Destino Indomable is a new visual novel from publisher JanduSoft where you play as the lead actress in the eponymous telenovela series. You’re the new hottie on the show, who brings extra drama, humor, and romance to each episode. The story is exactly what you would expect of a telenovela—affairs, money, and MURDER!
As a less-skilled gamer, I love the accessibility of visual novels. Can I read? Yes! Click buttons? Yes! It’s something many can do, and more accessible to the masses than most other video games. Though not the most popular genre, visual novels have earned prestige with hits like Doki Doki Literature Club and the Ace Attorney series.
But how does this month’s Destino Indomable hold up? Let’s find out.
The New Girl
At the beginning of Destino Indomable, there is an in-depth character creator where you make the star of the show. It’s a fun touch, and not something you see in many visual novels.
Your character works as an assistant at the home of a rich Mexican family. Despite warnings of the dangers of this family, she takes the job anyway so she can care for her sick father. The trope of the first episode reminds me a lot of the popular book The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, if you’re familiar with that series. Young girl needs a job, takes a job with a dangerous family, other staff warn her to leave… you know the drill.
One critique I have is that the characters in Destino Indomable do not have enough depth. Don’t get me wrong; they do have some, but I would have liked to see more. I really wish the story would have dived into the story of the show’s actors more, in addition to their on-screen characters. After you play each episode, you briefly interact with the cast and crew, but it’s just that—brief.
These aren’t exactly people I root for or against, as I simply don’t know enough about them. When thinking back on it, I didn’t really care about some of the characters at all. This could have been improved by making the story longer. Even with an extra hour of story, we could have leaned more into the backstory of each character.
Your Choices Matter… a Little
Destino Indomable takes place over five episodes. I finished my first playthrough of all the episodes in about three hours. However, the game has five separate endings, giving you about 15 hours of content if you play it five times. With the story being short, I won’t say much to avoid spoilers.
What I will say is that your choices don’t have much weight in the story, unless they are relationship-based. This visual novel is sort of a dating sim, as you can romance a couple characters and achieve different endings. That feels representative of the telenovela genre, so Destino Indomable does deliver in that area.
As a fan of visual novels, I prefer when choices have more weight in the story. Destino Indomable has some “wrong” choices you can make, which will cause the game to rewind itself, forcing you to make another choice. As someone who likes to be decisive, I would appreciate being able to live with that poor decision and face its consequences. Maybe that’s the roguelike player in me.
One upside of the choices not mattering too much is that you can slap your colleagues—and they don’t mind! During conversations in Destino Indomable, if you don’t like the way someone talked to you, you can respond by slapping people, and it’s so fun. The slapees don’t make a fuss over it, and it’s funny to watch. (All the slapping reminds me of Rose & Camellia Collection, a game about regency-era women slapping each other.) It adds some welcome humor and joy to the game.
Visuals and Vibes: The Allure of Destino Indomable
What I do love about Destino Indomable is its anime art style mixed with its Spanish flair. The characters speak a mix of English and Spanish, helping create a sense of authenticity. This game brought something different to the genre than every other visual novel I consume. I don’t have a lot of experience with telenovelas, and I enjoyed what it brought to the game.
Even the trailer is filled with drama and vibes, which are what enticed me to try the game in the first place:
While I like the art direction, the music loop was annoying. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the tune, but it kept going on a short loop with a noticeable break. To be honest, a decent chunk of my time with Destino Indomable was spent on mute.
Final Thoughts
Who should play Destino Indomable? Any fan of visual novels or telenovelas would likely enjoy the spice and charm of this game. I played this over the course of a few days, and even after I finished a playthrough, I found myself wanting to dive back in and see the other endings. However, do I really want to play five times to experience each ending? No, I do not. Even working through my second playthrough, I didn’t find much new content, and I started skipping my way through scenes.
Additionally, the user interface was one of the most boring I’ve ever seen in a game. While I don’t need anything fancy, it would be nice to have a tad more pizazz given the game’s visual style. To make matters worse, I found that with an uninspired UI, it was slightly difficult to even navigate the main menu.
Overall, Destino Indomable is good but has some notable flaws. With a slightly longer story and more weight to your decisions, this could have been a must-play visual novel. The telenovela concept is great, and I hope to see more in the future. But for now, this is one show you’re likely not to pick up.
Score: 6.8/10
Destino Indomable, developed by MegaElixir Games and RCK Games and published by JanduSoft, was released on March 3 for PC (Steam) and March 12 for PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. MSRP: $12.99.
Disclaimer: A review code was provided by the publisher.
Allison has been playing all sorts of games since the late ‘90s. She particularly enjoys life sims, casual games, tactical RPGs, and anything Mario. Her dream jobs are to be a Stardew Valley speed runner and a Mary Tyler Moore historian. As a recent MBA graduate, Allison hopes to use her extra time tackling her backlog and the never-ending list of 2023 releases.
