Bustafellows
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Bustafellows
With so much to love about BUSTAFELLOWS, it's an easy recommendation for all otome visual novel fans.
But there’s a moment just as the wave breaks, as it all comes crashing down, where the sea spray lingers in the air and a rainbow appears against the blue sky. From where you stand, you only see its upper arc, but there’s comfort in knowing it’s a complete circle somewhere, the rest of Bustafellows that had built up to this moment. And it’s fleeting, perhaps even quickly forgotten, but it’s beautiful.
Ultimately Bustafellows could be the breakout hit of the otome genre, a genre woefully underserved in the west. With its appealing character design and flashy noir setting, it’s an easy to digest pretense for otherwise timid readers.
With its very likeable cast, distinctive and memorable heroine, beautiful presentation and compelling narrative setup, BUSTAFELLOWS should be on the shopping list of every visual novel enthusiast — not just otome fans.
Bustafellows is part crime caper and part otome romance, and those are common enough things, but it's the quality of the writing and the strong thematic core that helps to set this one apart.
Bustafellows is a great representative of the fascinating stories visual novels can tell. The narrative features a strong lead and a cast of handsome boys with dark pasts that create this endearing tale. Still, it’s a story on society’s shortcomings, which makes it relatable in many ways as we ask ourselves what would cause us to take matters into our own hands. While some design choices seem odd in this release, this otome is an easy recommendation from me.
BUSTAFELLOWS is a quality otome visual novel with amazing work done across various aspects from visuals to writing to audio. The story is engaging and moving, the romance is adorable and authentic, the characters are vibrant and unforgettable, and the writing leaves much food for thought even when it could have delved into several topics further for more sufficient coverage. The visuals are stunning and the VA nailed the different characters’ personalities while the music nailed the quickly shifting ambiance. The translation quality is good too, though it could still be more polished. The weakest aspect is its game system with a tedious save process and a “Skip” function that proceeds at a snail’s pace. Then topping that off with a PC port that runs only in fullscreen mode and uses unusual fixed key binds, we get great content wrapped inside a not-so-great container.
If this isn’t obvious by now, I was not a fan of Bustafellows. I have been playing otome games for a long time, so perhaps I have just aged out of the typical character tropes and bland dialogue that plague most of the modern releases. Still, I wanted to like it and admit that for fans of the genre, this game is definitely a diamond amongst the common rough that we get on a yearly (almost monthly if you count mobile games) basis.
