It’s safe to say that I have been really in a visual novel phase recently. Something about a more low-key choices matter game play appeals to me when my brain is feeling slightly overloaded with everything else. Visual novels are also a great way to explore different stories and themes that sometimes get lost in more complex game play loops. This is especially true when the story has multiple endings and want players to choose their own adventure.
Lover’s Engima is one such game which finds itself wanting to explore sensitive topics surrounded by slightly fantastical ideals. While the game has themes such as suicide, self-harm, violence, mental health, cults, and cult like behavior, it’s also about finding ones self and love along the way. It’s about coming out from your parent’s shadow and finding a way to be your own person. Sometimes, through a series of chances, of redoing the sequences over and over, and finding a better ending along the way.
Premise
You play as a woman who has recently lost her husband to a supposed suicide. Yet, none of this feels correct to you. You need to get to the bottom of what truly happened but your overbearing mother seemingly wants none of it. Instead she wants you to hurry up and move on. As the main character, you know something is so wrong, yet you find yourself going with the flow, to the point of even fake dating your childhood friend, Ryota, to get your mother off your back just three months after your husband death.
Of course it isn’t just the death of your husband you are dealing with. Your job is awful, your boss being someone who prides himself on speaking down to employees. Unfortunately your anxiety is often at an all time high and your mother keeps sending you these strange spiritual people. Haruki, the most recent spiritual man to make his way to you, at least is attractive and charming for all of his quirks. You’re also unsure of your next door neighbor Renjiro who is a bit quick to become emotional (be it anger, flustered, or embarrassment), but seems to mean well. Yet even with all these men being possible love interests, you also get pulled back by your deceased husband Kazuki. These gentlemen make up the potential love interests in a game with some wild and sometimes all too quick twists.
Each character has a role to play in your past, even if you don’t know it initially. They also have a role to play in your future should you let them. The downside, is that sometimes the roles they play come so quickly it feels like whiplash. A character will go from cold to suddenly seeming warm and opening up to you about their past. Their art may change from someone who looks like an office worker to a demon hunter with what feels like little transition. A cult appears and keeps appearing so aggressively you know that no cult could ever recruit this way and be a cult that would easily fool people into joining. Yet at times, Lover’s Enigma still finds a way to keep you wondering, “how the hell is this all connected?”
Bugs – Not the Creepy Crawly Kind
For a game that had a disclaimer at the start of it all, I actually ran into very few bugs. Throughout my play time the game crashed twice and a screen came up asking me to rollback or ignore. After clicking ignore, the game continued to play normally. They did mention they have been actively working on bugs since late May so it’s possible that there were more at launch. However, most players will not want to deal with any bugs especially when trying to give a game a chance. Hopefully the team behind Lover’s Enigma continues to clear up any crashes for those who try this out in the future.
Visuals And Sound Cues
Much of the game visuals take place in black and white. Color appears in the scenes where the boys have clearly become somewhat of a light in your life or when red text is meant to make you feel uncertain, hurt, harmed. It’s a good use of color as it feels jarring sometimes in the best and worst ways. Being devoid of color for so long and then seeing it splash across the screen can allow you to feel more of what our main character feels. A glimpse into a life that could be, whether it’s giving in to the hurtful voices in your head or finding a way forward.
There are also a few things that jump out at you at times with the visuals, even still in black and white. Sometimes it just that the art itself is not necessarily grotesque but unsettling. This is doubly so for when it is accompanied by static sounds or notes that get under your skin. As someone who can’t differentiate notes to save her life but can tell the difference in emotional tone, it’s a feeling and less of a heard shift. The sounds are ambient enough until they aren’t just to put you on high alert. Sometimes it lets you know something is coming or tries to convince you to make a different decision. Other times it may accompany a strange man at your window. Possibly even a clown ready to tell you they miss you. Sorry for those who fear clowns, the one below is waiting for you.
Gameplay – Visual Novel with a small Mini Game
It’s a pretty standard visual novel where you make choices to progress the story. Some of those choices are where you’ll spend your time in the evening. Will you go to convenience story where Renjiro happens to work? Are you going to the Temple to pick up incense to burn at the shrine to Kazuki back at home? Alternatively, you can interact with other people in town such as Granny at the sweets shop. If you find yourself not trusting Haruki go do some snooping around his office. While the map just allows you to navigate the world, there is one addition in this visual novel that I hadn’t quite expected.
In Lover’s Enigma in order to calm your anxiety, you can find yourself in a bathroom playing a rhythm game. You can do this just about each evening to raise your sanity. Since the music is enjoyable, playing the game isn’t so bad. This one was space where I occasionally noticed that the game play inputs didn’t always take, even on the slowest modes. However there were a few times where I was able to get 100% on the notes and raise my sanity pretty nicely.
It’s worth playing the game and keeping your sanity high so when you do certain checks, your odds of succeeding are better. From a second playthrough, it seems that the better your sanity, the better your ending. Of course, there are many endings to get so it’s possible this was just a coincidence but I think not this time.
Also, just because you think you may have finished the story, there may be more to it. I learned this when I wanted to see what the autosaves were like. I found one ending, yet when I reloaded the very last auto save that was about 2 minuets before the first ending, I was confronted with new choices. The game is clever this way making you question all of your choices and options. It almost made me question whether I had truly run credits on the game. Thankfully, I record all my game play for reviews and could see where the paths diverged. Clever game.
Overall
The story is intriguing but sometimes the conversation goes on for a bit too long or can feel slightly repetitive. There is a really cool concept within the game though of reincarnation, romance, and curses. There is a lot of replay ability potential to the game, especially as your sanity levels and your choices can really vary where you end up. There’s the obvious ending of the different romance options but seemingly more than just who do you love to close out this game. Ideally, there would be a listing of each different ending for you to collect within the game. It’s not always clear what is a good or bad ending. It could also help for players to see what they may be missing. Of course, perhaps that not what the curse wants. This spirit isn’t exactly the kindest one around.
At it’s core, there is something really great about Lover’s Enigma. Perhaps its how the horror is interwoven in the story. It may also be the cleverness of making you reload what you thought was an ending. While this isn’t a game that I’d say will stick with you long term, it’s not one you’ll quickly forget or regret. Either way, I’ll be watching closely to see what else this team may come up with as time goes on.
Lover’s Enigma is now available on PC. Gamer Social Club would like to thank Okasan’s Recipe for the review key.
Interested in untangling this web of emotions on your own? Let us know in the comments below or when you join the Gamer Social Club Discord.
