Hello again, folks! Jen here, your intrepid little visual novel reporter. Today we’re taking a look at Romance Detective, a short little visual novel created by NomnomNami for NaNoRenMo 2014. Let me emphasize short—I think it took me under two hours to play the whole thing—but it’s also free. (I don’t know about you, but I love free stuff. Free’s the magic word.) You can download it from her site and play it on Mac, Windows, or Linux.
Romance Detective is a story everyone can relate to: everybody’s just lookin’ for love. It follows a few days in the life of Officer Chrys, aka Romance Cop, after she’s dropped into an initially unwanted partnership with the game’s eponymous Romance Detective.
Clik here to view.
Romance Detective has a penchant for the dramatic.
This visual novel is only very loosely a game; pretty much the only thing you do is click the mouse to advance the text. Occasionally you get to make a choice but I think that, out of the approximately three times it happens, only one of them might affect the story. At choice points, you have three options and the only thing that changes is the order in which you receive information. That’s my main complaint about Romance Detective: there’s nothing to miss and no branching to the storyline at all.
Clik here to view.
“Rabble rabble rabble!”
As might be expected in a game this short, the characters aren’t terribly well fleshed-out. They’re cute sketches of weird people, especially the mad scientist and Romance Detective herself. But the game really doesn’t take itself too seriously overall. I mean, Romance Detective claims she was born with that rose in her mouth, which is badass, but also ridiculous.
Clik here to view.
Look at that effortless style and attitude! I…kind of want to be her.
I would recommend you learn from the mistake I made, though, and play the game through in one sitting. It’s short enough that you can finish it in an evening or lazy afternoon. Now, neither that mistake or any of the aforementioned issues stopped me from enjoying the game. The art is well done and the music fit the story perfectly. But there’s not a whole lot more to say about this short work.
The more I turn it over in my head, though, the more I wonder if I’m starting to read too much into this game. I find it interesting that many of the characters in this game struggle with expressing love in an appropriate manner. Is their love less valuable than that of people who *do* express their feelings in a way we deem appropriate? At least in one case, the answer seems to be yes, if that expression is dangerous. But what about the child who only wants attention and doesn’t know how to get it? Stealing is wrong, but is it less wrong when it’s done for love? The main problem gets solved but the culprit is never discovered. Was it Cupid all along, just following his primary drive and fiddling with everyone’s emotions? Does the culprit or their motive really not matter, or was its omission just an oversight?
Am I supposed to draw my own conclusions? Perhaps I just want a reason to like this game more, so I want it to have a deeper meaning than may have been intended by the creator. Perhaps that’s just the beauty of art, or its frustration (for me): it can be interpreted in so many ways. Is the creator’s intent the only thing we can get out of her work? Or is each of us allowed our own understanding? And, is each interpretation equally valuable? Food for thought, and questions that I don’t have an answer to.
Alright folks, that’s enough of my deep philosophical musings for one review. Even I’m tired of listening to myself. Still, take a run at this game and let me know what you think: is it as superficial as it seems at first glance? Or is there more to this game than meets the eye?
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