Cracks

Cracks

Cracks is a single player side-scrolling platformer following the couple Liam and Lana, as they navigate the highs, lows and struggles of their relationship. Their relationship is part of the game, where their level of cooperation depends on how connected they are. Join them on their adventures and learn how you can overcome the biggest obstacles as a team, whether it’s dealing with overbearing store clerks, or finding seats together on the tube. Experience the joy of doing even the most mundane chores together, and grieve with them when their arguments turn ugly and they are unable to work together on the smallest task.


Read More: Best Romance Singleplayer Games.


Cracks on Steam

Paper Shakespeare: Loves Labor(s) Lost

Paper Shakespeare: Loves Labor(s) Lost

Bad

Real player with 0.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best Romance Visual Novel Games.


I must have got this in a bundle. Dream Quest taught me that a great game can have terrible art, so I gave it a try. It’s bad. Stick figures spout boring dialogue based on one of Shakespeare’s plays. There’s no clever twist. It’s just awful.

Real player with 0.5 hrs in game

Paper Shakespeare: Loves Labor(s) Lost on Steam

Ochitsubaki

Ochitsubaki

A fallen camellia is a beheading, every time, every petal falling at once: a severing.

════*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*════

TW: CSA, animal death, violence, suicidal ideation

OCHITSUBAKI || 落ち椿 is a visual novel about the impossibility of translating trauma. It is a bilingual JPN/ENG game about translation and how it can run as deeply as the way hypermarginalized people constantly “translate” their identities and trauma for the understanding of others, no matter how far it is from the source material. It’s about recovering from trauma through the genuine compassion and consideration of another person, who manages to See the aftereffects of trauma and are willing to meet that person’s unique needs, regardless of if they “understand” them or not.

Ochitsubaki is only loosely a visual novel, which is to say it is a story-based game with a strong aesthetic component. Ochitsubaki has a deep, rich tapestry of aesthetics in unifying modern elegance with unique retro anime-inspired character portraits. The original soundtrack derives inspiration from traditional Asian pentatonic scales, particularly but not limited to Japanese ones, that also derive a modern, Genshin’s Liyue-type twist that sets it firmly in contemporary times. It has three language options: JPN, ENG, and JPN translation. The ENG/JPN versions are two different renditions of the story, thus requiring a separate JPN translation, emulating what happens when you try to translate something as complex as identity. You can consider that the only real choice you make in the game is which language to play it in, and each language option provides a different “route,” a similar but very distinctly different iteration of the story. The language modes mimic the powerful loss that happens when stories–when trauma–is translated.

The demo only contains the first two ENG chapters, an estimated 30-45min of playtime.

════*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*════

Hanashiro (he/she/they) and their few remaining kin all react differently to the trauma of being immortal and witnessing the apocalypse over and over again in different cycles of reincarnation. Shiragiku is unfazed and cheery and flippant and whimsical and capricious; Shirayuri is nowhere to be found; and Hanashiro? Hanashiro is planning on their death in 10 years, when the camellias fall, if they cannot find a reason to live by then.

Hanashiro and Shirayuri have witnessed THE END OF THE WORLD before. But no one believed them. Shiragiku has seen many, many apocalypses, but she has never been hurt by any one after the first. Shiragiku has remembered every single end; Shirayuri has remembered none; and Hanashiro only remembers some. Which? Even he doesn’t know.

Hanashiro misses speaking her fey mother tongue, but she can’t seem to find anyone willing to listen to her, not even her own kind. And then she makes an enemy who just might. Their name is Lun Kochouran.

And they might be the first one in a millennium to learn the Amayuri tongue.

They also might be the first to kill an immortal.


Read More: Best Romance Experimental Games.


Ochitsubaki on Steam

Superstorm Melon Date

Superstorm Melon Date

Andi does it again and teleports us into yet another parallel universe of his wild imagination. Superstorm Melon Date takes place in a world that feels like a glimpse of the far future where struggles of the 21st century reverberate. Take a gander at the dating scene during a violent global storm with a gene-spliced melon race. You’ll feel a little odd but strangely familiar too as you break the ice and get to know your melon-date. If you like authentic characters, crazy worlds and visual novels this game is a perfect match for you! An expertly written and paced game that is short and sweet and lets you off the hook with a craving for more.

Real player with 2.1 hrs in game

Superstorm Melon Date definitely delivers on the levels of bizarre suggested in it’s title. In this dystopian visual novel you date Mel, a non-binary half-human/half-watermelon hybrid. For the most part I found Mel obnoxious, but they have their moments of thoughtfulness and sincerity. One of the strongest aspects of the game is the setting. Opposed to the typical dystopian world where everyone is collared by an authoritarian regime, Superstorm Melon Date shows a world where the environment is seemingly the biggest oppressor. While this is occurring, there are growing tensions between humans and their melon counterparts. I want to see more of this world.

Real player with 1.2 hrs in game

Superstorm Melon Date on Steam

Doki Doki Ragnarok

Doki Doki Ragnarok

Doki Doki Ragnarok is a viking visual novel in which you pillage and date villages around the world. It takes place in a ridiculous world where viking raids are like going on a date - with the village!

