I first picked this up after completing Always Remember Me, since I was quite impressed by Winter Wolves' works thus far. It had similar artwork to the game, and the mystery aspect of it intrigued me more so. Although I did enjoy Remember Me, I felt what it truly lacked was an interesting storyline. I had high hopes for this one and was sadly, disappointed.
Storyline
"In the smallest district of Montreal, the Crown Attorney relies on the legal expertise of its lawyers; backed up by the support of a single hard-working secretary. This is the story of Dana Larose, a young woman starting her career as a secretary in the Crown Attorney's office. The office is both overworked and understaffed, so you'll have to work out whose projects you help with accordingly. Will you be able to unravel the mystery being covered up, balance the stress of juggling overtime for everyone, and still manage to find love...?"
I found the storyline very innovating and interesting and it was really what made me pick it up in the first place. I love Visual Novels with a hint of mystery, or the solving of clues since it motivates you so much more to continue. I found that this was the most positive aspect of Love & Order, and kept me on edge the whole entire time, wondering 'what action must I take next?' Contrary to common belief, many of the clues aren't always right in front of the eyes but require a little thinking and patience to figure out.
There are many hints woven into the plot throughout, so the mystery in itself is rather lengthy. It has multiple paths (4 romance endings with 4 possible bachelors, the 'true' end when you figure out the mystery, and there are some 'game over' points). This heightens the overall replayability of the game, to not only achieve the ending you wish but to balance and complete the everyday tasks given.
Whilst the storyline of the Visual Novel was very intriguing and mystifying; this was what truly pulled the overall quality of it down. I was just so disappointed with how each of the character's personalities were as it is classified as a "dating sim".
In Dating Sims, each of the possible bachelor's personalities are of utmost importance. They are what segregate the differences in each of the paths, and what truly captures the audience's interest. Its focus is to create diverse characters with a sense of 'realism', to reach out to the player and entice them to continue playing the game. In Love & Order however, it felt like I was playing the same path over and over only to achieve a different CG.
Each of the characters were bland and repetitive, with no particular differences in dialogue or personality. There was no 'build up' to their ending, but just a mere recount of what happened. The 'dates' in themselves are the same for every bachelor (except Dorothy) and it feels recycled and reused. Capturing their attention also, requires the repetition of everyday tasks and merely talking to them.
There are no 'options' or 'choices' that you must make. And so, whilst I felt that the storyline of Love & Order was quite well done, Winter Wolves' neglected the romance/ending aspect of the Visual Novel and it definitely showed.
The art of Love & Order was another strong aspect, and caught my attention almost immediately. All the characters were very well done, and the background images were nicelycoloured. This project was completed before the release of Remember Me, and it clearly demonstrates that the artist behind it has improved to which I commend.
Again, I always question why the lack of CGs in Winter Wolves' projects? Otherwise, I have absolutely no complaints for the art, and am quite impressed. It is not quite at a commercial level, but it is definitely better than a lot of other Visual Novel art. It is gradually improving as evidenced in future releases, and I believe that someday it will reach that potential.
I found the choice of music to be well chosen and it suited the theme of the Visual Novel. Certain areas had particular background music, so it wasn't the same songs being reused over and over. Although it did irritate me whenever I opened the 'clues' tab and there would be an immediate song transition. I felt it was placed in messily, and the contrast was just too sudden.
And seeing how I opened that tab very often to see my progress it wasn't exactly the most enjoyable sound in the world to have two different songs constantly clashing. Although I see it does add a 'sense of mystery', I felt that in that situation it just didn't work as intended.
All the controls, settings and choices were clear and well laid out. Everything was pleasing to the eyes, and not difficult to handle. There were no particular bugs, crashes or errors throughout all of my playthroughs, so that is another factor to commend. I felt that many of the options given although were there, didn't have much impact on the game. For example: Dana could go shopping to the mall, and purchase something; but in reality, it had no effect on the game whatsoever.
The bachelors do not comment on it, and there's no choice to wear it at all. What's the point of implementing that option, when its utterly useless? Otherwise, I found the map system rather easy to use, and everything functioned well.
Overall, I felt that Love & Order is a mediocre work at best. It's definitely an earlier work by Winter Wolves', and the inexperience is rather evident throughout. Although I did very much enjoy the mystery storyline, I felt like it lacked too many things within other areas; mainly the character personalities themselves.
Whilst I was playing it the second, third and fourth time through, I was skipping out on all the dialogue and scenes because it was simply a repeat of the last. I just completed it since I wanted to see the ending CGs, and that was all. After completing the mystery storyline, all the excitement and all the fun ends. Everything just dulls in comparison.
I found the game didn't challenge the players enough to keep us interested as each of the player interactions with the characters were all the same. You simply had to talk to them each day to garner their affections, and the dates were simply a recycle all over again.
All in all, not one of Winter Wolves' best but I will continue to play future works by them, as I feel like there IS a lot of potential there.
There are many hints woven into the plot throughout, so the mystery in itself is rather lengthy. It has multiple paths (4 romance endings with 4 possible bachelors, the 'true' end when you figure out the mystery, and there are some 'game over' points). This heightens the overall replayability of the game, to not only achieve the ending you wish but to balance and complete the everyday tasks given.
