>> Butterfly Soup
A visual novel about gay asian girls playing baseball and falling in love.
I do not agree with Butterfly Soup PC's tagline wording since it highlights its LGBT nature rather than its strong character and dialogue writing. Nonetheless, it is a linear slice-of-life story of four friends that last about 3 hours. While I cannot speak for its LGBT quality, the group dynamics and moments is what really sells it specially with Noelle and Akarsha. It is a straight forward and fun ride all throughout which is nice in a sea of complex narratives with uncertain artistic value or quality.
>> Thoughts
While it is free product, I do have some minor thoughts about it as a game or story. Since this is promoted for its romance, I did feel it a lacking or does not have weight. I do like that the group is supportive and that is possibly the point of the game, but it does not give me struggles or perspectives to ponder about. This also leads to the overarching story where there is none. It ends at a good point, but I am curious about what follows and the changes in the dynamics.
On a character basis, Noelle is my favorite character alongside Akarsha where their banter feels great while Liz is my favorite in terms of design. My least favorite for me are Diya and Min despite being the main romantic pairing. Min is strangely too rebellious without any added flavor aside from being protective. Diya feels a bit bland with her shyness without any complex or introspective thoughts. With her godly athleticism, she feels like a shy main character in a harem whom everyone revolves which is not bad but just uninteresting. These are subjective character opinions so feel free to disagree.
For some minor points, it has cultural references which I still enjoyed though some escaped me, so it might date itself. Features such as background pan or screenshake made me feel dizzier so the option to disable is appreciated. While the story is linear, some minor branching would be nice for replayability.
Nonetheless, the characters and writing is realistic and I enjoyed my time with the game and would like to see more.