Mr Love: Dream Date Chap 1 Final Program
The story of MLDD (short for Mr Love Dream Date) turned out to be deeper than I first anticipated. Unfortunately much as I will like to skip forward and find out what I suspect is the plot, I am hampered by the need to level up at least 5 levels between chapters. The wait can indeed be excruciating. Based on what I have seen of the trailers on Facebook thus far, it appears that players would definitely be treated to a story with multiple twists and turns and much pain and angst. I guess all great stories never truly have a happy ever after.
As such, I decided that while waiting for me to slowly unpack the storyline, I shall review the chapters I have already read like multiple of times and provide some thoughts about it. Warning ahead that this will certainly include spoilers.
When you first start up the game, you will see a cut scene from your childhood days when you were saved from an incoming car by a young boy. No further details were given except that it was only recently that your started dreaming of this incident again. (This is the only time you will be able to see this scene as somehow it was not stored as part of the prologue for replaying.) You will then be asked to choose your first karma (card) from among the four main suitors. This has no implications on the storyline, it just gives you your first SR card to kickstart your collection.
Without any backstory of who these people are and simply judging them by their looks, I chose Gavin. Victor looked rather fierce, Lucien looked suspicious with his small eyes and Kiro already struck me as that starry-eyed innocent boy. Gavin looked the most decent and heroic of them all, giving a good first impression hence I decided to go with him. I had believed that he was the one who saved me back then.
When the game was first released, it started with chapters 1 – 10 only. Subsequent chapters were released over 2-3 months interval in blocks of 4 chapters each time. As a new player, it was relatively easy for me to progress quickly through the first 5 chapters as the game gave ample quests and achievements to ensure you have enough stamina to reach till chapter 5 within a couple of days. It also made for a logical first arc, where you are introduced to the four main suitors and start forming a bond with them.
So it turned out at a young age of 22, you are the boss of a mini studio that produces only one show called Miracle Finder. This was a legacy left behind by your father who had passed away a few years ago. No mention made of your mum. There isn’t really much information about what type of show Miracle Finder is, except that it was a show that had been around for at least 17 years, seemed like a documentary talk show which explored ideologies of superhuman power. I honestly don’t know how such a show can survive for so long, and it appears so did the game developer because you find yourself losing your sole investor from Loveland Financial Group for poor viewership ratings right at the start of chapter 1.
The pace of chapter 1 is really fast as it was meant to simply ensure that you acquaint yourself with each of these characters. The first person you meet is Kiro, a superstar idol who has won the hearts of thousands of fans, and is currently disguised at a convenience shop buying a bag of chips. You immediately recognised him, having just approached his agent to feature him on your show in a bid to save it. You were obviously turned down but what a coincidence that you met him at the next door 7-eleven. He begged you to give him the Batman AR card that came with every bag of chips and you relented. Turned out that the card was a super ultra rare card which completed Kiro’s collection and so you two became fast friends.
Wait a minute… Did Kiro actually use his powers on you to compel you to give him the card… hmm an interesting revelation. Anyway first impressions, seems like a squeaky clean idol who is still a child at heart and constantly under scrutiny over what he can eat or do by his agency. No idea why he would want to be friends with a random stranger though, seems more advantageous to you than to him.
Later while crossing the road and fumbling to pull out your phone, you were almost knocked down by a car (recall that this isn’t the first time this has happened to you). Just when you thought it was game over, everything came literally to a stop. You were pulled away by the second lead of the game, a tall brooding guy in a suit. You looked around and saw that cars, people, everything had come to a stop and this was attributed to the man who had just saved you. He was surprised that you were not frozen in time and simply blurted the word ‘Evolver’.
Oooh, so this is actually a story about superhuman powers! So this second lead who mysteriously left you by the side of the road had the power to control time. Without any other interactions with him, I almost immediately forgot about him until later. This was because while you were wondering what had happened, there was a cut scene to the sky above you. Your third suitor had appeared and he seemed to be flying/floating/levitating in the sky. He reported status of unusual energy signals over his radio. Ok so Gavin is some kind of investigator of paranormal activities and boy does he look good in that trench coat.
Your final stop for the day is to the Loveland Research Centre to meet with a certain Professor Lucien whom your uncle recommended. You had hoped that as a renowned neuroscientist, he would give you some ideas for your last Miracle Finder show. So it turned out that Lucien isn’t some old foggy man but rather a young suave man.
I have to say that Lucien immediately struck me as the guy to stay away from. Not only did he sound so seductive with his breathy voice but he also spared no time in invading your private space when he inched close to you to speak into your ear. Ok I changed my mind. His small eyes wasn’t meant to give a sleepy look but rather a flirty one! In any case, it seemed that while his mannerisms aren’t the most appealing, he spoke pretty wise words to you. You asked him if he knew anything about Evolvers and he shared that he has heard rumours of a scientist in Europe who had experimented on people who had the Evol genes. Ok this sounds kind of dark…
Lucien agreed to be on your show and he was a hit with the audience. I mean he is your standard chick magnet and once the show was aired, he became one of the top search words after Kiro. Everybody wanted to know more about this swanky professor who was both attractive and knowledgeable. You called Lucien to tell him of the good news. In exchange for his help, he asked how you intended to repay him. Not knowing what to say, he asked you to spare him a weekend so that both of you can spend time pursuing enjoyable things together.
You decided that it was time to pay LFG another visit and revisit the topic of financing. Surely there is still hope for Miracle Finder. Turns out that the highly revered and feared CEO of LFG, Victor, is none other than the guy who had stopped time and saved you from the car. Ok…. this has got to be the most cliche part of things. There was always going to be some rich guy as one of your suitor who would be able to save you out of every predicament with his money and power.
Ok there you have it. First impressions of all four guys. I still like Gavin most at this point, followed by Victor, Lucien and Kiro. Victor because he looked second best and Kiro because he seemed like a lolly type character to me.