Nintendo Switch Critic Reviews

With its explanations of the Turing Test and machine learning, QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~ offers more than just a basic tale of love between man and machine. Although the first two hours can be a bit dull, the visual novel’s central relationship is tenderly written, allowing for a few wholehearted moments.

I went into QUALIA expecting it to be a fairly run-of-the-mill big boob fanservice game. And in some regards it is. It’s not really breaking new ground on how these stories are told. On the other hand, the subject of the game is inherently interesting and highly topical, and while the presentation is very familiar, it’s exactly what the target audience likes to see. It’s also an impressive example of how to build a visual novel on a minimal budget without needing to make concessions to the goals of the project. The android at the heart of QUALIA might not be my idea of the ideal love robot, but I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about her here.

Qualia is a visual novel that can’t seem to settle on what it wants to be. A sweet little romance with a quirky premise? A piece of science fiction? An excuse for lewd scenes that have been cut from this version? At times it is all of these things, but it fails to nail down any of them to the degree that I would have preferred. It’s not entirely without its charms, but Qualia ultimately doesn’t live up to its potential in any regard.

A lot of robot fiction makes a simple collection of circuits and wires, just the barest indicators of humanity, into an intensely human character even with nothing more than the suggestion of a face. Qualia feels like it showed up with all the robot parts you could want in a box and simply made a pretty girl to smile at you, and she can’t even make eye contact.

While QUALIA ~Path of Promise~ has a strong premise, I feel like it didn’t hit the mark in terms of what it could do as a story. While some fans may enjoy it, if you’re looking for an immersive visual novel, this probably won’t be for you.