Check out the full game review: [First Thoughts] Seiyuu Danshi – BL Game Review

Seiyuu Danshi is all about choice! In this upcoming 18+ BL visual novel the player takes control of an amateur seiyuu (voice actor) who likes to take things at his own pace. But, years of slacking off have finally caught up to our lazy protagonist (MC-kun) and he finds that his job is on the line… that is unless he wins the prestigious Seiyuu Awards. Follow MC-kun as he attempts to become one of Japan’s top seiyuus and maybe find love along the way!

It has been some time since the Kickstarter campaign for Seiyuu Danshi wrapped up and I am finally getting around to playing the demo… I’m terrible, I know, but better late than never!

Story

The demo covers the first two weeks of gameplay from the MC-kun’s first meeting with his new boss, Toshiyuki, to his first voice acting audition. Despite some limitations (characters without sprites, inaccessible locations) Meyoi Games has the makings of a deliciously fun game.

The story isn’t overly dramatic or convoluted, so I expect the full version of the game to be relatively upbeat and easy going. While playing the demo, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Seiyuu Danshi and anime. The game just kind of gives off a comedy/slice-of-life anime kind of vibe, which was a welcome surprise given the drama heavy BL game titles I’ve played in the past.

Characters

When I first covered the Kickstarter campaign back in February, there were only five love interests. Since then two additional secret characters were added to the character line up. But, that’s a moot point since the demo only featured three of the potential love interests. During the demo players get to pal around with:

• Toshiyuki (aka Tocchan) is MC-kun’s uptight boss and the only “romanceable” character during the demo. He has made MC-kun’s career his top priority!
• Shuu is a weird guy who hires MC-kun for some part-time work. He’s a man of few words, but he harbor a secret love for Magical Pon-Pon.
• Shiba is a fellow VA that MC-kun meets while exploring the mall. He seems like a pretty nice guy.

Since, I didn’t get to interact with all of the characters I can’t really pick a favorite just yet. However, I will say that Meyaoi Games has a very diverse cast of characters in store for us in the final release of the game. But, the most promising character in the whole game is the rising star of the voice acting world, none other than MC-kun (name changeable).

MC-kun is an up and comming seiyuu, but his less than ambitious nature has him on the chopping block at his agency. This guy is such a fun character, from his hentai themed room to his upbeat dialogue. Hentai themed room aside, I actually found MC-kun to be a very relatable character. I’m looking forward to seeing him take the seiyuu world by storm in the final version of the game.

Features

I was amazed by the sheer amount of content the developers were able put into the demo prior to the Kickstarter campaign, Seiyuu Danshi incorporates elements of both a traditional romance visual novel and a stats raiser game. In the demo there are two main types of stats: Relationship stats and VA stats.

There are two types of Relationship stats (friendship and love points). In order to woo your chosen beau players must find the balance between love points and friendship points.  Too much of either can result in a lost love connection. There are various ways to boost these stats (spending time with them, phone conversations, dates, etc), but the demo doesn’t cover all of them. In the demo I was able to participate in both Dates and Telephone Conversations with Toshiyuki.

In the demo there isn’t a meter that measures Affection levels directly, instead there’s a fujioshi NPC at the local park who keep will keep the player up to date on the affection levels with other guys.

In addition to relationship stats, the player can also improve MC-kun’s voice acting skills by participating in voice acting classes at the local VA School. There are three different voice acting classes () each class corresponds with a different VA stat (Characterization, Technique, and Singing). Not every class is available on every day of the week so be sure to manage your in game schedule accordingly. Players can also raise VA stats through various activities outside of VA School (ie. reading manga). The players VA stats effect the types of jobs MC-kun can except auditions for, so it’s helpful to participate in extra VA lessons on the weekends.

I could spend the entire post writing about all of the features in this game so I’m only going to cover just one more… Auditions. Since MC-kun is a seiyuu, it only makes sense that he participates in voice acting auditions. During va auditions MC-kun is given a script to read from and it is up to the player to choose the emotion that best fits with each line of dialogue on the script. The choice you choose determine how well MC-kun does in the audition so choose carefully. The mini game isn’t hard to figure out, but I imagine that in the final game there will be much more difficult scripts to master.

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Wow, this ended up being much longer than I anticipated, so I’ll try to keep this short! I really enjoyed the Seiyuu Danshi demo, the artwork is wonderful and the interface is clean. For a demo, there were a ton of fun features and maps to play around with and I’m looking forward to seeing the improvements Meyaoi Games makes to them in final version of the game. Despite some minor hiccups, I am really looking forward to this game! But in the meantime you guys can check out the demo at the link provided below.

To get a copy of the game check out the Kickstarter page!

Are you as hyped for the game as I am? Let me know what you think of Seiyuu Danshi and the demo in the comments section. Don’t forget to drop a line on the Kickstarter and let the developer know what you think about the game as well! As always THANK YOU for reading!!!