Good evening everyone,
About a week ago a reader asked me to review a brand-new visual novel and dating simulator called “Big Beautiful Women: Giantess Dating Action.”
I had already read a few tweets about the game and seen its logo featuring an impossibly large blonde in a skimpy bikini lying next to several islands. All of that was certainly intriguing. So, completing this requested review was a fun prospect.
The game released on April 22nd. Normally, it sells for $19.99. Five days after release it was on sale and cost me $17.99 on Steam. It can also be purchased on Itch.io.
Per the official description on Steam, shown in the above screenshot, the game involves playing as a college student trying to find love in a city full of giant ladies. The player has five lovely ladies (four college co-eds and a middle-aged landlady) to woo, five stats to manage, and ten endings to reach. The description ends with the line: “Can you fall in love before you graduate?” That is misleading as you actually need to charm at least one lady before Christmas Eve preceding graduation or everything will come to an abrupt end months beforehand. Ask me how I know… 😥
The way your character, Naoya Nakagawa, improves his five stats is by drawing and writing to enhance empathy, drinking tea to increase charisma (not sure why that works), exploring the city of Jotun-shi* to improve courage, reading books to gain intelligence, and sleeping to recover hit points (HP). You can increase a stat by a lot on Saturday or by a little each day over the following week beginning on Sunday. (SIDE NOTE: Many calendars start the week with Sunday, but personally I prefer Monday. Comment below if you’re also a fan of Monday first!)
* – Yes, I know writing “city of Jotun-shi” is literally writing “city of Jotun-city.” Have you heard about the island of Iwo Jima? That is to say the island of Iwo island? 😉
The passing of each day consumes HP, but if you hit zero there is no penalty besides the game forcing you to take time to sleep.
When the player tries to raise a particular stat the game randomly determines success. Once I spent an entire in-game week, Sunday until Friday, working on my charisma. Each daily attempt failed so at the end I had made zero progress. That sucked, but there was no way to improve the odds.
Occasionally, the player’s response to the professor’s questions will also boost a stat or affinity with the ladies. Level of affinity is crucial, but is not displayed so must be tracked manually. Fortunately, there appears to be no way to decrease your stats. Thus, if you answer one of the professor’s questions wrong it does not deduct points. Dialogue choices and actions can also add to the stats and affinity with the ladies. Sometimes a particular level in one or more stats must be reached before an event can begin. On rare occasions the game gives hints. For example, the game will inform you that more courage is required to watch a graphic horror movie with Jun. Although, the exact number was not given. Ergo, it does not tell you that 120 points of courage are required. So, you just have to guess, write down your stats so you do not forget, and if it does not work then consult your notes and try again. Such blind repetition felt tedious.
Instead of increasing a stat on Saturday you can also call one of the ladies to hang out with them or you can call your family. Although, you can only call people on certain days. For example, on the day shown in the following screenshot a player is only able to call Maya, their landlord whose face is on the bottom left, or their parents, whose faces are on the bottom right.
On my first playthrough I got a bad ending which came as a shock. My goal was to win the affections of Hifumi, the buxom blonde cheerleader. The professor mentioned how important charisma was at the beginning of the game. So, whenever possible I increased charisma and eventually pushed that stat all the way to 400, the maximum limit. Later on I met her folks. Based on the conversation it was clear that they liked me. She also talked to my parents on the telephone. They liked her. At several points the game indicated that we were becoming closer. We planned to move in together after college. We even talked about staying together forever. Therefore, it was quite unexpected to step out on Christmas Eve for a date and Hifumi did not come. In fact, no one came. Granted the game did not give me any options to invite a girl. Apparently, our date was supposed to happen based on previous actions even though a Christmas date was never discussed.
Furthermore, it was surprising that Christmas Eve was the last day when the description read “Can you fall in love before you graduate?” Based on that line a player could reasonably assume that the game would continue until college graduation.
This aspect is the biggest negative to the game. Playing intuitively will likely end in failure. In my case what was actually required to build a lasting relationship with Hifumi was to boost three stats (none of them were charisma!) to certain levels. In addition it was necessary to see Jun’s 2nd event and Maya’s 6th event. But that’s not all! In order to see Maya’s 6th event one must have also seen Yuyu’s 4th event. The player also must possess a specific level of affinity with the bigger-than-life cheerleader, but affinity is not displayed in the user interface. Only after all those criteria were met would Hifumi appear on Christmas Eve.
