Love Surge!

I really enjoyed this game's music, visuals, and narrative, but I felt it was lacking in it's underlying game design. It's cute and energetic and considering it's price range, that's all it really needs to be in my opinion. Outside of general bugs (at one point I all of my progress on Noki got entirely reset back to the first date T-T ) I had four major criticisms of the game: The first being the overworld section felt kind of pointless. There's a date and time-of-day mechanic like in the Persona series, but they don't really seem to matter to what I'm doing at all. There are no milestones to hit or deadlines that I need to scrape by, so it offers me no real pressure, which also makes the stress bar in the overworld a little pointless too. Because I have no time constraints, I have no reason to ever need to worry about the stress bar because I can just spend as much time as I want putting it down in the arcade before I go on a date. The same goes for building stats in the overworld too, the only thing stopping me from just grinding them up for 2 hours to max is that watching the screen transition up to 5 million times would be *extremely* tedious. I really enjoyed the narrative aspect of the card game, and the short term planning of stacking card bonuses is pretty entertaining, but I felt like that's all there is to it. There's never really any long term planning or strategy, the categories have no effect on the gameplay and end up just being a checklist of things I need to do in order to get back to the charming and entertaining part of the game. I felt like the skill checks also don't really make sense to me. It's not clear if they matter at all, for starters. It seems like they don't affect progress and give you different dialogue through a section. But even if that's the case, I still felt really confused because I can't figure out what number I should be hitting to pass them. after the first dates, no matter what I roll I always fail them. at one point I rolled two sixes and STILL failed the skill check. I just don't get them, I wish they at least showed me the number I am supposed to be beating to pass them. Finally, this game, through it's music and sound design, feels like it should be snappy. I feel like every menu I should be snapping through about as fast as I can process the menu. But I cannot stress enough the game is NOT fast like that. every scene has a pretty long transition and sometimes I felt like that was counter to the game's aesthetic. Ultimately though I still enjoyed playing. I feel like it's kind of a diamond in the rough and with some improvements it can definitely be a really solid game. Good Job.

Better than Date Everything, makes more sense, less chaotic. I've not played the whole game, and it's not my usual kind of game, but for those who dig this kind of game... I think you might dig it.

The main character of this visual novel is a young technology student who is testing a new augmented reality program that takes the form of everyday objects. You get to experience three of them: a phone, a coffee maker, and a thermostat. Each one appears as a girl, complete with her own name and personality quirks. Things quickly take a strange turn when a lightning bolt strikes the program and somehow turns them into real girls. That does not stop the experiment. You still need to see how they interact with humans, which means going on dates and having conversations with them. These interactions play out through a card based mini game with fairly simple rules. You choose one of four conversational topics, each with a number that acts as your goal. Then you play cards from your hand onto the card in the middle. Each card has one of four suits and a number. You can play any card that matches either the suit or the number of the middle card. You are not limited to a single move, so you can place as many valid cards as possible in one turn. When you run out of moves, you end the turn and draw new cards from the deck, letting you continue building your sequence. Sometimes your hand will not match the middle card, so you may need to discard cards to make space. If you are missing a key card to start a chain, you can use reserve cards at the top of the screen. These must be used in order, but they refresh after all four are played. Occasionally, you will also receive a stress card that can be placed on any card. The goal is to build long combos by chaining cards together. Each card adds to your combo, and when you end your turn, that total reduces the number tied to your chosen conversational topic. The combo then resets. Once a topic reaches zero, you can move on to another. When all topics are completed, you get a more personal conversation with the girl before advancing to the next stage, where the topic numbers are higher. Dates are chosen from your house on a map, and you can go out with any of the three girls. The map also includes several other locations. There is an office where you can earn money, a shop where you can buy items, and four places that raise your stats such as charisma and creativity. There is even an arcade that reduces stress, which builds up as you visit locations, though it does not seem to have any real impact. In fact, many of the systems feel pointless. Filling the stress bar does not lead to any consequences, and there is no real way to lose. You can grind locations endlessly to increase both stats and money. Money can be spent in the shop, but items have no descriptions, so you have no idea what you are buying until you try them during a date. Even then, they rarely feel useful. Stats do not seem to matter either. The only possible connection is a skill check during conversations, where random numbers appear, but there is no explanation and I passed them every time without effort. One stat can even drop into negative values when the stress bar fills up, and it keeps decreasing even if you reduce stress or continue improving that stat elsewhere. While the game aims to be casual, technical issues get in the way. The card game can break, starting with the tutorial. It is possible to perform actions outside the instructions and lock the sequence, leaving the tutorial character repeating instructions even when you no longer have the required cards. The only fix is to save and reload, which resets your hand and the tutorial. Fortunately, completed topics remain cleared, and this carryover also applies to dates, where finishing all topics in one session is not possible. Unfortunately, things get worse later. By the third date with any of the girls, the card game will completely fall apart. Sometimes all topics are already marked as completed, which oddly resets that girl’s progress back to the first stage. Other times, you encounter a game breaking bug where you cannot select topics or play cards at all. Even discarding your entire hand does not end the round as it should. What makes this more frustrating is that these problems were already present before release and were not fixed in time. It feels like the game needed much more testing. As it stands, it is impossible to recommend, even at a low price, because the experience never quite comes together the way it should.

