Slime Heart

This game is made by PKLucky and was made within less than a month a few years ago for an IGMC game jam. However, this version of the game is actually a second version of the original, and being someone who has played the original I’m very excited to write this review.



Slime Heart doesn’t have battles, instead, it has a mini-game where you must eat as many slimes in a field as you can. There are prey and predators, and starting out you’re at the bottom of the food chain. The beginning of the game, especially if you’re new to the game itself, is definitely the hardest part. You see in order to get abilities you have to eat a certain amount of slimes, and as a tiny blue slime running from every slime but the yellow slimes which only cost 1 SP (slime point), you’re like a bunny compared to a dinosaur. The only way to be good is to get good, it’s a learning experience!

Thankfully, many of the abilities that can be bought are specifically for slime hunting, and it comes in handy if you’re planning to go towards Alex who you gain love points from by giving her slimes for her research. Now if you’re having trouble I’ll give you the advice to get you started: your first priorities should be the first slime upgrade and speed in that order. Once you do that getting slimes should be easy, as well as the rest of the upgrades. Try to get the speed up ability as soon as possible, trust me when I say the speed up is the equivalent of a cheetah that was once a turtle.

The minigame itself is short and fun, making it a very enjoyable experience each hunt. The area of the slimes and the slime sprites are also very nice to look at, and when you get eaten or run out of time right when you’re near that slime MAN does it make you mad-- but in a good way! Once you get the hang of the minigame the only challenge is near the beginning, but even when there’s not really a challenge due to experience that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun anymore, trust me. Sometimes I got way into being a predator (nomnomnom)

The rest of the gameplay revolves around Alex and Taylor, the two possible love interests. You don’t have to worry about most of the slime upgrades with Taylor’s route, just beauty, and stability. With Alex, you have to hunt as if your children back at the slime cave depended on it. The gameplay other then that is just interaction, talking to them, going on dates and giving gifts (Taylor specifically), earning love points. As you can see, it’s a dating simulator.

What do love points do? The love points signify the ending you get, of course! The higher your love point score the better ending you get! Taylor is by far the easiest to get, just gotta get that out there. There are four endings for both love interests and two neutral endings, I’d say the endings are done pretty well although endings three and four for both character routes seem a bit too similar. By the way, when I got the third ending it also played the fourth ending for me, not sure if this was done on purpose for convenience or what the true difference between the endings is.

Since the first release, they’ve updated a lot, including a bonus room and an ending guide! Also, extra content which can be unlocked with a password for a zip file which is received when completing all the characters endings. I found this very interesting, and no I’m not going to tell you what’s inside! Sadly I couldn’t get the general bonus content because I don’t know? Was never given the password.

There are a few bugs, such as when you look at the ending sheet in the bonus room your slime sprite is chilling out at the top left. When you try to exit the sheet the screen fades in and out and then the same screen shows up except all the endings are ??? even if you got an ending, and you’re stuck locked in this map for eternity. When getting Alex’s 2nd ending and transfer to the bonus room map it doesn’t fade back in, meaning I’m left in darkness. I know I’m in the map because if I move the right way I can talk to bonus room npc’s or leave the area. Also if you skip the text in the second Alex ending she’ll get stuck on the counter XD



The characters I think are quite likable, and very different from each other. Aqua’s the main character who’s a bit naive and yearns for love in a world that doesn’t accept her, and thinks it’s a good idea to disguise herself as a human too interact with a human boy which catches her attention, named Taylor. The reason Taylor caught her attention was because he spared a slime unlike any other human she’s seen, as in this world humans see slimes as monstrous beings that must be slayed.

Now the thing I like about Aqua is she has the heart of a human, in fact, it’s obvious she even wishes she could be human as the things she wants to experience aren’t natural for a slime. It kind of makes you feel for her, but this doesn’t bring her down and she tries her best to make her dreams come true despite being a slime that’s hated by mankind.

Taylor is a… well, he’s a common trope. The nice, gentle protagonist of almost every anime ever. A bit naive and quick to make friends, and maybe a bit dense when it comes to females. On like, the fourth day he tells Aqua he’d protect her from any slime that threatens her (jokes on you bitch I eat slimes for breakfast… without any milk!). This isn’t necessarily bad, by the way, as common tropes don’t really bother me especially if it fits the game or was intentional, and I like Taylor.

Alex is a bit different, and in one end I swear she’s some sort of sociopath. I have to admit, I love the idea you can be a lesbian (wait, do I actually have a specific gender?) and I really like Alex’s character. She’s the distant girl that has trouble making friends for reasons such as having trouble talking or turning her friends into experiments, another common trope (which again I have no problem with), though she has her own differences to separate her from this Dandere trope.

