Strawberry Vinegar

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Strawberry Vinegar is a Visual Novel released in 2016 on PC, and then ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2020. This game features a story that focuses on Rie, a nine year-old Japanese girl with pink hair. Rie’s father is a skilled but absent-minded cook and her mother is an actress and celebrity. As a result, Rie is somewhat isolated by the overshadowing presence of her parents in her life, which has resulted in Rie not having many friends. However, this self-isolating and quiet state of things is upturned at the arrival of Licia, a girl with blond curly hair and horns who seems to be roughly Rie’s age who claims to be a demon from hell and threatens Rie that she’ll “reap her soul” unless Rie spends a week making tasty foods for Licia.

So much of this seems like an odd non sequitur. It’s not initially explained exactly why Rie has been targeted for this extortion, why she’s being asked to make such a mundane but oddly-specific payment, or exactly what “reaping her soul” means. But this isn’t exactly a game that runs on any sort of realistic logic – Rie speaks more like a 30 year-old spinster than a 9 year-old girl, and Rie’s parent immediately invite Licia into their home despite having no clear idea where she’s from (they think Lucia is an exchange student and “Hell” is a town in Norway).

What follows is a story with some extremely light yuri elements (the characters in this game are children, after all), but with a lot of focus on the quirky “Odd Couple” friendship of the two girls, and a lot of focus on food.

The presentation here has to be one of the stronger elements of Strawberry Vinegar. This game’s hand-drawn artwork is absolutely gorgeous, featuring anime-style character designs with an abundant use of pastel colors, with plenty of depictions of detailed, delicious-looking foods as well. The soundtrack unfortunately isn’t quite as successful – While the game’s anime-esque music fits the light-hearted themes of the game, it’s not at all memorable.

There is one issue that the game’s presentation presents, and that is that the overly-bright colors can make it hard to see the text at times. Players can thankfully choose one of a handful of different styles for the game’s text box, but all of them are different varieties of pink, which doesn’t seem to offer much in the way of differing options.

As for the gameplay itself, such as it is, Strawberry Vinegar does offer players a branching story based on narrative choices, and it’s easy enough to save before a decision or fast-forward through lines you’ve previously read. Nothing outstanding or especially noteworthy for a Visual Novel, but sufficient.

In the end, Strawberry Vinegar seems to have a lot in common with the sugary treats featured throughout much of the game’s story. It’s aesthetically pleasant and enjoyable, but it’s frivolous and lacks substance, and it seems like approaching the story with even the lightest amount of scrutiny will cause it to deflate like a souffle. If you’re a fan of Visual Novels looking for something light and airy that’s cute but doesn’t really demand too much of you as a reader, you may find this game to your liking, but players looking for a more filling meal in the genre are better off looking elsewhere.

tl;dr – Strawberry Vinegar is a Visual Novel about a young girl who is told she must spend a week preparing tasty foods for a young demon or else have her soul “reaped”. This game’s presentation is gorgeous, and everything is very pastel and cute, but the story lacks any sort of meaningful substance. Visual Novel fans looking for something light and disposable may find this worth playing between more serious games, but most will likely be better off looking for more fulfilling experiences.

Grade: C+

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