Isekai

This review is for the preview version submitted to the 2026 Review-a-thon. I’m going to assume people reading this won’t mind spoilers.

As a player, I don’t usually have a lot of patience for long descriptions and am not especially drawn to world building, and Isekai is packed with both of those things—yet in the end I largely enjoyed it. For 2+ hours I got sucked into the world and the story, despite some uneven elements and rough edges. With some careful editing, I think this could be a really compelling, dare I say wholesome game.

I haven’t played the previous games in this series, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I spent a long time in the first room, looking at everything. And there is a lot to look at in this game (“Which do you mean, (1) the aqua girl’s eyes, (2) the aqua girl’s face, (3) the aqua dress, (4) the aqua girl’s ears, (5) the girl in aqua, or (6) the aqua girl’s hair?”). I almost got overwhelmed. Then I realized looking at things is the main mechanic of this game, even more than in the average parser game, which actually makes a lot of sense in a story about waking up in someone else’s body in a strange world. Ludonarrative consonance! Anyway, whenever I got tired of reading descriptions (again, this is a me thing), I could skim them and get the idea. The important things were clear enough. The italic suggestions that sometimes showed up at the bottom of a description helped move things along.

The thing I thought was particularly strong was the pacing. There was a whole series of revelations along the way, doled out at regular intervals, which kept me interested in exploring to learn more. Up front you realize you’re in a woman’s body, of course. Then you realize you’re an elf, a specific elf, a specific elf with two wives, and you all have magical abilities. The dominos are set up for the explosive final realization (which I’ll get back to later). And I thought the finale really delivered, with revelations every step of the way as I left the library and walked to the landing pad to meet up with my spouses.

Sci-fi/fantasy is not usually my favorite (it’s probably the world-building thing), but when it's truly transportive it can feel therapeutic, and there’s something comforting about spending time in a world that doesn’t have all the obstacles and injustices that we have. This game’s many world-building details made me think about our own society, and how a different life is possible. What if different species lived together in harmony? Wouldn’t it be nice to not worry overmuch about a wardrobe malfunction? How would life be different if people weren’t concerned with using the toilet in front of each other? I’m not sure I’d ever given that last one much thought in the past, but now I have.

I also enjoyed the gameplay elements that weren’t just about looking at things. The puzzly moments where you have to read documents in order of complexity in order to get better at reading the language—the diplomas in particular—were a good example of melding gameplay with storytelling to make the experience more immersive.

The main thing that made the game less cohesive for me, I think, was the portrayal of the player character. Throughout most of the game, I couldn’t tell if the PC, aka the person who got isekai’d in the intro, was supposed to be a specific character with his own personality or a generic PC who anyone could project themselves onto. His characterization seemed founded on being 1) curious about this strange world, 2) fascinated by women’s bodies, and 3) unusually knowledgeable about math and astronomy. But since we didn’t get any concrete background details about him (e.g. name, occupation, what year he’s from, where he was before this happened), it felt less like he was a specific character, and more like an everyman speaking with the author’s voice.

Either way, the PC’s point of view became jarring to me because of the stereotypes and objectification peppered throughout the narration. Nothing I saw was overtly negative (the game is open about being accepting of differences), but there were multiple mentions of the “feminine knack” for improving one’s appearance, for example, and I can confidently say we don’t all have that knack. The mystery and beauty of the PC’s body is emphasized (“You feel more connected to this charming, gorgeous and exotic elfin body”), with far more attention paid to her large bosom than her six-fingered hands, for example. It feels like being a woman and being an elf are treated as equally shocking, which won’t be the case for all readers. Moments like that broke the immersion for me. I can picture a version of this game where we get clearer personality details about the PC that explain why he would be especially concerned with her ample bosom. I also can picture a more adult version of this game where the anatomical differences are an even bigger part of the allure. I found it perplexing how this game walked a line in between those two possibilities.

So that was my thinking for most of the game, and then came the late revelation that the main character has been Etuye all along, and her soulmancy was so effective that she got stuck believing she was someone else. This was an extremely cool moment! (It also helps explain why this guy can calculate astronomical positions and convert decimal to duodecimal in his head.) This realization made me wish even more that the game had teased more of the past-life PC’s background, so that the reveal would be even more of an aha moment. The intro could be a good place for this, since it was uncharacteristically brief.

Speaking of which, my other main wish would be to make everything shorter. I enjoyed “looking at things” as a mechanic, but it got tiring, and most of the descriptions could convey the same thing in half as many words. Just as an example, here’s a snippet from the game:

“You’re surprised at the ease of actually donning for the first time a tight, form-fitting culotte around your legs and hips, pulling them up to fit it around your waist with elegant, gracious and agile hip and finger movement, leavingneither wrinkles nor creases, like you have always elegantly and graciously donned female form-fitting garments, with that feminine knack for excellent appareance.”

Compare that with something like this:

“You don the form-fitting culottes, pulling them over your legs and hips to fit smoothly around your waist with surprising agility, as if you’ve always worn clothing like this.”

Word count is an artistic choice, of course, and many people like lengthy descriptions. However, for a general audience, I do think cutting back on words would make the game more approachable. A diligent copyedit would also make the game read more smoothly—there weren’t too many confusing parts, but the volume of typos did slow me down a bit.

So, overall, this game is promising and I would totally read more of this story (though I think this segment could totally stand alone as its own installment). I enjoyed the journey of discovery the game took me on, and the story is threaded through with heart and optimism, as well as world-building that even I could appreciate. In an ideal world, I would like to be able to identify with the protagonist more—or else see more clearly why they are the way they are, without giving away the central conceit—though perhaps I’ll have to wait until the next chapter.