One-bit heart, two-bit hearts, four-bit hearts, eight-bit hearts, 16-bit hearts, 32-bit hearts, 64-bit hearts, 128-bit hearts, 256-bit hear-
"1bitHeart" is an adventure game released by indie developer △○□× (Miwashiba), who has developed other games such as "Alicemare." It shares many similarities to "Danganronpa" and "Ace Attorney," and being a fan of both, I gave "1bitHeart" a shot.
"1bitHeart" released in 2015 with its first chapter only, getting its full release in 2017, with the English full release coming out shortly after. While "1bitHeart" is available on Steam, it's available for free from the "1bitHeart" website. I didn't know about the free option, so oop, but supporting indie developers is always nice.
I wanted to play "1bitHeart" for years, but I never got around to it until now. So, let's see if it was worth the wait that I... Er... Made myself go through.
Helping Someone in Need
In the futuristic world of "1bitHeart," we follow Yoshi Nanase, nicknamed Nanashi. He has no self-worth nor any self-confidence. To the point where his introduction to the first female character is some next level self-deprecation.
That female character is Misane, who ends up in Nanashi's bed with amnesia. Nanashi isn't a player or anything nor does he even have any female friends, she just... Appeared in his bed.
Nanashi decides to help out Misane, who in return encourages Nanashi to make friends, since his only friend is his cousin who doesn't even invite him to go bowling. While trying to make friends, the duo get caught up in something... Mysterious... Strange... One-Heart-Bitty even...
This um... This isn't going to be easy.
The story is well done and it's one of the strongest aspects of "1bitHeart." Nanashi is a fascinating character, Misane is interesting, and the mystery & reveals are intriguing.
Exploring, talking to, and Hanging Out with People's Hearts
"1bitHeart" has two major aspects of gameplay: Detective sections and Hangout sections. One will have you solving mysteries while listening to funky music—the other will make you break down and cry over why your favourite "1bitHeart" character won't accept your tongue twist index gift.
Detective Sections
During Detective Sections, the player explores areas, talking to NPCs to get clues and information.
While you are technically investigating, it's more like going from point A to point B since you only ever get clues through NPC interactions, not by investigating scenes of an incident. That might've not been possible with the engine used, but it makes investigations a tad boring.
However, the investigations, and the 2D plane areas in general, are never dull because of the visuals. The art style is colourful & vibrant with a unique colour palette and visually pleasing backgrounds.
I could be beat up in an alley in this world but wouldn't mind because of how visually stunning each area looks stylistically... At least until I realize I lost my wallet and will be one of the millions of families that suffer from identity theft every year.
The meat of the Detective Sections is the Talk/Discussion Times. Here, players talk or discuss with another character about a topic. They can present a new topic to the conversation to expand on something, ask for elaboration, or point out contradictions.
Sometimes you just need to present the right topic, other times you need to point out a contradiction. Think the cross-examination sections in "Ace Attorney" or the argument sections in "Danganronpa," but with less murder and bullets.
I love the feel of Talk/Discussion Times thanks to the visuals, HUD, and especially the music. While most of the music in the game is royalty-free, it fits so well while providing the right mood every time.
The music in general is well-placed and catchy to boot. Some songs are even in English, which is a surprise for a game from a Japanese indie developer, but a welcome one.
While I adore logic puzzles in other detective games, here it feels... Hollow, which I blame on how overly forgiving it is.
In comparison to "Danganronpa" and "Ace Attorney," where you have five hit points by default, in "1bitHeart" you have a minimum of 15 health points. Fifteen!
That is far too much, especially given health regenerates between Talk/Discussion Times. You can make so many mistakes since you only lose one piece of health per mistake, causing a mistake to feel like nothing since the consequences are tiny.
Destroying viruses, a reoccurring minigame, has this problem too due to the huge amount of health and minimal punishment for making a mistake. Sure, a difficulty spike wouldn't fix its over-simplicity, but at least there'd be some challenge.
Additionally, Nanashi will point you to the right answer by thinking "I think this is irrelevant," "I think I can add something here," and more when you press any statement. You aren't figuring out which statement sticks out, that's done for you.
It takes away half the fun of figuring out someone's logic, which makes solving Talk Times and Discussion Times less rewarding since I'm only doing part of the work. While you can turn off special hints, you can't turn these hints off.
I feel this could've easily been solved by having difficulty settings that'd give less/no hints depending on your difficulty or having each chapter increase the number of health lost per mistake (chapter one can be 1 health, chapter two can be three, etc.). While the Detective Section is functional, I just feel my intelligence is being insulted playing them.
