Video Game Review: Later Daters

Later Daters

Studio: Bloom Digital Media

Genres: Visual novel, Dating sim

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Dating simulation games may not be as mainstream as other AAA titles but they’re popular amongst certain sets of gamers – myself being one of them. Compared to traditional gaming, which is usually about hitting goals and such, dating simulation games are visual novels. You journey through a story, meeting characters and getting to know them – sometimes romantically. Later Daters is one such game, albeit with a quirky twist – you play as an elderly person who has recently checked into a retirement home where they meet a bunch of other similarly aged people.

It’s very refreshing and the game is very clear from the beginning about its aim to challenge ageism. Upon starting the game you get to choose who you play as and the options allow for non-binary ‘mx’ pronouns and the options to have been married to various spouses of all genders. It’s a nice touch and honestly, rather unexpected from a game which is centrally about older people dating as it’s main premise.

Later Daters benefits from a cute, colourful art style that helps convey the games blend of comedy well. You’ll be forgiven for thinking the game ends abruptly however – this initial release is only for Chapters 1 – 3 with the remaining chapters to be released later in the year. It’s an unusual move, perhaps modeled off the big games such as the recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake – ultimately this game is so short regardless however that this wait is more detrimental than anything else. The first three chapters can easily be completed in less than two hours and whilst there is some mileage for replays, the cut off point at the end of Day 3 in-game ultimately makes you feel like your progress is stunted. It makes the ending point so far somewhat anti-climatic and so gamers may be tempted to wait until the full release to play through.

I found this game both charming and frustrating in mostly equal amounts. I feel like some of this frustration comes from that I’m someone who has played many visual novel and dating simulation games before so I’m fairly used to this style now. The characters are extremely diverse and interesting but the game doesn’t draw out their introductions long enough for you to really make a definite choice on who you might wish to pursue – you’re allowed to flirt practically as soon as you meet a prospective love interest which feels somewhat shallow. Whilst you do gradually get to know more about them as the story progresses, the games short run-time feels like it’s pushing you to pick someone without really getting to know them properly.

The sub-plots which are involved are thoughtful and complex, dealing with such subject matters as death, AIDs and transgender issues which really sets it apart from many other games out there in how open it is to explore these topics. One incident which happens in the third chapter leads to a counseling session which is incredibly emotional and thought-provoking – the fact that all of these characters are living in their twilight years is not shied away from and the frank discussion about this is refreshing.

The music is perhaps one of the strongest and weakest points of this game – the bouncy opening song which plays on the main menu is incredibly catchy and you’ll likely find yourself singing it for hours afterwards. Aside from a short musical interlude by one of the characters however, the music in game is… rather disjointed. It will occasionally bob into a scene before the track runs out (usually in visual novel games the music will loop so there are no silences unless on purpose), which makes the remainder of the scene rather awkward.  This game was previously released on android and this shows at times with regards to the controls – I was unable to get the fastforward/autoplay button to work at all which makes replaying something of a chore as you can’t speed through the previously read sections. I was wondering if this was because it was created originally for a touch screen, but the Switch too can make use of touch screen controls and this was not the case for this game. The writing at times also comes across as rather rough and some of the dialogue is somewhat cringe-inducing – whether on purpose or not is hard to tell.

Ultimately, Later Daters is a thoughtful character-driven game with a unique contest but is somewhat hampered by the rushed time-frame of the plot and could use a little more polish. Still, there’s an amazing amount of diversity and inclusion on show here and clearly a lot of thought and love has been put into the game – definitely something worth checking out for its subject matter alone. The game developers themselves on their site have put it across brilliantly when they stated that the game: “suggests growing old is the purest human experience – one that can teach us poignant lessons about our capacity for love.”