Game: Love Ghostie
Genre: Visual Novel, Dating Sim, Simulation
System: Steam (Windows and macOS)
Developers | Publishers: Janbeh Games, LLC
Controller Support: Full
Price: US $19.99 | UK £16.75 | EU € 19,50
Release Date: August 14th, 2024
A review code was provided; many thanks to Janbeh Games LLC.
Love, Ghostie is an upcoming dating sim game that was developed and is to be released by Janbeh Games.
The Premise of Love Ghostie
In Love, Ghostie, we play a ghost matchmaker who looks after a manor whole of adorable residents, setting them up on dates and helping them find love and happiness. Once a couple is created, they move out, and a new pair of residents move in and get their chance at love.
Gameplay
At its heart, Love, Ghostie is a cozy management game with a dating sim flair. We have a manor with residents to set up.
As Ghostie, we have several action points used for different tasks. For example, appointing residents to daily activities – dates, self-care, or chores, costs between 1 and 2 action points. Collecting, or as the game calls it – “stealing” items from around the house also costs as an action point. The items can be used as gifts between residents or as decorations for the manor. We can also sell them on the ghost net, and we can buy new items from there as well. Each item indicates its quality, as well as tags to describe it. Matching its tags to someone’s character traits guarantees to some degree that they’ll love their present and the relationship will progress well.
Besides selling and buying things on the ghost web, or eep!Bay, as the game calls it, also has a Ghostie version of Reddit—Deaddit. This version offers tutorials in the form of Reddit-like discussions. I thought it was clever to allow players permanent access to gaming instructions.
At a later stage, we also get access to eep!Mail is used to compose mail to scammers so we can earn money. Depending on how successful our fake email is, we get anywhere up to 15 coins. No matter how ridiculous my email was, I could always earn money. That being said, composing scam mail also costs an action point.
Each resident has its own personality and character traits. These can be revealed through interactions between the residents or the daily activities or even by receiving gifts. Some residents might not like others – the game at a later stage allows for a resident to be sent on vacation so a new resident can move in temporarily in their place.
Each date the residents go to is viewed by an audience of ghosts, who react appropriately if the date went well or if there is an abundance of awkwardness. All in all, even an awkward date can progress a relationship, albeit not by much. An exceptional date can bring a lot of progress in a relationship.
At the end of the road, once a couple is formed and ready to move out and on, they leave a memory lane of all the dates and interactions they had, including an epilogue, which can be viewed at any point in the game.
As relationships progress, they bring us points, which we can use at a sort of ghost market—we can purchase upgrades such as more action points, mini-games to improve results from the daily chores, decorations for the house and Ghostie, including hats, and even a scary song or two to help us communicate with our residents. A ghostly serenade can scare two residents into a conversation, which in turn can help progress their relationship. Win-win, so to speak.
Some Other Notes
Love, Ghostie has basic audio, display, and control settings. It also allows for some adjustments to the mini-games, which makes them more manageable.
We have three save game slots and a New Game+ option, which allows us to keep the unlocked relationship memories so we can try to form new character combinations without losing our progress.
Conclusion
Love, Ghostie is a very cute and cozy game. It is somewhat short but has a lot of replayability potential. We have 12 characters to mix and match, which makes for up to 65 potential couples and storylines. With its pleasant music and cute characters, as well as skip dialogue options, it makes for a very relaxing and fun afternoon playthrough.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up: 
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