WWGW - Her 她 - an examination
2Check HER out! On Steam now!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/899760/Her/?curator_clanid=32660416
"Her" is the story of a guy who randomly finds himself in the uh... care of a young-lady-demon-cat and must guide her to mature in education and skills, while freeloading off all the work she does. Pretty sweet gig actually.
It's a small indie project take on the "Princess Maker" genre where the gameplay largely consists of scheduling and helping to develop and the evolve the subject's traits ala an RPG while balancing various modifiers for happiness and unhappiness overtime to do as best you can.
The genre itself tends to be fairly repetitive, though its advocates don't really find that a problem as the other most characteristic attribute of the genre that makes it such a big sell: well they're pretty damn addictive too. And HER is no exception to either of these rules, making it a solid entry into the genre that its fans will want to seek out. It definitely knows its audience with its widest variety of features being the collection of dresses spread across the human and demon world as well.
The setup for how you gain, uh, "control" of this catgirl is a bit more convoluted than usual. Having just met her and her grandma, you basically end up in her cat by... being the closest person in physical proximity when her granny croaks? Despite finding yourself in this partial caregiver role for the girl, she finds herself romantically caring for you (at least depending upon your choices it seems). This ongoing theme throughout the story is an important element separating it from the typical entries in the princess maker genre, so its actually a bit easier to hand-wave the convoluted setup since there's no way to arrive at the scenario where the core theme exists that wouldn't be incredibly long-winded. Basically--roll with it.
Though I'm without the words to elaborate, I'd say what stands out most about HER is the artwork and style, which you'll see represented in the video. It just evokes the atmosphere of the game so incredibly well and there's something indefinably charming about it too.
Despite the smaller development team, HER has all the fundamentals of the genre down fairly well, with a variety of actives and outfits, randomized interactions, other characters and relationship meters with them, and an underlying plot being revealed throughout the process. Aside from the romantic angle, there's an ongoing exploration of the character's background as a demon which is just as much a mystery to her as it is to you. Each of the other characters you and she interact with seem to reveal another small piece of that puzzle and help her come to terms with her identity as a young lady... cat... demon.
Like any labor of love from a small team, there are still a number of small errors and issues to be found. Luckily, they've always been 'cosmetic' or translation related while the actual gameplay and progress are unharmed. However, there's a lot of mechanics that are vaguely defined or left up to inference. I've no clue what happens at super exhaustion levels or what energy actually means other than being a stat to be moved up and down depending on activity. For a seemingly fundamental mechanic like humanity, I'm still not quite sure what role it even play, and only realized a few hours in that a negative humanity stat might even be preferential.
I think my largest frustration with the game is just a matter of pragmatism with design. It's not a game killer in the slightest, but there's information obscured or left a few clicks away that could easily be accommodated on the screens where it matters. Maybe I've just got a garbage memory, though it really slowed the game down having to click back and remember what values were at what when scheduling. I'm not sure why there's no stat screen (or at least at hotkey popup for showing your stats) on your schedule page when so much of the game centers on attributes going up x points and down y points per activity. When you do schedule in changes, you're given a status update as you go though work/courses though it flashes up so quickly before disappearing that its functionality is questionable.
One last point in favor of the game, whether talking flaws or features to be desired, is something that's always wonderful with any game and a telling indicator for purchase: care. My brief interactions with the developer have given me the cause to say it's a game made with genuine passion and care. I'm fairly confident that these other issues are the sort of bugs that he'd fix and update based on a simple email or thread, so the game itself is always subject to change for the better too and by the time you play it any of the small changes I'd prefer may already exist.
Check HER out! On Steam now!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/899760/Her/?curator_clanid=32660416
And check our other reviews at https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32660416-Weird-Wonderful-Game-Watch/