Okay, so, listen, there isn't a neutral option. I've flipped the switch to positive on my review because the game is on track enough to do what it sets out to do, and because I like to support an indie from time to time. My curator was sent a copy 9 days before release, and there's been a few patches since my initial contact and my zesty feedback. Just to respect your time, whether you should get this game or not is based around you having an unserviced need to romanticize your appliances. To be direct with you, reader, much as I enjoy coffee, I'm not *into* coffee. You with me? And if you are into coffee (or cellphones or thermostats), you may still exit unfulfilled unless your need is purely emotional. I'm not judging, even if I don't understand it. There's a lot of grinding to be done in this game. You'll grind by clicking on locations on the map, and then clicking through pointless randomly-generated dialogues, while filling up a "stress" meter that you can empty by clicking on another place and clicking through randomly-generated dialogue. It's not compelling gameplay, honestly. Eventually you'll decide to go on a date with your appliance of choice. You'll woo her with a game based on a cut-down Crazy 8's solitaire affair, where racking up a big combo can get you through quickly. It's not hard, there's a tutorial for it. And that tutorial was my bugbear, as it was really, really buggy and easily flummoxed. As of this writing, it still was. Follow the instructions [i]exactly[/i]. Exert no free will. It's not a hard card game, and your reward for restraining your initiative will be the actual visual novel part, plus the clicking-on-the-maps minigame. build up your stats, win some RNG "challenge" and I guess more happens. To be honest with you, I stopped here. It looked like it was doing what it was setting out to do. As a *game*, it's not great. As a visual novel, it's meant for a different audience. So let me wrap this up: If you want a visual novel with extra clicking bolted on, and the concept of the characters really moves you, well, here you go. If you needed something hotter, I suspect this game won't fill up your spicerack very much. And that's the standard that determines whether this really is a a thumbs up for you, or not. I'd have left it blank if I could. And, of course, I think we all learned a lesson about how QA is a vital and underappreciated skill in the coding industry.

有成就 没中文 心动来电！ 游戏简介 每个人都离不开电子产品…… 但不是每个人都能和它们谈恋爱。 《心动来电！》是一款喜剧恋爱向视觉小说模拟游戏，你可以与家电拟人化的角色们发展浪漫关系：诺基（智能手机）、洛特（咖啡机）、塞尔希（恒温器）。 约会玩法将视觉小说文本与卡牌机制相结合，通过连击得分来模拟更深入的对话！ 本作集恋爱模拟、视觉小说与卡组构筑于一体，带来一场超有趣的奇妙冒险！ 角色介绍 塞尔希（恒温器） 喜好：散步、奇特的小虫子、编程 厌恶：人群、他人 诺基（手机） 喜好：摄影、园艺、“无伤大雅” 的恶作剧 厌恶：分离 洛特（咖啡机） 喜好：现场音乐、缝纫与时尚、帮助朋友 厌恶：咖啡 游玩流程 探索城镇，提升属性并构筑你的卡组 与你的家电伙伴对话、约会 在现实世界与它们的世界中互动 感受怦然心动的瞬间：尽在《心动来电！》 游戏特色 卡组构筑 + 恋爱模拟 + 视觉小说三合一 3 位可攻略角色 每位角色均拥有两种不同结局

Esse jogo é até certo ponto divertido, mas tem tantos bugs que chega a irritar. Ele é quebrado e desbalanceado; parece que os devs criaram o jogo no automático, sem sequer testar. Falta polimento nas artes, no sistema de cartas e nas opções de relacionamento. Entrei em contato com o desenvolvedor dando dicas, mas não adiantou. Para ser jogável, precisa mudar muita coisa e adicionar mais idiomas. Só recomendo quando ele realmente estiver pronto. =/ - eu juro que tentei jogar, mas o sistema realmente esta quebrado.