Alrighty, Love Love Mystery Club is quite a fresh take on the dating FMV genre, especially as an entry with Thai actors and actresses! I enjoyed this game as it introduces a horror theme that can catch you off guard especially if you make wrong choices that can result in a game over. The characters and the story itself was very enjoyable and I didn't mind playing to achieve the good endings for each of the characters. I end up cutting my game time short though because it ended up becoming a hassle trying to get ALL the endings especially with some bugs here and there that prevented certain progressions. But overall the game is a fun experience with lovely ladies for you to fall in love with. But if you want an indepth summary of what I found here you go!
Story. You play as our MC, Tuay, who finds himself at the center of supernatural events after joining the occult club. The character had no real aspirations before the club and seems to just want to skate by, but from spending time with his new club friends does Tuay develop into a man that the ladies find themselves liking. For plot reasons you are gifted with magic powers thanks to your grandma for teaching you so don't worry about how you manage to beat ghosts (just roll with it)! Although the story starts off as you joining the club cuz you won't graduate otherwise, the main focus is of course helping your boy Tuay get himself a girlfriend. The game allows you to fully explore all storylines with no consequences so take your time and know that choices with one love interest won't affect another. Who you choose to pursue in the end though is up to you.
Characters. Fern is our first love interest that recruits you to join the occult club. She is into the supernatural and is eerily curious in the afterlife. She is often seen as bubbly and jokes around with you a lot. Despite this cheerful exterior are you brave enough to pursue her, or is her morbid curiousity going to be too scary for you? Or maybe perhaps get you killed if you aren't careful. Kratchet is our shy artist love interest, whom you bump into a lot in the hallways. She starts off timid and only says like 1-3 words at a time when she first meets you. But as she spends more time with you she starts finding her footing and voice. Will you be the person to help her realize who she can become or are you just another shadow for her to hide away from? Main is our pop idol that is attending school because it is mandatory for her for some reason. But anyways, her role is being the celebrity love interest. She's very prideful and knows that people love and adore her, except you? Because of your lack of knowledge about who she is she finds an interest in your character. Is this a spark that can turn into something more or is it just a fleeting feeling that she will forget about like school life? Woon is the nerdy love interest in the story, and honestly kind of a fresh take on the archetype as many FMVs I've seen always make the 'nerdy' girl like a supermodel. But Woon is funny, quirky, and exactly what you would expect from someone who majors in science. There seems to be a secret that Woon knows about the school though that she seems reluctant to share with you. So do you think she is using you for her own selfishness or perhaps there is more to her quirkiness that hides underneath. Lilly is the bad girl love interest who don't give a crap about what other people think about her. When push comes to shove she will beat your ass if you push her the wrong way. But beyond the tough girl exterior lies a girl who is very caring about the people she loves like her friends. Will you find a way to crack through this tough girl's armor or find yourself at the end of her fist as well? As you may know there is a sixth love interest, but to preserve the mystery I'll let you figure out for yourself how to unlock her path and determine if you are worthy of her love as well or not.
Mechanics. So I do have a gripe about the mechanics in this game. You can't exactly load to points in the story that you may want to where you can change choices on the fly like most other FMVs, instead there is a 'checkpoint' that you must load all the way back to if you want to change your choices. Maybe it was implemented to discourage constant reloading to change your decisions but idk. This mostly kills the vibe for me though cuz i end up having to rewatch a lot of scenes just to get back to where I need to be to make new choices. When you get at least one ending in the game it unlocks the stat indicator which shows if you gain/lose love, intel, and instinct. Love of course helps unlock one of the endings for each love interest and intel/instinct stats help you gain access to locked dialogue choices. Because you don't have access to this or informed how this works then you may not know you are suppose to make choices to give you these stats. Honestly this should be a feature unlocked right away to help form paths from the getgo. Lastly, there is no unlockable page which sucks. There is also bugs in the game that some times treat my game as though I made a choice that locked me out of certain dialogue or additional love, and this is after going back to certain checkpoints to change decisions. Think this just adds more to my point on the issue of the checkpoint system especially if it can't even register if I made a new choice or not that should change how the story progresses. Just to let you all know if you get the happy endings for a love interest then you get a M/V of them performing a song which is pretty awesome! Just wish there is a way I can just watch any time after I unlock it the first time. And I think everyone would have liked to see collectables of the ladies in their different outfits or having Bio cards like most FMVs do for their characters. Also, there is no QTE so no need to worry about jumpscares or having to fight anything!
Overall, great game, great story, great characters, and game mechanic can use more work. 8/10! Enjoy your time unraveling the mysteries of the Love Love Mystery Club!
