Rose Seed Replica Review

Note: Review code provided by LezLiz

Here we are yet again looking at another title I had my eye on for a long time. With the wait over the question, as usual, is whether it was worth it or not. Find out as we take a look at the yuri in outer space story that is Rose Seed Replica. developed and published by LezLiz and her group.

Genres: Adventure, Point and Click, Romance, Sci-Fi, Yuri

Theme: LGBT

Length: 7-9+ hours. (Depends on how many dialogue options players want to check out and the endings discovered)

G-Rating: Good

Plot Summary: What if you got zapped to smithereens by some kind of alien contraption, only to somehow wake up in a remote space station far, far away from Earth? That’d be awful, right?

But what if the lady who kind of did that to you actually turned out to be the loveliest person ever? And she liked girls too? What would that make it?

Gay. There’s no way around that. It’s queer women kissing and messing with each other, feel-good slice-of-life, aloof banter, silly dates, an occasional serious topic, rainbows, awkward humor, bad puns, nonsensical mysteries and stuff.

What’s the big deal?

• 100% yuri

• 100% gay agenda

• 100+ choices to make

• 170,000 words worth of dialogue

• 6 different story routes

• 4 different romance types

• Awkward humor and light drama

• LGBT+ positive and inclusive

• Made by a lesbian

If I were to describe RSR in one word it would be “sweet“. The story and cast of characters are all sweet and diverse. Throughout the game players get to learn more about each of them from their lifestyles and experiences before meeting Sophie, views on life, beliefs, sexual orientations/preferences, interpersonal and intrapersonal struggles, discussions on mental conditions and cultural views on gender/sexual orientation/identity/color etc. The game delves into several topics without coming off heavy handed. It reminded me of how Mizuchi handled it where it was fun to ponder how many of the opinions expressed by the characters were from LezLiz herself or from people she met/knew.

Our heroines Sophie and Bryn’s relationship is a delightful one to experience the lovely ladies grow deeper in love after they come to a mutual understanding and appreciation for each other. Without spoiling anything I will say that despite Bryn’s initial impression do not expect her to be the “top”.

Besides the interesting topics of discussion the main love story is about two women getting to know each other better and slowly but surely becoming much more than acquaintances. Of course it takes time to nurture a strong bond and the way it was handled here was solid. It was neither too long of a wait for the two to get together nor did it feel instantaneous. It felt gradual and it was a delightful romantic experience from beginning to end complete with delightfully intimate moments and several yuppy wuppy smoochies. Plus later in the game there is very nice extra that made me go “I’m pretty sure the developer had ME in mind adding this icing on an already yummy cake”.

The presentation is pretty good with something a 32 bit aesthetic. The game would look right at home on SNES, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive or Windows 2000/XP. The animation is fluent and charming with some nice attention to detail in every location. Rainbow goodness is also present here and there as the screen grab shows. The soundtrack is simple. It is limited but gets the job done.

On to the gameplay. Put simply this is a lite Point and Click Adventure game. I say lite because it is quite basic, which is intentional. The game is meant to be a relaxing experience where players can take their time uncovering all the different dialogue options, events and key items as they progress. There is no time limit (not referring to the in-game clock) meaning players can progress the story by finding key items and triggering important events when they so desire.

As a Point and Click game players can interact with beings and objects and get Sophie’s thoughts on them. Interacting with certain objects or choosing certain dialogue options opens up new options with certain characters such as discovering new devices unlocking new dialogues with the two cat droid things.The space station is nice but not very big so do not expect a large area to explore. Despite the smallness there is enough intrigue about its origin and purpose to keep players wondering what is up with everything. Whether players take the time to uncover the truth is up to them as it is optional. More on that in a bit.

I mentioned an in-game clock. Actions from having conversations to interacting with objects obviously move time. Sophie gets tired around 22:00 PM but do not think that means each day is long. I would calculate around 3-5 minutes. It depends on what players have Sophie do or who they talk to. Special events have their own timer so it would be best to make it on time thought it that is not difficult.

BThere is a short but sweet platformer along with an optional dial mini-game shown above. This plays a role in uncovering the truth. The key is to focus only on the left side. The right side does not seem to mean much from what I noticed. The goal is to get all 4 blue lines to fit the edge of the charts without having them go out of bounds or be inside the charts. Of course the graphs become harder the more players complete. Kinda reminds me of the Octavius mini-game in the PS4 Spider-Man game. Completely different experiments, yes but the ideas are similar. Which ending players get depends on whether this side-quest and other events are uncovered before the final story event is triggered.

Basically there is enough to justify the game being a Point and Click and not another Visual Novel.

As I said there are several yuppy wuppy smoochies to be relished between our lead duo. While the game is for everyone who embraces gayness there are moments the ladies get jiggy, or they are about to with the “action” occurring behind a black screen of meowy lewdy wooby. It is nice.

Overall Rose Seed Replica is a sweet adventure full of yuri goodness, LGBT appreciation and some nice sci-fi plot points. The presentation is a 32-bit delight with a simple soundtrack, the characters are all fun to follow, the gameplay is a simple but enjoyable point and click adventure and as mentioned the cute yuri power lives up to the hype. Recommended to readers in the mood for a relaxing yuri game with gameplay different from the multitude of Visual Novels and Dungeon Crawlers. Nothing against those genres, mind you. There are many great yuri stories to be found in them too. Just trying to get the point across.

The game is available on Steam and itch.io