Nurse Love Syndrome (Nintendo Switch) Review

This hospital-themed visual novel is filled with a wide spectrum of emotion. Kaori's nervous first day filled with many mistakes, is eased when she realises an older classmate is a year ahead in her nursing career. The friendship easily slips back into how they were at school, with Kaori being supported by Nagisa as she slowly gets to grips being among real patients and not in a classroom, as well as having to realise the adult notion that it is possible to overburden someone by seeking their help, prompting Kaori to lean on her other colleagues. Kaori may be a stranger to them initially, but they welcome her into their tight knit group, supporting her through inevitable first tragedies and triumphs.

The route explored in the review play-through for Nurse Love Syndrome saw Kaori end up with no one, a scenario that wasn't expected, and brought the tale to an abrupt end. Without a clear romance lead it was enjoyable to focus on the patients who Kaori connected with. From hyper children afraid of having their blood taken, an extremely moody young adult who is insulted by Kaori's lack of knowledge of her specific condition, and to bed-bounding older adults Kaori learns much both medically and socially. Her plentiful mistakes help her learn how to become a better nurse, the shame she experiences when told off for her conduct teaches her maturity that couldn't be learnt any other way. Her manager gives her a particularly tough homework assignment because of a mistake that completely shocked this critic, but got the point across to Kaori and her friend Nagisa.

It seemed that characters in Love Nurse Syndrome are truer to tropes than in the other game in the series, Love Nurse Addiction - that made the story more charming for this reviewer, but some players may enjoy the story less. Despite initially being strangers, all the characters felt familiar due to the tropes, which made liking them happen faster. They all have lessons to learn alongside Kaori, lesson which united them as a working group, accurately showing how close staff in hospitals can become. Hours flew by in real life while playing Nurse Love Syndrome, showing how likeable the characters are, and their many layered stories. The soft pastel colours do give perhaps a girly feel to this, but the valid life lessons it teaches are applicable to all.

These are visual novels rather than documentaries, so while medical elements are mostly kept true to reality, including sound effects of machines, liberty has been taken to overdramatize some areas, or use a fantasy-like setting to explain certain abilities. It is possible to skip past any parts that may make the reader feel uncomfortable as they don't last long. Due to the route taken there was little romantic involvement, so at the time of writing this review it isn't known how strong or frequent those scenes are.