Love is a Game

Love is a Game is about a girl named Willow who is really into her otome games, and one day, she meets these boys who seem awfully familiar, and then she later realizes that these boys actually come from her favorite game.

Well, the system is straightforward: you download the game, you agree to their terms and then it will take you to the main screen, where you can start a new game. After that, you play the game. As far as I know, this game is the prologue only so far, and they’ll release the first route in 2017.

As for the actual story, I think it’s a little bit interesting. However, after I read the prologue, I was thinking to myself: “Just what in the world have I gone through?” First, Willow goes to work, comes back home and plays some games, goes to sleep, wakes up, and then on her way…

She meets nearly all bachelors on her way to work. Literally, every 2 minutes she just runs into a bachelor, and I am just sitting on the couch reading while my thoughts are just all over the place (at least spread out meeting time and places a little more!). Also, the way the prologue ended…

It’s just like Voltage. Not that it’s bad or anything of the sort, but I felt like this game is Voltage all over again. I kind of would have liked a little bit more originality, but it’s obviously also not bad to base the system off of others.

I don’t want to be too harsh: the artwork isn’t the best. I noticed some parts of the art that could be improved, especially on the sprites; the hands. I know the hands are a hard part of drawing, but some of the characters’ poses… their hands are just weirdly shaped. Also, the eyes could have been a little bit bigger, but that’s not a big issue.

Art aside, I think I like Alister and Jin the most. Also, there is one thing I wish this game had: free and paid versions. Don’t know what I mean? You can check out this review. The features there are more open.

I mean, obviously you can still make money, but at least give people who don’t have a lot of money (like me) the opportunity to play this game! Well, if I can afford this game, I’ll post a summary (which will contain spoilers) and a review (spoiler-free) for the characters I purchase, hopefully. Maybe a walkthrough or two.

In conclusion:
– If you like Voltage, this game’s for you.
– If I were to rate the prologue, I would give it 7.5/10
– I would pay audilis (like, literally) to be a part of their team. (It would be awesome if I could join as a writer/editor/proofreader, yeah!)
– I hope I can join someday
– Let’s just hope this gets better and more original.

Note that this post may be updated.

 

 

Ephemeral -the residents in the dark-

Ephemeral -The residents in the dark- is about a cute zombie (who, in this game, is a race that is low class and despised by the other races) defaulted name Cloe, who has the dream of attending this academy where supposedly, “discrimination is strictly prohibited.” However, despite that, she still finds herself being insulted and shut down.

And, well, because zombies are weak, the teacher suggests that Cloe should choose one of the four: Shiba, Nagi, Natsume, or Ray to become her partner and protect her from any signs of danger. Hence comes the blooming romance…

This game is pretty straightforward. Once you download it (for iOS or Android), you’ll receive a download screen. Unfortunately, the downloading takes an extremely long time, but in the end it’s all worth it.

After you download it, the game will direct you to the prologue, which is completely free. Every bachelor’s first episode (out of ten) is completely free as well. However, after that, you either have to pay for the entire story or pay with points.

Paying with points will allow you to play the entire story for free, but will take a really long time. While each episode requires 40 points to proceed, you get 30 points per every 20 hours. There are ways to get free points, but it’s all spam (except the ones that get you only 1 point, which are completely useless).

The other option is buying an individual story for $3.99 (which is a little much for 10 episodes and 2 endings) or buy all stories for $12.99 (which is supposedly a discount. Without a discount, it would be $16.00; you’d be saving 3-4 dollars on that.)

Now that the system is good and explained, I’ll move on to the actual story. The story is decent, but the translations may need a little more work. Especially on the character profiles; they are just hard to understand.

After reading it for the billionth time, I think I can finally get my finger wrapped around how they act. Shiba is nice to Cloe, but he has his pride. Nagi is kind, but he exudes a sense of enigma. Natsume is cold and distant, not wanting to make friends with Cloe. Ray is arrogant and very prideful because of his rank as a vampire (vampires are the second-highest rank, with mermaids being the first).

Out of all the stories, I found Natsume to be the most interesting, although that’s more of a personal opinion. So, right now, I’ll be working on Natsume and hopefully post a walkthrough of him soon, both spoiler free and full.

To be honest though, this game is a lot easier than Voltage’s. The choices are somewhat obvious as well. Well… for Natsume, the choices are slightly more difficult, but I think I know a little bit how I should act in front of that sucker. (Literally a sucker: if you read Ray’s first episode, Natsume- a low class mummy- walks right past Ray, a high class vampire like it was a normal thing to do, which is not).

More or less, this game is so far enjoyable. I would recommend to others who like: (1) beautiful art. The art in this game is incredible! (2) Fantasy; and supernatural because there’s a zombie heroine, a werewolf, vampire, invisible/hollow man, and mummies. Plus demon and mermaid side characters.

The story line is honestly very good minus the fact that the translation needs some considerable work. However, if you can get used to it (I got used to it after reading all the bachelors’ first episodes), then it’s an enjoyable read through; I definitely look forward to reading the stories that this game has to offer.