Love, Money, Rock’n’Roll is a visual novel set in the late 80’s, that revolves around mystery and intrigues, betrayal and sacrifice, hatred and passion. I am not well-versed when it comes to visual novels. In fact, this is my first time encountering this developer, Soviet Games. And I am intrigued when I found out that they have a very well received game, Everlasting Summer, under their belt.
It has also amazes me how long this game has been in works. Apparently, this game has been in Kickstarter in 2016. Though I am only been aware of its existence for a few days, I am glad to know that it was able to finally see a release after all those years of development.
Those background arts took me back to the good old ways of hand drawn anime style. This time around with a little bit of modern touch as they come alive/animated at some point. The characters are also fully animated during dialogues, which I really appreciate when compared to the other visual novels. They feel more alive when compared to others wherein the character are static and in a blink of an eye, changes their posing throughout the dialogues.
I am definitely not yet halfway through the story, but I am eager to find out what ending I’ll be achieving in my first playthrough. Please take note that there are no hidden Steam Achievements, therefore if you have taken a quick peek on them then you may already have an idea on some possible endings. Which I hope I am wrong, since I would’ve slightly spoiled myself if what I’m seeing based on the graphics of these achievements is what I am thinking.
Probably my only gripe with this game is that there are no any type of voiceovers. I wasn’t expecting any fully voiced dialogues, but some sort of voice lines that align with their dialogues would’ve been such a better experience. Hearing the characters giggling, grunting, groan, etc. would definitely make this visual novel more immersive in my opinion.
Personally, I think the UI for this visual novel fits with what they are trying to do. It is not overly cluttered and the little effects they have in between are a nice touch. They even included two options for the ‘Appearance’ of the game: Classic or Immersive, with the latter adding some level of fuzziness to the screen. And then there’s also two options for ‘GUI Style’: Classic or Modern, which I think only changes the settings screen as far as I know.
Recalling dialogues are also easy to do. For someone like me who tends to miss click and accidentally moved to the next dialogue, knowing there is an easy way to re-read previous line is such a relief. I know it’s not a big deal to some and its probably been done more often than not, but I am happy report this game contains this little quality of life feature.
In general, I highly recommend this game to anyone who are looking for a visual novel with a rich story, great soundtrack, interesting characters, and a top-notch artwork/art style. What captivated me towards this visual novel, was specifically the art style.
🇺🇸 This game has serious scenario gaps. Also, SG (Soviet Games – the devs) has released a first patch which ruins your game progress (e.g. saves, all opened screens, backgrounds and tracks). Some people lost 50h+ of progress. Now, Soviet Games cleans all critical comments (even polite) about the game. I got a permanent ban after I report several bugs and ask about this deadly patch on their Steam Hub (reason: flood, hehe). My friend got perm too with same reason – he pointed out devs that they made some gross plot contradictions which makes some roots ridiculous.
This is what you must know about russian-style development and marketing. I can’t recommend you not to buy this game, but be careful with your first impression. VN is beautiful, but SG’s behaviour is rubbish.
They took a huge step backwards after their previous VN.
🇷🇺 У игры куча сюжетных неточностей и противоречий, часть выборов никак не реализуются вообще. В некоторых случаях, не меняется даже реплика героя, если выбрать тот или иной вариант.
Кроме того, Soviet Games (тобиш разрабы) на третий день релизнули патч, который заруинил весь игровой прогресс (сохранения, найденные экраны, треки и фоны). Некоторые люди потеряли более 50 часов прогресса. Теперь SG чистит все критические комментарии со Стим Хаба (даже вежливые и объективные). Я получил перманент за то, что сообщил разрабам о некоторых багах и сказал, что меня тоже коснулась проблема этого убийственного патча. Моего друга тоже забанили, когда он указал разработчикам на очевидные противоречия в сюжете и предложил их поправить (вежливо, опять же).
Это все, что вы должны знать про геймдев по-русски. Сперва собрать миллионы на краудфандинге и столько же на предзаказах, потом выпустить полусырой продукт и банить недовольных (которые уже заплатили деньги кста). Поведение SG неприемлемо. Не рекомендую покупать эту игру, лучше скачайте ее где-нибудь. Со сценарной точки зрения, это большой шаг назад после Бесконечного лета.