A couple nights ago I downloaded Lovelink. I'm fascinated by the storytelling style, but quickly discovered I'm waaaay too demi-ace for dating apps asdfghjkl;'. My single confident and immediate Swipe Right was Captain Muffins:
Because who could say no to the kitty kat??
I started panicking about playing the game wrong, so I ended up swiping right on Jade:
Good thing I did! She's a cute patoot! By now we've gone on a first date to a bar and had a long chat at her swanky apartment. We both love the color purple and old fashioneds, haha.
More CGs:
Not wanting to miss out on 98% of the content, I did the sensible thing and changed my profile to that of the fictional character, so now I'm Wen Kexing from Word of Honor lol. Here's my current dating list:
This morning I was in hysterics over Jaden's idea of a first date. We broke into the police commissioner's McMansion and went skinny dipping LOL aldjfkajf
Bumped into two initial frustrations. First, there's not a lot of replay value. I can scroll up conversations to unlock CGs I initially missed, but I can't start the storyline over, change my choices, or redo "irl" dates. Second, the MC can be annoying. I thought Jaden's date was funny, but MC insists it was terrible. MC grills Sheng Zhao that he sounds like a catfish, and I thought that was hella rude. With any interactive fiction, there's going to be some points where player choice is an illusion more than a reality. For me as a player, that's easier when the MC is a distinct person from me, which is why I prefer visual novels where the MC has their own sprite. With Lovelink, there's a lot of emphasis that the MC and the player are one & the same. Times the MC and I disagree are REALLY apparent. A smaller gripe is the Lovelink MC can't have a consistent backstory across routes. In Jaden's route, I said was in post-grad; in Sam's route, I was forced to say I didn't ever attend college. It wrankled.
All that being said, my initial impression is pretty positive. Lovelink's Redditt has a majority of the CGs on file, so I can enjoy cute pics without spending $$$. Their beginner guide is super helpful. I actually unmatched with some people in hopes of getting their counterparts, before reading that locks you out of the storyline altogether (oops). There's no reference to the MC's gender, and little reference to the LI's either. You're like...Nonbinary or not nonbinary, haha. That's great. There's a WIDE variety of storylines, from college romance, vampire, werewolf/Baba Yaga, sex worker, and pregnancy (the LI is a surrogate to a queer couple), to infidelity, royals, sportsball gym rat, and enby punk rocker.
I was browsing around Instagram and got an ad for a total dupe of Lovelink! I downloaded it to see how similar it was. The whole app looks almost identical. Even some of the storylines are taken from the original app. It’s called MeChat. I wonder if Ludia knows about this?
I love his characterization. I love how romantic and soft he actually is, how much he’s willing to open up to save his own life but also to not lose MC, how much he misses MC, it hurts sometimes.
Jaden’s fine🙄 he talmbout he did backflips and front flips to get away from the cops the shit is just not makin sense they probably let his ass just walk out he doin the most