Steam] Eternal Love on June Bride! Three PC games with the theme of "LOVE."

How are you doing, Akiba Research Institute readers? This is Nero Hyakkabe, a writer who buys too many games. June is the month of "June Bride," which is said to bring happiness to those who get married.

To be honest, as I am single and have no plans to get married, it is a word that I have no connection to, but there is a June Bride event being held in the game "Atsumare Animal Crossing," and I feel that it is tapping into the hearts of single people these days.

In this article, we would like to introduce a Steam game with the theme of "LOVE," in reference to the bride and groom pledging their eternal love to each other on their June Bride day.

• Item.
• Love Letter," a masterpiece card game that has won numerous awards
• LoveChoice Selected Love," a romantic novel/adventure
• Retro-style dot-picture high difficulty action "LOVE
• Games are full of "LOVE

Love Letter "

• Maker: Asmodee Digital
• Genre: Strategy
• Release date: October 24, 2018
• Price: 720 yen (as of June 8, 2020)

Have you ever written a love letter?　Confessing with a love letter may sound somewhat old-fashioned, but I have confessed with a love letter three times in my life. All of them were rejected. So, as the name suggests, "Love Letter" is a card game based on the theme of love letters.

(C) 2018 Asmodee Digital

This is a digital version of an analog card game created by Japanese board game designer Seiji Kanai. Love Letter" is a popular game that has won several awards, including the grand prize in the voting category of the 2012 Japan Board Game Awards, the Dice Tower Award for the best new board game, a place on the recommended list of the German Annual Game Awards, and fourth place in the German Game Awards. In fact, I have an analog version of "Love Letter" myself, and it brings back memories of playing it with friends in the rest area of a super public bathhouse until the wee hours of the morning.

The player's objective in this game is to deliver a love letter to the princess, who is locked up in the palace, expressing his feelings for her. In order to do so, the player must find a collaborator among the guards, monks, maids, and other courtesans who will deliver his or her love letter.

The total number of cards used in this game is only 16. The main attraction of "Love Letter" is that the limited number of cards allows for a variety of tactics and psychological battles.

The rules of this game are very simple. Each player is dealt a card at first, and then, when it is his or her turn, the player draws a card from the deck and discards one of the two cards in his or her hand, repeating the action. Eventually, the winner of the round is determined by either "eliminating all other players" or "having the highest numbered card when the deck runs out. Each time you win a round, you gain points for the princess's favorability, and when you reach the designated number of points, you have won her heart and the game is over.

Simply put, all you have to do is repeat the process of "draw one card and discard one card.
The reason why bargaining occurs in this flow is due to the rule that "when you discard a card, the effect written on the card is triggered.

There are a total of eight types of cards in the hand.

Guess your opponent's hand,
Guard," which can eliminate your opponent if you guess the right card.
Baron," in which the player with the lowest number of cards in his or her hand is eliminated by comparing his or her hand with that of a specified opponent.
Monk" who can see the hand of the player he/she chooses.
The "Prince" who makes the chosen opponent discard his or her cards
King", which exchanges cards with the opponent's hand, is a key attacking card to make the opponent drop out of the game.

There is also a defensive card, "wench," which nullifies attacks until your next turn.

The second highest card, "Countess," with the number 7 from the top, is a special card that must be discarded when a king or a prince comes to your hand.

Finally, the highest number, 8, is the Princess, which, if discarded, will result in defeat, so once you draw it, you must protect it from being discarded by yourself or by your opponent.

In terms of the storyline, you have given the love letter directly to the princess, and if you protect her until the end of the round, you will always win, but there are many enemies, such as being guessed by the "guards" and having the "prince" discard the love letter, which illustrates the difficulty of achieving love.

The heart of the game lies in deducing the opponent's hand from the number of cards remaining in the deck and the cards that have been used so far, and using the cards at the best time.

It is a great feeling when you guess your opponent's hand with "Guard" and eliminate him in a game of numbers with "Baron".

Of course, this requires a certain amount of "luck" in drawing cards, and this title strikes the perfect balance between "luck" and "strategy. The game is a perfect balance of "luck" and "strategy." With only 16 cards to play with, each game is a fresh and exciting experience, and since each game is short and quick, you are sure to find yourself playing over and over again.

