Lovingly Evil

A dating sim that deserves to be talked about alongside the likes of Dream Daddy and Hatoful Boyfriend, Lovingly Evil is a funny, smart experience that doesn’t drown you in exposition and keeps it all charmingly light and breezy. Absolutely worth your time.

Lovingly Evil is a great dating sim. It’s wacky, charming, silly and a great deal of fun. The characters you meet along the way are dastardly and evil, but they all have a soft side that’s delightful to uncover. Choosing who to romance will be hard as they’re all yummy, but don’t worry; you can just load up the game again and romance someone different the second time around. With excellent writing, fun character designs and a whole lot of flirting, Lovingly Evil is an excellent addition to any dating sim fan’s library.

Whimsical and cute despite the sinister subject matter, Lovingly Evil is a short but endearing experience. A full playthrough of the story will take around an hour and a half (depending on the player’s reading speed) but with five romance options and 12 endings, there are plenty of reasons to return for repeat players. As for me? I finished it twice, and I’m considering going back and finding out what’s up with Satan.

It manages to tick all the genre tropes but with a knowing sense of its own ridiculousness. At times the writing can be a little uninspired, but when it decides to forge its own path, Lovingly Evil and its more inventive moments is as ridiculous as an army of trained murder squirrels, assuming your evil plan involves trained murder squirrels. With a sinfully gluttonous amount of replay value and some inventive ideas, Lovingly Evil won’t conquer the world but it might annex your heart, plant a flag, and start taxing you per beat.

Lovingly Evil is a funny and charming dating sim with interesting characters and frustrating minigames. While it is well-written, don’t expect the game to get too deep or go beyond the start of your relationship with one of the characters.