NEKOPARA Vol. 1

had some crazy discord goon sessions streaming this to my gf buy this if you and yo girl are freaks vro..

I don't like leaving negative reviews but I feel like I have to for this one. Strap in, It's a frustrated one.

For those who don't want to read the whole thing, I can summarise this game Visual novel (Seriously, why does it not have the tag visual novel (as a main tag)):

Shallow

I will be honest and say I don't like visual novels in general, so you might ask me why would I even bother buying this?
Well, It was and still is popular and well liked, I did really like ddlc, and I like erotic material. I figured when seeing it in a bundled sale of all volumes that I might like it and perhaps that it could even change my mind on visual novels. REST ASSURED, It reinforced my aversion.

The good

- The voice actresses are good from what I can tell, but I don't speak Japanese so take that as you will.
- I like the art. It's well made apart from 2 nitpicks that I will mention later.

The bad (not 18+)

- The story is so shallow. I guess the best way to describe the story is interpersonal relationships between the protagonist and the catgirls + sister. That is all. What does this mean for the story? Well, it means that there is practically nothing going on. When the story works up to something, the chapter ends and the goal has been achieved off screen. Phenomenal.
- It's a visual novel, I know, but it should still be mentioned: there is 0 interactibility. None. Forget replay value, there isn't even ANY playing.
- Any shallow or minimal conflict there is, will be resolved within max. 10 sentences.
- The book is about 6-7 hours on auto-play (with 18+). Considering there is no reason to replay this or the fact that it is just reading, €9,75 is quite a lot to ask. SIKE, to get this full time you need the 18+ patch which costs ANOTHER €9,75 for a total of €19,50.
- The story doesn't respect your time. What is told, could be done in 3 hours probably.
- The MC is a dolt, I dislike him.
- I know this is a nitpick, but hear me out. One of the painted backgrounds, the one that shows the front of the store, has an opening sign that states: 'opem'. There aren't many backgrounds, it's a simple word, the only focus for this product is writing, the art, and voice acting. Frankly, there is no reason to have such a basic mistake.
- 90%+ of the story is just happy go lucky. (Maybe somewhat individual criticism, but it feels off)

The bad (18+)

- I hope you like bleeding eardrums, because that is the main 18+ experience. The exceptionally whiny and earpiercing 'wails' will drive you up a wall. Lowering your volume won't help due to the high pitch of the voice actresses.
- From what I understand the dialogue is very much Japanese style... They want it but still will say stop, no and stuff... yuck.
- Something that has always bothered me about hentai, let's describe literally everything in excruciating detail. They just don't know when to shut up.
- I hope you like censoring. The good animated scenes are utterly worthless as a result, you can't even see anything (apart from nips). Honestly, just look up the 6 gifs online, it might even be a better experience.
- I hope you like repeating sentences that are only minimally altered. (x4)
- The official patch for the 18+ material is another €9,75! Are you out of your mind? To be honest, it's somewhat my mistake to think it was included. Yes, the game is practically known for the funneh 18+ stuff but let it be known, it costs extra.

To conclude

I feel like my review was more articulate than the slideshow I paid for.
Keep your money, it isn't worth the sweet catgirl tiddies.
There are enough of those and 100x better quality online for free.

do people actually play this game for the story or just for the cute characters and h-scenes?

banger ost

Good game 👍

The plot is uncomplicated, but it's easy to get achievements and complete the game. By purchasing DLC, you can have a good night alone, but not really...with your favorite catgirls, of course.
I love cute things and kitties and all nekopara volumes ♡

I am drowning in cat girls uooooogh

Good story would buy the whole volume

This was one of my first visual novels growing up. It helped cement the fact that 1.) Anime girls > Real Girls and 2.) I like women. This game is not for the plot, but it sure is fun.

cats are pretty neat

This game is what it is. If you like catgirls, visual novels and mildly horny stories, this is probably for you? It's quite funny and the art is nice. It's not high art, but its fun.
Also, it's pretty good if you want to practice learning Japanese or Chinese thanks to the dual language feature. So that's something.

