Kaichu - A Kaiju Dating Sim Review

We all know I love a good dating sim, so is it any wonder that I’ve been playing Kaichu - The Kaiju Dating Sim? It was said to combine my passions of weird dating sims and wanton destruction. After all, you’re there to play as Gigachu, who’s searching for their kaiju love. You have six to choose from, and they all have different personalities and a selection of different pronouns.

Speaking of pronouns, you can change Gigachu’s to your own preferences. However, I thought I’d stick to “chu” for this pink dinosaur. Gigachu can court one kaiju at a time, and you can take them to different historical landmarks to destroy them together. In a way, it is romantic, but it’s not particularly exciting after the third playthrough.

You can only date one kaiju per playthrough, and it will only take you about 20 minutes to get through it. Each time you play the game, your relationships are described by two news presenters. They’ll tell you what your romantic partner is thinking and inform you when you’ve made a bad choice. It’s more of a guessing game, really. You only have three possible answers, and you can only respond in a way that’s either positive, negative, or neutral.

But does the storyline ever change? Not really. You can go to different buildings, but each playthrough follows the same formula. It’s set up into three acts, and with each act, you learn more about your partner in a file. This file is then kept for the next playthrough. In addition to gaining further info about your partner, each act also sees the military aim to prevent your relationship from progressing.

I had the same story happen every time, and it wasn’t a particularly exciting one either. I would have preferred it if there was a little bit more variation than changing the different monsters. After all, it got repetitive after having to do the exact same mecha fight again.

To elaborate, the army sent a mechanised robot out to prevent your relationship from growing. While I wanted some conflict, I had yet to find a way that could defeat Mechachu the first time. Instead, you need to go back, get some relationship advice that doesn’t help from other kaiju, and defeat Mechachu again with the power of love.

It’s incredibly difficult not to succeed in the final battle. Even when the military wins, you’re left separating amicably from your partner. It doesn’t take long to try again. After all, the levels aren’t long. You just need to pick one answer from three, and the presenter will tell you if it’s good or bad. Even if you don’t succeed, it’s a matter of trial and error.

You can have a few bad dates in there, but you’re hit with a game over if you get too many. The good news is that all the questions are easy to answer. Most of the questions in this game have to do with boundaries. It’s a game about getting to know your partner, and I guess it’s a nice lesson on the subject, but it doesn’t make for compelling gameplay.

That’s not to say that Kaichu is a bad game. On the contrary, it’s rather short and wholesome. It’s not designed to be deep, and while it’s not my cup of tea, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. However, that doesn’t mean that it was good either. I left this game with a feeling of “meh.” It’s a shame that Kaichu couldn’t live up to its wacky premise.

For all intents and purposes, Kaichu did its job. But was it a good dating sim? Ultimately, no. Even in other dating sims I played, there was more challenge. Essentially, the answers you pick are all dependent on trial and error, and there’s no real conflict. While it’s got some nice messages, there’s no actual story to it. I felt like I was getting lectured on boundaries and struggled actually to invest myself in the characters. By the end of this game, I can’t even say I had a favourite character, nor could I remember much of what happened.

While Kaichu was certainly a charming foray into respecting boundaries and overcoming obstacles, I could have done with a bit more destruction. Overall, would I recommend this game? If you have time to kill, I would say that Kaichu is certainly a way to kill time. But if you’re looking for a long-term commitment? I would say that Kaichu isn’t the one you’re looking for.