My Girlfriend is a Mermaid!?
Switch eShop
COSEN / Sekai Games
2014 2019
I thought My Girlfriend is a Mermaid!? was a Korean visual novel. It's actually a joint Korean / Japanese production (courtesy of the cooperation between Talesshop and COSEN). Despite some passing references and a Korean voice option, it ultimately feels Japanese. Which could be disappointing to those expecting "something different." I played the Switch version, but this was also released on Steam under the hilariously literal title of She is Mermaid, which is more accurate in some ways.
The protagonist, Hiroto, is a young science-obsessed man who returns to his rural hometown. He's by himself, chilling, vacationing, whatever. He soon runs into a childhood friend, Ion, who is now... a mermaid. Hiroto is oddly nonplussed by all this, as are the residents of the town. Ion is a sweet girl with massive boobs and can live on land or in water, but she moves awkwardly on land. The two begin hanging out, and soon encounter another (younger) mermaid named Petako. There's also a violent shrine maiden with a gender identity crisis named Rin. The mystery of the mermaids is eventually revealed and Hiroto makes some tough decisions about how to proceed.
The characters are pretty fun and can be endearing, but damn is this game silly. Just unrelentingly so. This can be fine in doses, as there are some decent jokes and visual gags. But damn does it go overboard. There's plenty of screaming and sound effects and screen gyrating. There are repeated references to being gay, gay sex, Petako not "understanding" gay sex, boobs, grabbing boobs, bouncing boobs, fondling boobs, jiggling boobs, more stuff about boobs... Then there will be these really tender and heartfelt moments and it just feels like whiplash. The "romance" is kind of undercooked and the game even pokes fun at the "childhood friend" cliché but Ion is so adorable I was quite okay with all this. The insane amount of innuendo and near-nudity truly has me shocked that this skated by with a T rating... and then the developer actually appears as a character and jokes about the ESRB not thoroughly reviewing the game (dafuq).
This is a relatively brief (six hour) experience, with multiple endings. There are six bad endings, a good ending, end a true ending. I liked the good ending best, suppose you could say it was pretty good!! Progression is decided solely by those pop-up choices that appear periodically. These are actually timed, indicated by a beating heart icon that gets faster, but the time limit is more than generous. Still, there's one bad ending that can only be obtained by letting the time expire at every choice, which was a tad tedious. The choices in general are capricious and I needed a walthrough to get through this one (the only one available is at GameFAQs, of all places).
The art style is absolutely phenomenal. Every background has a soft aquamarine watercolor feel, and these may be filtered photographs. Character design was handled by a Talesshop veteran. The ladies look perpetually shiny and glossy, as if they were just emerging from the depths (these are freshwater mermaids btw). This is an animation-heavy VN, with all the requisite blinking and swaying and various coquettish maneuvers. Music is sweet but nothing to write home about (besides the title screen theme, which rules). All these elements come together for a quaint summertime sunset vibe that just feels nice, even if the writing often wavers. The Korean voice-acting is lovely too, I just wish there was an option to retain the original Korean character names.
This is one of those games with built-in achievements, but getting them is a pain in the ass. Some require the game be booted during certain months (oh okay), and there are beautiful fan-made CGs that only trigger if you quit the game at very specific times (I think?). Some tiny extra stories are available after the credits roll, but they aren't particularly compelling. Bit of a weird one overall, it's way too gorgeous to be this goofy.
Rating: 3/5
Reviewed: 01/25/26