There is understated greatness in Don’t Fool Me, Beauties. On the surface it looks like a standard dating sim, but thanks to the setting, characters, endings, and humor, it ends up being the best Korean game in the genre to date.
You play as Han-bin, and start working at a remote beachside hotel because you were the only one that applied. The hotel is short on staff and guests, which plays into the story. It is a great setting due to its many natural places to mingle: guest rooms, beach, restaurant, gym, parking garage, stairwells, and offices. But no location is more important than the rooftop onsen/spa that you revisit.
The game has four compelling love interests. One is a childhood friend that comes to stay. Another is a model that needs help taking photos. The third is your boss that thinks you’re incompetent and makes you work hard. And the fourth is a supervisor who loves to tease. They’re all great but what’s fantastic is that two of them begin with a neutral (or negative) view of the player. This baseline makes for a slow burn and avoids that typical they-all-love-you-instantly trope. All have a back story that is hidden in the corners, giving them depth without weighing down the narrative.
In terms of endings, they’re nearly as good as Hello Love: 18 Again. We’re talking 15 minutes worth of conclusions per character, with one bad and two good endings. Although the perfect endings require choice combos—one has 30+ permutations—they are worth it. The story is also regularly funny, like when you enter a room while one is changing, or remove your clothes during the first interview. Clever dialogue helps and a few fourth-wall breaks keep it light.
The game improves over the developer’s previous FMV effort, Five Hearts Under One Roof. First there is no chapter lock based on total affection, thankfully; some choices unlock funny bad endings, and the finales require high affection, as typical. Affection is a little tricky to max out with the branching paths though. The game is longer than FHUOR, taking 3.2 hours first run and about 10 to see everything. There are also excellent bonus scenes that show different perspectives, like in FHUOR. With all this split across just four characters, each one gets heaps of screen time.
Production quality is high, with good video and directing, although a few scenes are clearly not filmed at the beach hotel. It occasionally shows the player-character in third-person but you never see their face, so it works well. Translation is good, continuing the trend of Korean games offering better English than their Chinese counterparts, although beware mistimed subs and fast text in spots. The main blemish is that ADR is used for everything, but it’s hard to be mad when the execution is fine. In summary, Don’t Fool Me, Beauties is warm and inviting, so don’t be afraid to take a dip.
Leave a Reply