Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Valentine Video Games Festival: That Which Binds Us

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 212022
 

We’ve got just over a week left in the Valentine’s Video Games Festival, so don’t forget to check out the contest rules and prizes and join in!

Our romance game for today is an otome visual novel called That Which Binds Us, which caught my attention because of its unusual premise.

The main character is Evalise, a young woman whose boyfriend keeps getting arrested. When she goes to get him a bail bond, she meets Idris, who offers to make her boyfriend completely forget her instead.

I thought this was a pretty intriguing premise, having a protagonist already in a relationship who then causes the other person to forget her. It made me think of those what-if-we-never-met scenarios that sometimes show up in sitcoms.

So I had a few ideas about where the story might go, none of which were accurate. The core of the story is about the growing relationship between Evalise and Idris after she accepts his offer. Once you reach the end, you unlock the option to refuse Idris’s offer on a second playthrough, but he does it anyway and the story plays out differently from there based on your choices.

That surprised me a bit, that there are multiple branching paths and different endings, but not different romance routes.

It’s a bit strange, because in some ways, the second playthrough branches are significantly different, but at the same time I felt a little disappointed that it was still dealing with the same basic ideas. That might be on me for hoping for different routes. I also hoped the magical side of things would take more of the focus than it did.

Nevertheless, the romance between Evalise and Idris works well enough, and there are some interesting twists in the story along the way.

So if you’re looking for a nice romance story with a light magical twist at its premise, you might consider That Which Binds Us.

Valentine Video Games Festival: Love Cypher Demo (and Kickstarter)

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 182022
 

It’s been a while since we’ve had a crowd-funding campaign to discuss, and during the Valentine Video Games Festival no less!

Love Cypher, currently seeking funding through Kickstarter, is a near-future romance visual novel set in the 2040s. You play a new student at a university studying artificial intelligence advancements.

It is a galge with four romance routes (and the possibility for more if Love Cypher should meet both its goal and subsequent stretch goals).

A demo is also available, and I played it after seeing the Kickstarter campaign. The demo is fairly short and follows the protagonist as he arrives at the university and meets the heroines.

From the demo, Love Cypher comes across as a lighthearted romantic comedy, with some silly situations and classic misunderstandings.

However, the description mentions that the advanced AI technology in this world “re-sculpts one’s identity, while keeping the individual unaware of their transformation,” which suggests there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Alongside the rom-com antics, it looks like it will deal with themes of identity and humanity.

(Nowadays I’m suspicious of anything that looks fun and lighthearted with hints of something else, but the developer has said online that the story will be philosophical, but still fun, so I don’t think we have to worry about this one being secretly depressing.)

Love Cypher will be an 18+ visual novel once it’s complete, although the demo has no 18+ content since it’s the beginning of the story.

The art looks very nice, and all around it looks like it will be a high-quality production. Although it has stock backgrounds for now, the Kickstarter page says they will be replaced in the final version. It’s tough to judge the story from the demo this early on, but the premise sounds intriguing.

So if you’re looking for an upcoming romance visual novel, you might want to check out Love Cypher’s Kickstarter page to learn more about it.

Valentine Video Games Festival: Seabed

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 162022
 

I’ll say this up-front: I would not describe SeaBed as a romance.

But by the time I realized that, it was too late to play something else in time for today’s review, and it is a game about love.

SeaBed is described as a yuri mystery visual novel.

It switches between different time periods, showing scenes of Sachiko and her girlfriend Takako on a romantic vacation, their past together as childhood friends, and working with colleagues after starting their own business.

However, it soon reveals that in the present day, Takako has gone missing. At this point, I thought I understood why it was described as a mystery.

I was wrong.

The prologue (which is lengthy, by far the longest chapter) follows that up with another twist, and then another one, leading into one of the most confusing visual novels I’ve ever read.

SeaBed is not an easy visual novel to read. It leaves you wondering exactly what is going on, and even once you start to form an idea, a new detail will arise to make you question it all over again. Part of this is because it’s told through three primary viewpoints. At certain points, you’ll also unlock “Tips,” short scenes worth reading as soon as you unlock them to add to your confusion fuel further theories.

Despite this sense of mystery, most of its scenes are slice-of-life. Casual conversations, simple interactions, pleasant day-to-day scenes with a slight undercurrent that something might be wrong. It has a glacial pace, so keep that in mind if slow slice-of-life isn’t your thing.

Sachiko and Takako’s relationship is a key part of the story. At its core, I’d say SeaBed is a story about love, and about how it feels to be separated from someone you love. There are hints of romance at other points in the story, as well.

Honestly, I still don’t quite understand the story even after finishing it. Instead of bringing everything together so that it all makes sense, it’s more ambiguous, with room for interpretation despite the biggest points fitting together.

Click for SeaBed spoiler
I’ve come to the general conclusion that Takako is really dead and the alternate reality where she lives at the sanatorium is the imagined world created in Sachiko’s heart, but it’s not easy to explain away everything as Sachiko’s own mind working to heal herself. Some parts feel as though they must have been paranormal in nature to at least some degree, yet at the same time, it feels like it doesn’t want you to think that.

SeaBed is a game about love, although it’s not quite a romance. Was it a good fit for a Valentine’s Day celebration? I don’t know. Either way, if you like slow-burn visual novels where the genre can most accurately be described as “confusion,” you might find SeaBed to be an intriguing mystery.

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