Rival Hearts is a free-to-play, episodic romantic visual novel in early access, where the community helps decide the story’s development.

^{Note: Game was in early access when review was written (at this time of reading, game is still in EA)}

The Story & Spice Level

You play as Noah in his first year of college, pursuing not only his studies but also his heart! Choose between four unique female romances from a tomboy, doctor, gothic chick or a fellow classmate who aspires to be in fashion design.

At the moment only episode 1 is available with up to 12 chapters planned. In the first episode you meet three of the four potential love interests. Amber, Erica and Brooklyn. Once you choose a romance you will not see the others again, it solo’s that romantic interests story-line. The game plans to remain free and involve the community’s input with funding support available through the developers Patreon.

The first love interest you meet is Amber. She seems sweet, talkative and likes to make cute jokes. She wants to be a marine biologist and is down to earth and super friendly.

The second love interest is an older woman in her 30’s (a doctor who works at the college clinic) named Erika. I am not against older women and younger men and vice versa but this lady is way too flirty with Noah, especially when she starts being flirty after meeting him for the first time. She tells him how impressive his muscles are? She calls him honey…and well a few more moments that are just really, really cringe.

The final romantic interest you meet is Brooklyn, a gothic girl who works as a barista and studies political science. She is older by two years and comes across as intelligent and insightful. She is described as goth on the store page but in the game she does not come across to me as overly goth, at least not in appearance.

🌶️ The store’s page does mention it contains adult language and sexually-suggestive themes. So some spice but mainly coming across in the text.

Settings, Features, & Gameplay

Settings & features include a lot of options you can toggle on and off to enhance your gaming experience, audio controls, language and credits. Under Language & Controls you can also see the controls layout for keyboard & mouse and gamepad. You can hide the hud to view full images and there are controls to roll the dialogue back or forward.

The Visuals & Audio

Visually the character and backgrounds look good and are all hand-drawn. The soundtrack is nothing special, instrumental tracks playing in the background. More for atmosphere than anything else. Ambient sounds such as your cell phone text notifications and cute little atmospheric noises. There is voice acting for all the main characters. Impressive for a free-to-play visual novel.

Overall Experience

I know this review only covers the pilot episode of the visual novel but we have to form opinions and gauge our experience on what is presented. There were not a lot of choices on the players’ part, really none to start except right at the very end you pick who you want to romance first.

A lot more player engagement is needed to make this visual novel a success going forward. Allowing a more immersive experience by giving the player choices to make that will result in various endings.

I like the characters of Amber and Brooklyn but really have issues in how Erika comes across. The way she was flirting with Noah at first meeting and then giving him her number along with a flirty suggestive note was just so cringe. Especially as a doctor, acting that way at their job in a professional setting, on a college campus.

To be honest it was an okay experience, and being free it does not hurt to give it a chance and see if you enjoy it. For myself I will not be continuing to follow the story, the character of Erika personally is just, for me, a huge turn off. She fulfills that role I guess of the sexy nurse/doctor fantasy but does not fit in with the rest of the story set up. I wish the developers well going forward with their project but for me this one is a pass.

Review also posted on Steam ➞

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