Service of Five Graces Review

The story set-up is unusual. Your father takes out a loan against 10 years of your future salary. So you become a slave, or manservant, for the Tang family—comprising of three sisters and one visiting aunt. They already have a female housekeeper, and now they have you too.

From oldest to youngest, there is the aunt, Ding Wanjun (31), who has a drinking problem and scars from a previous relationship. The housekeeper, Song Zhixia (28), is trim and proper, but will show her soft side when given the chance. The eldest sister, Tang Yue (24), is the snooty family boss but has a fantastic personality and appealing vulnerabilities. Art student, Tang Xingmeng (22), is about to graduate and needs you to be her fake boyfriend. And the youngest, Tang Xiaoxiao (18), plays video games.

You learn more about each through slice-of-life domestic encounters, and every scene adds rich color to a beautiful stained-glass window. Activities range from helping them exercise, to taking photos, to hunting for keys. Much of the game takes place inside the family mansion and this compares to sharing an apartment with Xiao Lu in LIAA; so if you did not enjoy that, this may not be your cup of tea. Learning about each personality feels earned and natural. Tang Yue is the obvious standout, for emotion and depth, partially overshadowing the others. But the oldest two are great, and only Xiaoxiao’s immaturity is a tough sell.

There is constant humor and plenty of emotion. Like in Hello Love, the five come to your bedroom one-by-one and hide hilariously. You can pretend to be unconscious after nearly drowning, to get mouth-to-mouth. The card game in chapter two, where you select challenges, is brilliant. There is also deeper sentiment that comes through from the wonderful acting, which can involve tears of joy, jealousy, flirting, or existential pondering about the future.

Endings are outstanding, second only to Hello Love. Each character has 15-20 minute branching path finales with good, bad, and bittersweet conclusions. High affection unlocks earlier endings too, some almost as good as the mains from other games. Affection is cumulative, so everything is easy to access. One bonus ending is the best of its kind. It will take about 4.5 hours to finish and 10 hours to see everything.

Presentation issues, like jarring chapter ends, sound problems, video warps, and a basic interface, do cheapen the user experience. English subtitles don’t do the game’s intelligent dialogue justice either (better ones available here). Thankfully the video quality is good and audio is live recorded. If you appreciate substance over spectacle, then Service of Five Graces is at your beck and call.