KONOSUBA - God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! is a fun visual novel from MAGES. Inc. with resource-gathering mechanics. Check out our review to see what it did well, what it didn't, and if it’s worth your money.
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Review Overview
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Premise
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Follows our shut-in NEET protagonist Kazuma Satou on yet another hilarious adventure with his ragtag party of misfits. Megumin found a mysterious magical artifact that can turn materials into clothes, but not everything is as it seems. Turns out, the artifact was cursed, and now the entire party is acting on new desires it’s instilled. To make matters worse, a local noble wants all of you arrested for a crime you didn’t commit.
Will the party ever return to normal, or will Megumin forever be the great and honorable leader of the Lolita League?
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Overall
Looking past the game’s comically long title, KONOSUBA - God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! is a fun little visual novel that offers more than mere fanservice (though it does have a lot of that too). Its gameplay, while simplistic, is engaging enough to get your gears turning without making you think too hard. What stands out to me the most, however, is how similar this visual novel is to the actual show in writing, pacing, and general quality. This is a must-play for Konosuba fans, though I wouldn’t recommend it to those who aren’t used to this party’s hijinks.
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Story
If you were expecting the usual shenanigans from this motley crew of adventurers, then you’re in luck! This game’s narrative is basically a lost episode of the Konosuba anime, and I’m here for it. Not only does it capture the same narrative beats, but the characters, settings, and dialogue all scream Konosuba too. It’s a darn funny story, but Konosuba’s never been the most complex or nuanced when it comes to storytelling.
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Gameplay
This game is more mechanically complex than your average visual novel, featuring resource-gathering and item-crafting mechanics on top of a ludicrous story. Though both of the aforementioned mechanics are fun, the game’s social system—a staple game mechanic for the genre—isn't the most complex and could do with a bit of polish. Random payouts for scheduled events are also unfun, and you could get screwed over for no reason apart from RNG.
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Visuals
This is a Konosuba game, and it looks the part. Every character is depicted faithfully to their anime counterparts, and the background settings look equally amazing. Unlockable images of the Konosuba cast in new clothes are the main draw of the game, and they’re well worth the effort. Despite all this, the game takes a hit in its visuals for its below-average-looking UI and cluttered control options at the bottom of every screen.
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Audio
This game features full voice acting and is all the better for it. It’s just not Konosuba without Aqua’s cries of annoyance, Kazuma’s screams of utter terror, and Darkness’ moans of joy. It’s not just the voices that sell it either, as the game has great musical accompaniment and sound effects to boot. Through the game's audio alone I'm already immersed in another world of fantastical degeneracy.
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Value for Money
Although this visual novel is on the meatier side, $50 dollars for a game like this might be a tad too much for some to consider buying. There are many games one could buy for that price (all at once, even) that are more engaging and content-packed. I can only recommend this to people who really like visual novels.
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Review: More Than Just Fanservice
KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Superb Voice Acting Your Usual Konosuba Shenanigans More Than Just Fanservice |
Mostly for Konosuba Fans Could Do with More Complexity |
I know you’ve read the title of this review, so I’ll just come out and say that I’m surprised too. Fanservice has often been associated with anime and anime-related media for years, and for good reason. Konosuba in particular is known for its gratuitous display of its characters in compromising situations, so I think we can all be forgiven for expecting a visual novel based on Kazuma Satou’s party to be a bit heavy on the fanservice. It’s very important to note my wording, however, as it does have a lot of fanservice.
For crying out loud, most of the promotional art for this game shows at least one of the female characters in new clothes for players to ogle at. This game’s more than just fanservice, though, as it showcases the anime’s iconic humor, stellar voice performances, and a unique premise that could only ever work for Konosuba. Let’s get into the details, shall we?
KONOSUBA - God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! (KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire!) is primarily a visual novel, but it also has a few fun mechanics mixed in with its lovably idiotic premise. In this story, Kazuma and his crew find a mysterious "Black Slab" that can turn materials into clothing. Seems innocent enough, but that’s not the worst of it. This item curses people around it to develop desires opposite to their usual wishes.
Darkness becomes a dominatrix, Megumin becomes more body-positive for her petite frame, and so on. All this is happening while the threat of exile, death, and arrest (in that order) hovers above the entire party. Yep, that’s Konosuba, alright. I won’t spoil too much about the story so you can enjoy it yourself, but I guarantee that this game is as Konosuba as it can get.
That’s what I love about it. Being a fan of the anime myself, I feel right at home. I expect the characters to look and sound as they did in the anime, and that’s exactly what I get. I come in looking for a stupid adventure that’ll split my sides with laughter, and this game delivers. This is literally just an interactive episode of Konosuba, and I’m all for it.
With its accolades out of the way, let’s talk about the game’s weaker points. This game’s rather packed for a visual novel, and I’m not just talking about multiple endings and player dialogue prompts. You can gather resources and craft items in this game by planning out each party member’s week and assigning them to a part-time job or quest. Fulfilling a request rewards you with the most fanservice this game could muster: unique artwork featuring your favorite Konosuba gal.
