Books Over Flowers

"Neglecting your homework can lead you to true love. Hohohohoho."

When sleepy-eyed Eimi walks into her geometry class, she encounters a terrible truth: they had geometry homework last night. Luckily her best friend Charlotte extends an angelic hand and offers to let her copy... for a price. Valentine's is quickly approaching and Charlotte wants to confess to her crush with a love letter. She isn't confident about her writing skills and Eimi is a member of the Writers Club, so why not enlist the help of her writer friend?

Desperate not to face her witch of a teacher's wrath, Eimi agrees to the exchange and pens a letter after school. Soon enough, Eimi finds herself falling in love after a locker room encounter and gaining popularity as the Love Letter Princess. Just when she thought her day couldn't get any better, Eimi's good mood plummets when crush Kohei requests her services! Will Eimi find love with Kohei or is she destined to be with someone else?

OS: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Languages: English, Dutch, and German
Commercial? No, available for free on its official website



To be completely honest, I did not expect to like this title. Heartful Chance's promo image failed to grab me the first time I saw it, but I'm really glad I gave this title a chance many months later. Once I got past the initial hesitation, I was hooked. It's predictable in some places and I don't doubt that was intentional; in many ways, it's an affectionate parody. Among the first things you see when you start the game is floating pink hearts and a sparkly cursor. Right away players know they need a strong stomach for cliche-ridden shoujo to enjoy the game. Well, that or at least a willingness to take nothing seriously and turn off their inner editor. HC can use a proofreader, but the script is comprehendible despite its imperfections. Besides, it's free.

Before discussing the content a little further, I'll point out that the controls and user interface are standard Ren'Py, albeit customized. As always, you can backread and change your options, save at any time, enable skipping, etc. From the main menu, you have access to the Start, Load, Gallery, Settings, and Quit buttons. The gallery is divided into three categories (Kohei, Henri, and Extra), each containing six CGs. For a game of this length, there are more than enough save slots.

Back to the content. Studio Sprinkles's take on tired cliches is entertaining and I found myself liking the heroine quite a bit. Eimi is hilarious to watch and her narration is pretty amusing. I wouldn't hesitate to say that I wound up liking her more than her suitors, though I can understand if people find her annoying. She's very much a teenager engrossed in social media who falls in love far too quickly and reads into things more than she should. I think many of us can relate to that in the digital age. The game takes place over several days, maybe a week if I want to be generous.

Saying too much will spoil what happens, so I'll avoid talking about what occurs outside of the spoiler text. As for my impressions, I found Henri's route more satisfying than Kohei's and might suggest completing Kohei's first to finish the game with a bang. Kohei's CGs were underwhelming in comparison. However, doing that made me feel bad for Eimi because I already knew her feelings were requited. Either way, everything happens so quickly that it's not really worth thinking about, hahah. And it makes a lot of sense for her to refuse when she has absolutely no idea. Furthermore, completing Kohei's route first reduces the shock value of a revelation in Henri's route. Said revelation is not exactly surprising, but going in without that expectation can heighten the experience.

While Heartful Chance isn't particularly deep, I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't take shoujo or otome games too seriously and has maybe an hour of free time to spare. Most if not all players can figure out what will occur, but the energetic script is a joy to read. Be prepared to gape at the heroine and Charlotte.