Character Development
Whilst the storyline of the Visual Novel was very intriguing and mystifying; this was what truly pulled the overall quality of it down. I was just so disappointed with how each of the character's personalities were as it is classified as a "dating sim".
In Dating Sims, each of the possible bachelor's personalities are of utmost importance. They are what segregate the differences in each of the paths, and what truly captures the audience's interest. Its focus is to create diverse characters with a sense of 'realism', to reach out to the player and entice them to continue playing the game. In Love & Order however, it felt like I was playing the same path over and over only to achieve a different CG.
Each of the characters were bland and repetitive, with no particular differences in dialogue or personality. There was no 'build up' to their ending, but just a mere recount of what happened. The 'dates' in themselves are the same for every bachelor (except Dorothy) and it feels recycled and reused. Capturing their attention also, requires the repetition of everyday tasks and merely talking to them.
There are no 'options' or 'choices' that you must make. And so, whilst I felt that the storyline of Love & Order was quite well done, Winter Wolves' neglected the romance/ending aspect of the Visual Novel and it definitely showed.
Design
The art of Love & Order was another strong aspect, and caught my attention almost immediately. All the characters were very well done, and the background images were nicelycoloured. This project was completed before the release of Remember Me, and it clearly demonstrates that the artist behind it has improved to which I commend.
Again, I always question why the lack of CGs in Winter Wolves' projects? Otherwise, I have absolutely no complaints for the art, and am quite impressed. It is not quite at a commercial level, but it is definitely better than a lot of other Visual Novel art. It is gradually improving as evidenced in future releases, and I believe that someday it will reach that potential.
Music and Voice Acting
And seeing how I opened that tab very often to see my progress it wasn't exactly the most enjoyable sound in the world to have two different songs constantly clashing. Although I see it does add a 'sense of mystery', I felt that in that situation it just didn't work as intended.
System
All the controls, settings and choices were clear and well laid out. Everything was pleasing to the eyes, and not difficult to handle. There were no particular bugs, crashes or errors throughout all of my playthroughs, so that is another factor to commend. I felt that many of the options given although were there, didn't have much impact on the game. For example: Dana could go shopping to the mall, and purchase something; but in reality, it had no effect on the game whatsoever.
The bachelors do not comment on it, and there's no choice to wear it at all. What's the point of implementing that option, when its utterly useless? Otherwise, I found the map system rather easy to use, and everything functioned well.
Personal Opinion
Whilst I was playing it the second, third and fourth time through, I was skipping out on all the dialogue and scenes because it was simply a repeat of the last. I just completed it since I wanted to see the ending CGs, and that was all. After completing the mystery storyline, all the excitement and all the fun ends. Everything just dulls in comparison.
I found the game didn't challenge the players enough to keep us interested as each of the player interactions with the characters were all the same. You simply had to talk to them each day to garner their affections, and the dates were simply a recycle all over again.
All in all, not one of Winter Wolves' best but I will continue to play future works by them, as I feel like there IS a lot of potential there.
Your blog is great! Congratulations! I agree with everything you say in your reviews and everything you post is really usefull. Thank you very much!
ReplyDeleteWow thank you! :) I'm glad my blog was useful to you, and that you enjoyed it ^_^ I will continue to post whenever I have free time.
ReplyDeleteThe game while published by WInterwolves, was actually made by Christine Love. She is very well known in EVN world for creating creative stories and usually revolves around lesbians. Christine doesn't have prior experience to making dating-sim, and in case of Love & Order, it's obvious that Christine favors Dorothy over any other love interest.
ReplyDeleteAhh, I understand now ^_^ Thank you for clearing that up for me, a lot of things make more sense now :)
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous: Did Love actually make it, or did she just write it? A lot of writer for games do not design the game. They only fill in the blanks. They write dialogue in the story that has already been designed. I am now curious to know if Love is only the writer, or if she designed and wrote the game.
ReplyDeleteTo Judy: Don't quote me on this (since I'm not 100% certain), but I'm pretty sure that Christina Love wrote the story itself (dialogue/plot), and Winter Wolves produced it (ie the music, art & technological aspects).
ReplyDeleteLove practically made everything, that includes the programming. Winterwolves only provide the assets such as arts and music, and perhaps some ideas too.
ReplyDeleteYou said that Dana can't wear the stuff she buys at the mall? Actually, she can. And Jonathan actually commented on the vest. He first said that he'd be impressed if Dana wore a vest. I made her wear it, then the next day Jonathan said something, I forgot.
ReplyDeleteHm, I'm not entirely sure since I haven't played the game for so long - but the last time I did, I purchased something else and there wasn't an option for her to wear it. I'll check up on this asap ^_^"
DeleteAnd what I meant was that no matter what article of clothing you chose, the comment would be basically the same. I went through 3-4 other playthroughs without purchasing any outfits, and it really didn't affect their affection points whatsoever.
My apologies if you misunderstood my intended meaning, but that was the point I was trying to get across :)