At this point, it becomes anything but surprising that Japanese games that were once more niche have found a wider appeal in an international market. Now that localization only really applies to textual subtitles instead of redubbing an entire piece (and is preferred that way), companies want to make sure their very best and most fan-service goods are getting into the hands of fans. People are loud and proud about their fandoms, and prove it with their wallets in an almost daily basis. Which is really the only way that I can figure out why there existences yet another massively titled game, KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire!

Fans of widespread madness and memes will be aware of Konosuba, the reincarnation-based fantasy anime that started out as a shockingly popular book, but I had never really explored it before. Aside from some curiosity with the arguments about who the “best girl” of the series was, I didn’t fully understand a lick of the lore. Now, having put multiple hours of my life into this visual novel/time management sim, I’m still not sure I do. Nothing makes sense, and the attitudes and energy of the characters is perplexing, abrasive and often quite perverted. There’s clearly a ton of backstory that I’m not privy to, and this game does almost nothing to explain it at length.

I swear I heard this in someone’s wedding vows once.

But here’s the thing: after playing this, I really, really want to know more.

Love For These Clothes Of Desire takes place after the second season of Konosuba, in which the core gang of Kazuma, Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin discover a mysterious stone tablet one day after a particular battle/raid/probably some misunderstanding. In short order, they discover three things: the tablet can create clothing from materials fed to it; the clothing curses whoever wears it, but only one curse at a time; the original owner of the tablet says it was stolen and wants them all exiled as punishment. Thankfully, there’s a loophole: use the tablet to craft a very particular outfit based on the owner’s requests and they’ll be free and clear of consequences.

Behold, the screenshot that got me strange looks when I started laughing on the train.

In theory, this is a pretty straightforward idea, but that’s where the rub of Konosuba comes in. The curses all seem to affect the party by giving them totally opposite personality afflictions from how they normally act. So greedy and foolish Aqua suddenly is caring and responsible…somewhat. Submission/humiliation obsessed Darkness (what) becomes a masochistic dominatrix (WHAT). And usually self-conscious Megumin is now preaching the virtues and superiority of her small chest and condemning large breasts as a source of stupidity and uselessness. I could not make this up even if I wanted to, and it’s not even close to the weirdest part of this game.

Gameplay for Love For These Clothes Of Desire is mostly reading, with a small bit of decision making and day planning. Since there is a countdown for paying back the noble owner of the tablet, the four party members must decide how best to score both the necessary items to make the new clothes as well as pocket money to purchase what cannot be normally earned. There are odd jobs like babysitting, blacksmithing and mining, which can be assigned to each person individually to maximize spread. However, there’s also group-focused tasks which yield more specific rewards for story-important outfits. So, naturally, if you need a bunch of Giant Frog Skins, you’ll want to max out all three days of scheduling to fight the frogs and improve drop chances.

Look, I needed black ink and this is the best job formation to get it done. Never mind for what outfit.

Once you get the three days of work out of the way, you’ll have a chance to choose one of several locations for Kazuma to go to to spend a little free time. These choices may just give him a chance to move the plot forward and stretch his legs, but, because this is a visual novel of massive fanboy proportions, this is also how you might have a chance encounter with one of the many women you can potentially have a romantic connection to.  You’ll get a brief dialogue with the woman in question and then get a conversational fork with three potential answers. Choose the right one to charm her and you’re well on your way to a good ending and some more artwork to unlock in the gallery.

Before we get wrapped up in what works and what doesn’t, I want to give a big nod of appreciation to Mages and PQube for how this game is set up. Instead of a long-winded introduction or just assuming you know everything (like Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs), players have the option to go through a small slideshow that briefly outlines who everyone is, their quirks, and their connection to each other. It even goes a step further and talks, in brief, about how the game will progress, and what to do in order to get those good endings. Unlike many a visual novel that can balance your happiness on the knife edge of a single moment, the path forward is clear: keep having good interactions with whomever you like best and the happily ever after comes up over the horizon. Easy!

Because even visual novel fans sometimes want the most straightforward explanation to get what they want.

Initially, I was a little disappointed in the visuals of Konosuba. While I know not everything can be a graphical feast, the first impressions when the avatars were speaking felt a little stiff and wooden in comparison to the talking animations of, say, ANONYMOUS;Code. Given the reputation that precedes this particular anime, I figured there was going to be massive attention given to making the characters perform and move even in the minor acts in order to help convey the full range of emotion needed for the storyline to unfold. As it stands, there’s very little actual movement other than the mouths sort of moving with some longer speaking and the avatars occasionally giving a shimmy when being reprimanded or having a strong emotional response.