How would a person know to do all that? In order to form a relationship with Hifumi one must also progress relationships with Jun, Maya, and Yuyu to unspecified extents, but not too far because the player might wind up with one of those ladies instead of Hifumi!
The game is so obtuse that a developer promoted a fan-made guide to players. The developers plan to make their own GameFAQ eventually, but why not just design the game in such a way that a player would be able to figure out how to win via gameplay and without a walkthrough?
To be fair, this may be how most dating sims work. Players should have a pencil and a notebook then be prepared to replay the dating sims many times over until they get lucky. Knowing how to “save scum,” manually saving progress multiple times so you can return to important points, is important. I have only played two dating sims, this one and SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim. People who have played many dating sims may be undeterred and take this all in stride. Those folks may also recognize this game engine, Ren’Py, since it has been used for a large number of games.
On the plus side growth fans should absolutely adore Hifumi. Unique among all giantesses, Hifumi is constantly growing and eventually she reaches epic proportions! Far from being upset at this condition she actually welcomes never-ending development and is especially fond of her perpetually enlarging bust. (Aren’t we all? ❤ ) Each of the other ladies also filled a particular niche from muscular tomboy Jun to overweight video game obsessed fan Fuko to plump middle-aged landlord Maya to flat-chested ramen chef with a big butt Yuyu.
Many fetishes were discussed and a few were explored to include an unexpected character experiencing sudden and massive breast expansion! Vore was discussed and mouth play was shown in certain scenes. Although, the presentation was fairly tame all things considered. Only topless nudity was shown, no full frontal. Genitals never appeared and there was no on-screen sex. During one sex scene construction noises played and a sign appeared saying “Technical Difficulties: Please Stand by.” Hanky-panky happened somewhere just out of view. On-screen violence was minimal, but there was an eye-gouging and an image of a bloody corpse. (NOTE: Normal-sized students wore “shock absorbers” which made them practically immune to physical damage. Consequently, giantesses could stomp tinies without causing them any damage.)
There were many main events including a beach date, a giant-themed convention (a.k.a. “Giantcon,” the word giant was used even though only females were gigantic), a ghost story based on a famous sporting catastrophe in Osaka, a trip to Hokkaido, etc. This broad variety was nice. Of note characters predominately had Japanese backgrounds and names. Many Japanese words were used. Some terms will confuse those who are unfamiliar with Japanese culture as seen from the perspective of a foreign otaku. They may need to look up “arubaito,” “miko,” or “ofuda.” Helps to be a weeb to play. Although, an actual Japanese-language version was not available. English was the only option.
Art was nice for the most part. More unique sprites would have been better and sometimes flat 2-D drawings appeared alongside the 3-D shaded sprites. In one instance Hifumi’s mother was depicted with a widely different art style than her daughter. Text stated Hifumi’s mother had a “golden mane,” but she was actually shown with dark hair.
One sprite, seen below on the right, was re-used many times to represent a club president, a doctor, students, etc.
Notably, the giantesses were different sizes. Some were twice as tall as others. Yet, during group shots they all looked to be the same height. In the example seen below Maya, standing second from the left wearing a pink sweater with an exposed midriff, was twice as tall as Jun, the muscular lady standing in the middle. You would not know that by looking at the group shot.
Additionally, when Naoya went shopping with one of the giantesses the incredibly large woman was depicted as being inside with him when she was actually much too big. For instance, in the following scene despite appearances to the contrary Hifumi was sitting outside peering in through the windows.
Lastly, the events with individual ladies occur on a separate timeline unconnected to the main events. Main events always take place on the same specific dates each play through. Accordingly, everyone goes to Giantcon in June of the first year. However, individual events can happen at anytime. During one play through Hifumi became taller than Jun during the main events. However, afterwards when I called Jun to hang out together we saw Hifumi, but then Hifumi was only half as tall as Jun. The lack of continuity was confusing.
Overall, I recommend Big Beautiful Women: Giantess Dating Action to giantess fans. However, it is much more fun using the guide and if necessary editing a save file with Save Editor Online to tweak stats.
That is it for now folks. Until next time, follow Hifumi’s advice and keep growing!
This review was written by SolomonG and is protected under Fair Use copyright law.
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There She Grows 