The digital version of the game, which is available on Steam, has an online battle feature, so if you get tired of playing against the CPU, you can enjoy a "Love Letter" battle with a friend or a stranger.

If you are interested in playing "Love Letter", please try to experience the deep world of "Love Letter" with its 16 cards.

LoveChoice Selected Love "

• Maker: Akaba Studio
• Genre: Adventure
• Release date: October 1, 2018
• Price: 205 yen (as of June 8, 2020)

Shakespeare said, "Life is a series of choices," and love is no different.

You can't help but think, "I should have said that when I was in love."
I should never have done that.
I should have had the courage to confess my feelings to him.

We have all had regrets about the wrong choices we made in our love lives.
Is it just me?　Is that so? ......

That's why this work, "LoveChoice Selective Love," is a love novel adventure game with "choice" as its theme.

(C) 2018 Akaba Studio

The soft and cute atmosphere of the hand-drawn illustrations is characteristic of this work, "LoveChoice Selective Love," which consists of three independent short stories.

Love Game," about a man and woman who meet at a game development event.
Love Distance," a story about a long-distance relationship between a man and woman who have known each other since childhood
Love Detective," about a wife who discovers a phone call from a stranger to her husband.
The three films are "Love Game", "Love Distance", and "Love Detective".

This time, we will pick up "Love Game" from the three and introduce it to you.

The protagonist of "Love Game" is a young game creator who participates in "GameJam," a two-day team game creation event, and notices a woman on the team next to him.

While the other members of the team are all taking a break, he notices that she is alone in her notebook, working hard on her drawings and letters.

The main character tries to talk to her, but a choice appears at .......

The protagonist is about to talk to her, but here comes a choice: "Hello, my name is XXX. Would you like to be my friend?

'Would you like to hear our game idea?'

...... Hmmm. Somehow, both of them seemed a bit different, but I thought a greeting would be safer than asking to hear my idea out of the blue, so I clicked on the former choice.

After the event, the main character became chat friends with her. While listening to her work gripe, he chooses to minister to her, and then summons up the courage to ask her out on their first date. They decide to go see a movie, and what they go to see is again a choice format.

Ion Man (science fiction).

A sweet girl wins" (romantic comedy)

The Spell Abyss" (horror)

...... Hmmm.
If horror is a bit of a no-go, what about romantic comedies too: ......
So, by process of elimination, I chose science fiction.

Her response was neither good nor bad. Which would have been nice. ......

The next thing to do is to do some preliminary research on restaurants on a gourmet website for the date. This is in the form of a mini-game, and I completed it with a reasonable score.

Finally, the day of the date. After watching the movie, the choice of where to go for dinner appeared again.

Szechuan hot pot.

Dim Sum (Cantonese Yam Cha Cuisine)

Yue Nan Ai (Southeast Asian cuisine)

Sushijo (Conveyor-belt sushi)

Since this game was developed in China, there are many Chinese dishes in the list.

Hmmm. I think that spicy and Southeast Asian food is too peculiar for a first date. ......
However, I also think that Yamucha is too much for a normal date: ......

So we chose sushi.

Her reaction was again normal, neither good nor bad. Which was the right choice. ......

After the meal, the main character walks alongside her under the moonlight.
When the mood is getting a little better, he wants to hold hands with her. Then he decides to say something before holding hands, and a choice appears.

I like you.

Can I hold your hand?

The moon is beautiful.

What?　Isn't this the second choice?

So, without hesitation, I chose "Can I hold your hand? I chose "Can I hold your hand?
Her response was, "Yes. ...... And the protagonist finally decides to go out with her. Yay......, right?

After that, the main character spends his days as a lover with her.

They make long phone calls, sometimes fight, and after they start living together, he listens to her complaints about her work and cleans up instead of her leaving the place messy ....... Of course, each of these choices comes into play.

One day, three years after meeting her, the protagonist receives a letter from her.
The content of the letter was her true feelings about the many choices the main character had made over the past three years.
When I read it, it stands out as being quite negative in some way. Apparently, the author was wrong about everything. The author, who is usually upset, appeared before me at .......

"Take care, bye."

With that, she left behind. It was a ...... completely bad ending.

However, this is not because the author's basic ability of love is low (no, really).

In this "LoveChoice Selective Love", I think most people will reach the same ending as the author on their first playthrough.

