That moment when you expect a Huniepop clone and get a Puzzle Quest clone instead
Mirror's short review
Developer: Kagami Works (Published by Sakura Game)
Genre: Match-3
Reviewed version: 2.6
Censored: No
Patch Needed: Yes (Available in the Steam Community Hub)
OS: Windows, macOS
Language: English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (traditional), Russian, Korean, Thai, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Turkish
Playing Mirror for the first time was quite an experience. As the title of this entry foreshadowed, I grabbed it to fill the void Huniepop left in me—and it was dirt cheap, all things considered—but what I got was a game more similar to Puzzle Quest than any other Match-3 game.
Story-wise it resorts to telling various engaging mini-stories focused on a specific character instead of a single overarching plot of epic proportions. What's surprising is they even have a good chunk of character development despite their limitations, plus two different endings for each segment: a good ending and a bad one.
Mirror's gameplay can be divided into two parts; the battles and the sex. The former is your usual match-3 game in which each tile has a specific function. Swords do physical damage, stars do magical damage, potions heal you, and rage increases your attack and defense. Depending on the combinations you do, you can get special tiles that automatically use the allocated skill for that tile when combined—for example, a special sword tile would use the physical attack skill you have equipped. Enemies also have specific skills based on their race or job, such as an attack increase for the orc girl or healing spells for the nun.
The latter part of the level is where you get handsy with the girl in question. Each of your actions increases her pleasure and pain bars, and the higher of the two bars determines which ending you get. On average, you get a happy ending if pleasure is higher than pain and a sad one in the opposite case. What you do to the girl ranges from soft stuff like licking, fondling, blowing air to their ear, and so on, to harder stuff like whipping, spanking, overstimulation, etc. The lack of penetration in the scenes is a bit disappointing, though.
As for the visuals, it features stunning backgrounds and gorgeous characters that range from being so cute you want to protect them to so sexy you want to ravage them. Moreover, the characters are animated, which is a nice plus.
Verdict: Must Play
It’s rare to find a game with gorgeous art and enjoyable gameplay for so cheap, so check it out ASAP if you haven't done it already. It also has a bunch of DLC, but only the “Lost Shards” DLC is worth it. The rest is just fluff that has no impact on the game.