DoraKone! My Sweet Summer Adventure. While it’s easiest to find high-quality free EVNs during popular game development events such as NaNoRen0 and Yuri Game Jam, from time to time there are small gems that pop up more or less out of nowhere, created either by hobbyists or as side projects by veteran developers without any particular occasion. One of the most interesting (even if infrequently active) collectives that created this kind of games in the past few years is Apple Cider, a team co-founded by DejiNyucu, a Chilean artist known for her distinct and high-fidelity character art. Over the last 10 years, she was involved in numerous visual novel projects developed under various labels, including my all-time favourite erotic VN, Cute Demon Crashers . This personal fondness of her work made me that more excited when I randomly discovered Apple Cider’s latest release, free yuri VN called

Released on Steam in December 2018 despite its summer theme, DoraKone! is an extremely cute, comedic GxG romance VN. It features four girls that meet and befriend each other over a dragon-themed, Pokemon GO-style augmented reality game Dragon Connection (DraCo for short), all of this in an unusual setting of an unnamed Chilean town. The energetic protagonist, Dulce, is a newbie that starts her adventure with DraCo after buying a new smartphone and quickly encounters three more experienced players: shy and kind Rayen, rash and competitive Brin, and spoiled rich girl Honorée. Depending on your choices and meeting events you pick, Dulce will get closer to one of the heroines, becoming a close friend with her, or even something more, while also either winning or losing the DraCo tournament held in her town. This creates over twelve possible endings, nearly all of them wholly pleasant and lighthearted.

Detailed and expressive character designs, along with beautiful CGs accompanying every ending are definitely among DoraKone!'s greatest assets





While undeniably short (2-3 hours of reading), DoraKone! is both fun and to-the-point, spending most of its time fleshing out the main characters and tying their personalities to their playstyles within the aforementioned AR game: the elements heroines use, their attitude towards competitive play and the means they use to reach their goals are all major parts of their characterisation. Dulce, on the other hand, is in DraCo mostly to have fun and make friends, so she can easily adapt her playstyle and attitude. At the same time, she's not in any way a blank character – her cheerful and energetic attitude can be borderline-overwhelming, but it makes her proactive enough to quickly win over the other girls and help them deal with any problems and doubts that surface during the story. The romance arcs can feel rushed due to the overall short length and multi-route structure of the game, but they don't come out of nowhere and the plot presents the bond that builds between the characters quite well. They all learn about their sexual orientation in casual conversations (without any pandering/forced dialogue) and get closer to each other over time, but especially in the weeks before the tournament, when Dulce is training for doubles matches with her partner of choice. This is also the portion of the game where some mild conflict/drama kicks in, but this only serves to show the characters growing to understand each other better and becoming more in-synch. In the end, DoraKone! can hardly be described as a deep, story-driven experience, but it's still one that is very decently written and plays its cards well – it will disappoint you if you're looking for more than just brief romantic fluff, but is top-class in its own category.

Visually this VN is an excellent experience, full of personality and charm, but also detailed and vibrant just like most of Deji's work. Designs of the girls immediately communicate their defining traits: the fancy and elaborate style of Honorée, sporty and quirky look of Brin, and modest, cute appearance of Rayen, along with their very distinct body languages, clearly show who you're dealing with from the moment you meet them for the first time. Many expressions and gestures are purposefully exaggerated, feeding into the comedic climate of the story, but not to the point of making the characters feel like plain caricatures – their mannerisms and behaviour are often goofy, but rather believable and the occasional heartfelt moments make them feel authentic. Similarly positive things can be said about CGs, which are relatively few (around a dozen), but very gorgeous and impactful – it was quite a while since a yuri kissing scene made me want to squeal quite like some of those in DoraKone!, especially Rayen and Honor é e ones (I know, I'm gross, but I'm completely OK with that) .

The highly-stylized UI enhances the game’s climate, but is also functional enough to make as easy to navigate as your typical Ren’py game





The other assets, such as the user interface, with menus stylised to look like a smartphone screen and backgrounds (though admittedly there's just a couple of locations throughout the game) are also of top quality. The interface itself is stylish, but very easy to get used to and offers all the quality of life features you'd expect from a Ren'Py VN. Music is just as energetic and upbeat as the story itself, standing out a bit more than ambient tracks in this type of game usually would, but hardly in a bad way.

One thing that I particularly enjoyed in DoraKone!, and on which I partially touched earlier is the fact that it's consistently wholesome and relaxing to read, while also not completely devoid of substance and steady plot progression. Even the friendship endings, while they require you to choose a suboptimal path with the heroine (skipping on some interactions with her or choosing wrong dialogue options), don't really feel like lesser conclusions and reward you with gorgeous, unique CGs. Outside of the scenario where you go into the tournament solo and fail to create a strong bond with any of the girls, every path leaves you with something to enjoy and offers satisfying narrative results. This makes DoraKone! one of the most consistent feel-good VNs I've read in a while – if that's the kind of experience you're looking for, this is a game I would easily recommend buying for 5-8 dollars. For free, however, there's simply no reason to not check it out – if fluffy yuri romance fits even marginally within your pool of preferred VN themes, by all means, give it a try. Also, be sure to follow Apple Cider’s upcoming commercial project, Caramel Mokaccino. If the quality of this team’s freeware games is any indication, it’s going to be quite a treat.

Final Score: 3,5/5

Pros:

+ Great visual design

+ Fun and likeable heroines

+ Clever and consistently funny writing

Cons:

- Short

- Rather basic plot