Don’t Blush Review

With premium actresses and one experienced director, Don’t Blush had enormous potential. But a terribly disjointed story and a glut of bad characters mean that it fails to live up to even modest expectations.

Don’t Blush begins when you mess around with an ancient vase containing a ghost. The ghost inside, Xiao Qian, binds to you and gives you a supernatural ability. You gather more abilities later. They unlock choices, like the items in Knowledge or Know Lady.

You need powers because most of the six love interests are also ghosts, but many are not the friendly type. The woman running the café uses drugs to incapacitate and then transfer energy. Your teacher at school sucks out life. And one classmate uses her otherworldly seduction to raise her popularity.

If there is narrative to be found, it relates to subduing the ghosts and making them repent. But they apologize and everybody moves on quickly as though nothing bad happened. This is just one of the many disingenuous story pieces.

The story is a mess. Similar to The Three Kingdoms: Rebirth, it jumps around with minimal logical connection, only worse. Characters show up when they like and vanish seconds later. When you enter a haunted escape-room, it consists of random pointless scenes and is the worst escape-room in the genre.

Most characters are hollow or unlikable, which is a huge fumble considering the quality of actresses. Chen Man, from Game of Fate, plays an angry bully. Her constant nagging about a school project is awful. Wang Xingchen, from LIAA, plays an overly dramatic café owner who delivers her entire back-story seconds after defeat. Your ‘buddy’ Yin Ning (Nina), is fine, but she’s barely around and her encounters are coincidental. Lao Lao (Lola), played by Lou Ling of Hello Love, has a disappointing role barely above a cameo; she first appears in chapter 3, despite her character’s desire to play with you.

That first ghost, Qian, is too jealous, but her biggest problem is nobody else can see her. When she is near others, they somehow always wait for her to finish talking. Lin Weiwei (Vivi) plays a role similar to Beauties for Help on the Island, a much better game from the same director, and she is the best of a mediocre group. Inner Scales 1 lacked story, but it used veteran actresses better because it gave them depth and emotion.

With these poor elements, it is quite boring to play. Clocking 7.5 hours to watch everything brings little joy, although some endings are fine. It is also comical how much the game relies on cleavage and random sexuality, treating players like drooling idiots.

Don’t Blush is not a bad game. That would be impossible considering who is on screen and the competent UI, translation, and technical aspects. But it is a monumental waste of talent. Unless you are a devoted fan of the actresses, your time is better spent chasing real ghosts.