For vikings, raiding a village is more than warfare: it means dating, flirting, and understanding each other consensually. Show that you carry a conversation as easy as you carry an axe.

Choose from a wide cast of diverse vikings and unravel the peculiarities of each village. Find out what they truly desire from the viking of their dreams. You can always revisit past conquests to experience alternative dates.

Will you find the village of your dreams?

Features

  • Date quirky villages across Europe!

  • Choose from a wide cast of diverse vikings

  • Choose your voice regardless of your appearance

  • Encounter Odin, other vikings, local people and various animals!

  • Revisit dates to explore alternative outcomes

  • Stay in touch with past conquests in case someone invents a Dating App.

  • Collect achievements by choosing the weirdest, funniest or plain most unlikely options on your dates!

Planned Steam Features:

  • Cloud Save

  • Achievements

  • Trading Cards

Doki Doki Ragnarok on Steam

Slide Stories: Bonds & Memories

Slide Stories: Bonds & Memories

a really enjoyable slide puzzle game with a nice story to accompany it. i really loved the addition of the secret puzzle. like their other puzzle game, it has a soothing soundtrack with some really charming artwork.

Real player with 9.2 hrs in game

A Fun, Moving Collection

Slide Stories: Bonds & Memories is a collection of eight slider puzzles that tell a story and reflect on memories. There are seven standard puzzles and an eighth bonus puzzle that you can find (which was a pretty cool feature). The puzzles are available in different sizes: 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, and 9x9.

I really enjoy the hand-drawn images and the story they tell. The pictures are animated rather than still. Though I like the idea of animation (and really enjoyed it in the first collection of slide puzzles, Slide Stories: Neko’s Journey) I did find the animation to be a bit too much: it felt like each image was persistently shaking and I often found myself feeling rather nauseated. That was really unfortunate. I would suggest, in this case, to have an option to freeze the animation. Maybe in future collections revert back to the fewer animations from the other collection.

Real player with 8.1 hrs in game

Slide Stories: Bonds & Memories on Steam

Kombi Travels - Jigsaw Landscapes

Kombi Travels - Jigsaw Landscapes

I really enjoyed playing this game. Since jigsaw games is something I like playing that helps me feel relaxed. And very helpful when my mental health isn’t feeling good.

Real player with 9.2 hrs in game

The art of this game is very beautiful, the relaxing atmosphere is very pleasant.

Real player with 2.8 hrs in game

Kombi Travels - Jigsaw Landscapes on Steam

Mask of the Rose

Mask of the Rose

Welcome to Fallen London: a darkly hilarious gothic underworld where death is a temporary inconvenience, the rats talk, and Hell is only a stone’s throw away.

Thanks to an unknown bargain, London now resides in a vast cavern under the earth. Down here, the sun doesn’t shine, and Parliament has sunk into the Thames. Queen Victoria never emerges from her palace. Cats spy on their owners and whisper their secrets abroad. The fabric of strait-laced Victorian society has begun to fray.

New Masters are in charge. Why are they so… tall? And always cloaked? And why are they so interested in love stories?

The possibilities for personal connection in London are different now. Thrown together in crisis, you might befriend or romance many of the characters you meet, from Griz, your assertive housemate for whom the Fall was a chance to break free of Victorian societal norms, to the infernally well-dressed gentleman at the Brass Consulate with the amber eyes.

Even death itself has a twist here: the first murder victim since the Fall is feeling much better, and keen to see justice done. Unfortunately, as the doctor who treated him immediately before he expired, your housemate Archie is the prime suspect…

  • (Re)invent yourself: who were you before the Fall? Who will you be now?

  • Create outfits from a selection of clothing and unusual accessories to unlock different story options

  • Fall in love with a cast of diverse Londoners, each with their own secrets

  • Matchmake among your friends, or seek love for yourself (by any definition you like)

  • Write love stories in a delightful minigame, and use them to impress the new Masters

  • Pick up odd jobs to earn money and gather resources. How are you at rat catching?

  • Solve the first murder since the Fall, with the assistance of the victim

  • Discover cosy, mysterious and magnificent locations in a dark and delicious version of Victorian London

  • Seek deeper and deeper secrets over multiple playthroughs

Will you be a brilliant matchmaker, connecting friends and rivals while remaining unattached? Or are you looking for lasting love? Perhaps you’re open to whatever comes your way? Every major storyline is accessible regardless of whether your approach to love is romantic or platonic.

Use an elaborate, dynamic story-crafting system to create love stories – and murder theories. Are the twists in the tale not to your taste? Then change the motive, the location, even the victim, and see how the stories adapt!

Your past will open different doors for you in London. What was your life on the Surface like? Were your family landed gentry? Or did they own a tailor’s shop, or dabble in the occult?

Your clothing will also make people think differently of you. Your outfits open new possibilities in conversation: be bolder, more commanding, more flirtatious. Ingratiate yourself with London’s inhabitants by changing your style of dress – they won’t be able to resist you in that hat!

