Hololive has released an interactive dating simulator that is now available on its YouTube channel. The game has several branching paths, permitting fans to choose which of their favorite Hololive VTubers to spend their Valentine's Day with.
The game takes place during a party with all of the Hololive English talents, who then go their own ways. The player can choose to go to a park, cafe, or theme park, or to stay home and clean afterward. Any given route takes about 11 minutes, and clearing all the possible paths will cost you about 45 minutes.
Mori Calliope's script for the game was created by Aneco. The Hololive VTubers are all dressed in a "special Valentine's Day outfit." A mock UI overlay is featured on the YouTube videos to simulate playing a visual novel.
Mori introduced her followers to the interactive experience on Valentine's Day during her YouTube stream on February 13. She said the program is "kind of like a dating game, but it's less intrusive or anything."
Ceres Fauna's "holoweEN" concept was one of Mori's primary influences for the dating sim, which featured VTubers in three parts.
“If I remember correctly, [Fauna] was the coordinator of a little Halloween project. She came up with a comic script of alternate universe horror scenarios that we all had to compose ourselves for. It was a lot of fun,” the grim reaper VTuber said.
“Well this time, I came up with an idea that I really wanted to see if we could do. I really wanted to try out something that is somewhat interactive with the fans. So I thought 'wouldn't it be fun if, for Valentine's [day], we could make some sort of mini visual novel.' And we did!
Mori shared some of her concerns about the script during the broadcast. She was concerned that she would not be able to consistently capture each character's personality or sense of humor. To counteract this problem, she opened up the script writing to all of the participants.
"Fear not," says the woman if you're worried about your oshi being out of character (because I can't pin everybody's personalities perfectly, I'm only [Mori]), because I completely opened up the script for all of the girls to be able to alter their lines as they like, and to customize their personalities more, or if she phrased something in a manner that they weren't comfortable with.
“I opened it up to them so they could customize it to [their personalities]. In the end, it was more of a collaborative effort, but I came up with the basics and most of the script.”
Despite her initial reservations, the collaborative scriptwriting was a success. The Hololive girls were all able to add their own personal touch to the dating simulator, something Mori said she values throughout all projects. This gives each VTuber a chance to shine.
"Sometimes, since I'm only very proficient in my own sense of humor, I'm so worried about making jokes or writing jokes that the other girls wouldn't understand," the streamer said.
“But a lot of the girls also made funny jokes that made me laugh, a lot. Thank you to the other ladies for making this possible.”
Mori also discussed that the project would initially be much less in scope, but she would keep it as a back-pocket strategy if she ever went on a vacation.
"This was an initial idea that I just wanted to do for myself, for when I went on a vacation or something like that," the VTuber said.
Mori encourages fans not to just follow their favorite member's route, but to try all of the options.