I gooned to this

uohhh catgirl sex
it's censored but it's STILL PEAK
ahem, that aside, the story is really wholesome and I am definitely getting Vol.2

This game is very cute! A lot of people say that it's super creepy, but it really isn't THAT bad. Especially since here on steam, there's a safe version! We win! We win!

Very hardcore Souls-like game

CINAMMON BEST GIRL

Nice game Could finaly have sex with catgirl

10/10 would do it again

mmm catgirls

Lovable Experience
-Very Cute game
-Great 5 hr experience
10/10 would nya again

Feels like a slideshow sometimes but makes up for it in terms of the adorable voice acting, fluffy art style (and the H scenes). Character-wise it's a pretty common trope but well-executed - two lovely catgirls who can be airheads sometimes but they're the most loyal and caring companions one can ever have. Soundtrack is pretty decent, OP is meh but the ED is a banger

A solid VN overall and I'm looking forward to the other installations.

pretty good

Pretty easy to 100%, the story is very cute but as someone who bought this because i like cute stuff and not for well,,,, gooner reasons, the ''h-scenes'' are kinda of anoying and sometimes i dont fw the mc, but i guess theres also kinda yuri so that makes it peak

this shi will keep my mental health afloat

SAME COMPARES FROM VOL 0 INSTEAD THIS ONE IS 1 AND MAKES ME EXCITED TO!!

fingers and toes have fallen off

cute VN series but ruined by gooners :/

A sweet, lovely classic, with copious amounts of spice! (8/10)

(• Played with R18 Patch)

Yes, this is 10 years old and I’m late on jumping on the train. But personally I still think it holds up quite well in most regards. If you want to start delving into JPVNs with romcom and SOL elements, and want to see what the fuss is all about, I’d say this is still a fine title to consider! Doubly so if you appreciate catgirls (you should, they’re cute) or maid uniforms!

I do feel like everything is pretty surface level in terms of how the relationship develops and how the story progresses, but from a technical perspective, this is a very well-polished game that focuses on having brilliant art and VA at the very least. The start can also feel a bit weird / wishy-washy, especially how cold and distant Kashou seems to the girls at times in the first few chapters, but I guess it’s there for the sake of character development.

It also felt somewhat formulaic, in the sense that MC ends up being nice a bit to a girl for a little sweet talk moment, then they go in heat and smell something sweet off MC as a sign.. Happens to Chocola, then soon after happens to Vanilla. Of course, there are other story beats outside of this, but these two being strung together back-to-back made it feel slightly repetitive, on top of the fact that “come on, anyone could literally say that”.

Of course, them being catgirls is the saving grace that might let me suspend my disbelief a little bit and assume they are clingy and easily attached by nature. And also maybe this obvious disbelief is why devs released Vol 0 AND Vol Extra; to give more substantial reasoning to the romance that unfolds here, since based on the synopsis of those, they felt like Chocola and Vanilla needed to be given more limelight.

The game also features Shigure, the somewhat lovestruck little sister/trainer/’other real owner’ of the catgirls. Her scenes are fun, but her existence makes me go “another one of these, huh”. Despite my limited knowledge in this sphere I know how notoriously somewhat-common it is to have a sister chara who crushes on MC. And I know some people would rather not deal with that stuff so I thought it’s worth mentioning. It is pretty fine here though, since everything is one-way and MC doesn’t indulge her too much. But looking the info about the upcoming game “After”, it is somewhat likely that she’ll be a slowburn, final LI.

The end scene is pretty heartfelt, although I notice some odd details in how the cop literally doesn’t care that there’s a very sick dude being out late at night and needing help.. They literally said “alright I’mma head out.” Literally tunnel-vision and doing the bare minimum, but I guess that’s par for the course for background characters.

The epilogue also very rightfully teases the fact that other catgirls are moving in too, so I’m looking forward to slowly trying the rest of the bundle!

