Ristorante Amore

Everyone’s life is complicated in one way or another, but it’s difficult to acknowledge that most of the time, since people tend to present themselves in a good light for the sake of appearances. Visual novel games and video games in general allow us to be someone else for a while, which is why they can be a great gift to those who are eager to escape reality.

Help a girl find her place in the world and a partner to share her life with

Ristorante Amore is a visual novel game in which you play the role of a girl who’s trying to start a life for herself after finishing college. Most of the time you just watch how other characters interact with her, but every once in awhile you get the chance to make a decision and choose one thing instead of the other. Depending on these choices, the girl’s story changes, and you get to see one of several endings.
Speaking of which, the story starts in the restaurant where the girl works, which is where she must also find a suitable partner. There are other characters you can interact with along the way, but most of them are just there for you to pick one to start a romantic endeavor with. The plot is not overly complicated, but there are some interesting notions flying around every now and again.

Pleasant visuals and well-written dialog

Given the fact that all you have to do is read conversations and make the occasional choice, the gameplay is about as simple as it gets in the genre. There are no mini-games to beat, and no combat to struggle with at all. In fact, if you are not a fan of the genre and reading in general, you might even find it a bit boring. The writing is quite solid, on the other hand, so if you enjoy a good story you should be able to sit through it.
There are a number of different endings you can reach, depending on what choices you make along the way. None of them is too groundbreaking, but it’s nice to know that it matters what you say, and that you can replay the game to get a different result. However, even if the artwork is decent, it’s a bit of a bummer that the backgrounds barely change at all over the course of the game.

A nice way to spend a quiet afternoon

In the end, Ristorante Amore is not the kind of game that changes your life, but it’s still a pretty fun experience to have when there’s nothing better to do. Hence, if you are a fan of the visual novel genre, this may very well be one of the items on your list.