does little to subvert the medium and is content to slip into the same pitfalls of those it mocks. in one hand From Madness chides the pathetic dating sim reader while providing genre-typical suggestive CGs with surface level character arcs in the other; the extent of infantilistic Marshmallow's sexualisation is abject considering his route is best enjoyed last and sunken cost has long since passed. the only semblance of shock i experienced was the distasteful sexual assault and extortion ending which goes without a specific trigger warning.
i actually did enjoy how the concept of language and the difficulty of communication while navigating romance is explored across the cast. a lot is easily understandable if one knows how to engage with the text, though i wish people would stop throwing around the insipid term "schizo" to refer to absurdist dialogue.
anticipation vs experience can be really disappointing. Aorta is cute i guess🙄

i never cackled so loud playing an otome game before this. the comedic timing was very good and saeki's voice being so purposefully loud it clips is just so funny to me. i have a particular sense of humor and it's usually hard to make me laugh but this game's utter stupidity matched mine to a T. i work in localization for otome games, so i can imagine how much fun it must have been to write the english script for this.

however, i did feel like the endings were not at all satisfying and could have been more developed. they had the potential to be really deep or meaningful. perhaps with a bit more effort on the story, this could have become a cult favourite, but the game is still good for what it is.

Cons:
All of the endings are too rushed, one ending spoils another and one of the characters is completely ruined for me for developing into a cliché, sadly... Also one of the sound effects got annoying real quick.
Pros:
Everything that happened before the endings was very exciting and memorable for me, i loved the experience. The game is filled to the brim with funny absurd humour and various silly interactions with boys whose thought patterns i absolutely understand.
This game is good, artstyle is pretty and colourful. Voice acting is nice, feels like being in a voice chat with your buddies and one of them is very loud.
I highly recommend it especially if you want to experience talking to a schizophrenic.

I absolutely adored how simultaneously confusing and clear this game's plot was. I played every route and had a field day going through them all. My only complaint is that I couldn't really figure out how to stop fast-forwarding when I was replaying, but that was probably a me problem.

For those going in blind, I 100% recommend doing Marshmallow's route last. The impact his route leaves, after you put everything together, is incredibly painful but worth the wait.

Don't go in expecting to understand everything from the first playthrough, that's the point! There were many times where I thought back to certain scenes and realized why they did actions that, at the time, made no sense to me. You'll go through that a lot!

If you end up giving this lovely VN a shot, be prepared for anything!

I didn't expect how much I'd ADORE this game. This thing is like a hilarious fever dream with really good pixel art, until it suddenly pivots into tugging at your heartstrings at the end of every route. Think Hatoful Boyfriend with less worldbuilding and on 10x the crack.

It's obvious where some liberties were taken with the translation- there're some very obviously Western-exclusive references inserted- but the game itself is already such a fever dream that said translations never feel out-of-place, and are always hilarious.

Went for Marshmallow first but ended up converting to thinking Saeki Best Boi.

My biggest criticisms:
1) It was too short. Maybe it only makes sense for an absurd comedy game to keep it short so it doesn't overstay its welcome, but I became so attached to the characters that I lament I couldn't spend more time with them.

2) It's a bit broken. Specifically the text box. With most visual novels, you have the option when replaying the game to skip through text you've already read, and stop when it gets to something you haven't seen yet. This game does have that function, but it annoyingly will either not work, or work after you finagle with it by checking the "History", but not actually stop when you get to something new and just keep speeding through text.

That said: please, give this game more attention, if you can. There's a lot to, if not love, appreciate.

Full video review: https://youtu.be/U-VMR1uREig

It’s always these super indie visual novels that have the most insane plots and characters. As an enjoyer of insane content, I am here for it.

Story
Your school is bombed by terrorists. You are transferred to the nearest available school, which just so happens to be a private school for rich kids. This is the plot established in the first few lines of the game, setting the stage for the insanity that is to follow. Because although From Madness with Love does operate like a traditional VNs with its four routes, bunch of choices, and plenty of CGs to unlock - the writing is anything but tame.

It’s surreal, it’s fast-paced, and oftentimes doesn’t make much sense, but that is exactly the type of energy the story goes for and honestly, it really helps with the engagement. There may be “filler” content, but that content is generally pretty interesting because it’s just so absurd most of the time. I mean, there’s literally an entire character who speaks in this foreign language that sounds like Japanese, but played backwards. It took me literally halfway through the game before I realized that you can actually read what this character says by opening the log 😅

Characters & Routes
You’ve of course got the backwards speaking senpai, but also the cute gamer, the nurse that is oftentimes scary and seems to be hiding something, and the little one that just comes in and drops some random info that makes you wonder if there’s some deeper meaning to everything that is happening.

Each route kinda goes off on its own and ramps up the pacing to the extreme towards the end, which does detract from any sort of emotion that you would traditionally expect from a romcom, but I honestly don’t think the writers were going for that kinda of impact anyways. Each ending is dropped on you suddenly and - without spoiling - I can’t say I really saw any of them coming.

I would say the story is pretty interesting overall. It’s not the kind of VN that I will see myself thinking of later on, but is fun in the moment and provided for some good laughs and good “what is even going on” moments that just kept me reading.

Art & Settings
The art is pretty good! It’s got a very indie, pixel art style and the vibrant colors and backgrounds definitely add to the surrealism. What it doesn’t have though, are some fairly basic VN features - like auto mode or literally any kind of font or text box settings. I get that it’s a very indie production, but I would at least expect auto mode from any VN, indie or not.

Overall
So I would say that From Madness with Love is deserving of a light recommendation. It may be no Doki Doki Literature Club, but it does have its own similar sort of appeal. The story is engaging, the characters are interesting, the art is fun, I had a good time in the five or six hours it took me to clear all the routes and would recommend it if you like indie VNs.