Wife Quest is an interesting game as its promotional material puts all the emphasis on the crude waifu humour first and the game second. Whilst the game delivers plenty of waifu styled humour, the game isn’t nearly as bad as the initial cover ups of it suggest. There’s plenty to enjoy even if it treads familiar ground.
When your husband is kidnapped by Morganna yet again, you’ll be giving chase as a wife wanting revenge. Most of the dialogue and humour revolve around this premise and the fact all the baddie level bosses have bigger chests than you do. Mileage will vary but it does that style of humour well enough. I wasn’t ever close to feeling uncomfortable although your “punishment” moves to kill each enemy (all of whom are females) involve tapping down on them to trigger a loud moaning and slightly suggestive or cute end move. Jump on their bum or tug their tails – they will cry out in pain and disappear. Doing this to every type of enemy is your collectable so be prepared to hear “uh-uh-uhhhh” many times.
Moving onto the gameplay itself, Wife Quest offers 6 worlds broken up into upwards of 15 areas each. An area will be several screens long as well as vertical and contains various enemies to kill as well as platforms to move between. Early on this is it but each boss battle unlocks a new ability. Early on you get a shield to reflect objects (costing mana as you do) and this can often kill the enemy easily. Then you get wings meaning you can glide, opening up the platforming elements a bit. Then a power attack lets you smash open walls or floors. It is the slow drip feed of skills that alter how levels feel over time. Nothing feels radical or inventive – it’s quite standard. That’s doesn’t mean its not very playable though.
My main complaints with the platforming elements of Wife Quest are that the controls feel a little wooden – especially the jump. This rears its head most in the chase levels where you can’t stop. They move at a weird pace and the levels are built in a way that means you are playing blind and they aren’t very fun. Thankfully most of the precision elements are either saved for timing based events (jump to avoid spinning spikes) or they are saved for the boss battles. The bosses are more inventive, have various phases and are a step up in difficulty. It is satisfying when you beat them but you must be exacting or find the occasionally cheesy location to avoid most of the attacks. My other minor beef is that you can’t save anywhere. You are locked to checkpoints at every 5 areas inside each level so if you don’t have time to play a good 15 minutes worth to reach the next checkpoint, don’t start. At least you can enter the levels at each checkpoint once you’ve reached them though.
On the flipside, upgrades are handled well. You gain access to a store where coins can buy upgrades to your health, mana (shield), backpack for potions and your attack range and power. However, those upgrades are tied to level completion so you can’t over level. This means Wife Quest’s difficulty increases at the same pace your character improves and you can’t aimlessly smash your way through things without thought. Optional music and art pick ups are hidden off the main path too for added challenge which can then be viewed in the gallery. Skins for Mia, your wife in anger, are also unlockable in Magic Mode which you unlock after your first completion.
Overall Wife Quest is solid. It’s humour and boob jokes will be like marmite but the second to second gameplay works well. I feel like this is a game that a specific audience will adore and everyone outside the tropesphere of anime girls will wonder what the fuss is about. However, Wife Quest is approachable enough and not lewd enough to be a safe and fun entry point for players wondering about this style of humour and game.
Review code provided by publisher.
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