You’ll also work odd jobs and collect resources which will open new avenues in social situations. Your housemate Griz has found you work as census-taker for those curious new Masters. Fill your census-taker’s notebook with intimate details about your fellow citizens and you’ll find you can pursue deeper relationships with them, romantic or otherwise.

Griz

For your fellow lodger Griz, the Fall of London has been a liberation – the chance to throw off her corsets, dump the dresses and be taken seriously in a position that would have been forbidden to her when she was ‘Miss Griselda’.

Archie

For your other housemate Archie, the change is terrifying. What is a medical student supposed to believe in when even the laws of death no longer apply?

Harjit

When the Fall struck, Harjit stepped up to help anyone who needed it. Now he’s settling into his role as a man in uniform, but the territory is unfamiliar – and, secretly, he has a missing person of his own to find.

Milton

Milton is the amber-eyed host of a literary parlour with a scalding handshake and a prior address in Hell. He’s an excellent listener, but does he only want you for your soul?

Rachel

Rachel was halfway through her serialised novel when London fell and everything she was writing about was turned upside-down. Her publisher grows impatient. Fortunately (?) meeting Milton has rekindled her passion – for more than just writing.

David

Rachel’s brother, and no fan of Milton, David is also destined to be Fallen London’s first murder victim. When he returns from the dead, you can ask him all about it.

Horatia

For a decade, Horatia has taken in lodgers and turned them into family. Since London fell, people need the security she offers more than ever. So when a man made entirely of clay knocks at the door, offering to pay handsomely for lodgings, she can hardly refuse.

Mr Pages

One of London’s new, mysterious “Masters”, Mr Pages has embarked on the titanic endeavour of conducting London’s first post-Fall census! But why are its questions so concerned with the love-lives of London’s citizens? How do people declare their affection, in this fair city? How lasting are their attachments? Might a Londoner take an interest in a very tall, broad-shouldered, cloaked personage that leans towards the chiropterous, hypothetically speaking?

Explore this unique city in glorious, richly rendered 2D. Experience London through three seasons: the season of Confessions, the season of Yule, and the season of Love. Help establish the first Feast of the Rose, a festival of romance that will be celebrated in London for decades to come!

For players of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, Mask of the Rose offers a chance to immerse yourselves in the city that founded this deep, dark, and marvellous universe. And for veteran players of the Fallen London browser game, it marks your first opportunity to visit the city just after it fell. But fear not: Mask of the Rose is an excellent introduction to the universe we’ve been building for more than a decade, and you don’t need to have played our other games first. Come on in. Most things won’t bite, unless you want them to.

Explore the locales, lives, and loves of an impossible city. Exchange bon-mots with devils. Investigate the first murder where the victim can testify at the murderer’s trial. Dive into the sunken ruins of poor drowned Parliament. And if you’re truly reckless, fall in love.

Mask of the Rose on Steam

Painting Werther

Painting Werther

The Sorrows of Young Werther, was written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1774.

Loved by artists and emperors, it shows the inner struggle of a deeply romantic man.

Or at least that’s what I used to think…

Come with us on this interactive visual novel to see another version of this legendary story.

Was young Werther really a romantic? Or was he just a man with a death wish?

How deeply did he really love his friend Wilhelm? Maybe his letters hide some clues…

Did he even loved Charlotte? Or did he just love the idea of an unrequited love?

For all these questions and more, Mad Cream Games presents you and overloading artistic experience, full of brush strokes and ink spots, where Chopin played the sax and Mozart the guitar, where love turns into hate, and pity into madness:

With this game we want to celebrate the mastery and abilities from the painters and musicians that came before us, presenting their work in a new original and respectful way.

Painting Werther on Steam

Palais de Reine

Palais de Reine

Played a bit more, and decided to add some new and fresh feelings. I definitely recommend this game, like 99 out of 100. Though lots of texts, even the opening took me like more than an hour (I’m a slow reader, though).

Highlight of the game, I think, is the way of building characters. Each character have distinct personalities and personal stories, for like 30-40 characters? It also built a pretty complete world, with reasonable explanation for all things I can think of.

This is a mixture of romance and strategy, like half-half. Yet I guess a reason why this game is not very popular is that neither is out-standing. I mean, both are great, but if compare each element to famous games like Civilization (famous strategy game) or 蝶の毒 華の鎖 (famous romance game), neither part stands out. I don’t play strategy games, so I only can speak romance-wise. The number of characters is both the tame’s highlight and weakness. With so many characters, it is just impossible to make everyone’s story equally impressive. Personally, only one character’s route made me feel like in love. All other romance route makes me feel average-good but not impressive (or maybe I’m too harsh). Though most non-romance routes are beautiful.

Real player with 85.6 hrs in game

Highly recommended.

-Romance parts are optional and not required to finish or to enjoy the game!!!

-It has two difficulty settings, normal and difficult.

-You can’t just click your way through the game. If you fail the strategy part then that means game over.

-Has partial voice acting. The 7 “poster boy” knights are all voiced, while the 20 kights are not voiced. Some of the Lords are

voiced, as well as the Princess’ two aides.

-Don’t focus too much on voiced characters. The rest of the cast all have their own stories and the majority of the characters can

Real player with 48.5 hrs in game

Palais de Reine on Steam