Review: Him, the Smile & Bloom is a Simple, Comforting, and Forgettable Experience

Romance games are all about beautiful people, bombastic storylines, and open bewildered eyes whenever your boyfriend kisses you. While many otome games are focused on murder mystery, or the supernatural, more realistic slice-of-life romance stories are making a comeback. Enter Him, the Smile & bloom, a romance game with four bachelors who all have links to the flower shop Fill Flower. Unlike most otome games that have one heroine all the guys can’t help but fall for, Him, the Smile & bloom tells four separate, concurrent stories with four different protagonists.

If you have played pretty much any romance game you will recognize our four handsome husbandos; Gin is the playboy, Wataru is the super keen puppy, Tenya is the fixer upper, and Hokuto is the childhood best friend. Routes within otome games usually intertwine so that you don’t get to see the full picture unless you’ve played through everyone’s routes, adding mystery beyond the basic romance. However, everything Him, the Smile & bloom does is at face value.

I’ve never played concurrent storylines before, and was excited by the idea of our four pretty protagonists meeting and interacting. They are all dating people who work in the same small shop, it would only make sense for them to talk, perhaps even double date or share their woes. However, these women never meet. In fact, they are never even alluded to in other routes. In one route I remember someone noting that I had met everyone working at Fill Flower, and was left wondering about my girl Serina. Consecutive stories could have opened up plenty of intrigue. 

What if Miku spotted Wataru buying something for Serina? What if Fuka called Ami to warn her she saw Gin with another woman? There are plenty of options that would allow us to see another side to both the boys and girls, as well as allowing the stories to intertwine. You don’t need there to be a murder for a story to hold some mystery. Finding out what some of the boys were doing at certain points we aren’t privy to, would have added a little depth to the stories below the surface.

Unfortunately, the characterization isn’t the only part of the story that is full of tropes. Most of the tension between the characters boils down to just not telling their partner how they feel. The boys are actually very emotionally open – with one exception – which was nice to see, but our lady friends appear to be tongue-tied when it comes to saying even the most basic human truths about themselves. This leads to frustrations, not only from the characters, but for the players.

The pacing also needs some improvement. While the stories are all fairly long, there is very little time for relationships to develop. The characters spend very little time together before they decide that they are madly in love, and the second half of each story mostly follows them happily dating. I don’t understand why the couples are so madly in love, and I’m not invested in their relationship as a result. Each husbando has three endings, but it took me a few routes before I realized which was meant to be the normal, and which was the best ending.

There were also technical issues that added to my frustrations. Him, the Smile & bloom launched in Japan with an English translation, but this was a very bare bones deal with many one-to-one errors. Publisher pQube stated that the Western release would see a new translation with full localization, but basic errors still persist. There’s an over usage of English idioms, very generic one-to-one translations, misuse of pronouns, and more. Generally, the speech feels stilted, or awkward, and otherwise didn’t make sense as an English language reader. It feels as if the localizers were asked to translate individual sentences out of context, losing the general flow as a work of prose.

Other technical aspects aren’t necessarily mistakes, but adds friction between the player and the game. When you make a dialogue choice there is no visual representation whether it was a good or a bad decision. It’s difficult to find the gallery, as it’s a menu nested in a menu, and there are only 11 CGs per boyfriend. The skip speed is fairly slow, and there is no way to jump in mid-story if you didn’t create a save. There is also a CG and Special Story linked to an additional DLC pack, and this is mixed in with the standard game so you feel like you haven’t completed everything. There are also no hidden routes that I could find, despite dangling two extra boys in front of your eyes through various routes.

That’s not to say that there isn’t anything enjoyable about Him, the Smile & bloom. The art is beautiful and there is a lot of variation as to how the characters move on the screen. The protagonists are also well written, and while they do share the trait of being unable to tell their partners what they’re thinking, they have distinct personalities and backgrounds. Which differentiates them from your standard blank slate. I also appreciated how open the boys are with their feelings, with no ambiguity to create unwanted tension.

I didn’t dislike my time with His, the Smile & bloom. I had no strong feelings towards it whatsoever. I didn’t feel emotional, or care about the characters, but I wasn’t bored either. Playing this game is like eating a chocolate bar – not your favorite chocolate – but one you wouldn’t say no to if offered by a friend. You enjoy it while it lasts, but you’re not sad it’s over, and you won’t be thinking about it for the rest of the day.

Him, the Smile & bloom is out now, and available for PC and Nintendo Switch.

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