Today I am reviewing DAL Date A Live Spirit Pledge, a mobile game on android and IOS. Date A Live Spirit Pledge combines visual novel choice and consequence style dating simulation aspects with real-time action-rpg combat. It includes a skill-tree to customize your characters combat abilities and offers a little something for all audiences to enjoy.
Title: DAL Date A Live Sprit Pledge Global
Release Date: July 2020
Where to Get: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/date-a-live-spirit-pledge/id1501496525 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.en.datealive.gp&hl=en_US
Genre: Dating Simulation / Visual Novel / RPG
Overall Rating: 70/80 “B+ Very Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 5/5 – This is not your usual dating sim or visual novel; it also offers a lot of action and ability to customize your characters’ skill trees with real-time action-rpg combat and a wide-range of skills.
Sweetie: 4/5 – The story is great, characters are endearing, graphics are adorable, but there is a lot of fanservice in this title.
Gameplay: 8/10 – Even though the gameplay experience is quite varied it can still become repetitive, and there are a lot of micro transactions since it is a mobile game. I also own the Playstation 4 Date a Live game – although I’ve barely touched it yet, I suspect it’s probably much better than this already pretty great game. I will do a review of the PS4 game in the coming weeks so stay tuned for that.
When it comes to Date a Live Spirit Pledge gameplay is divided into various segments. Some put you in a real-time side scrolling combat situation, others allow you to date the girls in visual novel fashion with multiple choices. It does appear there are different branching plot elements.
The only thing I really didn’t like is it takes too long to unlock new date sequences, forcing you to replay the same dates over and over which gets boring really super quickly.
You can summon new girls to date, but the cast is somewhat small and limited for this type of game. And you can see pre-determined off to the side who is available and who is in your current roster. You can also dress them up in different costumes, and assign spirits to each of them to help in battle.
When it comes to combat, there is a branching skill tree which I really like – similar to a lot of the newer final fantasy games. You can customize each girl to fit your style of play.
Story: 10/10 – I am giving story 10/10 – I find it touching, and sweet, and unique. The “cannon route” or “main date-able character” is actually a “villain” who the player’s character feels badly for because everyone is trying to kill her to save the world.
And as you play this character’s route… you too will begin to feel bad for her. She is so naive about the world, and she starts out cold, because everyone has been trying to kill her, but once the player shows her kindness, her character begins to blossom into a loving and loveable girl.
The player learns he can save this girl and others like her by sealing their power with a kiss so that they cannot destroy the world. I haven’t heard of this spin on the whole harem thing. I find it refreshing and unique.
Characters: 10/10 As I mentioned, many of the characters are spirits that just by existing in our world pose a threat of destruction. Other female characters have been assembled to fight this threat by any means necessary. And for some reason they all love the player’s character, so you have a lot of funny jealous anime harem tropes here – if that’s your thing, think of anime like Tenchi Muyo, Love Hina, Ai Yori Aioshi, etc. But unlike most typical harem anime, these girls aren’t just flat stereotypical characters, each one grows emotionally and we see them evolve throughout the story. The character development is A+.
Graphics: 8/10 – The cute anime cutscenes and various facial expressions, and animations bring this game to life. The combat scenes are underwhelming but probably the best they could do with a mobile game.
Music: 9/10 – Music is pretty good – fits the mood of combat or emotional scenes, but it can get repetitive. Honestly, I almost always play mobile games on silent, but this music isn’t bad at all. I even like the idle background music from the main screen; it is such a pretty melody.
Voice Acting: 8/10 – The voice acting is adorable and really suits each character perfectly. It would be nice to have an option for English voice acting, but the Japanese cast does a great job.
Replay Value: 8/10 With branching plots and multiple routes for each girl, the replay value is very high indeed. However the game does get repetitive and dull after a bit. I recommend taking it slow and pacing yourself to not get burnt out.
Overall: 70/80 88% “B+ Very Good Game For Girls”