One of my favorite video game genres is known as Walking Simulators. Essentially, these are video games that don’t offer much in terms of gameplay mechanics but offer a heavy narrative experience. Examples of these video game titles include Life is Strange, Gone Home, and Firewatch. With that said, I was interested in the demo for Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll. Here are my impressions of the video game demo.
Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll is currently a video game in-development by SovietGames, a studio that found success with their debut title, Everlasting Summer. This time around, the developers were bringing out a new title that would put players into the role of a high school student in a mystery, drama, and romantic story.
Specifically, Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll takes place in Japan during the 1980s, where players take the role of Nikolai, a Russian high school student. Throughout my time with the game, Nikolai is given a series of choices to alter the story path that will ultimately have consequences with various characters. For an example, early on within the story, Nikolai is given a choice to stand up for a girl being belittled by a crowd of students or stay out of the commotion. As the story progresses, Nikolai’s safety becomes a concern and it seems that whoever is out there plotting against him may have knowledge about the passing of his parents.
Gamers will have to keep in mind that this is a visual novel title and that means this is a heavily scripted story with choices scattered about. With that said, don’t expect much in terms of game mechanics, but replacing the game mechanics, I would like to further discuss the visuals.
Visually, the game is broken down into more still scenes with slight animations within the backgrounds. Overall, the main characters within the scene are still, while you might notice a more lively animation in the background that reminded me of a style and design similar to films by Hayao Miyazaki.
As mentioned, this is a more story-based title as the lower end of the screen will often display text along with the character name of who is speaking. It’s here you’re given the ability to progress the story with an arrow or rewind to see the previous conversation in full. There will be a sudden notice in the top left corner to give players insight to select keywords and their meaning in Japan.
One of the elements I felt was missing was voice acting, but that’s a personal gripe. I absolutely love great voice acting to help emerge myself into the story. However, there are other audio bits to help in that regard such as background chatter, traffic, crickets singing into the night, among other environmental noises depending on where the scene location.
Overall, this has been a shorter impression being a small demo of what potentially may come out into the market. Right now, the development team has published Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll on Kickstarter. Seeking out a pledged goal of $30,000, interested gamers can back the project right now.
As it stands right now, gamers who pledge at least $10 will gain access to the video game on a platform of their choosing. The development team has given an estimated delivery of March 2017, where the game will be available on PC, Android, iOS, and a web browser version. Currently, the Kickstarter campaign has brought in just over $12,500 with about two weeks left for the developers to reach their pledged goal.