Information:

(•)Playtime Total: 7h10m13s. I don’t cut VA and am generally not rushing. Took me 1h until intro video, 1:28:0 until Bath CG, and 3:14:29 until first H CG.

From my timings, the H scene accounts for 2 hours exactly. (35m for Chocola, probably also ~35 for Vanilla, and 50m for final scene)

(•)Kinetic Novel.

(•)A tinge of Yuri. Yes, they may be “indulgent, male-gaze-enabling” kissing art, but it’s technically there nonetheless. Although Chocola & Vanilla treat each other more like dependent twin sisters (as they are), they seem to really love each other.

(+) Pros/General Ratings:

(+) Writing (7/10). I mean it’s just slice of life so nothing mindblowing, but it was fun to read. There’s some okay worldbuilding too with laws, narration describing the population at large accepting catgirls as companions, etc. . At least it’s a bit more than the bare minimum.

(+) Godly tier art (9/10). People are here for the anime CGs, myself included, and it did not disappoint. Of course I’m partially swayed by the fact that lots of what I saw are H Scenes, but even if you’re playing without patch, there’s also some beautiful date CGs here or them very cutely eating cake. There’s also a lot of cut-in images that makes things decently expressive; more than I initially expected. I do wish we got a few more of the girls actually in the kitchen doing work, but it is what it is.

(+) Lovely girls (7.7/10). Chocola and Vanilla are very good girls. They’re very earnest, and the sense of distance Vanilla brings to the table actually intrigues me quite a bit. Of course, they’re also cute in their own ways. It does sometimes feel like they’re very simple mass-appeal charas though; but maybe simple truly is the best!

(+)Animated Sprites. Some of the pauses in movement can feel a bit awkward and dated, but the fact that it’s mostly animated is nice.

(+) Good Voice Acting (8/10). Yep. Not much to be said except nice production value. I don’t know much about who’s-in-what, but at least I noticed Coconut sharing VA with Ditzy Demons’ Miyabi (Tezuka Ryouko) and I really love her voice. Guess that’s why I gotta get in on the sequels. Chocola exudes real lovey-dovey sweetness. The whole cast is solid really.

(-) Cons:

(-) Still some typos. Yep. Even for something this popular and 10 years old, there’s still a couple of lines with missing words and wrong words. Although it’s rare enough that I feel like it’s better than some other newer titles, but it’s surprising that this is the case, considering the current landscape of other non-JPVN games being updated and fixed for typo issues. Maybe no one cares to report them for JPVNs and I won’t either, but I’ve done my part for some other titles at least. I’d figure this was popular enough that some would surely have already done it over time, but I guess not!

(-) Text Display jank. Sometimes text just shows a single word for me and the line stops loading entirely or advancing. Bringing up the backlog in these cases show the full line, but going back to the line shows the incomplete one. Dunno what is causing this on my end but it happens, in both cases of previous line being advanced via auto-play vs manual clicks.
I do often re-enable and disable it via the auto play button, and have different text speeds between manual clicks & auto play despite basically doing both depending on whether the current line is voiced or not, so maybe that causes issues, but it’s annoying how unpolished this feature seems to me.
I guess it was par for the 2014 time and my expectations are colored by more modern, newer-year releases feeling smoother in this regard. I expected something this beloved to differentiate between Auto mode Text Speed vs Auto Mode Wait Time (how long to advance once the line is fully outputted) too as an aside, but I guess back then no one realizes these two could be different sliders.

(-) Deleting save files just causes the game to crash. ??? “Invalid Value / Time & Date” prompt shows up before the game closes on me… my brother.. why is that even relevant. I have no idea.

(-) Steam Screenshots during the bath H-CG doesn’t show text even if you want it to.I guess some publishers do some special stuff during these to avoid getting into problem with steam formerly (fine); and hence do some kind of censoring in intent, but in implementation something ended up going wrong. The only thing that gets hidden is the actual textbox/backlog while fully showing the CG in full display.

