take on numerous tasks to repay the game's debt that alternate between a day/night cycle such as Machine Racing, Gambling (High/Low with Fairy Cards), selling various materials, and questing (battling various monsters and fulfilling acquisitions for different characters). Sylphy is, as you can imagine, not a normal girl... as she is powered by the wind, she has great physical prowess due to her mechanical nature but can also utilize wind magic. She can also take Nordic and Fukurou with her into dungeons to deliver support and combination abilities. You can even retire to your room where you have access to various utilities including upgrades for Machine Racing, various extras and trophies. If you have disposable income, you can also buy many different items in town to increase Sylphy's abilities or to deliver to other characters and find hidden power-ups as well. Most of the systems don't pass the rudimentary phase, but considering these elements are absent from the vast majority of Otome games, it's a nice touch.

The graphics are cute in a late PS1 / early-launch Dreamcast or PS2 way and the soundtrack is soothing and nice. There are no voiceovers, but considering it was initially a free work (with no significant changes in the Switch version), I would've rated it pretty highly in that capacity. As-is, it's an interesting departure from the usual Otome game. You can get it at:

https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000048978.html

Enjoy.