Nao has been confessing his love to Yua for ages, so what can he do but accept when she asks him out? The only problem is that he just started dating someone else. Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble (Futamata Renai) is a two-timing romance comedy with far more than two heroines.
This is an ASa Project visual novel, and, similar to the others localized in English, it’s very comedy-heavy. These do tend to be titles that people love or hate, so it’s worth keeping that in mind.
Love at Aomi University?
Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble follows Nao Koga, a sophomore at Aomi University who fell for Yua back in his high school days. Despite his standard greeting for her being “I love you”, she mostly ignores him and is arrogant at best when she deigns to speak with him.
His not-quite-friend Eiji pushes him to go to a party to try and meet someone else. It’s here that he gets entangled with Kirame, a rather sweet half-Japanese exchange student.
Due to circumstances, he ends up dating both Kirame and Yua. Alongside this, he’s dealing with the cat-like Miyako who sneaks into his bed, the quick-to-anger Rui who has issues with Yua, as well as a variety of their friends and family.
One thing that Futamata Ren’ai stands out for is how well-connected all of the characters are. They have their own relationships, often independent of Nao, and they spend time together without him even if they met because of him. Many of their motivations are connected not just to the protagonist, but to each other. In several of the routes, other heroines also remain involved and keep interacting with each other frequently, which I do like to see.
While the heroines here are certainly interesting, as is how they’re all connected together, most of them are also oddballs at best. At worst, they have rather messed-up personalities, as does Nao, who fetishizes crying girls and has an unusual view on relationships. This lends itself to ASa Project’s brand of humor, but it does lean away from the more typical style of a romcom visual novel that focuses on lovable heroines.
The Final Boss and the Hero’s Party
Not long into Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble, hints start to appear that this isn’t just a case of Nao being too persistent in chasing Yua because she’s beautiful and seemingly unattainable. There’s something not quite right with her or him.
Yua has an incredibly pessimistic view on love, and there’s a history there to unravel. She certainly has her defenses up, and is quick to make biting remarks and to manipulate the situation to try and tear down others, all while putting on the act of the perfect woman to the world. In more casual moments, she does joke around, sometimes by acting like a playboy or perverted old man to flirt with the other girls.
Much of the common route revolves around Yua and an incident that she and others are connected to. Between her personality and somewhat filling the role of an adversary, she’s deemed the ‘final boss’.
Kirame, on the other hand, is kind, easily flustered, and perhaps too honest. More than anything, she’s just unfortunate to have been caught up in this situation. Aside from the odd leap of logic that gets her into the relationship in the first place, she’s probably the only main heroine who doesn’t seem to have many issues outside of some understandable jealousy, awkwardness around talking to people, and a love for takoyaki that’s a little too strong. Kirame is adorable and perhaps the best when it comes to a more standard romance with a heroine.
She works well to add a touch of relative normality to the cast, as well as a convenient target for Nao and Yua to tease. In the common route, she mostly stands out for her unknowing part in the two-timing and the situations around it.
Rui makes a strong first impression when she suggests that you take Kirame home and asks if you have a working dick. She has a sharp tongue, a short temper, and a chip on her shoulder about Yua that leads her to helping Nao two-time her for her own reasons. Not so secretly, she’s also a cosplayer and hardcore otaku, so there are plenty of fun moments where she’ll switch from harsh words to enthusing about her favorite anime.
Unlike the others, she doesn’t seem too interested in Nao at first. It felt like the transition between supporting him and liking him was rather sudden. I did enjoy seeing her romance develop after that point, and she certainly took making sure that Nao chose her into her own hands when the time came. By the end of her route, she was my favorite heroine.
While Yua could be described as the title heroine, I think there’s a case to say that Miyako is the most important one. She’s described as a stray cat, which seems fitting. She can be aloof and quick to snap, but at other times she’ll cuddle up to Nao. They’re incredibly close, but there’s a clear line between them. Nao and Miyako both came to the dorm together, and it’s mentioned early on that they were both in bad condition when they arrived. The reasons why become incredibly important and make for some of the more serious moments of Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble.
Outside of the main heroines, there are four other mini-routes with side heroines. They’re fun mini-scenarios, mostly focusing on the adult content and the characters are primarily there for comedy or to add tension outside of that. There’s Layla, another foreign exchange student, Seika, a stuck up beauty, Runa, a bratty student, and Nagomi who acts as the mature presence around the dorm.
