(18+) REVIEW: Hikari Love Potion


Title	Hikari Love Potion
Developer	Toffer Team
Publisher	Denpasoft
Release Date	August 30th, 2019
Genre	Adventure, Romance, Visual Novel
Platform	PC, Android
Age Rating	N/A
Official Website

The second of Toffer Team’s lewd adventures is out in the form Hikari Love Potion. The Hikari series, which began last year with the release of Hikari Clover Rescue, is known for its focus on lewd art. Furthermore, the small development team prides itself on delivering small stories with delicious coitus aplenty. However, there are noticeable shortcomings that come with the mentality. Most importantly, the tunnel-vision of lewd kills the other visual novel qualities making it a sub-par reading experience. In an interview with us, Toffer stands firm on improving those aspects of his series. This is the team’s first release since the interview and only one question remains. How does it hold up?

The curtain lifts and your new name is Yuuta. You’re an office worker who seems to be losing that motivation to push forward in life. After recounting the tales of your misfortune, a blinding light surrounds you. This is not an assault, but instead a portal to a new opportunity. An elf girl with a vibrant personality emerges to inform you that she’s looking for you. Furthermore, she humbly requests that you come to her world. The whole situation is mind-boggling but, since you’re not doing so well in this world, how about we hit the reset button and go to a new one. Upon arrival, the elf girl informs you that you’re a prophet. Your destiny involves liberating the land from the grip of a corrupt goddess.

In order to put up a fight against the goddess, you’ll need some weapons. First, an ancient potion that will remove the corruption in the minds of the populace. For clarification, the goddess uses mental manipulation tactics to bend society to her will. Second, a body part you’re quite familiar with, your male genitalia. The goddess’ fury did not spare the men of the land. As a result, the remaining populace is almost entirely female. However, why is this important? The potion carries a very strong side effect that awakens the subject’s internal lust. Furthermore, it’s cure lies solely within the seed of the prophet. The story is set for you to become the catalyst of this land’s bright future or die trying. Welcome to Hikari Love Potion.

In your journey to save the land, you will meet key characters. Let’s take a moment to introduce them starting with the one who searches for you. Sophia is an heir-apparent to the land and its prophecy. The royal family separates following the corruption of the goddess and are in custody for their defiance. Sophia remains as the beacon of hope traversing between worlds to find the prophet the world needs. Needless to say, she’s very happy to find you and your weapon. Clumsy to a tee, she bears a good heart with even greater intent. Your first ally is a cute one, but she’s also sly due to being the first victim of the potion. Her shining personality makes her a very welcome sight on your quest to save the world.

Sophia formally joins you on the quest, and it’s now time to introduce your first opponent. Agnes is one of the strongest knights of the land under the command of the goddess. No soul can hope to match her in combat. Despite how strong she is on the battlefield, it’s the frailty within her personality that you quickly take note of. She’s still a young girl with a strong sense of justice and it seems like the corruption doesn’t have a full grasp on her yet. You hope to take full advantage of this timely opportunity to get her on your side. Strength and commitment are the themes surrounding Agnes’ design and her inclusion within the tale gives life to the world.

After your careful interactions with Agnes, you will come across Iris. Iris is a weak willed girl whom the corruption quickly put under the goddess’ thumb. It’s worth mentioning you come across her in the midst of a scouting assignment to find more information regarding the goddess’ whereabouts. The girl in the maid attire informs you that she’s searching for a dangerous man for her master. However, due to the compassion you show towards her, she cannot label you as dangerous. Instead, Iris decides to protect you and thus reveals a dangerous fact. The maid outfit isn’t for show, she serves directly under the goddess. Furthermore, It’s up to you to free her from the shackles of the corruption.

Should you succeed in saving in previous endeavors, the march continues. The destination is a castle in the midst of a deep valley under protection by a powerful demonic being. Here you meet Rinu, a succubus sworn to protect the goddess’ fort. Rinu isn’t just your ordinary succubus, her power puts her on the top of that pecking order. Perhaps the greatest capture by the goddess, it’s up to you to set this dark being free. Furthermore, with a will stronger than iron, it will take cunning strategy to take her down. The spoils of victory, should you succeed, put you in a prime position to save the world.

Last, but certainly not least, the main cause for all of this. The corrupt goddess of the land herself, Beatrice. With her limitless power, she took control over a fragile land and its populace with ease. Furthermore, to prevent an uprising and the prophecy, she quickly kills and enslaves man for their future defiance. Through your interactions with the damsels you get a sense of how sick and twisted this new rule is. She’s the final boss, beat her and set a whole world free from their shackles. An overwhelming figure, not just in visual terms but, in reality.

With introductions in place, let’s talk technicalities. Hikari Love Potion is, at its core, a lewd adventure. When dealing with a lewd adventure, it becomes very easy to expect the bare minimum in all major aspects of what is a visual novel. One could argue that elements such as story, character development, and soundtrack all fall flat as a result of focusing on the art. However, this isn’t exactly the case with HLP, as several elements improve from previous works and some even shine on the same level as the art. Most notably, the soundtrack. HLP may not be the longest read, but in combination with its narrative, the soundtrack does an absolutely brilliant job to immerse you in the presentation of key moments. It’s the most immersed I’ve felt with a setting in a long time.

Speaking of narrative, there’s a lot to talk about. The ridiculousness of the story is to be expected with lewd adventures. Furthermore, the short length and lack of character development arcs can make this a forgetful read. Despite all of that, there’s, somehow, never a dull moment in the read and while the story completes itself within a week, in-game time, it’s actually surprising to see how gripping it is. That said, there are still a heavy lack of character development, especially for those who join the roster later on. Their inclusion feels awkward and their actions at the end of title feel unnatural. Soundtrack’s great, story is good, what about the art? The fantasy setting allows for a colorful and diverse cast of species and they take full advantage of fleshing them out through the art. Above all during coitus scenes.

In conclusion, Hikari Love Potion works on the base created by it’s predecessor in Hikari Clover Rescue and excels as a standalone game. If Toffer Team can focus on reinforcing story length and character development, mark my words he’ll have a masterpiece within the next set of years. HLP is an outstanding Western lewd adventure release that you should check out. It took me two and a half hours to fully read it. As a result, the $4.99 price point makes it hard to pass on the release. Congratulations to Toffer Team on the release and we look forward to reading more! Likewise, please consider following them on Twitter for updates on their new yuri series.