Analogue: A Hate Story Demo

Visual novels are not the kind of video games suited for those who seek constant action and interactivity, because they obviously feel more like a book than a game. Hence, a lot of reading and dialogue is involved, which may not sit well with you if your usual gaming sessions tend to require a few hundred violent deaths to be entertaining.

Analogue: A Hate Story is one of these visual novels and it features a very relaxed gameplay pace, since most of your time is spent reading messages and trying to unravel a mystery with the information you pick up along the way. Naturally, the entire thing is coated in the usual anime graphic style, with a touch of cosplay thrown into the mix as well, to keep you focused when the text is not enough.

Story-wise, the plot is actually good and quite mature, which is a nice surprise to see in the genre for a change. In essence, it all revolves around the Mugunghwa spaceship launched as one of the first colony ships, which got lost a few centuries back and only recently been discovered. Your job is to investigate the ship and try to download the data it holds on board, as well as find out everything you can about the events that transpired over the years between the crew members.

Since one of the main goals in the game is to access private data, you might need the help of someone who has inside knowledge of the ship and its intricacies. Given the fact that every human is long-gone, your only hope is an AI that can fetch data and provide you with a few explanations here and there. Naturally, this AI happens to be a clumsy girl in a mini-skirt, but that’s to be expected.

As far as the artwork goes, the characters and the interface are quite nicely drawn, but there are very few instances where you get to admire anything else than text on the screen. Hence, it seems quite the shame and it can get pretty tedious after a while, especially if the story doesn’t catch you. The same can be said about the music, which is not bad at all, but the tracks get very repetitive after a while.

All things considered, Analogue: A Hate Story is certainly a class above most of the games in the genre. The writing is especially solid and professional, but the rest of the game can get a bit too tedious and annoying at times. Regardless of how dark the overall theme might be, a bit of pointless ‘kawaii-ness’ still leaks out every once in a while.