As I further understood the game, though, and especially the tone of it all, the more limited animations feel like a purposeful decision by Mages. Love For These Clothes of Desire has just as much foley comedy as you can get from an anime, and over performing the characters on the screen takes away from the audio punchline. In one battle encounter, Darkness is determined to be eaten by a frog because that’s the clear way to defeat the monster, or at least she claims it is. If we harped too long on how everything looked and animated in this scene, it would take away from the creeping (emphasis on creep) realization that Darkness clearly has a vore fetish and we need to end this scene for her before the whole game gets banned.

Like…am I on a list now? Do I need to tell my neighbors?

Everything about Love For These Clothes Of Desire tells me this is a game for the real fans of the series, and the gameplay speaks this in spades. It’s a meaty visual novel, with pages upon pages of interactions that are fully voiced, including most of Kazuma’s inner monologues. The first time you do one of the group based activities, you end up with another dialogue scene, even if it’s as mundane as gathering herbs. There aren’t puzzles to accomplish outside of how to gather the materials for the outfits, there’s zero combat, and the branches in the plot come from if you’re going to go all in on hitting on the Lich shopkeeper Wiz or maybe one of the party members you see more regularly. 

The time constraints that come into play are not even close to the pressure cooker scenarios that come with the Atelier series or the like. The amount of time is usually very generous to get the chapter clothing, and the combinations are usually quite easy. Usually you can gather all the goods in about six rounds worth of choice making, which almost always plays out in the following fashion. Grind for three days to make the outfit that affects your party’s current curse situation. Watch a cutscene where the curse gets lifted, usually with absurd encounters and a new scene added to the gallery. Take three more days to grind the materials for the quest outfit and spend some cash to buy the final necessary item from the shop. Make the costume and progress the chapter. If you’re just playing for the main storyline, things are easy as hell.

But you aren’t here just for the main story, are you? After all, each chapter unlocks a bevy of requests from your guild that has a whole bunch of other outfits to make. And every outfit is specific to one person! Wouldn’t Darkness look amazing in a maid outfit? How about a Chinese inspired dress for Sena, the uptight guardswoman who keeps coming to address you? Wait, you’re curious how I talked essentially a police officer into becoming a model for my weird clothing side gig? Because Kazuma is clearly the smoothest talker in the world, obviously!

Just zero shame.

This silliness is what kept the game both engaging and interesting, because it isn’t just ogling anime characters for the sake of satisfaction. Every interaction, every moment, is drenched in ridiculous dialogue that has the timing and pacing of an incredibly well written TV show. The foils and punchlines as they play off each other – biting sarcasm, genuine disbelief, almost painful obliviousness – kept the exchange of lines and moments at a high turnover of hilarity and appreciation. In fact, the only downside came when I would complete the workload and the options for moving the story forward involved only going to Kazuma’s bedroom, because that meant I hadn’t engaged or done anything noteworthy to create another dialogue scene.

The replay value of Love For These Clothes Of Desire will come from trying to unlock every outfit and ending, and the multiple save slots, fast forward function and clearly labeled catalog that is the gallery make this ambition a breeze. While many outfits are just for one character, the story/quest specific ones can be affixed to multiple volunteers, which are needed to push forward to their specific endings. Without spoiling anything, there are a staggering number of scenes to discover, including ones that have no outfit bearing and just good timing with deciding when to interact with certain characters. Once you lock in on someone you’re interested to see end up with Kazuma, you can use the chapter beats to fully unlock their outfits and see what dreams (or nightmares) may come.

Visual novels have, for many years, evoked a lot of emotions in me. They’ve certainly made me cry and think, and several of them have changed my opinion about certain topics in my own life. But, very rarely, do they make me laugh, consistently, with such unrepentant and powerful accuracy. To have a game strike my humor so precisely and continually land tonal jokes is impressive. To successfully pace out the speech, the exchanges, even between-scene bumpers to transform the experience into a real “watching anime” motif is unbelievable. I always recommend the VNs that change my world, but never has one done it in such a humorous, deviant but non-crass way. All the members involved seem in on the joke, even if they behave otherwise, and that, to me, at least makes it sexually funny, not uncomfortably sexy.

The world is truly filled with awful people.

If you had any love for Konosuba!, then you’re going to want to pick up this game. If you’re looking for a hilarious tale that is as lewd as it is self-aware, you’ll want this game. If you were wondering if there was an anime quartet that splits the difference between Three’s Company, It’s Always Sunny, and Seinfeld, then this is your game. Love For These Clothes Of Desire might be just an excuse to create more fan service, but they created it in a damn fine way, and, in the process, have created a brand new Konosuba fan.

KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS4 (Japan only).

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of KONOSUBA – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Love For These Clothes Of Desire! was provided by the publisher.