Island of Hearts Review
A dating game that misses the mark. It has baffling issues such as bad acting and cringe dialogue.
The protagonist is a guy with a normal job and is considered lucky to have successful girlfriend. He arrives at an island with access to 6 attractive love interests. Through a series of predictable events, he loses his girlfriend and seeks love on an island.
Story/Chapters: Short and Uninspiring
Chapters are broken down into branched choices. If you want to increase affinity with a certain love interest, you need to replay the chapter. There is a fast forward button to skip dialogue and to avoid re-watching the same scene.
Just like most other dating FMVs, you have 2-3 choices for dialogue or actions. If you choose a decision that one the girl likes, you increase your affinity with that person. This leads to guessing which option the girl likes better. The interactions with the girls do not feel authentic and your choices only impact the overall relationship score with that female.
The various girls you meet follow stereotypical tropes such as the athletic/outspoken girl, nice girl next door, shy girl, etc. If you visit their rooms, you can inspect their personal items, but minimal new information is given besides their hobbies.
Mini games are fairly basic and involve reaction time, clicking a certain action or symbol, etc. If you fail the mini game on the first attempt, you cannot redo it until you finish the chapter.
Mini-game image with one of the girls. Island of Hearts, Credit: Titan Digital Media, 4Divinity
Main character lacks personality.
Unfortunately, the protagonist voice is grating and the main character feels like he has to say everything out loud he is thinking. The jokes don’t land most of the time and he seems immature for an adult. The innuendos and jokes are sexual in nature and would probably be more fitting in a porn game instead of a dating visual novel. Intentionally making the male actor lack emotional intelligence backfired. If the developers understood their audience better, they would not have written such a horrible script.
When he meets a new male person whether it be an ex-boyfriend or a random stranger, he calls them “bro” as if writers decided he should pretend that he is part of a Tik Tok video.
There are scenes with fabricated drama similar to something you would find in a soap opera such as an argument with a boyfriend or meeting overprotective brothers. For example, Chloe and Sophia argue several times and it’s up to the male lead to take the side of either Chloe or Sophia, resulting in hurt feelings and fake drama.
Sound/Editing: Needs Work and Seems Rushed
The female characters look like they are reading from a teleprompter since they talk at a slow rate and it does not help that several girls have an accent when speaking English. The volume for certain actor mics are barely audible. The main character’s voice is clear, but some girls’ voices are too low. For example, Lily is a shy girl, but her lines are harder to hear compared to the other girls.
Pros:
Setting is fitting for a dating game with beach images and various places to visit. The girls are attractive and have different quirks.
Cons:
Male character’s voice is annoying and is comparable to a TikTok personality. Interactions with each girl reveals hints about their likes and hobbies, but you don’t get concrete details and learn about them on a personal level. Game is way too short with only 4 chapters. For $14.99, I expected more content. The mini-games are fairly basic and most require you to follow a sequence or click instructions on the screen. Lastly, there are some bad endings that result in death and require you to restart from a checkpoint. This feature would work in an RPG game and does not make sense in a visual novel dating game.
Suggestions:
Tone done the main character’s idiotic demeanor and comments. It makes almost no sense that attractive girls will fall in love with him based on the way he acts and thinks. Give more scenes with the girls so they can build chemistry with the main character. It feels like they are throwing themselves at him just because he is the main character. We don’t see much growth or improvement after his various experiences. With the phone text messages, add more information or ways to learn about the girls. The brief messages were shallow and added no value to the story. Editing between scenes needs to be reviewed. Sometimes you would see a flickering shadow between scenes.
Cell phone chats with the girls. Island of Hearts, Credit: Titan Digital Media, 4Divinity
Conclusion:
Unfortunately, it feels like the developers spent too much effort on reserving the beach setting and hiring content creators for the game. Game should be about $10, but its $14.99 for about 2-3 hours of gameplay. The storyline is nearly non-existent and the acting leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, the developers tried to borrow aspects from other popular dating FMVs but did not understand why those games were popular.
Island of Hearts
A dating game that misses the mark. Cringe dialogue, bad acting, and forgettable mini-games are some of the issues. Also, its too short to be worth $14.99.