Nicole

Sometimes, I like to ignore problems until they go away. In Nicole, a slice-of-life mystery visual novel from WinterWolves, you can do just that! Arriving at college full of optimism and energy, Nicole is ready to make the most of her new life. However, she’s soon caught up in a series of kidnappings, and perhaps more concerning, the world of dating.

Nicole looks good as a visual novel and dating sim. As for its gameplay and overall story, it falls a bit flat.

It was a fun game while it lasted, and the variation between the characters was lovely to experience. While I wasn’t a huge fan of Standard mode, I can appreciate a lot of people will enjoy that style of gameplay. The inclusion of visual novel mode is something that I wish I’d see more of in games like this, so that people can enjoy the story without needing to be good at the balancing act. I’d have liked the game to be longer because it didn’t take me that long to go through every story in visual novel mode – I understand and appreciate that it was an experimental add-on, but it should’ve been carefully tested and potentially expanded before being included in the final product. That said, if there happened to be a fully-fledged visual novel version I can see myself double-dipping without much hesitation! I had a lot of fun with Nicole, and would definitely recommend it for any visual novel fan.