Just Deserts

I approached Just Deserts the same way I'd approach any resource-constrained sim: build a mental spreadsheet of the variables, figure out the optimal loop, and execute. What I found was a game where the resource loop is real and occasionally biting, but the strategic layer underneath it is thin enough that veterans of the genre will feel the ceiling almost immediately. That said, the loop itself is functional. You manage energy, health, money, a day-night cycle, and a love-status meter across a strict in-game month. Every day you make decisions: patrol the desert for combat income, spend that income on weapons and armor, or invest it in gifts and shared activities to advance your relationship with one of five voiced heroines. The tension between those two spending priorities is the most interesting design decision in the entire package. The turn-based combat is where the cracks show most clearly. On your turn you can attack, use an item, or, if you brought a partner along on patrol, trigger her special ability. That is the full mechanical vocabulary. Enemy types do have elemental tags - fire, organic, electric - but in practice those distinctions rarely demand meaningful counter-play. Slow, unskippable enemy attack animations compound the tedium, and a stingy drop rate on high-value loot can push players into save-scumming patrol runs just to afford the next round of courtship activities. The combat never evolves; it is the same decision tree at hour one and hour six. For a strategy-labeled title, that is a significant gap between promise and delivery. The dating-sim side is better balanced than the combat, though still uneven. The five heroines - ranging from a taciturn sniper to a flirty helicopter pilot - each have distinct dialogue arcs and the conversations stay concise rather than burying you in filler. Fully voiced English dialogue is a genuine asset at this price point for the genre. The hand-drawn art holds up well, with expressive character sprites and painted desert backgrounds that stay readable even in bright scene lighting. Seven endings tied to your relationship status give you a reason to replay, and a completionist run could push past 30 hours, though each route shares most of its skeleton with the others - ending scenes are the primary differentiator. Compatibility is worth a flag for Mac users: the game does not run on macOS Catalina or later, which quietly eliminates a chunk of its stated platform support. Windows players are fine. There is also paid DLC in the form of costume sets and a Valerya chapter, none of which are necessary for a first run but worth knowing exist. The base game is a first Kickstarter project from a small indie team, and the ambition of fusing dating-sim resource management with turn-based combat is genuinely respectable even where execution falls short. If your benchmark is Tokimeki Memorial or the deeper end of the visual novel catalogue, you will feel the roughness. If you want a light sci-fi romance sim with a touch of tactical structure and you can tolerate repetitive fights, this does the job without overstaying its welcome.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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