Harem Girl Isabella

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Harem Girl Isabella is a Puzzle Game released on PC in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2023. And as the title indicates, yes, this is also an “ecchi” game featuring art of attractive anime-style girls, with said girls wearing increasingly revealing outfits and depicted in cheesecake poses, though from what I saw there was no actual nudity here (though this is still not a game you’ll want to play in the presence of other human beings). Anyway, beyond the titillation, the gameplay here is a basic tile-swapping puzzle game.

Okay, as I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of ecchi games, but I’m not necessarily opposed to them either, as long as they’re a decent game and as long as the sexy stuff works for the game. When it comes to Harem Girl Isabella, I’m not sure the sexy stuff is doing this game many favors, since it’s all seemingly PG-rated, but on the other hand, without it this would be a pretty rudimentary Puzzle game not really worth looking at.

To be fair, the anime-style artworks this game presents are nice, though there doesn’t seem to be any consistent theme or character here even though the game’s title seems to indicate otherwise. This art is presented using a framing device of a simple 3D mazelike interior reminiscent of a First-Person Dungeon Crawler, a framing device that seems like an attempt to do something out of the norm, but only succeeds in adding an additional unnecessary frustrating element that does nothing to make the game more fun and could have easily been done with simple menus instead. These visuals are backed by synthesized instrumental music that’s oddly somber and quickly gets annoying.

I suppose at the very least the puzzles in this game are a smidge more difficult than the sort of tile-swapping Puzzles that these sorts of ecchi games seem to frequently take the form of, thanks to tiles that are rotated or flipped and need to be oriented correctly to solve each puzzle (which can get frustrating in puzzles such as one involving a girl with a cauldron, where the dark cauldron pieces look indistinguishable no matter which way you rotate or flip them). Overall, this is an extremely simple Puzzle game, and you’re not likely to be enticed by the gameplay. And just to make things extra disappointing, the Nintendo Switch version of the game does not support the use of the touchscreen, despite that the gameplay seems like it would really benefit from it.

However, that brings us back to the question… just who is Harem Girl Isabella for, exactly? It’s a fairly rudimentary Puzzle game, and fans of the genre have a wealth of better options on Nintendo Switch, even if they’re looking for something simple. The game’s images do hint at being sexy, but don’t really go far enough to be truly raunchy, and in any case players who crave that sort of thing will likely find more satisfaction in images they can find in a quick Google search. So if you’re not here for the gameplay and not here for the lewd images, just why would you even bother with this game? My advice: Don’t.

tl;dr – Harem Girl Isabella is nominally a Puzzle Game, and as the title makes clear this is also an ecchi game with artwork of scantily-clad and topless girls in compromising poses, though there’s not really anything truly raunchy here. What’s more, the tile-swapping gameplay is really rudimentary and not especially interesting, and while the artwork is nice, it’s nothing compelling enough to sit through this boring gameplay just so you can ogle it. Trust me, if you want porn, just look for porn. If you want a Puzzle game, you have plenty of better options. There’s just no reason to get this game.

Grade: D

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: The “Who asked for this!?” Award

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