This is because, in fact, there is a big trick in this work.

I can't give you the details of what it is here because it would be a spoiler, but I played through the "Love Game" scenario again after this and was able to successfully marry her. Also, I cried while playing it because it was just too good a story in general. ......

This game seems to be an orthodox love novel/adventure, but it has some interesting twists and turns. Please let the warm BGM, illustrations, and gentle story heal you. The important thing is to "choose with the other person in mind!

LOVE "

• Maker: Fred Wood
• Genre: Action
• Release date: February 8, 2014
• Price: 310 yen (as of June 8, 2020)

As I introduced in a previous article on " Retro Style Game Specials," among the "LOVE" themed games, I discovered a retro-style game with visuals that thrilled me.
This game is called "LOVE".

(C) 2014 Fred Wood

This game is a jumping action game with dots.
Although I am not from the same generation, the unique graphics are reminiscent of retro game hardware such as the Atari 2600 and InTelevision, as well as old PC games from before the Famicom (NES).

By the way, before going into the introduction of the contents of the game, I would like to tell you one thing. The background music of this game is very good, and if the graphics are anything to go by, it might sound like a pico-pico sound, but instead, it has a transparent electro taste that is somewhat melancholy and retro. I would like you to listen to this in person.

The rules of this work are really simple and clear. Run and jump to the goal while avoiding touching white obstacles and falling into holes. That's all there is to it. There are no attacks or other actions, and there are no enemies or bosses.

The game modes include "ARCADE," in which you aim to clear 16 stages with 100 remaining planes, "UNLIMITED," in which you have unlimited remaining planes, "YOLO," in which you aim to clear stages with only one plane, "SPEEDRUN," a time attack to see how fast you can clear 16 stages, and "SPEEDRUN" in which you aim to clear 7 remix stages with 25 remaining planes. There is also a "REMIX" game in which players try to clear 7 remix stages with 25 remaining planes.

As mentioned earlier, "ARCADE" has 100 remaining machines, 100. If you are a perceptive person, you will naturally understand that there are so many available. Yes, the level of difficulty is very high.

While the game is simple, with only basic movement and jumping controls, the player character moves quite quickly, and the slightest mistake can easily result in instant death. There are many variations of instant death patterns, such as falling into a hole, hitting a spike, getting hit by a drop of water that falls from above, or hitting a giant spinning saw-trap. The difficulty of adjusting jumps, which can easily get you killed if you press the move or jump keys for the wrong length of time, reminded me of "Mystery of Atlantis" from the Famicom Mini and Nintendo Switch Online's Famicom.

The level of difficulty, which is suitable to be called a "game to die for," and the feeling that you can definitely feel your progress if you keep playing without giving up, are exactly reminiscent of retro games. However, there is one major feature that has never been implemented in retro games. That is the "respawn anywhere" function.

In most action games, if you get hit, you usually have to restart from the starting point, the middle point, or a checkpoint along the way, but in this game, by pressing the S key, you can set up a resurrection point anywhere at any time. However, in this work, you can place a resurrection point anywhere and at any time by pressing the S key.

However, if you place too many resurrection points, it will affect the score and grade displayed after the game ends, so if you are concerned about your score, you must avoid placing resurrection points as much as possible.

The title of this game is "LOVE," but there is no storyline, and to be honest, I am not sure what exactly is "LOVE" about this game. However, I can certainly feel the "love" for retro games, which can be seen in the exquisite difficulty level that is both difficult and fun, the nostalgic yet cool graphics, and other aspects of the game.

Combined with the atmospheric background music, once you start playing this game, you will become addicted to it. If you are interested in this game, please try it and feel the "LOVE".

The game is full of "LOVE

So, we have introduced three "LOVE" themed games that can be played on Steam.

We believe that the creators of these games must really love games, and that their love for games makes them comfortable to play and memorable forever. I encourage everyone to search for interesting games that are full of "LOVE" and try playing them. I'm off to nurture "LOVE" with Yuko Asahina in "Tokimeki Memorial," which is included in the PC Engine mini!

Author：Nero Hyakkabe

Freelance writer who buys too many games. Currently, I have more than 300 games in my stack. Also a novelist. Author of "Goa-ken Unrated Edition" (Kodansha) and "Mother's Lie" (in "Malicious Kaidan") (Takeshobo).

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