How to Sing to Open Your Heart is an otome visual novel and third title of the Story of Eroolia series as a sequel to roseVeRte's earlier visual novel How to Fool a Liar King. The game features Princess Myana who is the leader of the luccretia (cat people featured in Story of Eroolia series) as the protagonist this time. After the events from How to Fool a Liar King, Princess Myana is magically teleported to Eroolia by the black cat from the earlier titles in the Story of Eroolia series to observe the pact between Laarz and Eroolia, and to visit luccretia that are living in Eroolia.
Amidst the backdrop of mutual distrust and suspicion between humans and luccretia, Princess Myana is accompanied by her bodyguard Leona, her good friend, and diplomat Regina to work together with King Juli of Eroolia to see how luccretia are doing in Eroolia as well as to learn more about the Inadaptability Disease that is affecting luccretia. During her stay in Eroolia, she will get to know the black queen Ludovic as Juli's guard captain and King Juli's sister Princess Anna while also meeting all of the characters from How to Take Off Your Mask and How to Fool a Liar King.
As with earlier titles of the Story of Eroolia series, the game has plenty of save slots to allow different gameplay and dialogue choices to be made during the game, with a small popup icon of Regina and Leona/Myana to reach a slightly different storyline branch and open a secret unlockable scene at the end of the prologue and the first 3 chapters. The chapter summary is retained in this visual novel, while the story and plot is also written as a romantic comedy with two endings.
As a romantic comedy, it retains the charm and appeal in the Story of Eroolia series with cute characters, glittering CGs, and comical light-hearted moments with the appropriate background music Dojikko March and Haru no Yokan which accompany these moments. There are also pleasant and tense moments in between. Having a large cast of supporting characters with voice acting and a larger role helps to enhance all these parts out. In addition, the protagonist and a few main characters will also have outfit variety while there are also small variations in the facial expressions and ear movements for luccretian characters which make the artwork stand out.
With 14 BGM from Music Atelier Amacha and Peritune, Ukiuki Lalala, Natsuiro no Campus and Tenshi no Yume are a few of the pleasant background music which are memorable. The theme song with vocals Kokouta and the insert song Issho ni which is also worked into the theme of the story are lively, upbeat and match the happy moments in the story.
Opening theme and video sample on YouTube by roseVeRte
Having played through earlier titles of the series, I would also give props to the developer for keeping the character mannerisms and way of talking consistent. For example, Princess Myana and Leea would often end their sentences with mya and nya respectively, Regina might sometimes giggle when she's nervous, Princess Myana would tease someone to be her bride again, while Leona and Simon remain brash as ever, and Mars remains as an easygoing person who enjoys teasing people.
Overall, How to Sing to Open Your Heart is the largest scale title from the Story of Eroolia series which has the largest cast of characters with a different voice actor or actress for each character. This game is recommended with the theme song DLC for the cute characters and fantasy world in Story of Eroolia as a romantic comedy featuring humans and luccretia with attractive and comedic artwork, pleasant background music, unique character personalities, and great voice acting to make the game feel satisfying after finishing it. Hope the developer will continue to expand on this series with a sequel as the main characters are memorable and consistent to have a long-term impression.
I have voted the developer roseVeRte for the Best Developer Award in 2018 for producing three titles of the Story of Eroolia series after several years, and for being very responsive to fan feedback. Keep it up roseVeRte!