Tsui no Yakata (PC) (2004)
Homemaid: Tsui no Yakata (PC, PS2) (2004, 2005)
Homemaid Sweets (PC) (2004, 2008)
Developer: Circus (Circus Fetish)

Review by Faididi and Co.

Be a better employer by doing your hot maids

Story: Average

They ain't kidding when they say that the well-off can also live awfully meaningless lives. Having returned from his stay in Tokyo to his classy home estate, Serito Hayami resumes finishing his enrollment at his elite school. The boy is something of a douchebag, though, and his days consist mostly of sports banter, petty arguments with a rival classmate, and other uninteresting nonsense. Luckily, there's plenty of fun to be found with Serito's cute female friends, who, through conveniently contrived baloney, will wind up giving him their own brand of maidservantry. And lots of sex.

This sounds like the same old wishful romantic fluff with a naughty maid motif, but the story shows a poignant side when it finally explores the heroines' hidden relationships with Serito, in bonds that span multiple lifetimes and eras. Too bad the story doesn't do so until it reaches the final acts, but, hey, at least you can always fast-forward through the earlier, crappier parts.

Gameplay: Average

Developed by Circus (or more specifically, Circus' Fetish Team), Tsui no Yakata is another typical romance-themed text adventure with hentai content. Following the standards of the genre, it provides the hero with very few choices to make among all the narration and dialogue, although his decisions will determine what happens in the immediately following scenes and, ultimately, the heroine with whom he romantically settles. This text adventure has nothing special to offer gameplay-wise, especially not when every choice that must be made falls between two measly options.

For the record, there are updated versions of this game whose additions are primarily new love interests and a few more full-screen images. Homemaid: Tsui no Yakata is an upgrade that features Serito's little sister, the totally endearing, utterly adorable, sugar pink-haired Yuumi, who is crazily obsessed about becoming his personal maid. Enjoy the pervert alarms blaring off in your head, and savor the even more awesome implications of this relationship.

Huhuhuhu.

Homemaid Sweets is another update that crams in a seventh heroine, Kaede, who is a girl in the same class as Serito (along with Keika and Meguro). However, she may seem somewhat unnecessary after the key addition of Yuumi, who is interesting enough to really justify her edition of the game.

Controls: Excellent

The controls are already perfect by default, but they can be customized anyway, making them unusually Player-friendly even for a text adventure.

Graphics: Above Average

The super-sweet character designs and the fine artwork certainly make for aesthetically pleasing graphics. Still, the characters can use a few more poses (particularly for the updated versions).

Audio: Above Average

The music does a decent job at bringing out the moods of the scenes, and the heroines each have their own theme tunes, many of which are catchy.

Overall: Average

Tsui no Yakata is mostly just a typical romantic text adventure. The only thing making it stand out is not its maid fetish, but the touching secret relationships between the heroines and one very, very lucky dude.

Port: Average (PS2)

Princess Soft's PS2 version of Homemaid: Tsui no Yakata adds full voice acting for the heroines while removing all the hardcore hentai content, falling in with the standards for other PS2 ports of PC adventures containing pornographic elements. It also offers the option to individually enable or disable the voice acting for each heroine, although the acting on the whole is fine, making you wish that the rest of the characters are fully voiced as well.