Take a sip from a lovingly-crafted drink
Love Goes Toward Love is a free dating simulation video game wherein you have to battle both work, drama, and romance. Developed by TeamANPIM, this 2D visual novel features an LGBT romance between two characters and not the traditional setup of one main character and several romanceable NPCs. This game was made for the Yuri Game Jam 2020 and offers a simpler story compared to the other works done by the developer.
Like Romeo and Juliet
In Love Goes Toward Love, you play as Chiyoda Juri. Currently, the coffee shop she works at has a new rival cafe that opened directly in front of their location. On top of that crisis, she’s getting a bit worried about her lack of a love life. Fortunately, love, at first sight, comes knocking when she meets a beautiful stranger who saves her from an accident. Unfortunately, this stranger works at the rival coffee shop.
The story centers around Juri’s potential romance with Romi, the stranger she developed a crush on. Much of the drama between them revolves around the tense competition brewing between their bosses, as well Juri’s struggle to try and feel out Romi’s love life status in order to figure out her own feelings. The gameplay is similar to story-centric VNs—however, there are no dialogue options at all, making the story short and rigidly linear.
The pretty art style is soft-looking and only has three CGs. There are also only four named characters involved—the last two being minor characters who support the main couple. The writing is in the first-person perspective and mainly covers Juri’s side, with a bit of Romi’s POV near the end. There’s no real major issue to be found in the game, other than the volume set to the maximum that may startle some players.
No worries about happy endings
All in all, Love Goes Toward Love is a nice little VN for any LGBT story fans. It is a short and simple experience that does not really require branching choices to keep track of. However, that means you can only see one type of ending, as this is a kinetic novel that doesn’t offer different possibilities. Despite the cliche plot, it’s a sweet story and is great to pass the time.
