A lot of match-3 games wish they could be this fun

Wish's review

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• Developer: Momentum Games

• Genre: Match-3

• Store: Steam

• Reviewed version: Final

• Censored: No

• Patch Needed: Yes, Free DLC

• OS: Windows, macOS

• Language: English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese

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Wish is a hentai match-3 game that mixes the usual gameplay mechanics we all love with some unique elements.

It follows the story of Soma, a guy who got an “invitation” from the callous Diodora Level to become her "husband" (AKA sex toy). After a rather violent refusal, Soma embarks on a quest to gather as many allies as possible to end Diodora's tyranny before she retaliates. After all, this woman doesn’t take a “no” for an answer.

The plot is your usual shallow harem story that's solid enough to keep your interest. However, the English and Spanish translations are so bad most sentences look unnatural, and there are a few typos here and there (I still wonder whether the girl with the huge sword is called Tiea, Teia, or Tear). Another pet peeve of mine is how the fourth fight feels very shoehorned on a few occasions as if you have to fight the girl at the end of their story when she gladly joined the harem party 3 seconds ago. Last but not least I didn't like the ending because of how out of character the entire cast behaved.

As out of place as it is, I found the Discovery Channel reference funny

Gameplay-wise, Wish is divided into two sections. The fights and the “fights” (if you catch my drift ;) ). The combat is your usual match-3 battles where each combination leads to a physical or magical attack, healing the player or increasing their fever. Its skill system is as unique as it is overly complicated. You collect “souls” from powered-up tiles to be able to use skills, and you can only use them once you have enough of its type. What makes it so complex is that it's so hard to get the souls you need that the combat is almost over by the time you have enough for a mid/high-tier skill. Maxing out the fever bar allows you to do as many movements as you want for 10 seconds. I honestly wish there was a tutorial at the start of the game because I learned how it works at the final boss’ stage.

Another thing that indirectly affects the whole skills/fever system is how easy it is to make combos. You’ll make so many of them during the game it renders both the skill and the fever system useless (especially if you maxed out strength) and sometimes you’ll even OHKO your opponent!

As for the naughty side of the game, they added some strategy to the usual mindless clicking on the girl’s different body parts until she comes. This time you have to find the girl’s most sensitive spots and stimulate them as much as possible before you run out of stamina.

The art is pretty good. All the characters look pretty and have very distinct designs, and the Live2D animation is solid (they even added some boob physics in the standard scenes!). Of course, the H-scenes are also very well done (by Live2D standards). If you liked what you saw in games like Mirror or Happy Quest, then you’ll like how it’s done in this one.

Audio-wise, the music is so good and catchy that it justifies paying an extra 2.40€ for the OST DLC, even though it’d fit more in an urban fantasy game like Persona. One thing that surprised me in a good way was finding out that every female character is fully voiced. It’s pretty common in low-priced games to partially voice the characters or give them no voices at all, but it wasn’t the case in this game.

Verdict: Fun

I enjoyed this game despite all the issues I found in it. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a neat experience.