Love Dating Master XP

Foreword

Considering it's currently impossible to post a review for this game since it never had an approved download before the site went down for months. I figured I'd post my review in the comment section. That way if this game does get an approved download at some point I'll be able to easily copy and paste my review from the comments section in order to submit it for points. For the curious this game can be found over on itch.io.

Intro

"Love Dating Master XP" is a very short visual novel with three unique endings that was developed by emergencypie314 with a little writing help from Qv99 using RPG Maker XP. I'll admit the choice engine feels a bit weird considering there are engines far better suited to this genre of game such as Ren'Py and Visual Novel Maker. Though, I suppose the odd choice in engine might have part of the process of making this a bad visual novel.



After all, this game is meant to be less than stellar. Of course the problem with openly admitting that your game is bad on purpose is that doesn't mean your game is going to be automatically funny. This is because most things that fall under the so bad they are good category in my opinion are the byproduct of earnest effort. It just so happens that those involved in said project were severely lacking in terms of ability. Alternatively you can make something bad on purpose like "Birdemic: Shock and Terror" (2010) and get laughs out of people, but those laughs are dependent on the viewer not being aware said movie is terrible on purpose. As a result this game sets itself up for comedic failure right out of the gate in my opinion since it shatters the illusion that this brief visual novel was the byproduct of a developer aiming for something beyond their ability to create.

Story

On the story side of things were presented with a few branching paths but only two choices in the game really matter. The first choice is whether you'll go on a date with "A Girl" or not. If you choose to go to school instead of offering her date you'll simply graduate from school and never see her again. If you choose to offer her date she'll reveal that she's really a guy. You'll then go on date with "A Guy" and get married. A marriage that will end in tragedy when the crumbling statue of liberty apparently crushes your husband to death. This will send the player character into a depressed state where they'll drink nearly non-stop until their liver eventually fails many years later. This is when "A Guy" will reenter the story and ask the player for forgiveness for faking his death. You can then choose to either forgive "A Guy" for the true ending or choose to die alone by refusing to forgive "A Guy" for abandoning you for all these years as you drank yourself to death.

Gameplay

As mentioned above the game only gives you a few choices, but most of them are rather meaningless like entering your name or picking your gender. As such the gameplay in this project is rather thin, but that tends to be the case for most visual novels in my experience. After all these sorts of games are meant to be more akin to graphical novel or manga. Albeit those forms of entertainment tend to place a higher emphasis on visuals in my opinion. At any rate I suppose the gameplay functions as intended.

Graphics

On the graphical side of things the game is rather ugly with a character that looks like they were made in MS Paint being slapped on top of photos from the real world.



As you can imagine such images don't blend together particularly well. Especially when the character in question looks about as flat as a certain Stanley.

Sound

On the sound side of things the game utilizes tracks from the RTP, South Park, "Earthbound", and "Love Live". Suffice to say these tracks range in quality in terms of how well they fit in, but none of them stick out enough to really draw my ire.

Conclusion

"Love Dating Master XP" is a purposefully bad game developed by emergencypie314 and like many such games it tends to flop around like a fish on land. As such its kind of just a sad sight to behold instead of an amusing one. Though I suppose those with darker sense of humor might get chuckle out of it, but one of my favorite moments in "WolfCop" {2014) is when the main characters dick explodes as he transforms into a werewolf. Though I suppose some would argue that's less of a dark sense of humor and more an ability to get laugh out of over the top gore. At any rate I suppose this game is worth a quick look if your going through games meant to celebrate the site's 17th birthday or looking for a short game to review. Otherwise I'd suggest keeping your distance for this one.

Rating: 2/5