Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 29/12/2024 00:01

Find Love or Die Trying – Review

It’s the perfect time of the year to curl up on the couch with a blanket, a cup of tea, and some reading material. In our case, that last one typically refers to a visual novel. It has been a couple of months since we last read a “regular” visual novel, with Celestia: Chain of Fate, so the arrival of Find Love or Die Trying seemed like a good opportunity to enjoy some downtime in between the different holidays. If you’re in a similar mindset, you may be on the lookout for a new story to get stuck into yourself. Read on then, to find out whether Find Love or Die Trying is the right option for you. Story The story is typically the main reason to give any visual novel a try. We’re very happy to tell you that Find Love or Die Trying delivers on this front. The basic premise is a fairly simple one, but things get more intriguing as the plot unfolds. The writing is also filled with offbeat, dark humor and pop culture references. Admittedly, not everything lands the way the writers seemingly intended, with some of the dialogue relying too much on shock value. We also could have done with less innuendo and less swearing. As a whole, we did enjoy what Find Love or Die Trying had to offer with its overarching story, even if the finer details were heavy-handed. But what is the story about then, I hear you ask? Well, let’s dive into Find Love or Die Trying’s premise. As usual, we’ll avoid any major spoilers. Our story begins with a self-inserted main character waking up aboard a plane in the company of Kat, a TV producer. Our protagonist is unfortunately suffering from amnesia, which gives Kat a convenient excuse to explain everything. It turns out that the protagonist is taking part in a reality TV show called ‘Find Love or Die Trying’. They have been taken to a luxury mansion on a remote island in Asia, where five gorgeous girls are waiting for them. The idea is that the protagonist goes on dates with these women. At the end of the season, the protagonist then has to propose to his lady of choice. The twist is that if the girl refuses, then the protagonist will be killed. The girls are unaware of this caveat, however, and should the protagonist inform one of the girls of it, that girl will be killed too. Our protagonist disagrees with participating, but at the behest of Kat, they are forced to do so anyway. The girls themselves embody different tropes. There’s Terra, a hyperactive gamer girl who is also a streamer, for example, or the mysterious red-headed Scarlet who tries to come across as air-headed but who has a secret agenda. Much of Find Love or Die Trying’s narrative is driven by its cast. We were pleasantly surprised how these characters were much more fleshed out than we initially expected. The protagonist is understandably much more of a blank slate. You can choose their gender, and even opt to play as non-binary. The supporting cast is great as well, ranging from Pokémon’s Team Rocket-inspired Five Brothers, who form the TV crew, to Damian Black, the devilish owner of the network. Graphics If the story is the main reason to check out a visual novel, then the graphics are the secondary one. There’s a reason it’s called a ‘visual’ novel after all. This is another area where Find Love or Die Trying doesn’t disappoint, with great character designs and gorgeous backgrounds. The CG art also looks great. Granted, Find Love or Die Trying doesn’t avoid the common visual novel pitfall where most of the dialogue scenes are accompanied by static character art. While we would have liked a bit more variety in character poses, what’s present still looks great. Sound While Find Love or Die Trying’s visuals are great, the same can’t be said about its audio. Not that our expectations were particularly high, mind you. Visual novels typically aren’t known for rich and deep soundscapes, although exceptions exist of course. In the case of Find Love or Die Trying, it’s worth mentioning that voice acting is absent. Sound effects are only used sparsely. The main offender is the soundtrack, although that isn’t because it’s particularly bad. It’s because we’ve heard it elsewhere before. Find Love or Die Trying makes liberal use of Kevin MacLeod‘s famous library of license-free tracks to set its audio atmosphere. While this is fine for a homebrew or fan-made novel, we feel like it isn’t unreasonable to expect a little more from a paid release on a console. Ironically, the game does include a music player that is a pain to navigate, where you can find all the tracks. Gameplay There is a wide spectrum when it comes to gameplay for visual novels, ranging from full-fledged interactive experiences like the Ace Attorney series to kinetic visual novels like Aquadine, where all you do is read and look at the pictures. Find Love or Die Trying falls somewhere in the middle, with multiple choice-driven endings but virtually no gameplay apart from making choices. To its credit, the novel does offer a little more than the most barebones experience, with not just a CG gallery, but background art and concept art galleries as well. Even so, this is another thirteen-in-a-dozen visual novel written in the Ren’Py engine. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Ren’Py sets a solid standard when it comes to visual novels, but don’t go in expecting anything beyond that. Clocking in at around four hours for a single readthrough, and with multiple endings, you’re getting a decent amount of content here too. The €12.99 price tag is on the higher side though, so it may be worth waiting for a discount before picking this one up. Conclusion We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Find Love or Die Trying. Its biggest strength is that the story is so well-written, although the gorgeous art helps too. The use of generic music comes across as a bit lazy, and the visual novel feels a tad overpriced at full RRP. If you can get this one at about 50% off, though, you’ll want to consider picking this one up, especially if you like your stories twisted and filled with dark humor.