GameLight - Love Plus 3DS

Official Site: http://www.konami.jp/products/loveplus/index.html

Source: Youtube Channel IGNentertainment

After a year of seeing videos and news reports of dating simulator/visual novel game "Love Plus 3DS", the game finally releases in Japan today on Valentines Day.  This is one game that's more than likely not being brought over to the western market.  Visual Novels based around love stories or love simulators where the player interacts with a virtual girl have been around in the Japanese market for over two decades and have become "sort of" normal there now (It's still weird to those who don't play it there I suppose).  In the western market, it is looked down upon as a terrible product targeting the single male population (or something they take as a normal oddity from Japan's otaku culture).

Within the game, the player talks (from choosing multiple choices answers I suppose) to the characters in the game, goes out on dates, takes pictures, and simply interact with them as if they were real.  Konami added an extra function where players can receive virtual e-mails from the characters within Love Plus by subscribing for $4 per month.  I shouldn't judge, but Love Plus is after all still just a game and a player shouldn't get "that" involved.  The gyroscope (motion sensor), 3D camera, and dual screens allow the player to interact with their virtual girlfriend within their own environment with Augmented Reality.  You can see this happening at 2:05 in the video above.  Now if this can be utilized within the development of other games, we can see a lot of interesting gameplay from action, fighting, and adventure genres.

I don't pay much attention to these types of games mainly because they're rarely brought over or translated.  My interest in it lies within the story, though I can't really find any specific story for any of the characters for the game.  One such game series that played like a visual novel that captivated me is the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney series, though that is quite a drastic difference between that and Love Plus.  There could be a chance that the western market would be a bit more open to the game if it was more emphasized as a game heavily based on "story" rather than just interactivity with the female character; however, the latter seems to be what works in Japan's marketing.  I hear the game has a manga series spin-off in the works, and so the focus on story would be interesting for the series.

In any case, Happy Valentines Day!