Chapter One: Introduction
Love n Dream: Virtual Happiness is a lewd turn-based RPG available on Steam. To experience the complete game with adult content, the Virtual Happiness: 18+ Content (Uncensored) DLC must be installed. This article will strictly discuss the patched version of the game.
I received a free copy of this software for review purposes — thanks Secret Labo!
I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered to complete the game. I finished most of the levels, but I wasn’t interested in trying to figure out why I missing entries in the gallery. I lost track of how long I left the application running when I wasn’t using it.
Chapter Two: Gameplay (2/5★)
Section One: Overview
The store page makes the game seem more fleshy than it actually is; essentially, gameplay boils down to choosing one of up to three “cards” until reaching the end of the selected mission. The main strategy of the game is figuring out how to reach the end of missions without dying — either by purchasing consumable, healing items or avoiding enemies that deal high damage.
Each set of missions is accompanied by a different in-game “player”; each player offers an “ability” based on how much “impression” you’ve collected. Impression is collected by defeating select, typically stronger-than-average foes, or by collecting dedicated “impression cards”.
Upon collection, the player character will ask his companion a personal question; her answers come into play when she starts quizzing him on subjects such as a birthday or “ideal partner”!
Section Two: Balance
Grinding for “Impression” isn’t fun. The gameplay isn’t interesting enough to support what appears at least a few hours of dedicated gameplay to unlock all content.
Chapter Three: Sexual Content (3/5★)
Section One: Content
I counted ten entries in the gallery. I didn’t unlock all of the “hscenes”, I can’t say with certainty what to expect; but I only saw basic sexual intercourse (which isn’t always consensual).
Section Two: Implementation
I’m not sure how to unlock the sexual content. Likely, content is unlocked by (A) completing heriones’ respective levels; or (B) increasing “Impression” by defeating enemies and collecting “impression cards” to ask (and answer) personal questions.
There’s a clothes-breaking mechanic but I’m not sure what exactly triggers the destruction of clothes. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to remove all clothes from heroines during battle.
Section Three: Interactivity
There are two kinds of sex-scenes; one features a single animation with toggleable nudity, and the other is a linear sequence of animations and dialogue.
Section Four: Content
The artwork is solid and the dialogue is okay, but there’s only four worthwhile sex-scenes in the game. Unfortunately, the sex-scenes are too short to get invested into.
Chapter Four: Story (2/5★)
Section One: Plot
You have a copy of the “a new release” that lets you “really touch and feel inside the game.” Hoping to “find a girlfriend there”, you set off to “explore many dungeons with a lot of fun.”
Section One: Characters
There’s a lot to learn about the female cast, but after the introduction there aren’t any meaningful interactions. Everything there is to learn about the characters is just fluff.
Chapter Five: Sound (3/5★)
Section One: Soundtrack
The sound track is thematically appropriate, but unremarkable. It’s just. . . there. I feel like there should have been some sort of “combat” beat to coincide with each area in the game.
Section Two: Sound Effects
The gameplay seems to be missing some sound effects; sometimes, performing actions doesn’t play back audio when it should.
For example, collecting a “shield” doesn’t play back a “sheeng!”
The voice acting is monotonous; it’s nice having characters speak whenever they use their abilities, but the issue is how often abilities are played. As I played this game, I began to dread using powers because I knew I’d have to hear the same damn thing I heard a few seconds ago.
Chapter Six: Visuals (2/5★)
Section One: User-interface
I had an issue with overlapping menus, but it went away when I rebooted the application and turned off “windowed” mode with a resolution that matched my screen. But even after resolving this problem, I found the navigation to be convoluted.
For example, accessing the level-select screen from the “information” screen should be as simple as pressing “esc”. But instead, the “esc” key brings you to the main-menu. What you have to do is click on the “Map” button — which for some reason, isn’t located somewhere obvious like a corner.
I love how the scroll bar for the gallery is too long, scrolling well beyond unlockable entries.
Section Two: Graphics
The graphics are nicely put together, although I get the feeling Love n Dream: Virtual Happiness is a mix of stock assets. The cards, characters and graphics user-interface aren’t really stylistically consistent, but I’ve seen worse usage of premade assets in other games.
Chapter Seven: Verdict (2/5★)
I had a hard time just writing an article on this game — I simply couldn’t bring myself to play the game any more than five or ten minutes at a time. The gameplay does not stay fun long enough to support the grind it takes to unlock a few mediocre sex-scenes. There is no happiness to be had from playing Love n Dream: Virtual Happiness.
