izigame.me

Great step forward from Wales Interactive’s predecessor game, Five Dates, which I considered the pinnacle of their FMV titles at that point. I didn’t know Ten Dates was coming out, but I picked this up without hesitation when I saw it and blasted through a playthrough as both the male and female protagonists (Ryan and Misha) in two and a half hours and enjoyed both thoroughly.
Best asset is definitely the greater range of choice compared to Five Dates. Getting to be either male or female, with different date options for both, gives a greater variety compared to Five Dates’ straight, male player character. As a gay male, I don’t have any issue playing a straight person, but I appreciated that both protagonists in Ten Dates had a same-sex option if you wanted it, and I wasn’t unhappy with the way those options were presented and developed. However, if you’re someone looking for something with a greater LGBT+ emphasis then there’re several excellent visual novels elsewhere on Steam that deliver that better. Outside of that, the cast stories touch on a good number of topics in terms of the difficulties the people have been through, but the developer clearly dropped the ball on racial diversity as there's almost none.
As protagonists, I found Ryan a little easier to get on with. Something I liked from Ten Dates predecessor was that the player character didn’t present too much background so that you could overlay your own interests and preferences if you wanted without it feeling like you were fighting the character the developer created. Ryan similarly feels a little personality-less, in a good way, so you can play him however you fancy and he’ll roll with it. Misha comes off as more feisty and sassy with a dry sense of humour, which made her funnier to watch but harder to put myself in her shoes. I couldn’t decide if this was a good or bad thing, so take that how you will.
The “game” elements (the dates and choices) have seen the least change from Five Dates. Essentially, you dance through a series of questions where the NPCs attempt to pose questions that you can’t necessarily guess the outcome they’re looking for, which leads to natural-feeling outcomes where you maybe hit it off or not. The biggest change from Five Dates was that I felt there was a greater level of input from the dates. Five Dates felt like you had the reins a lot and the conversations focused more on what the NPC had to say, but I got the sense in Ten Dates that the NPC’s put me on the spot more. I don’t have a huge amount of playtime in Five Dates, but if this element was changed then I enjoyed the feeling that the NPCs were as curious about me as I was of them. Overall, the gameplay pans out pretty similarly to Five Dates, but it’s no less satisfying, and I liked the mini goals each NPC had as an incentive to replay and pick them all up.
Biggest gripe is definitely the lack of a skip function if you want to replay and try another path. There were some smaller gripes as well, firstly that I hit one instance of audio desync, which was resolved a few lines later (though it was very distracting while it was happening). More glaringly, there were copious moments where the subtitles were either misspelled, didn’t match what was being said, and there was even one instance where it displayed the text for the alternative dialogue option instead of what it should’ve been showing. It’s a shame that this kind of stuff wasn’t caught, but it doesn’t really ruin the gameplay.
All in all, very much enjoyable much like its predecessor, I found myself smiling and laughing along as I played, which is always a good sign. Neither game is a complex or challenging experience, but they’re both something a little different in the gaming market, and I think it’s an interesting romp if you fancy something different. Wales Interactive’s offerings have been a bit hit-and-miss for me historically, but I love that there’re still studios dabbling in the FMV genre, and I’m more than happy to support that.