Aaki is just another traditional university student, attending classes and trying hard to stay in the focus light of all the popularity surrounding him. When he is not studying, he’s either trying hard to get closer to Sakuya, the most popular girl at school, or, just hanging with his best friend Taka, the cute and shy girl that secretly loves him!
All this routine seems to limit the eternal full circle of his life, being rejected and not fully appreciated due to his hesitant personality. One day after another tutoring session with Sakuya, who tries her best to tutor him, the young man goes for a walk, just to find an event that would change his life forever!
Two young and attractive girls are fighting, and they seem to be going at it with full strength. One has full black hair, and it’s dressed in an awkward way. The other has red hair, with bright eyes. Although she is dressed just like any other girl, there’s also something strange about her too. Aaki didn’t realize immediately, but his life was about to change, forever.
Divine Slice of Life is the third published and released game by Dharker Studios. Their previously released games; Sword of Asumi and Beach Bounce proved to be quality Visual Novels, but what did they have in store for us fans this time? Well, another major surprise, as we get a very distinct experience filled with humor and charismatic events!
The game’s plot circles around two mysterious girls that are actually demigoddesses and are convinced Aaki is the reincarnation of Zeus. Yui is the descendent of Aphrodite, and Ryn is the descendant of Athena. They have been traveling the world looking for Zeus with one simple goal in their mind; Make him choose one of the demigoddesses, so they can both rise to the skies and seek a place in the Pantheon of the Gods as husband and wife. Each girl will try their hardest to make Aaki fall for her, either with Aphrodite's skills for passion and love, or Athena and her abilities in intelligence, and war strategies!
With an interesting plot, it would be hard not to deliver a great story, and as expected, the narrative is what one would expect from the game’s description. Lightweight narrative, simple but captivating, and somehow charismatic, particularly with fun dialogues with some promised giggles.
Divine Slice of Life plays out just like your traditional Visual Novel along with five possible dating options, dialogue choices, and alternative endings. This time around, players who complete basic endings have special ones unlocked, with further options and outcomes, which serves mostly as fan service. A very new and special addition was included from previous releases by Dharker Studios; a full voiced cast (With the exception of the main protagonist)! It’s definitely refreshing to hear all other characters, male and female, with a voice of their own, and even if some actors performing for multiple characters. It’s nonetheless amazing! Voice acting is available only in English, but it’s top-quality, with emotional effort put into it, as well as sound quality. It’s fantastic for an indie game to have such results.
Character dating routes are exclusivity females, and mostly towards the emotional side, but… an adult patch is available at the official Dharker Studios website, and can be downloaded from HERE. This patch unlocks uncensored content, in which characters do appear without cloths on key moments of the story, and although it adds a considerable amount of dialogue, they are mostly cosmetic changes rather than narrative ones. It’s still interesting to view extra scenes, but the game itself isn’t as hardcore as per say, Beach Bounce, which was far more focused on dating and the respective sexual encounters.
Visually, Divine Slice of Life continues with good quality for backgrounds and character renders. Aaki, our protagonist, is a generic young man, with a shadow-ish looking face, as this serves to give the illusion of having an identity based on the player itself, making him focus on his dialogues, rather than on how he looks. Backgrounds have a good and simple style, kind of what the studio has brought us in the past, through decent variety and quality consistency. Areas are well depicted and go perfectly well within the story and character renders.
Renders are drawn within a western style, such as in previous games, but still with an adult look over their cartoonish art style. In-game gallery is available as it is most of the time, with some special cutscenes unlocked through the story. A few cutscenes are present, portrayed hand drawn scenes for special in-game events, with extra attention to detail! Each character has a large amount of facial expressions including mouth movements to simulate lip-sync. It’s far from perfect, but it's just amazing to see this level of commitment. Other body expressions are included, but it’s mostly face details that surface the most when playing.
(Divine Slice of Life it’s definitely colorful, and not even the menus avoid this rule, with cool fonts for character names and text!)
If playing Visual Novels like this one is just plentifully fun and amusing, a fantastic soundtrack to go with, is the least we can ask, but we do ask, and it’s once again delivered! Created by Sam L Jones, 15 tracks compose the official soundtrack for Divine Slice of Life, available for sale, with very melodic tunes that can easily become attached to the whole experience while playing! Through upbeat tunes, the game gains a whole new vibe once you turn on the sound, making it one of the best Soundworks among Dharker Studios releases. If anything, one can compare it to Beach Bounce in quality terms, as it’s surely a pleasure to the ear playing with such great themes to go with, in each section of the game, as Aaki ascends to the Pantheon of the Gods.
Divine Slice of Life is surely another perfect example of the studio behind it, and the ability to create such variety among such simplistic genre. A story not to be taken seriously, but rather to be enjoyed for what it is; a fun, amusing, entertaining and relaxing Visual Novel, offering a decent amount of great moments and overall content!