A quest with happy endings
Happy Quest's review
Developer: HappyGames Studio
Genre: Match-3
Store: Steam
Reviewed version: 1.3.1 (N)
Censored: No
Patch Needed: Yes (Free DLC)
OS: Windows
Language: English, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian
Happy Quest is a lewd match-3 game that follows the story of a poor boy who lives a miserable life in the slums until he gets a life-changing job offer to work for a rich catgirl. After that, he runs dangerous errands to get ingredients for her potions and help any other girls he meets. Of course, he gets properly “rewarded” for all his hard work. The plot may be shallow, have tropey characters, and lack plot twists, but it's pleasant to read. Its story is not the focus of the game, after all.
The game mechanics are unique and add some tactical complexity to the battles. Instead of having 1-on-1 fights, you are on a map against a few monsters and have to line up gems of the same color in the same position as the target. For example, you'll miss if you line up gems on the bottom of the board while the monster is at the top. Moreover, you have to keep an eye on your opponent’s elemental affinity. Each colored gem represents an element that does more or less damage to the target depending on their weaknesses and resistances. Outside combat, you spend it on upgrading the player's stats and learning new skills. Also, battles are replayable in case you need to grind for some coins.
As for the “action-oriented” aspect of the gameplay (if you get what I mean), it's similar to Mirror in the sense that you have three actions you can choose to perform on the girl. The only difference is you can do any of them as many times as you want, and you only have to worry about increasing her pleasure bar.
Visuals-wise, the backgrounds are beautiful and vibrant, and the characters are downright stunning. Moreover, the Live2D animations in both the character profiles and the naughty scenes look fantastic, even by live2D standards. You can tell they dedicated a lot of time and effort to making it look as good as possible.
As for the audio, the soundtrack is your standard fantasy music which isn't memorable but helps get the player immersed in the story. On the other hand, the voice-acting in the H-scenes is a mixed bag. By itself, it's good, but everyone except Georgia and Yuna has the same voice, and it gets distracting when you hear characters like Angara, the Naga warrior, talk with a high-pitched voice.
Verdict: Very good
While it has some flaws here and there, anyone who likes match-3 games should give it a go. It's dirt cheap, gives you a solid 3-4 hours of entertaining, and comes with a DLC in case you want to play it with all its cultured content available.