Save yourself and your party from a curse in the extremely funny adventure of KONOSUBA.
Video game adaptations of a beloved anime series can be a complex subject to tackle. Do you go about recreating the same action sequences beat by beat or try to create an original story? Should the gameplay be a unique turn-based spin or stick to what seems to be action-based roots? KONOSUBA is a comical manga that exploded in popularity due to its hilarious characters, memeable moments, and unserious narrative that were long overdue for a game version.
Developed by Mages and published by PQube, the full name of this video game is KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire!, which I thank for my word count, but also is direct with what it is. It is a game based on creating clothes and fashioning your characters in unique styles to save yourself and your companions from a certain curse.
What most longtime fans of a successful series fear when hearing of a game based on their favorite show is how it might get lost in translation, lose its appeal, or downright become something completely different and unrecognizable. Fret not; KONOSUBA is as faithful as can be with its charming animation, quirky comedy, and unmistakable characters. Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness are all extremely endearing, and even if you do not follow the anime, you will grow intrigued by these characters to the point of investigating more about the series.
First and foremost, KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! is a visual novel; you take on the role of protagonist Kazuma, who, as followers of the series know, died and was reborn in a fantasy world with three quirky waifus: a useless goddess, an incompetent archwizard, and a parody of a crusader. Which is to say, the perfect recipe for an unserious series. KONOSUBA, the video game, has an original narrative from its already-established lore.
Introducing each character as the crew is trying to fulfill a quest to kill as many monsters as possible, and, as per usual, shenanigans ensue, and something goes horribly wrong. There is even a transitional slide in between scenes to make it feel like you are actually watching the show. As is the nature of the visual novel genre, you have to fill in the blanks with some of the action that is going on in KONOSUBA with your imagination, as they are just standing there describing the action to you with its stellar cast.
The fact that the character Megumin is an exceptional archwizard but can only use an incredibly powerful attack once a day and misses is among the gags that KONOSUBA constantly repeats, and to see the team try to succeed in this MMORPG inspired-world each time is amusing enough to let go out a chuckle when playing. As is par for the course with the isekai genre, Kazuma sometimes also lets out a perverse personality played for laughs that fans of the genre will not raise a brow, and it is there for comedic purposes.
Megumin finds a stone slab and a gem, and the characters are promptly excited as they believe their random objects might be of value and can take them out of the rut they are currently in. It turns out that the slab can magically create clothes but curse the person in the process of doing so. But as it belonged to someone, the party is suddenly prosecuted for stealing such precious items, and by bargaining, their sentence is put on a deadline to create clothing for the noble who they inadvertently stole from.
And the bulk of the second gameplay element introduces itself. With a deadline over the course of 45 days, you need to send the party of four in a calendar over the course of three days to do part-time jobs to collect varied items to fulfill the request of the noble who’s put you in this predicament. Some characters are better at some jobs than others, so it is up to you to manage each quest accordingly to better suit their affinities.
From a surprisingly vast array of jobs, you can choose from babysitting to blacksmithing and -let’s not forget the hero’s most hated duty- dishwashing; your party has to hastily gather each resource needed to create the required clothes if they do not want to end up dead. At the end of each week’s haul, you will get to see your rewards depending on how you choose, from the materials received to the money acquired to spend in the magical item shop.
After an exhausting week of work, KONOSUBA lets you hang out on a day off at an event where you can choose who to spend your time with. This will increase or decrease your character’s affection depending on the choices you make in the story, and who knows, maybe you will end up with a girlfriend by the end.
As with all usual tropes of the genre, there is also some fanservice that those who want to look for they can easily find. Scantily clad outfits, bars of affection with each female character, and multiple romantic endings await in KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire!. For an anime where the focus is mainly on ridiculous situations, it knows its public well enough to also offer this many options.
Your gathered materials can follow recipes and create clothing to your liking, and this even unlocks a story tied to each garment. All chapters are based around having to create one specific outfit with a star marked next to it, and each four of these will end once you can deliver the outfit, inching you closer to its dramatic and singularly unconventional ending, characteristic of the series.
The voiceover cast from the original anime adaptation is here as well, with the same sparkling personalities that go a long way to enjoy this visual novel to the fullest. Jun Fukushima, the voice of Kazuma who rose to prominence with this same role, shines with his unique inflection as the ridiculous antics take him and his party to unexpected situations of dry humor. The rest of the cast, equally brought from the show, maintains the same level of comedic chemistry to the point where it feels that you are watching another episode of this popular series.
Just as with the thoughtful recreation of an episode, the CG videos in between each chapter look pristine. For your leisure, you can access any previous scene or CG image in the gallery, as you are most likely to do so from the opening movie onwards; it is rather dazzling to look at. No heavy lifting is required on the graphics’ behalf, so that’s highlighted in the quick loading of all options you choose. The easy access to log in or out during any moment of gameplay is a welcome addition.
Although the overall risks of the narrative are pretty low, and even the gameplay feels laidback, the dialogue and interactions of each character shine and are solely worth the playthrough just for that. If you are an avid follower of the series, then your enjoyment will only multiply. KONOSUBA is a very popular anime that deserves a comical and authentic video game adaptation, and that’s exactly what this game is.
