Love Love School Days is a survival horror game about escaping from a world of dating sim

Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-04-28 18:09 JST)

Japanese solo game developer OTL GAME has opened a Steam page for their newest title Love Love School Days. It’s scheduled to come out in 2022 with English and Japanese language support (voiceover is only available in Japanese).

Love Love School Days is a first-person survival horror game about escaping from a world of a dating sim. In the game’s world, there’s a next-gen device called Brain Link that can synchronize brain waves and allow users to enter the world of video games. The protagonist used this device to enter the world of Love Love School Days, an AI-driven dating sim where each heroine character possesses the cognitive capability to think for themselves.

The protagonist failed to make the main heroine his girlfriend, so he made a compromise and decided to go out with a side character named Sakurazaki Makina instead. He pledged his eternal love to Makina but went on to start a new game, hoping that he’ll manage to steal the heart of the main heroine next time around. A natural course of action as a gamer, but not so much for the self-learning AI Makina (who is now called “Machina”), as she modifies the game itself to prevent him from starting a new game.

Now, the protagonist must escape from Machina and make his way back to the real world. His data will get wiped if Machina catches him, so he must stay out of her sight while exploring the randomly generated school campus. Stealth is crucial as there’s no way to strike back. There is a way to temporality neutralize the enemy, though. Giving her a slice of bread will activate the classic “girl running with a toast in her mouth” anime trope, and make Machina fall down when bumping into her. This will nullify her attack once.

The game features a timetable system that changes Machina’s behavior pattern. For example, her movement speed will increase when it’s time for P.E. class, and she’ll place traps during arts and crafts class. It looks like players will have to change their approach accordingly.

The game is being developed by Teruaki Okano, also known as OTL GAME or TTTERY. They’ve previously released School Life Simulator and DeadBreath for mobile devices. As for Love Love School Day, Okano released a demo version in April 2021.

Love Love School Day can be found here on Steam. A demo version is currently available on itch.io.