Romance Sparking Out
Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble makes a memorable first impression. It has strong comedy with a lot of banter and cutting remarks exchanged between characters, though its comedy isn’t as absurd as some ASa Project titles like Renai X Royale – Love’s a Battle. The premise itself is amusing and it follows up well with plenty of funny moments centered around the two-timing, jealousy, and other clashes between characters. Most heroines have others supporting or working against them, either openly or secretly, and these competing interests make for some silly situations. The humorous banter between the characters who are all friends to a point but are completely happy to cut each other down are where this visual novel excels more than anywhere else.
The common route reveals the backstory of the characters and I enjoyed the way it revealed the reasons behind most of their behavior and the way it included some very serious elements that drive everything. How they acted due to that wasn’t always the most believable, but this is a slightly absurd comedy, so it’s fitting enough. I found myself surprised at just how serious it got at points though. Some of the themes were only occasionally directly mentioned, but there was a build up with hints and it was clear just how much these influenced the characters view of the world and how they interact with each other, both in terms of friendship and romance.
Perhaps due to the nature of the heroines though, I didn’t feel that the romance was particularly romantic most of the time, either before or during the heroine routes. The stories of the heroine routes were fairly forgettable too.
As you’d expect, certain personalities are softened as relationships start, but there’s still plenty of amusing back-and-forths, with biting remarks and jokes at each other’s expense in some cases. There’s nothing bad about that, but it did lean far more in that direction than in creating a romantic atmosphere between Nao and the chosen heroine.
Issues were quickly resolved in all routes with no real development and situations were often more stated to have been resolved rather than shown as a process. One development occurred in Miyako’s route, which felt like a missed opportunity in particular since instead of looking at resolving the issue, it just went with an H-scene.
Heroines in Heat
As well as being set in a university rather than high school, Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble differentiates itself by making a point that Nao isn’t a virgin. If nothing else, this means he isn’t susceptible to “virgin” being overused as an insult.
That adult situations happen is important to the story to an extent. Sometimes feelings are explored during the scenes themselves, but most are just there for the reader’s enjoyment.
The type of content does go beyond vanilla, but never gets too extreme. Sometimes there’s more fetishistic content, including one mild strangulation scene, a scene which was technically ‘reverse rape’, and some rough play. Cosplay comes up a number of times too, both in and out of the 30 H-scenes.
As mentioned, as well as the main four heroines, there are four side-heroines with their own adult content. While some of them felt disconnected from the story or just there for the fanservice, they were still very welcome as a bonus. It would’ve been especially disappointing if nothing happened with a certain horny bunny. All heroines aside from Miyako, including the side heroines, tend to lean toward the busty side.
There is quite a lot of adult content here for what is only a medium-length visual novel. It is why some people buy the games, but I did feel it took over some of the heroine routes.
It is worth noting that the adult patch or version for Futamata Ren’ai includes more than adult content. Some voices lines aren’t included in the Steam version without the patch. You can see how to install the patch or how to access all the routes in our walkthrough/guide. As a note, there are no mosaics.
Graphics, Audio, and More
Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble includes 90 CGs, though 11 of these are SD and 5 aren’t standard CGs. This doesn’t count variations. Each one is detailed, high-quality, and they’re typically used well for key moments or H-scenes.
The sprites look great too and have plenty of expressions and variations. Motion is used occasionally with these, but they’re not too animated.
Each character aside from the protagonist is voiced. As standard for higher budget visual novels, this is done well, and by relatively experienced voice actors who’ve appeared in titles such as Nukitashi, Koikari – Love For Hire, Angelic☆Chaos RE-BOOT!, and Tamayura Mirai. Haruno Iroha as Yua was especially notable here, often changing voices to take on different roles for comedic effect.
In terms of a the writing, while I can’t comment on the accuracy of the translation much, nothing stood out as unusual. As a reading experience, it felt high quality, and any typos or errors were minimal.
Verdict
Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble starts strong with an amusing premise, heroines with unique personalities, plenty of comedy, and an interesting if minimal plot hidden in the background to reveal. It does however start to fall down when it comes to romance or developments beyond the common route.
It’s worth giving it a read, but much like the other ASa Project titles, it looks great when it comes to visuals, but the balance and style of comedy won’t be to everyone’s tastes.
FUTAMATA REN’AI: TWO TIMES THE TROUBLE IS RECOMMENDED
If you are looking for another visual novel, you might enjoy Love, Elections, and Chocolate. We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both originally in English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
Many thanks go to Kagura Games and NekoNyan for a PC review code for Futamata Ren’ai: Two Times the Trouble.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