Of course, the actual H scenes will result in pixellated screenshots and that’s pretty standard in my limited experience. But still an oddity how the bath CG differs.

Overall, pretty standard and I’d still humbly somewhat recommend it!

Nekopara is a nice, wholesome story about the relationship of a young man and his catgirls.

Also has catgirl sex if you're into that. Censored with mosaic tho.

Great visuel novel about cat girls and running a bakery. Very wholesome. Has nice hentai scenes for the dlc and the base game is just wholesome. Art is good and all is fully voiced acted.

It's so peak

came for the cats stayed for the plot

PLAY IT! PLAY IT NOW! CAT GIRLS ARE ADORABLE

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Nya :3

My favorite innocent visual novel.

10/10 Would recommend
Meow

gooner game, im just here for the cute cat girls

Let's face it, we're all going to hell after buying this.
Was it worth it?

Abso-fucking-lutely

Chocola and Vanilla ftw! (*ฅ́ ˘ฅ̀*)♡

meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow

A cult classic, Absolute cinema

Nekopara Vol. 1 is a visual novel developed by NEKO WORKs, serving as the true beginning of the Nekopara series. It blends an endearing slice-of-life story with high-quality artwork, fully voiced characters, and an immersive presentation. This installment introduces players to the heartwarming yet comedic life of running a patisserie with adorable catgirls.

Nekopara Vol. 1 Review (Steam):

⭐Story:
The game follows Kashou Minaduki, a young pastry chef who moves out to start his own patisserie, La Soleil. However, two of his family's catgirls, Chocola and Vanilla, sneak along and insist on staying with him. As he manages his bakery, players experience heartwarming, funny, and sometimes emotional moments with the catgirls. While the story is lighthearted and predictable, it excels in delivering wholesome and entertaining interactions.

⭐Visuals and Art Style:
The artwork is absolutely gorgeous, featuring beautifully detailed backgrounds and expressive character sprites powered by the E-mote system, giving them lively animations. The character designs are polished and vibrant, making every scene visually delightful.

⭐Audio and Voice Acting:
The game includes full Japanese voice acting for all the catgirls, making their personalities shine. The background music is relaxing and fits the cozy atmosphere of the patisserie setting, enhancing the overall experience.

⭐Gameplay:
As a kinetic visual novel, Nekopara Vol. 1 has no choices or branching paths—it’s a straightforward narrative experience. However, it does feature an interactive "petting system," allowing players to interact with the catgirls, adding a bit of engagement beyond just reading.

⭐Replayability and Value:
Since there are no alternate endings or choices, replay value is limited. However, fans of the series may revisit the game for its charming story, cute characters, and relaxing vibe. For newcomers, this is the best entry point into the Nekopara universe.

Final Score:
- Story: 7/10
- Visuals: 9.5/10
- Audio: 8.5/10
- Gameplay: 7/10
- Replayability: 6.5/10

Overall: 7.7/10

Conclusion:
Nekopara Vol. 1 is an excellent introduction to the series, offering a sweet and lighthearted story with stunning visuals and charming characters. While it lacks player choices, its immersive presentation and wholesome moments make it a must-play for visual novel and catgirl fans. If you enjoy cute slice-of-life narratives, this is a great pick!

meow

Absolute Cinema, would do any cats in this game

catgirls

do you like catgirls??? HELL YEAH!!! do you like... maids...? HELL YEAH!!!! put both together with a spice of live2d and you got nekopara!!!

Super cute game! Love the art style and the character development throughout the whole game :3

I was expecting "nyans" and there were a lot of them.... Too loud!

an awesome guide on how to run a bakery, 10/10! will try irl!

weird how they establish that your relationship to chocola and vanilla are that they are like your daughters and then right after you sleep with them, an interesting game to compare to other visual novels but only in a sense of what?? why do they do this???

the only takeaway is that the cat girls are really nice and if they left the relationship not sexual id probably enjoy it more...

vanilla my beloved <333