Ascendant Hearts

Isekai is a popular genre in manga and anime where the main cast in the story are sent to another world. Ascendent Hearts is a classic isekai, with the main character waking up in an RPG world with amnesia. While this is a story as old as time, Ascendent Hearts manages to make it feel fresh and original through creating a parody of this popular genre.

Get ready to laugh

If you’re a fan of RPG games, you’ll appreciate the humor in this world, where RPG tropes are the norm. As an example, the more revealing an outfit is in this world, the better your attacks will be. Other tropes, such as characters familiar with terms like “NPC” are normal in the world.

The main character, who isn’t from this world, often questions these tropes. This often leads to laughs, but also to character growth among the cast. One less funny example of this is the first woman you meet in the game.

She is an outcast that other characters shun, and saves Hayato from the monsters he meets when he first wakes up. He questions why she is an outcast in the first place, and helps other characters to grow.

Beautiful graphics

Overall, Ascendent Hearts has a hilarious plotline and some decent reading, but these can’t carry a visual novel on their own. In order to truly enjoy a visual novel, it has to have good graphics. The graphics for Ascendent Hearts is exquisite, with beautifully rendered anime art. The characters are particularly detailed, but even the backgrounds are good, if static.

If you’ve played Visualnoveler’s other visual novel, Anime Studio Simulator, you’ll be familiar with the quality of the graphics and the straight-forward style of the novel.

Four possible endings

Ascendant Hearts is a relatively short visual novel, with four possible endings with each ending focusing on your chosen girl. This is also the only time you get to see the protagonist, who turns out to be a fairly generic looking male. Overall, this is a short visual novel. You can expect to get through it in just 4-5 hours, but if you love isekai, you’ll find it a very enjoyable ride.

Some nudity

Ascendent Hearts features a lot of naked breasts. Most of the time these are covered up by steam or water, but the occasional bare breast (nipple not shown) is also featured. The game is rated for teens, which is probably why the breasts are usually disguised.

Pros:

• Beautiful graphics
• Decent sound
• A hilarious story for fans of isekai

Cons:

• Very short, linear gameplay