PEGBRJE: Galactic Wars and Love Hues!
All’s fair in love (even platonic) and war (not usually platonic)
Galactic Wars is an arcade infinite space shooter made by VolcanoBytes, indie dev who somewhat recently posted the preorder for the extended version of this very game, complete with co-op. For the original, it consists of a fighter pilot attempting to stop multiverse aliens from destroying the human race and their attempts. Now, I’ve said many times in the past that many retro games aren’t really in my wheelhouse as they play off of nostalgia for the era, which is hard for someone who never experienced many of the titles. There is one that I did play extensively, albeit through a browser version: Space Invaders. I played it extensively when I was younger, the simple premise combining with my joy of getting small numbers to become big as I got better and better. It would go on to inspire many titles, such as a certain Galaga which helped inspire this very title.
Galactic Wars follows the same principle as these arcade games it follows; players are attempting to survive as long as possible while destroying the numerous aliens that spawn attempting to take out the player. Limited movement thanks to the screen size and the nature of the title makes dodging projectiles more difficult the more there become, so taking out ships quickly is necessary. There’s also a shoot speed that becomes exhausted to avoid players just holding the shoot button forever, which was always a great strategy in earlier titles. Destroying ships doesn’t just give points however, as there is a chance that each ship destroyed may have a power-up float towards the player to grab and alter their shots or energy. To keep things varied, the ships introduced don’t just die after shooting them. Some require a little bit of finesse, such as waiting for them to drop shields or begin to shoot. The more to keep players on their toes, the better.
Mild aside, the sound effects are by far my favourite aspect of this title. The little cues for each shot that gets fired by enemies, the explosions for each ship, and the death for the player all sound so stereotypically retro yet add the flavour needed. They’re over the top, popping in and out to help players get better understanding of the game all while keeping with the retro aesthetic.
Galactic Wars is the perfect retro callback to add to any collection. It integrates the old arcade feelings of infinite simple gameplay with a quick button press to return to the action after losing. Thankfully I don’t need quarters to keep the game going, as I died enough to empty my wallet. If you want a retro experience built for today, give Galactic Wars a try and see how far you can save humanity.
Love Hues! is a visual novel made by Oneirocritica, a solo dev currently on a hiatus after finishing this title. Players follow Skylar, the canonically named protagonist that has been accepted into Falls West University and is ready to start their post-secondary adventure in their respective field. During the first day alone, players are introduced to many new faces, and over the next few months can deepen these relationships into something more.
Before I delve into the characters, the story and it’s presentation direction is something worth covering due to how diverse it is. This game is massive at over 200 000 words long with 41 endings. For context, many of the previous bundle VNs have under 20 at most, and the one I helped structure and write was only planned to have 10 at most. The amount of variable directions make each choice add conversational text and can blossom into different paths that players can take, so this is a huge undertaking. This title also has many strict path directions due to save file remembrance, meaning that each ending achieved is remembered by the game. Some endings cannot be achieved or started without getting at least one ending that isn’t the neutral ‘nobody met’ ending. In Ava’s case, players must get every true ending to unlock her route. But why?
Love Hues! is a game with multiple plots, as visual novels are, but is also a novel within that itself. There’s a plot unravelling within the rest, given in snippets throughout each playthrough and unfolds in the routes such as Nova’s who requires 1 completed ending. It’s a clever writing strategy, giving players not only a goal in terms of relationships with certain characters but also an ulterior plot to follow and figure out between all of the characters. How are they all connected to each other, if they are? What is going on with Nova’s plot, and who exactly is Ava? What is with the hostilities between Toby, James and Devlin? It’s these thoughts that drive forward the continual playthroughs, wondering what new information one can gleam from each relationship.
Oh and each relationship can be romantic or platonic. To add not only to the length of the game, but to broaden player’s horizons and their ability to realize that not everything always ends in some romantic love. Sometimes we just need a friend, especially in university.
The individuals that make Love Hues compelling for players to uncover their mysteries are a diverse cast, with different ages, years, ethnicities and orientations. Toby is the first players meet, and they are full of energy from the first minute. They can be a tad overbearing for some, or exactly what others need — but upon entering the first class, their exterior hardens immediately upon meeting the second candidate. James, a third year in a first year class, knows that he’s in an odd situation surrounded by first years, so he might as well joke as much as possible. Devlin is the final of the initial three (as with my luck, Nova was my first interest and she wasn’t available yet…), helping coordinate the student volunteers and seems to keep people at arms length somewhat. Interestingly, while all three had some qualities of ‘stereotyical VN boys’, they were faint at best; instead, they just genuinely felt like people that I had met in university. And in a game that wants to give diversity, allowing us to pick our pronouns and schooling, it’s nice to also have characters that don’t rely on past expectations to tell the story.
Love Hues! is an interesting novel, incorporating massive plot elements to create a touching story of university students just trying to find their way and reconcile past issues. It gives players the ability to choose which style of relationship they may pursue early on, preferring to allow them to decide how they feel about each individual instead of shoehorning in the idea that ‘if you care about them, you obviously love them romantically’. If you want a visual novel that will respect your choice, give an inclusive cast for all and deliver dozens of plot elements to dive into, this is definitely a title for you.
