Stumbling onto Lovebrush Chronicles
I realised that I didn’t do a review for Lovebrush Chronicles which had its global release on October 20 2023. This otome was developed by Netease, the same Chinese company which brought you Onmyoji. I literally stumbled onto this game about a month after its launch while searching through Google Play store. I really kicked myself for not noticing earlier.
I’ve since played Lovebrush for almost 3 months on and off while toggling between Twisted Wonderland, The Ssum, Arknights, and Love and Deep Space which just came out a few days ago. Nonetheless I feel this otome deserves some spotlight and it shouldn’t be stumbled upon by people like me.
Lovebrush Chronicles is premised upon the theme of love across different times and dimensions. As a manga artist who has enrolled into a popular art university, you rub shoulders with five potential love interests during your term. However if you thought that playing through mundane campus events is all there is to it, you will be in for a shock when you find yourself teleported to the very world you created in your manga and is now the protaganist who needs to save it from an impending doom.
I really like the story concept for this otome as there is room for a lot of story content to keep things fresh and draw players back to the game. In the first world Godheim, you are thrown into a world where the land is ravaged by butterflies that turn people to ice and a desperate monarchy which is trying to find a way to save his world and people at whatever cost. I like it that you get to play the same story plot via different perspectives depending on which love interests’ you pick as your companion. It provides a lot of food for thought on people’s motivations behind their actions, forcing you to recognise that we must never judge a book by its cover.
In the second world Eden, you are now transported to a dystopian desert land where everyone has to fight for survival in a land that is a ticking time bomb. What I really like is that you meet the very same love interests in this world but now with different appearances, personalities and even roles. The heroes in one world suddenly become the antagonist and you still have to fall in love with them. How sick is that.
Talking about characters, the potential love interests in this otome are pretty unique. I find it hard to define each of them within the typical tropes of genki, shota, tsundere, kuudere etc, rather they are more defined by the roles they take on in the story/world setting. Given this, as a gamer you might find yourself liking a certain character in one setting but gravitating to another in a different plot. That’s another food for thought that a person can be good or bad depending on your perspective, and whether you think you can still love them despite all that.
The five love interests from left to right are Clarence, Alkaid, Lars, Ayn and Cael. They are all very beautifully drawn and fully voice acted in either Japanese or Chinese. I’ll try my best to describe each of them for your reference.
Clarence – smart, serious and very talented, tends to keep his real feelings and intentions to himself. Sometimes it seems like he’s on your side, sometimes it seems like he’s out to kill you.
Alkaid – gentle soul and typical goody two shoes who would sacrifice his life for you until he becomes strangely possessive and passive aggressive in Eden. Now I am confused.
Lars – typical tradesman who thrives on connections and his charms, tends to flirt with MC at every opportunity. Was main antagonist in Godheim until you realise he’s not.
Ayn – I would call him a typical cat, he takes time to open up but once he does, he’s never going to let you go. Perfect cuddle partner. So far, he’s only taken on vigilante roles with tragic backstory thus his means to the end may not always be honorable.
Cael – not yet a love interest but the story hints at this. Cael is positioned as an older brother character who has his secret agenda that he cannot let you know yet, and you very quickly learn that he’s not on your side.
As you can see from these descriptions, they are characters that you would both love and hate, which makes following through the story very gratifying indeed. As of current, my favourite character in this list would be Ayn as his visual design is very unique and I absolutely love his JP voice. A second favourite would either by Alkaid or Cael, both who play potential villain roles.
Moving on to gameplay, Lovebrush is quite typical otome – you gacha for cards of the characters with different looks, skins and skills. You grind to level them up so that you can progressively take on harder and harder battles which can auto run on its own. It’s quite a simple mechanics which is almost no brainer. Just ensure your deck of up to 6 cards are all higher level than the mobs. I think this game can afford to make their battles more strategic to enhance replayablility yet at the same time, the simplicity makes it easy to perform daily log ins.
There are other daily tasks related to life on campus as a art major student which you can take on to earn gems such as go on dates with your love interests, sketch some drawings and put together a puppet show. Everything can be easily completed within 10 minutes and Netease is very generous with their daily rewards which makes it easy for you to accumulate gems for gacha pulls.
Other than the story and characters which make Lovebrush shine, I also want to highlight their events. We can expect about one event per month which typically last about 3 weeks giving players ample time to complete them easily. I love Lovebrush’s events because it always introduces new mini games into equation to keep things fresh such as catching falling items within a give time frame, serving drinks to the correct person as fast as possible and going on treasure hunts. I like it that the team puts effort into designing these events to augment the player experience unlike other otome games in the market. Ahem ahem.
Overall I would give Lovebrush a solid 8.5/10. A thumbs up on the story premise, unique character designs, simplicity in gameplay, and fun events. The only downside is the battle system but it wouldn’t be an issue if you’re just looking for a very casual otome game.