Thank you Visual Arts for sending us this game to review over Steam Curator!

I’ve been a long-time fan of Visual Arts/Key visual novels. CLANNAD is a masterpiece and a source of many manly tears. Little Busters! is one of my favorites of all time. Rewrite+ is an absolutely amazing story, and one I’ll remember for a long, long time. So when LOOPERS showed up as an available title to review via Steam Curator, that might just have been the quickest click on 'Accept' that I can remember. I love their visual novels; the writing, characters, art, storytelling, and music are always top-notch, and a big step above many. Thankfully, LOOPERS did not disappoint; even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights of their best works, it’s an enjoyable read nonetheless.

The main character is a young man named Tyler who is starting his first year of high school, and has an unusually strong love of treasure hunting. When he was a boy, he was known for digging up the playground looking for buried treasure. As he's gotten older, that love hasn't diminished, but instead grown into a love of Geohunting - a more modern form of searching for treasure, where players use an app on their phone to find hidden bounties located at various GPS coordinates. Half of the challenge is locating the real-life location representing the coordinates; the rest is then searching for the tiny box or other means inside where the treasure is hidden. Tyler says that the thrill of finding the treasure is far more interesting to him than anything he finds inside of the box.

One night, on a fateful August 1st, he is out early in the morning for one of his common all-night treasure hunts. He runs into two girls he used to know in elementary school, Hilda and Leona. After their surprise at seeing each other again, he convinces them to join him to find the treasure he's having a hard time finding. They agree, and go on their way together.

Leona is a bit of a trickster, and Hilda is afraid of anything scary, and not quite as sharp as her friend. So Leona starts to tease Hilda about a local legend, where those walking around at night might see a ghost, called the Sagashi-Onna. Hilda puts on a brave face, but is naturally freaked out over this. After some silliness, she thinks she really does see the Sagashi-Onna, a female ghost looking for her lost heart.

Through a strange set of unexplainable events, a couple of days later, Tyler and Hilda realize that the calendar on their phones has repeated, and they were experiencing the same day all over again! Eventually, they discover that they are not alone, and there is a group called the Loopers who also have similar experiences. They quickly become close to the others, including the quiet and kind Mia, the brilliant Simon who's also their leader, the positive and upbeat Joe, the popular online influencer Holly, and the talented artist Ritapon.

Through Simon's brilliant deductions and research, they understand that they are stuck in something called a Temporal Spiral, and it's been going on for years. Tyler and Hilda are the newest Loopers, but Simon and Mia were the first two, and they have been stuck there for several years-worth of repeat days by now. It's up to the growing team to figure out why they are stuck there and how to get out.

Once the realization dawns on them the implications of repeating each day for an indeterminate amount of time, they come to realize that nothing they do is permanent. I was pleased to see that the story avoids exploring the sexual implications of this set of circumstances, but they stick to more common and appropriate implications. It’s interesting to see how each of them handles this. Actually, outside of some described violence and ‘d*mn’ used a few times, this story is quite appropriate for most audiences.

Key's art and music are fantastic as is usual for them, and while the art style is quite different from what they are known for, it's still good for what it is. I'd say I prefer their more common styles, but LOOPERS is still plenty expressive and the characters' writing draws you in. The cinematic video parts, like the intro and ending, are also well done. Music is always a highlight of Key's works, and again, no complaints.

LOOPERS is one of Visual Arts/Key's shorter visual novels, at around five to six hours. It's also kinetic, which means no choices; you just enjoy the story as is, like you would with a movie or book. Visual Arts/Key's stories are well known for being written in a way to elicit a strong emotional response, usually accompanied by tears. LOOPERS is well written, and is certainly filled with touching and heartfelt moments; I found it less heart-wrenching than many of their works, though. Nevertheless, I still recommend the work if you have any interest in visual novels, especially if it’s on sale. If you have never experienced the genre, or are thinking of letting a younger person read one, this is an excellent choice that I would suggest for anyone looking to check out visual novels for the first time. Recommended!