REVIEW: DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia


Title	DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia
Developer	Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sting
Publisher	Idea Factory International
Release Date	September 5th, 2024
Genre	Visual Novel, Dating Sim
Platform	PC
Age Rating	Mature
Official Website

After a long time, it’s finally time to review DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia. Following the release of Rio Reincarnation out west in 2019, this writer has been eagerly awaiting the next entry in the DATE A LIVE visual novel series. The reason for this being that in terms of presentation, I would argue that the visual novels have amazing storytelling moments that you just wouldn’t get from the anime. Here we are, five years later, and the question that I’ve asked before is back: How does it all hold up after all this time?

Right off the bat, I have a warning for curious onlookers. I highly recommend you play the first three visual novels prior to this. Thankfully, this is all available in one purchase via Rio Reincarnation on all storefronts as it is a triple pack. That means you can play Rinne Utopia, Arusu Install, and Rio Reincarnation. Sadly that’s not the only check on this list. I do recommend that you watch the first three seasons of DATE A LIVE, and the movie Mayuri Judgement. If you meet all these requirements, read on!

Repeating what I said earlier, it’s been five years since the last DATE A LIVE visual novels came out. Back then it felt like a novelty to be able to finally forge your own path with your favorite girl in the series. The sheer joy I personally felt being able to see Kurumi in a wedding outfit for an ending was immaculate. Not only that, I could do it three times across the aforementioned titles. Each ending then felt like a culmination of fan desires to love their girls even more than Shido could. It’s because of this that I felt renewed excitement for Ren Dystopia, coupled with the recent success of the series as it got its fourth and fifth seasons.

While that was the initial allure of the visual novels, if you dare to dig deeper (and you should), you’ll find something even better. I’m talking about the visual novel exclusive scenes with new girls that pack more emotional depth than anything else in the whole package. It’s how characters like Rinne, Marina, and Maria specifically climbed to my top girls list in the series. Those girls made the journey to achieving the true end all worthwhile. More fuel for the Ren Dystopia hype train.

That’s all well and good, but now we have to talk about the game that’s out now. If we take a peek under the hood, any person that owns the first three visual novels will immediately notice something. In terms of the UI, overworld map, art assets, and music, virtually nothing has changed. If it wasn’t for the title screen being different, and Natsumi being the first girl you see out the gate from when you start the game, I’d be doing double takes to make sure I launched the right game. The common route also plays out nearly identical to that of the other games as well.

To understand why this is a problem, you need to look at the original release dates for the games. Rinne Utopia, Arusu Install, and Rio Reincarnation all came out in 2013, 2014, and 2015 respectively. Furthermore, they were incorporated into a triple pack. It made sense for those games to be very similar given the release cycle. However, Ren Dystopia releases a whole five years later, and as a standalone that sits at the very same price point as the triple pack of all things. Noticing all this before talking about the routes is cause of concern from not just a reviewer point-of-view, but a fan of the series as a whole.

Let’s talk routes. Ren Dystopia incorporates nine main routes, one for each girl from season three. Natsumi is the sole new character of this bunch. However, Origami, due to the third season, got a writing makeover. You may be telling yourself that this is going to be a serious time sink. However, this is not the case. Each route is an hour and thirty minutes of reading at moderate pace. In addition, it also features the exact ridiculous story with minor differences. The following is what you can expect without important details. Someone will open a box, make one wish, wish affects the next day, sleep, repeat until three wishes are made. While some wishes are more romantic than others, there’s hardly that relationship building charm that existed with previous games. It genuinely feels like I’ve been handed multiple 4-koma pages rather than a visual novel.

The reason why this is all so upsetting to me is because of the game’s true ending. An ending that does require you to do all of the nine routes. Nine routes that are significantly boring to sit through and aren’t satisfying to complete. However, if you to manage to power through these routes, you’ll receive something magical. An ending that properly demonstrates what could have been from the writing team. It’s an ending that almost brought me to tears, and yet I almost missed it entirely. I want you to envision the meme of the guy almost mining the diamonds but quits before he hits it big. That’s the meme that embodies this game. It doesn’t matter how much I love Kurumi, Origami, Kotori, and even Natsumi. Ren is the star of the show and she deserves better.

DATE A LIVE: Ren Dystopia is a truly head-scratching game. A game that looks and plays no different from its predecessors. All the while presenting fans with very underdeveloped and uninspired routes. While the Live2D models look great and the voice acting is phenomenal, it just can’t carry the weight that is everything else. Even the True Ending, which is some of the writing team’s best work, can’t save this. Ren deserves better. The reader deserves better. Especially when the company is asking for the same amount of money as the triple pack that came before it. If you do happen to own this title, please work your way to the true ending to get your money’s worth. The fact that only 9% of readers, at the time of writing, have seen it drives me insane. Otherwise consider waiting for a sale.