Kotodama Diary 4+

Relaxing and Cute

I’m pretty notorious for hopping from game to game, playing them for a couple of days before never touching them again. I got this game on a whim, it didn’t really look that interesting but I gave it a shot. I’m incredibly glad I did. The gameplay is surprisingly stimulating and active, the characters are unique and fun. I want that bread dog so bad. So. So. Bad. Visiting other’s rooms is actually really fun in this game! No one seems to be *better* than anyone else, it’s all about the word combinations you use. You can visit others without the game completely crashing, all of the gameplay is extremely smooth. I paid for no ads which was a great purchase, but I still very often will watch the ads for the games benefits, which it provides many. This game is very calming and the characters are all lovable and cute. I know it’s still a work in progress but it is already so well designed, I’m so excited for the updates that are coming in the future. Great job on creating a wonderful game. It deserves the 4.9 stars it has received.

Developer Response ,

Thanks a lot! We’re glad that you loved Kotodama Diary, and we’ll keep improving it to the best of our abilities!

Delightful!

As we all know, free games have a tendency to be hit or miss. And I can say, this game is a hit. The designs are cute, interactions are adorable, there’s enough content to stay invested, but not too much that you’re overwhelmed.

The game is built partly to encourage you to take breaks, which I truly appreciate, as it lets you enjoy the game without burnout. After all, it’s a pretty low-energy game, so if you didn’t take breaks, you’d likely end up doing repetitive actions instead of spending time wisely.

The ads are well integrated and not too distracting. For many games, ads can be infuriating, but the system in place for advertisements makes it so you aren’t too frustrated. They show an ad after every “evolution”, which makes it very tolerable, and the ads are skippable after around five seconds. The other way you see ads is with things like speed boosts, which you can either watch an ad for, or pay in gems.

Onto in-game currency, it seems like a fine system, one that is fair to all players, paying and non. I don’t like to pay unless I want to support a game’s team (and, for the record, this is the type of game I’d be more than willing to throw a few dollars to) and it always annoys me if a game seems pay-to-win. This game is quite the opposite, as you get a fair amount of both gems and coins through daily tasks and errands.

Overall, such a solid game, especially for something free! I cannot wait for future updates to see what gets added.

Could improve in some ways, but highly recommend anyways

Ay! So I just wanna start the review by saying that in spite of certain things, I still very much recommend the game— if you’re looking for a simple tamagotchi-ish clicker game that you can waste some time on, get this!

It isn’t a very complex game, but I’m fine with that— it makes me feel nice to read the dialogues of the little critters (do they sometimes respond to eachother? It feels like it!) and i find it really funny that my first critter was depressed... like omg poor baby

I wish it had a little more interacting with the critters, but I assume that’s to-come in the future based on a couple buttons I see, which is exciting if so! It would be nice to be able to uh.. remove or “preview” gifts too? i gave some of my dummies some accessories and only afterwards do I realize “oh nooo he’s ugly now!!!!!”

My only major complaint is that it seems to be really tough on my phone? It doesn’t seem to be a me-specific problem either, I recommended it to friends and for some reason it also makes their phones chug like crazy, which I don’t understand from a pixel game. It drains my faster than other apps and makes my phone get hot on occasion— I dont know what causes that, but its by far the biggest downside. I can get behind some of the grammar being incorrect (it’s kind of cute like that anyway), but improving performance would be fantastic!

Love the game, looking forward to updates!