TL;DR: A creative and original take on the horror genre, by fusing it with the plot of an anime-style dating sim - would recommend! ---Original--- Normally, I tend to stay away from horror games, since they frequently use these artificial feeling mechanics in an attempt to frighten the player - make him slow, incapable of using most/any tools in self-defense, keep him in claustrophobic rooms with low visibility, and so on... And while "Love Love School Days" doesn't significantly depart from this formula, I think that the unusual setting of being chased by a manic love interest (rather than some monster trying to kill you) on it's own makes it different enough to be worth a try. Also, the plot of being stuck in a video game modified by one of it's characters makes it's mechanics feel far less artificial, in my opinion. For comparison - if you're an adult man in an asylum, and all around you there are implements which you could use to defend yourself with, but you choose not to do so because you refuse to drop your damn camera, (which you continue to hold up right against your eyes for some reason) then that feels much more like a plot hole than what we find in this game. ---The Game--- You are stuck in a video game and a woman who loves(?) you chases you in an attempt to delete your character from the game - since you hurt her feelings. (Anyone who's ever had a crazy girlfriend before will be able to confirm that this is quite realistic.) Faced with this situation, what you need to do is figure out a way to stop her, using any random items as well as notes form other characters you find along the way, to aid you. The game features a procedurally generated map, and if your ex(?) girlfriend catches you three times, she succeeds at deleting your save file, and you start again from a new map - making it dependent on your real life detective and pattern recognition skills to figure out a way to beat the game across multiple runs. Failure is expected, as you rely on your knowledge carrying over from run to run to be able to find a way out in the end. ---BAKA BAKA BAKA--- Overall, there are different little details about the game which make it interesting to explore the map and find out more and more about what is going on as time progresses - not in a constrained way where the game holds your hand, but at your own pace and relying on your own wits to figure things out. And when I mentioned the setting making the game worth a try, I meant it - because this is the first time I found some of the jump scares in a horror game to be... amusing. It's a nice change of pace to play a horror game which isn't trying too hard to make you feel frightened at every turn. However, don't expect this game to give you the most unique or most interesting experience either. As mentioned before, it's mechanics aren't new, so if you played such horror games before, you will be familiar with what to do - though for what it is, it is definitely a good game, and I'm glad to have it in my library. Finally, I consider the price to be justified for what you're getting. (...even though that sports commentator spoke over my ending.) ---Are you a completionist?--- Edit: After having played the game for an additional 3 hours following my initial review, I want to add some additional criticisms to it, which only affects those who wish to achieve most (or all) of the available endings : 1. I found many of the more advanced endings to require many different steps in order to be achieved, which not only makes it difficult (to even impossible) to figure them out without a guide, but... 2. it is made significantly harder due to the fact that the items required for these endings are randomly placed, and may not appear at a convenient time, or sometimes (seemingly) at all, resulting in you... 3. consistently and frustratingly not knowing where you are or where you need to go next in the ever expanding map, while trying to find the items you need. For instance, if you tried to achieve the ending the game literally tells you about at the very beginning (which I didn't do, because that girl is evil) you must find 4 items, which I have rarely encountered together in a single session before being so lost that I had no idea where I had to go next on a number of occasions (even when using the ArrowObjects the game provides you with)... However, as I said, this only affects you if you wish to uncover a large amount of endings, rather than simply an ending or two (or three). As, during my first couple of playthroughs, I actually found the situation of getting lost lost to be adding to the atmosphere of the game - with you being desperate to try to find your way out of your (ex?) love interest's evil schemes, but not only having to deal with her attempts to delete your save file, but also fighting with your sense of orientation along the way, which adds to the sensation... ---Constructive criticism--- Having considered what could perhaps be done to address these issues, I have come up with a few ideas: 1. Regarding the advanced nature of the endings, the developers could perhaps drop more hints in the game, perhaps in the form of notes from the in-game characters, to point the player in the right direction. 2. While the item issue could could be addressed by reducing (or even eliminating) the likelihood of certain items spawning after their associated endings have already been achieved, 3. Finally, the issue of getting lost could be addressed by coloring the rooms on the minimap which the player has aleady been in - again perhaps only after a number of endings have been achieved.
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