The sound of rain, a few drops hit my face through the crack of window I left open last night. I glance to the soundless alarm clock by my bed: 8:13 AM. Much later than I should be up, but early enough that I don’t have to rush to get ready for a work shift that starts and runs late. I grab my phone and check to see if I have a good morning text from my girlfriend, but not this morning, so she’s probably sleeping in too. The next thing I do is log into the newest app on my phone: Love 365. (Found on Google Play and iTunes)
Love 365 is a Japanese-inspired romance game, one of the purchase-as-you-go types. It is absolute fluff, and I have to admit that I’m quickly becoming an addict.
The quality of this particular app is high. One of the better kinds of interactive stories I’ve tried. The choices actually seem to have a decent amount of impact on how the other main character reacts to you. My only qualms are that the roles of the protagonist and the types of characters you pick to romance are limited to only classic tropes. What I would really enjoy seeing in an app like this would be the ability to customize your protagonist a bit and a greater variety of choices in romantic partner. For now though, I have no complaints with this particular app. It knows its target audience and it does a great job of catering to them. The romances are enjoyable, if not exactly replayable.
How it works: first you create a profile, pretty basic information only, and then you pick the name that you would like to use as the female point of view character in the stories. This name does not change unless you go to your profile to update it. Luckily, in this app, the name can be updated if you make a typo or are unhappy with your name after trying it out. After that, you can explore the various stories and pick whichever appeals to you. The app offers a couple of free stories that change monthly; this is a great starting place that doesn’t require you to make any purchases to read through a complete chapter.
Otherwise, you can pick out a story that interests you, and then you pick the male love interest within that story. Usually there are a handful of options with classic personalities for people who are drawn to certain personality types. You can sample a few minutes of story with each choice. Here is where this app truly shines. Each pick will have a distinct storyline that you can only experience with that male protagonist. There is also a game aspect to this, as you have to learn and predict how each love interest will react to the limited choices you are given throughout the story. The goal, if you are a completionist person like myself, is to win them over to get the best ending each time. I wish that there could be more of these options integrated into the story, and that each choice has a more immediate feedback, as you don’t know if your relationship meter will rise or fall until you reach the end of the current story point.
I have always been a romance addict; this is just the newest incarnation of a lifelong fascination with fantasy. No surprise to anyone who knows me, is in one of my three ongoing Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, or has taken a look at my book collection. Dominated with fairy tales both light and dark. Novels that have unusual worlds where magic plays heavy influence, and a handful of other fiction wedged in between.
What might be a surprise is the opinion I have that too much fantasy can be dangerous; at least it was for me. Before I met the wonderful person who I am currently dating, I was a bit of a mess when it came to figuring out people’s feelings. There was a formula in my head, checkmarks that I thought were normal. But nobody could ever meet these expectations, and I wasn’t really able to accept them for who they were and not this imagined ideal. Every time I tried, I lost the romance game of life, and there was no option to replay.
Without going too much further on that, I’m sure that for most people this is a phase they are able to grow out of or grow up from in the natural course of life. Sometimes sooner, and sometimes, like me, much later. I am immensely glad that I finally did, and met a person who was able to get me to look past the fiction, and find a very real, very messy kind of love. Our romance meter has ups and downs, a lot more of the ups these days, and she is pretty good about giving me the feedback when I do something that reverses my progress.
Thank you, Kristine. The best thing you’ve done for me is actually breaking my romantic idealist mentality, and showing me that the real experience is the best experience of all.
These days I am able to read fiction, watch movies or TV, and even play a romance game without the investment that I put into the characters really having that much of an effect on me, other than entertainment. But as far as Love 365 goes, my current investment totals $1. I can quit at any time I want to... Maybe the sooner the better.
And I should first text my girlfriend a good morning before I open the app. Maybe.
