An Otherworldly Love Story
Lovebrush Chronicles is a narrative-based romance or “otome” game made by NetEase Interactive Entertainment PTE. LTD. Due to the game being made by a Chinese company, the player can choose between Chinese and Japanese voice acting. For a free-to-play game, microtransactions are fairly optional, but it does force you to do a lot of grinding without them.
As is typical, you choose the main character’s name, and she doesn’t have a voice actress. She’s a first-year art student at St. Shelter Academia in a world very similar to our own. She meets the story’s love interests as she settles into her school life.
Not long after, though, mysterious events pull her into another, imperiled world called Godheim. At that point, you play through what the game calls a “common story” shared by all the arcs that sets up the different paths you can choose from, each of which involves selecting the love interest you want to work with to try and save the people of Godheim. The protagonist has a special type of magic that allows her to hold her own and act as a true partner to her chosen love interest, as well as giving her power to help save the world.
The Path to Romance
The primary aspect of Lovebrush Chronicles is the love story that blossoms between the protagonist and the character you select as your partner. While this is an otome game in the way it all unfolds, it also has strong aspects of card-based games and RPGs.
There isn’t much focus on your character’s personal improvement like there is in a lot of romance games. Instead, you pick your partner and follow his story. There are some choices along the way that cause splinters in the narrative, though most just lead directly to a bad ending.
The romantic interests hit the usual archetypes, with the standoffish character who’s wounded, the flippant character who’s putting up a façade, the supposedly emotionless man who’s really deeply feeling, and the devoted sweet guy. The game does limit who you can choose as your first partner, which may be disappointing to those who are keen on a certain character.
Even with the limitations, I found the stories engaging and the characters charming. The world of Godheim is more complex than it first appears, and each of the love interests has his own cross to bear—and he needs the protagonist’s help to overcome it, save his world and be happy.
Overly Basic Gameplay
Lovebrush Chronicles limits your progression by level. Battles are sort of card-based, as the artist can use the power of her paintings, called Illustras, to help her fight. These Illustras have levels to show how powerful they are, but the protagonist also has her own level. She must exceed a certain level to get past certain points in the story.
While the battle system has all the elements of a good turn-based RPG, they aren’t realized. The Illustras have two abilities that they can use, as well as an attack and an ultimate attack that charges up over time. While the extra abilities include buffs and debuffs like upping your attack or lowering an enemy’s defense, the best strategy involves just spamming these skills at the beginning of each battle then hammering away at your opponents until you win.
The developers even seem to concede that the battles aren’t anything special, as they set up an auto mode that allows you to speed through them. Additionally, the enemies’ level increases far faster than your Illustras do, which means you need to stop and grind every so often to keep progressing.
Lovebrush Chronicles has practice battles for this purpose. You can even turn on “endless battles” where your Illustras keep battling without your intervention. This allows you to grind while doing something else. Every battle uses a certain amount of your stamina allotment for the day. The protagonist’s stamina can be increased with in-game currency as well as real money. This means that the game can genuinely be played for free, so long as you’re willing to spend time grinding.
Jarring Disconnect
As Lovebrush Chronicles is an otome game at heart, it includes features such as being able to go on dates with the love interest characters, invite them to events and talk to them on the academy grounds. All of this would just be a fun way to get to know them better and increase their affinity, except… the main story takes place in an alternate world. Yes, the love interests at the academy look the same and have the same names as the ones in Godheim, but they aren’t the same people—that fact’s established in the common story.
It all begs the question: when is this happening? Before the protagonist goes to Godheim? In some alternate timeline where she doesn’t go to Godheim or chooses to return home? The anecdotes and getting to know the characters’ likes and dislikes are fun puzzles, especially as the game avoids penalizing you for getting them wrong, unlike some other titles. It just feels a little disjointed.
A Fun Romance
I prefer to just give the developer my money upfront and then play the game unimpeded, which may make me old-fashioned. But Lovebrush Chronicles is rather low-key about asking you to buy things—it lets you know where the store is, then leaves you alone about it.
The love stories, world-building and character development are all well-done, even if the passage of time is a bit vague in places. There are some oddities and unexplained aspects in the story, and it also asks you to assume a lot. But if you enjoy good character development and a fun love story, then overlooking these flaws isn’t difficult.
