Playing a new game around this time of the year always feels like I got it as a Christmas gift (even though it's just a file I downloaded to an emulator’s directory). My, Santa Claus, I did want the Black Butler DS game, how-ever did you guess?!
I was very surprised when I started up the game and Sebastian started talking—voice acting is pretty rare in DS games, after all—but that was mostly a one-off thing. He (or another character, depending on the time of day) will have a voiced line when you start up the game, but the rest is partial voice acting: some catchphrases here and there, plus the occasional noise—you know the deal. It's a nice compromise, since you still get to hear their voices, even if just a tiny bit (though I guess even if you didn't, it'd be a non-issue; the manga doesn't have voice acting and I read that no problem—)
You go through a certain number of scenes in a day, and before each one starts the game lets you choose your POV—either Ciel or Sebastian. You can hop from one to the other, but I stuck to Ciel on my first playthrough (I think 13 Sentinels already gave me enough POV hopping to last a whole lifetime—)
You have some visual novel segments interspersed with a little hidden object minigame where you have to look for Tanaka-san. Now and then there’s also these timed minigames you need to complete to advance the main story. I'm not sure what happens if you let the timer run out…
The game kinda railroads you on some of the choices though. Ciel will be like, “hm, how should I respond to this situation—” and the game will give you three choices, but if you don't pick the one the game wants you to then Ciel will be like, “I'll do (thing you chose)...nah that's stupid actually, I'll do the (other option).” If you're gonna do that, why let me choose in the first place?! Honestly, it's been a long time since I've encountered this sort of thing in a game, it's almost nostalgic...
The story is pretty short (though it’s not too much of a problem since you’re meant to play this game more than once) and the writing is nothing life-changing or anything, but as I said, it’s pretty cute. Filler episode-like antics, now with minigames!
There's also bonus features, like a custom Sebastian alarm—I remember a visual novel I played back in high school had something similar…
Anyways, it’s a super fun little game, with a ton of things to unlock and discover—it really puts a smile on my face.