Archive for September 2025
Futamata Ren'ai: Two Times the Trouble Review – And Make It Double
Genre – Romantic Comedy, Slice of Life Play Time – 20 hours Developer - ASa Project Steam VNDB
Balancing Act Comedy
Becoming a two timer after being forced into a relationship with
a girl due to a misunderstanding and then being asked out by your
crush is suitably absurd premise perfect for a romcom. Pushing the
boundary of believability for comic effect is something Asa Project
have made their signature and Futamata Ren’ai continues this steady
output. It uses the drama generated by the two timing to create
entertaining situations for the player to laugh at while still
maintaining a sense of the stakes and providing meaningful
consequences. The characters and their banter are the heart and soul
of the game and they are its greatest strength as the majority of the
moment to moment comedy comes from their interactions and how the
play off each other. Fun and unusual character portraits, such as
those involving vomiting, give a life and humanity to its cast even
if the rest of the visuals and audio are fairly standard. If there is
one thing which brings the experience down it is way the routes feel
weak and devoid of the drama which defines the rest of the title.
However, is this undermining of one of the visual novel pillars
enough to stifle the laughter? Let’s juggle relationships and find
out.
Two Times The Drama – Narrative And Themes
The
core of Futamata’s appeal lies in the way it plays up the drama of
its core premise to tread a line between comedy, sincerity and
satisfying resolutions. It leans into all the expected beats of this
kind of narrative from the accidental double dates to the discovery
of the infidelity and amps them up to their extremes. The use of
drama here is craft a wild ride for the protagonist, Koga Nao, as they fumble their way through their relationships with the heroines while
the player gets watches this slow motion car crash. By putting the
player in the passenger seat Futamata is free to leverage Nao’s
self inflicted suffering as an avenue for comedy within the framework
of its over the top events and allows the player to not feel
responsible for his actions. These various pathways for the delivery
of its comedy are all brought together with the character banter
which operates as the main means of communicating and playing off the
comic situations. From the moment it starts the game is clear how the
Nao’s two timing will end so the focus shifts onto how it will all come
crashing down and what this will mean for those involved. As such
the moments of sincerity on the part of the cast where they are frank
with their emotions and the comedy is allowed to take a backseat have a powerful impact and bring them closer to the player
as they move beyond being simple vessels for humour. There is also a
forward momentum provided by this drama via the developing web of
lies and the way relationships based on this lie start to bloom into
something meaningful. This does a lot to help connect what might
otherwise come across as series of unconnected comedy sketches and
keep the player invested for the long term. When it comes to the
resolution of the car crash, Futamata makes
sure to offer a satisfying conclusion to the conflict for both the
route heroine and the rest of the cast. It is shown how what has
happened resulted in growth for their character where the become more
assertive, reconcile with those they were in conflict with or find
love. Doing this helps ease the sting of the wrong done to the heroines
through the two timing and keeps the tone light rather than having
the consequences being completely negative. The game gets to end on a
satisfying note where the characters the player has grown the care
about get the conclusions they deserve to round out the experience.
 |
| Not sleeping is bad for you kids |
Marks
against the game come from elements of somewhat messy execution which
are peppered throughout. Broadly these come in the form of weak
routes stemming from the drama stopping the moment one starts and
the uneven treatment of its characters. The overall structure of
Futamata places all of the drama in the common route and almost all
of it is resolved before the game enters its routes. Since the
mixture of drama and comedy is one of the game’s strongest points
its absence in character routes is keenly felt because its ends up
being a series of romantic and comedy scenes with very little
connective tissue. They feel more like long epilogues than
substantial additions or explorations of their respective characters.
Due to how suddenly the drama disappears it feels as if there is a
hole in the narrative which is never filled even if the quality of
the banter and character moments remains the same throughout to help
mitigate the void. It is a strange choice since it would have been
easy to mix in a few moments of drama to spice things up without it
weakening the romantic atmosphere since they manage to keep the
character banter comedy in without any issues of clashing tones.
 |
| Hmmm I wonder why |
The
uneven treatment of characters is something born out of a
collection of small oddities when they compound together and it may
be something you never notice during your own play time. Let’s go
over a few example to showcase what type of oddities there are in the
text. Perhaps the most immediately noticeable is the presentation of
the male cast as “assholes”. Nao is an interesting case for this
since he is not exactly the best person, hence the two timing, so him
being labelled as an “asshole” is somewhat his own fault. The
issue arises when comparing his treatment to that of the female cast
who are not all that much better than he is. At one point Nao and a
heroine are found to be equally guilty but their punishments are not
equivalent, he gets tossed into the sea and while she just gets a
light slap. Then there is a moment where the player is offered a
choice whether to sleep with a character or not and regardless of
what they choose Nao is always treated as being in the wrong. If he
does sleep with her then he is irresponsible despite the other party
consenting and if he turns her down than he was not man enough to do
the deed. There is a running undertone in Futamata of men having all
the responsibility and women being less culpable for their actions,
despite the majority of the major characters in the game being woman
and each one having an important role in how events conclude. Then
there is the strange case of Oikawa You who the player is told is an
“asshole” but during the game he is nothing more than a bit
grumpy and his pursuit of a stable job and thoughts towards the
future seem to suggest the opposite. Beyond the strange male
presentation, the women also suffer for similar issues. For example
Rui is a supportive person who tries her best to be their for her
friends, even for Nao in this two timing, but this is contaminated by
the later revelation that she is a masochist and the game drawing a
direct line between it and the help she offered. Thus the conclusion
to be draw for this connection is that the only reason she was
supportive is she enjoyed the suffering due to her masochism rather than her being
a good person. Obvious Futamata intends this as a joke rather than a
serious comment on her character, but things like this happen often
enough to be distracting and it feels like the game is beating these
characters over the head with a club and asking you to laugh. It
spends most of its time asking the player to laugh with the
characters so swapping to asking them to laugh at the cast is more
than a bit jarring since they are people you will have grown attached
to.