While the gameplay loop is fun, I don’t really enjoy it as much as I do the story. It almost feels vestigial to some degree, but at least the narrative explains the need to do it instead of being a tacked-on game mechanic to pad out the game’s run time. It could do with more polish, though I understand the hesitation in making a mini-game so complex that it takes away from the story. Maybe shorter deadlines and more complex recipes would do the trick.
Another of the game’s weak points lies in its exclusivity. Simply put, I can’t imagine a newbie to the Konosuba IP or the visual novel genre liking this game as much as I do. There are a lot of plot and character references that one could only glean from watching the anime, so the uninformed player might just write this game off as a loud story about awful people (which isn’t far off, to be honest). This doesn’t make it a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, just one that not everyone would enjoy.
And that’s about it for KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! It’s pretty darn good as far as visual novels go, and it’s not too shy to give the fans what they want. The gameplay takes a backseat to the narrative but, hey, that’s visual novels for you—story first, always. If you’re up for some stupid fun with Kazuma and the gang, then your luck stat’s coming in clutch.
Pros of KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire!
| Things KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Got Right |
|---|
| Superb Voice Acting Your Usual Konosuba Shenanigans More Than Just Fanservice |
Superb Voice Acting
Voice acting in visual novels isn’t a rarity at all, but I’d say that this one in particular needed it to be as good as it is. Simply put, if the game’s devs decided to go the silent visual novel route, this wouldn’t be anywhere near Konosuba’s usual quality, even if the jokes are the exact same. Something about every joke’s vocal delivery gives it that little push it needs to cross over from a chuckle into hysterical laughter. There’s no substitute for raw talent, and this game’s VAs really hit this one out of the realm.
Your Usual Konosuba Shenanigans
Visual novels have a reputation for being samey and the struggle for uniqueness within the genre is real. Others use niche (and often unfun) game mechanics to stand out, but Konosuba already had its own brand of comedy to begin with. I dreaded that some of the show’s usual gross-out hijinks would get lost in translation from anime to game; worse, I thought it’d get watered down.
I’m happy to say the devs were not afraid to use the anime’s crass and downright perverse humor to their advantage in writing this game’s narrative because it’s Konosuba shenanigans all the way. And, yes, the entire party somehow got eaten by giant toads again.
More Than Just Fanservice
Like I said, I didn’t expect as much, but it’s the truth. This game is more than mere fanservice, because that’s not all it gives you. I’ve alluded to it already, but this game is dense as hell with its scenes and dialogue. Pretty much everything you do—every job, quest, or shopping trip—is rewarded by a funny scene or interaction between characters. Even something as mundane as capturing lizardmen in a hole becomes its own adventure in this game.
The game could have easily just given you a run-of-the-mill visual novel experience with branching paths (oooh, innovative) and multiple endings, but no; it chose to give you a Konosuba experience worth going through multiple times.
Cons of KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire!
| Things That KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Can Improve |
|---|
| Mostly for Konosuba Fans Could Do With More Complexity |
Mostly for Konosuba Fans
This isn’t a hard downside per se, but you can see how this exclusivity in the game’s material could alienate people who’ve never even heard of Konosuba. Lots of things are left unsaid for the uninitiated, with the narrative relying heavily on the players already knowing the ins and outs of Konosuba lore. It’s still playable even if you aren’t a fan, but it’s hard to appreciate it on the same level as its target audience if you don’t know squat.
Could Do With More Complexity
I mentioned before that the game’s resource-gathering and item-creation mechanics are fun but too simple, and I meant it. Just a tiny bit more complexity in its execution would do wonders without encroaching on the game’s narrative real estate. To be more specific, I think deadlines should be much shorter, as they are way too generous at the moment, removing all urgency from the task at hand. I can literally just muck about for 12 out of the 45 days and still have plenty of time to fulfill the request without issue.
Another change I’d recommend is removing all rewards from an excursion if it fails. Right now, failing a quest still gets you a few resources, which, again, eats into the risk involved in planning. I understand that making these mechanics too difficult might take the game’s story out of the spotlight, but the changes I’ve suggested are small enough that they really shouldn’t.
Is KONOSUBA - Love For These Clothes Of Desire! Worth It?
Only If You’re A Fan, Otherwise Buy Something Else
$50 is a tall ask for a visual novel, no matter how packed it is with dialogue and fanservice. You could get so many games with that kind of money, most of which would probably be more fun and fulfilling than this one. That’s not to say that this is a bad game, however. I’m just saying that if you’re not a fan of Konosuba, you’re going to have a hard time justifying the $50-shaped hole this game left in your wallet.
 Steam |
 PlayStation |
 Nintendo eShop |
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| $49.99 | ||||||||