Hangout Sections
Well, what about Hangout Sections? In Hangout Sections, the player can explore investigated areas and befriend NPCs by hanging out with them. To hang out with them, you need to give them gifts they prefer, just like real life!
Gifts can be bought from Nanashi's computer by using the computer in the world in Nanashi's computer. Computerception. Gifts are bought with Bits, the game's currency.
Five-hundred Bits are given after each chapter, with more available through playing minigames through the video game console in Nanashi's computer world. These are basically "Puyo Puyo" and "Tetris," so they don't need much of an introduction.
At first, I loved the Hangout Sections. Figuring out which gifts characters prefer is fun trial-and-error that makes hanging out with characters rewarding. Characters also have a voiced line after meeting & befriending them, with the voice lines for becoming friends with an NPC always satisfying to hear.
It also helps that most characters are memorable and likeable to interact with in their small stories. Some examples include the adorable gyaru Kiara Akanagi, the tired but hard-working Yuuto Outi, and more.
My favourite was Sekiyu Hiiragi who is monotone while dishing out some hilariously polite insults. Her story is also sweet with a nice resolution I didn't see coming.
AND she likes Tongue Twister Indexes! Did someone say best girl?
Although, I can't say most of the characters are funny. The comedy of "1bitHeart" just didn't land for me, although that isn't a big deal.
Nanashi's interactions with the characters are interesting too. Nanashi will do literally anything to be friends with the NPCs, and it highlights his lack of self-worth and how different Nanashi is from everyone.
Unfortunately, one thing ruins the Hangout Sections for me: Love Chocolate.
This may have love in its name, but this chocolate is from the deepest, darkest depths of heaven, and that is surprisingly not a compliment! You see, characters in "1bitHeart" have gifts they're whatever with, gifts they like, and gifts they love. Gifts they love give the maximum number of fondness (20).
However, Love Chocolate is not only a gift every character in the game loves, but it's also less expensive than most gifts, making most gifts completely pointless. While this doesn't seem bad at first—and when I discovered Love Chocolate, I thought it'd be awesome—but it makes hanging out with the NPCs into a huge chore.
You don't figure out what gifts to give characters, making their hangout events less rewarding and more repetitive to get to. Despite liking the interactions, I got bored multiple times since I felt burned out. I killed the pacing of the Hangout Section.
It's ironic for something named Love Chocolate to cause such despair. Weirdly unfortunate, in my case, Love Chocolate saves the most time compared to the more expensive gifts that'll force you to grind for more Bits to befriend other NPCs in "1bitHeart."
While "Tetris" and "Puyo Puyo" are fun, it's only fun in moderation. Or... You can do the secret technique to get 99,999 Bits, which isn't an exploit, it's built into the game... Which makes the minigames... Completely pointless to... Play...
Finally, I did run into a few glitches/oddities. The major one being with Kaori Asahina's hangout segments refusing to play despite giving her a lot of Love Chocolate. Only for them all to play seamlessly one after another when I revisited her and gave her a Cold Remedy. I guess I performed advanced flirting.
Funnily enough, this happened a second time when getting this screenshot. I can only assume Love Chocolate is the cause- I WARNED YOU ALL IT WAS TOO HEAVENLY!
There's also no options menu for audio, so you can't turn off the music without muting your entire computer. It isn't the end of the world, but it's still annoying that the options for audio aren't there in case you get sick of the music or want to play "Patrick Coughing For 10 Hours" when playing.
Overall (C)
"1bitHeart" is in an awkward spot. I love the story, the presentation is excellent, the characters are good, and the use of music is great. However—the gameplay isn't rewarding, challenging, or fun—so it ends up being boring because of how forgiving it is.
It feels like "1bitHeart" isn't confident in its own mechanics with befriending characters and the logic players must work through, so it supplied shortcuts in difficulty from its confidence problems. However, hanging out with characters is solid, the logic the game has is tight. If anything, the shortcuts hinder the experience.
I guess you could argue it's fitting since Nanashi himself lacks confidence, but that feels like a crummy excuse for poor challenge design. I mean, I can't say not to buy "1bitHeart" given its generous price of $3.29CDN on Steam, and it's even available free from the game's website.
However, don't go in with grand expectations for the gameplay. Expect the game to hold your hand the entire time. If you read this review before playing the game, I am genuinely sorry if I ruined the fun of the Hangout Sections for you by revealing the inescapable ambrosia of Love Chocolate.
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