Short, sweet, and with a pinch of scary, today I’d like to introduce you to Taste of the Sea—a short dating sim developed by Memo, Nitzz and 5000ms Production where you date sea creatures!
My first encounter with Taste of the Sea was a short one at the end of last year during South East Asian Games Onward (#SEAGO2025), during our short 20-minute experience, we got through the prologue and encountered Crabbian, a crabby tsundere crustacean who seems to hide how much he cares about us.
Last week, upon recalling some of the glowing reviews of the game, I decided it would be a good time to revisit it and explore what more it has to offer.
Premise
Our story begins with MC struggling with university and being stressed out. We call our mum, who offers to cook us an energizing seafood meal. Looking forward to it, we head to the market to pick our seafood. At the start, you can end up with either Lobby the lobster, or Crabbian the crab. You discover when you get home that your chosen food can talk! From there, your romance blossoms. Will your companion be cooked by the end of the week?
The third love interest is only unlocked after you complete Lobby and Crabbian’s route once. If you are a completionist, I recommend achieving Lobby and Crabbian’s good, bad, and unexpected ends before embarking on the third route.
Gameplay
In traditional visual novel style, each choice will dictate the story’s path. In my opinion, the choices are quite clear. As long as you react lovingly and with care to deepen your relationship with each love interest, you will get the good ending easily. Come out of your shell to your companion, and they will bare their heart to you.
The writing style is cute and decently paced. Save for a few grammatical inconsistencies, the writing, artwork and music allows the tone of the story to shift seamlessly between comical, endearing, and serious. The CGs are adorable too! Props to the artists for creating such animated expressions for the characters. I enjoyed the artwork thoroughly. If you enjoy pop culture references, there are a few fun ones to look out for in your room and that you may encounter on dates with your love interest!
Each love interest has an accompanying mini game that is quite simple. It isn’t too clear what the winning criteria are, but just do your best and they all conclude shortly. The only confusing one is Octus’, but if you want a hint, when you get stuck: (highlight the words in the box to reveal the hint)
quit playing around.
Love Interests
Lobby is the cutest love interest in my opinion. He is the epitome of a sincere, puppy-eyed lover who wears his heart on his sleeve and wants only the best for you. His childlike wonder of the world is very endearing, and you can’t help but fall in love with his character.
Crabbian is a tough shell to crack, but underneath his hard exterior is a being whose soft-shell is just for you. He may come across a little bossy and maybe even overbearing at first. But in the end, he just wants to shield you from life’s storms.
Octus’ route is definitely the most interesting and when you go through it, you will experience why it is intended for last. He is a really funny and intriguing love interest. But if you’re embarking on his bad end, be warned, there are some unexpected, creepy twists.
If you enjoy short, silly visual novels with a hint of potential horror, you’ll enjoy playing through Taste of the Sea! Thank you so much for the key during SEAGO2025, it was a pleasure playing through this game! If you want to read more of my visual novel short reviews, check out the Visual Novel category here. If you like creepy-cute, moderately spooky games, check out my Hungry Ghost Games Festival blog post here.