Don’t let this review fool you, Liar! is a freemium game. I know, I usually review free-to-play only but the first part of this game is technically free. If you play your cards right and don’t use up your free tickets, you can probably come really close to clearing the whole game while using as little money as possible.
So, let’s see how this game goes!
Story
After a rather nasty break up with her boyfriend, the Main Character [you name her] decides to go find the man of her dreams at a speed dating function with handsome, rich, and well educated men. The MC’s mother is pressuring her to get married and since the MC is from the countryside, she doesn’t want to marry a country bumpkin. Upon entering the venue, she runs into a fortune teller who tells her that evening, she is going to meet 10 men of her dreams. But all of them, except for one, is lying to her! Using investigation and the power of the MC’s “no damns given!,” you will help her pick off every man, one by one, until you are left with the one, THE TRUTHER!
And yes, he is the True Route in the game. He wins.
Characters
There are 10 love interests with varying personalities that the MC meets at speed dating. The first 5 who get knocked out of the running have pretty bad lies. The second half have lies along with lines of “This just isn’t going to work out…” (EXCEPT FOR ONE). The second half have purchasable “Lovers Route” that are 800 Coins each (~$4.80) where you can have the MC still date that person despite their lie. And there is also the game’s True Route who also has a Lovers Route where the true route continues.
Starting out, I had an immediate favorite whom, despite him being my favorite, did annoy me here and there throughout the game. These characters are all flawed in both good or bad ways. Even the guy who comes out on top is flawed and that is good. It shows that you that even Mr. Right will not be perfect and you have to work through your issues as a team!
Game Play
Like most games I review, you get five free tickets a day to read the different Liar stories. This game, however, isn’t just reading the story. You also need to do some detective work. You will be asked to look through FindFriend (the game’s Facebook), look around offices, apartments, ect to find clues to who that story’s liar is. And you can bad end if you choose incorrectly! So take your time and look at everything.
Upon finishing a Liar Route, you will be given a rank and that rank determines which ends you get to choose from to read. The highest rank is S and when you S rank you not only get your choice of all FIVE of the possible end to read, but you also unlock every end meaning you can read every one. As the Rank goes down (A,B,C,F) the choices of endings to read also goes down. And if you want to read any of the other ends, you will have to either replay the Liar again and try to achieve higher rank OR you can just buy them using coins (I don’t recommend you do this. Check the Game Page Tips for more about this.)
The game also has checkpoints where it will check your Cool Points (CP) to determine if you can continue the game. You get CP by going on Flirt Time and answering dating questions to get points.
Then there are Savvy Points (SP). You are awarded SP based on how many right answers you make when calling out the Liar in each story. HOWEVER, the only way you can S Rank and unlock all the ends is to Early Clear. When you tap on the Liar story before starting it, there will be a window that will show you by what day and time you will need to finish the Liar in order to EC and get the extra SP to S Rank.
What do I like about this game?
It’s not a secret, I’m not a big fan of Voltage as I once was. But, there is a lot here to unpack.
Some people are immediately turned off by this game’s MC and I understand where they are coming from. Her standards for finding a man come off as shallow, she’s quick to judge, and can come off as bitchy. But that is what makes her GREAT. NO DOORMAT HERE. She’s so flawed, it’s amazing. She isn’t perfect by any means and even in trying to pretend she is, she doesn’t really understand the irony in some of her actions. But that is fine by me! Her actions made me laugh, yell at her, and make me wish I could take her aside and be like “…. No. Just… no.”
But, it goes to show that not all Japanese women are mousy, soft-spoken, polite, and put everyone else before them which is something most otome would have you believe. This is a woman who knows what she wants and is willing to lie (IRONY~) to find out the liars in the group of suitors.
Oh and she has a friend~
The game play is not typical. I have seen some call it otome+phoenix wright. I find investigating and going through evidence as a fun extra. Of course, you lose this completely in the Lovers Routes where the game goes back to typical Visual Novel game play, but that’s fine.
I found the event they just had easy to clear and the extras neat. Though, I found it hard to separate the AU guys from their Main Story lie….
The things that frustrate me
The only real headache in the game play is Savvy Points (SP). The fact that the only way to S rank is by SP alone and the only way to get enough SP to S Rank is to EC, while this will be easy to do for the first few handfuls of Liars, becomes impossible to do in the later Liars without extra story tickets.
This Liar gave 4 days.
Some of the bad ends, especially in the later half of the Liars, feel really forced. When their lie comes out, the Bad End is usually centered around them falling back onto that lie one way or another. The later half are so developed that their actions in the bad ends (EXCEPT FOR ONE) make no sense.
Some other things, there really are no CGs in the free-to-play part of the game. It’s mainly story and investigation driven.
Overall, a fun game if you are wanting something with some different game play and very different MC. Playing the first few to see if you want to continue might be worth it since you will be able to clear them easily.
Related Links:
- Game Page (Tips and Walkthroughs)
- Android Download – Google Play
- iOS Download – App Store
- All Reviews
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