The first version of the game just has Taylor (originally named Eric as the Eric sprite in RTP was being used) and instead of him sparing the slime he kills it, saving a girl that was being attacked by it. The difference in this game is very nice, as it’s more likely a slime would fall in love with a human too shows mercy then slaughter it. Makes it more like it's not just lust. There’s not much difference between Eric and Taylor that I can think of, though.

The art is cute. There are some weird small body proportions issues and unsymmetrical eye shapes, but it fits the atmosphere of the game. You are probably thinking the heck? How? When I see the art it looks a bit amateurish, and art doesn’t have to be a pro to make a game. In this certain game, I think the art gives it the cute look it's designed for. Or, you might not think the same way if you prefer completely great and polished art. The point is, it can be brushed up and has a few flaws but otherwise, I think it looks pretty nice with the game.



As you can see, RTP was not used at all. I have never even seen these graphics before, and if there somewhere that is usable for free I’d love a link! It gives me this sort of um, pokemon feel. Ahh nostalgia. It took me a playthrough to get used to the mapping tilesets, not because they aren’t good but because I hadn’t seen tiles like that in a while and I was so used to other stuff like Celianna and Ayene-chan. The mapping tileset used her, I can guarantee you, while it might look cartoony, it really fits the game and I would not have gotten the same experience with more commonly used tilesets.

The way it is used is also done well. There aren’t many maps but the maps there are were decorated pretty nicely. The long grass texture is a bit blaring (is that a word?) to my eyes and there’s a lot of green, but that isn’t too much of a problem in the end. Paths are done well, the buildings are done well, the details in the area (flowers, grass, stumps, etc) were put in nicely. A lot of people would find the trees being huddle together so closely a problem but if you look below,



This is a pokemon game, which I feel the mapping was a bit based on. Pokemon is extremely popular, and a good game and the graphics in my opinion for such a game are done rather well. The same goes for this game, so the trees behind huddled together like that fits for what it is. The only real problem I would have with the mapping is in the ability pond, the waters edges are very sharp (is that the word?), it looks like blocks, looking at that pokemon reference I hope it makes sense what I’m saying, or even the RTP water tiles.



It’s a rather strange plot, thinking of a slime wanting to be with a human seems a bit like a weird concept. But I really enjoyed it. It’s just a simple, short dating simulator game about a slime who is more human than monster. She sees a young man (Taylor) show mercy to a slime just like herself, which causes an interest. You disguise yourself as a human too interact with him up close, and meet his friend Alex who is the owner of a shop.

By the way, it makes it very obvious that slimes are 'monsters'. Their life consists of hunting and trying not to be eaten, they don't make bonds like humans do nor do they find love.

Okay, so my favorite part is that Alex from the very beginning knows you’re a slime! Smart, smart Alex! But she is not intimidated (and there’s a cute scene where you try to intimidate her and she calls you cute, which if you’ve got the final size it makes the scene much better), and she promises to keep it a secret too Taylor knowing how he’d react (as you find out Taylor’s parents were eaten by slimes when he was young).

Alex researches slimes and the like, and you can get love points by giving her slime points you get by eating other slimes. This in return gives you money you can use to buy gifts to give to Taylor. I really love the fact that despite Aqua specifically chasing after Taylor, it’s possible for you to go on Alex’s route and fall in love with her instead.

Oh, by the way, you have seven days to have them fall in love with you! Put on that chamr girls!

The story is written very well, the game is short and cute and I completed all endings within an hour and a half which I think is a good playtime. If you want to play a short game focused on eating slimes as a minigame and dating one of the two people available to you, I say go for it! It’s definitely not a waste of time in my opinion.



The music is cute, like everything else. Bouncy, gives you a sort of happy feeling and really fits the game. There are a couple other pieces that don’t have the exact same ring to it, but definitely fits the scenes it's used in. After a while, the loop might get a bit annoying, but this is one of the hardest things to ever do as a creator as most music is not loop friendly.



I really enjoyed this game and while others might see some things as flaws, I think every single bit of content fits the game entirely. I can tell it was worked hard on, especially comparing it to the very first version of this game. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone if they’re looking for a short dating simulator with a fun minigame, the characters might have common tropes that doesn’t make them any less beautiful and unique in the game.

Gameplay: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Art: 3/5
Story: 5/5
Music: 3/5
Final Score: 4.5/5 Aqua Slimes