Multiplayer Ren'ai VN

[dizzcity]

I came across this company Playtiva some time ago, and thought they were doing something interesting. Essentially they produce multiplayer Flash-based interactive stories, and one of their products is a multiplayer VN ren'ai game that you can play with your friends (Blind Date). Not sure about their business model or quality of work, but I thought it was interesting, at least from an innovation and technical standpoint.

-Dizzy-

[VenusEclipse]

It's quite fun. Nice find.
I like how they tried to incorporate teamwork. I tried it along with some of their other multiplayer vn games.
I must say that it gets annoying if your friends continuously run into bugs while everyone else doesn't, or "lag". When it works, it's enjoyable.

[dizzcity]

Yeah, there are still some technical issues that they have to overcome, I think. But it's really quite fun to play with friends. Though I'm a bit worried about how little progress they seem to have made since their early releases. Haven't seen a new game up for months. Which did you like best? I thought the murder mystery was quite exciting - I remember my friend and I racing through to interview everyone... that was an enjoyable experience.

-Dizzy-

[VenusEclipse]

I tried Blind Date with one friend first. It's fun to replay it a couple of times with other people. I guess the problem is "you have to agree" with your team on a choice if you play with three or more people. But I really liked the animations and the simplicity of the story. My friends liked it too. It was great when we decided to "run for it."

I actually didn't really like the mystery one mainly because there's too much "reading" involved (even though that's what vns are about ), and everyone read at a different pace, and was "thinking" about the mystery at a different pace. We actually stopped near the beginning. That made everything slow since we had four people, so I (we) preferred the simpler games.

I liked Break Up too as it is a simpler game to read. The questions they asked (my favorite part) were fun and the mini games were interesting. I like the weirder questions, especially this one.

When they asked "when was the first time you two had sex, one person chose "in my dreams" and the other one chose "in bed." It literally meant either one thought he was sleeping or was asleep during the time. XD We loled for a long time after that because "how can you not remember your first time?!"

The picture hunting one was annoying due to how much time they give you. I thought the five minute timer was a little too long though for most mini games, maybe if they shortened it to about two minutes or so each, I wouldn't mind replaying it as much. I wonder if they have new questions the second time around? Looks like I'll have to replay and see.

I do look forward to new releases. I didn't know they haven't released a new one for a while. It's a shame they don't have any more.

Do you know of any more sites with games like this? XD

[Esphirisa]

Haha it's kinda cool that you can play with friends. It's fun on the most part... and it's always nice to try something different for once.

[Riviera]

Anyone want to set up a game on this? I got an account.

[gekiganwing]

The idea behind Blind Date has promise. I'm not sure if I like the idea of playing online with anonymous individuals... I suppose it's possible that two people in a relationship who are both interested in the game could decide to log in at the same time.

It's a shame that it's difficult, risky, and expensive to create a console game. Getting two people to participate in one game on a television could be a bonding experience for couples. There's a few Wii games in English which I hear have some relationship elements, but I haven't tried them...

About a decade ago, there was a multiplayer romance game for the PS1 called Taisen Renai Simulation. No one's translated it, and the relevant search engine results seemed to have only vague info. But you can see some screens and learn about the basic gameplay at http://psxdata.snesorama.us/games/J/T/SLPS-02672.html