NEET Girl Date Night by Hitsuji is free visual novel for Windows. This is a story of meeting a girl and inviting her on a date. However, unlike other games like Fated or Katawa Shoujo, your love interest here is a reclusive girl who looks far from one of the sexy goddesses you see in many anime-like visual novels/dating sims.

She’s not the one the most beautiful girl, her room is a mess and she’s awkward. In case you didn’t know, NEET is defined in Japan as “people who don’t work, don’t study, don’t do housework, don’t look for work.”

Good story but little gameplay

NEET Girl Date Night does a great job at representing a stereotype NEET in a different light. So the story is not about dating or sex. The focus is on getting that person to live life again and get back on the right track. It’s really your job to convince her to do it.

Although the story is original, it’s a pity that there is only one ending. Even though the choices you make in the multiple choice dialog system do affect some situations, you know it will end the same way. This doesn’t give the title much replay value.

Beautiful graphics

From an art point of view, great name. The scenes are beautifully drawn and the main character contrasts well with the stereotypical anime girlsome of which are also depicted in the game. However, there are some parts with pixel art.

Sound-wise, it’s fairly basic, with functional music but no noteworthy sound effects or dialogue, which reduces the overall experience a bit, making it feel more generic.

Another look at the dating sim

At first you might think NEET girl date night it’s a dating sim because of its theme. But this visual novel is far from that. The attempt to show a NEET person is obvious here, and the dating aspect is sidelined to make it all more interesting. Thus, in fact, there are no such experiences.

The story is less than an hour long and never feels boring, except for a few long stretches of the same ambient music. Unfortunately, the lack of different endings makes the game one-off, which is recommended for fans of the genre and people interested in NEET.