Two Times The Banter – Characters
Fun
characters and their banter are the life blood of Futamata without
which the drama and comedy would not function and they underlie much
of the developer’s design choices. Having a protagonist like Nao
who is not the normal good guy archetype opens the door for a lot
more engaging interactions and satisfying arcs since he has room to
grow and can surprise the player in fun ways. It is from his
character that much of the game’s drama stems with his two timing
and the comedy loves to play with his less desirable traits to create
banter specific to the character he is interacting with. As the main
POV character, this variety is especially important since most jokes
and emotional moments will in some way relate to him so he needs to
keep the player on their toes lest he become dry and familiar, the
death nails of comedy. The heroines all have their own memorable
quirks from the biting wit of “final boss” Nobuta Yua to the laid
back cat-like Umino Miyako. Each one interacts with Nao’s two
timing in their own way as they dance around the problem lending the
comdey a good variety of situations where Nao has to deal with their
antics. There is a concerted effort to make the heroines exist
independent of Nao as they form their own friendships and have their
own lives unknown to him. By doing this the game establishes their
ability to act in surprising ways so when those actions are suddenly
sprung on Nao they do not come across as unnatural and instead help
make the heroines endearing for how they push back against him. Banter is how
much of the narrative is delivered outside of climatic moments and
Futamata is notable for how consistent the quality of it is and how
it ties nicely into the cast. Their conversations always find a new
way to take their established traits and shine new comedy lights on
them throughout the entire play time which is no small feat given how
much of the game is banter.
 |
| Even the minor character get their own distinctive traits |
Two Times The Spectacle – Visual, Audio And Technical
Presentation
is one of the game’s few mediocre elements. There is nothing
particularly wrong with it rather it is a standard visual identity
common to titles in the slice of life/ romance genre making it blend
into the memory alongside all the other similar looking visual
novels. The one exception to this is the fun unique character
portraits used for more over the top comedy moments. From vomiting
rainbows to shooting lasers out their eyes, these extra portraits are
used when to indicate a character’s drunken state and the wild
behaviour they engage in. Since this cast get drunk a lot over the
course of the story, the portraits see a good deal of use as a means of
selling just how out of control the alcohol has made them and results
in some truly outstanding comedy moments. Outside of this one
exception, the visuals and audio are the cookie cutter bright colours
and upbeat tunes where the aim was clearly to craft something
familiar to the player’s sensibilities. In this they succeeded as
it does feel like slipping into a kind of game the player is
comfortable with just with a greater leaning into comedy than normal. However,
in a world with so many titles of this genre competing for the
player’s attention is being so hard to recognise at a glance truly
a good thing? Ultimately it is inoffensive enough that it is not
really a strike against the game in a way which would undermine what
it has set out to do, make people laugh.
 |
| Vomit is a strangely consistent part of the story... |
Conclusion
Making
the most out of an outlandish core premise is what Futamata excels at
and it knows exactly how to push all the right emotional buttons
while doing it. The drama is played up to a deliberately comic
extreme to facilitate this brand of comedy yet still being capable of
using it for genuine moments of sincerity. Character sprite are
expressive in fun ways and make it easier to form a connection with
the cast even if the rest of the visuals and audio are fairly
standard. Interactions between the cast form the backbone of the
comedy and their banter is of exceptionally high quality with a large
variety on offer depending on who is talking to whom. The game does
stumble a bit when it comes to the weak heroine routes and uneven
presentation of its cast, but these are not major enough issues to
undermine its strong core foundation.
Verdict –
Two timing leads to double the fun in this dramatic romcom which
knows how to balance laughter and a loveable cast. It achieves this
despite its weak heroine routes and some odd choice in character
presentation.
Pros -
+
Good mix of comedy, drama and sincere moments which mesh together to
create a roller-coaster of laughter.
+
Fun characters with good banter who bounce off each other in exciting
and hilarious ways.
+
A variety of unique portraits for each character sell their
personalities in their wilder comedy moments.
Cons -
-
Heroine routes feel weak due to the lack of the drama present
everywhere else.
-
Uneven treatment of characters can make it feel like the game wants
the player to laugh at, rather than with, the characters they have
grown to care out.
-
Visuals and audio are mostly uninspired and standard for the genre so
it blends into the soap of other similar titles.
