Full video review: https://youtu.be/VAWWetRNL5o

I don’t know about ASa Project anymore. They did the excellent Sankaku Renai, the okay Koikari, and now this one, which might just be my least favorite of the bunch.

Story & Writing
So basically, the whole thing with this one is that a sudden childhood friend shows up, confesses to the main character, and ignites a battle royale amongst the other heroines, all vying for the protag’s love. It’s pretty much your standard love rivalry setup, nothing too fancy.

ASa Project, the studio behind the game, is generally pretty good on the comedy front though and that’s usually what sets their games apart. For this one though… I can’t say they pulled through with it. You’ve got the perverted heroine that just becomes annoying, the constant onslaught of crude jokes that make the game feel like it was written by a middle schooler, and the whole battle royale thing has each heroine practically obsessed with the main character to the point of stalking and that being played off as a comedic thing just feels weird.

They went overboard on the comedy this time, to the point that the main story suffers. In fact, it’s hard to even see the main story here. Most of the common route is just various conversations between side characters, a lot of the time with the protagonist nowhere in sight. This can work if the characters are actually decent, but most have their one quirk that they practically embody and that is all you know them by. This doesn’t make for likable heroines, unfortunately.

Protagonist
The bigger issue though is that very main character. This is one of the flattest main characters I have ever seen in a romcom visual novel. The dude has no personality. No defining characteristics. He’s like a blank slate inserted into the story just so these heroines have a reason to exist. When he is with the heroines, he is just going with the flow and letting things happen. I know some romcom VNs like to create blank main characters to use as self-inserts, but this one is really pushing it.

Character Routes
Then there’s the character routes. As typical for this studio, they’re not the greatest. The romance comes across as shallow because the characters themselves are shallow and I would argue that a good chunk of each route, if not most of each route, are written with H-scenes in mind and the rest of the writing around that just kinda serves as filler. If you’re looking for a visual novel with good romance writing, this one is not it. If you’re just looking for an extension of the game’s comedic elements, then maybe you’ll get some enjoyment out of the routes.

Visuals & Music
The game at least has some decent visuals. I mean, it’s nothing too fancy, but the character designs are nicely done, I liked the brighter colors this game goes for, and the music isn’t grating - which is more than I can say for some others in the genre.

Settings
That and the game does a good job with its settings, giving us all the usuals plus some nice bonuses, like animation speeds. On a technical level, it’s pretty good, even if the max resolution caps out at 1600x900.

Overall
That said, I did not enjoy my time with this one and cannot say I recommend it. As someone that generally enjoys comedy visual novels, this one was a bit too over the top in that regard and felt like it was written by a teenager. The actual character routes suffer as a result and of course, none of this is benefitted by how flat the main character is either. It’s good on the technical level and with its presentation, but there are far better visual novels out there worth your time.

Just in terms of pure comedy, Renai x Royale is in the top 5 funniest visual novels I've ever read.

As Asa Project tends to do, (like in Sankaku Ren'ai and Koikari Love For Hire), they pride themselves on making the heroines as savage, stupid, and goofy as hell. Asa Project has a very distinct over the top comedy style that goes well beyond the typical anime harem comedy. If you like Asa Project's style, you'll love this game, but if you don't I'd recommend staying away. They made a "harem already super thirsty" gimmick work pretty well here.

The one flaw is that for a moege, the actual Romance in Renai Royale is.... OK at best. Outside the side route with his ex, the romantic development was kinda shallow. Doesn't help the heroines mostly have little depth on WHY they like the MC.

NOTE: Did not do Renna or Nonoka routes because I did not like them.