Gaokao Love 100 Days - Why you should be playing it
Despite the fact that this visual novel isn't, uh, great
One of the great joys of editing Pocket Gamer is that I can cover basically whatever I want, however I want. Within reason, of course. It's a freedom I've not felt before, and honestly, it's a little overwhelming at times.
But it also means that I don't have to ask anyone's permission before I reach out for codes for games like Gaokao Love 100 Days, a visual novel which has quietly landed on Switch after having a reportedly successful run on Steam.
I would love to tell you that Gaokao Love 100 Days is a good game. But it isn't. It's littered with problems, both on the surface and at its very core. If we were to review it properly, we'd destroy it.
But I don't want to do that. I want to talk about its many issues and explain why I think, in some weird way, they actually make the game more enjoyable. Sometimes ironically, sometimes not.
So, here's a list of all the big problems that Gaokao Love 100 Days has, and why I love it regardless. Enjoy, and please, check out the game when you have a chance.
It's stressful as hell
The aim of Gaokao Love 100 Days is to somehow maintain a work/life balance, juggling a brand-new relationship with the stresses of preparing for your final year exams.
The Gaokao of the title is China's incredibly punishing set of exams which determine which college you go to. Failure is not an option here - college places are limited, and only the best of the best get in.
Your school is seriously strict. It's not as bad as others - you're frequently told that people your age are studying seven days a week for 14 hours a day. It's intense. It's stressful. And it's now in your hands to manage all this.
When I was doing my A-Levels, the outcome of which would decide my university, I studied maybe one hour a week (I'm super, super lazy). To have to deal with all this extra work, even in a video game, is sometimes too much.
But it makes every choice incredibly meaningful. You've only got 100 days until the Gaokao. Should you talk to your girlfriend after school? Or should you study? Risk taking a nap? Each of these actions can have unforeseen negative consequences, so you need to take that into account too.
Get too stressed and you get ill, and then your ability to study is hampered. Your girlfriend won't like you if you get bad scores and can't go to the same college as her.
God, I'm breaking out in a cold sweat just writing this. It's great.
The main character is detestable
Your avatar in the game, who can be named whatever you want at the beginning, is a truly horrible person. This isn't even a joke. He's awful.
He constantly judges his girlfriend, Muxin, for being a "foodie" - a sly way of referring to the fact she is almost always eating or thinking about food. He tells her he doesn't mind, but his thoughts imply he really, really does.
He is outwardly rude to one of his closest friends, Stom. An energetic young man, he's certainly annoying, but at one point your character tells him to "keep burning until he dies". Stom clearly has some kind of serious medical condition - he frequently runs away because of stomach cramps - but we couldn't care less.
Your character is homophobic - during a random event when you try to "relax" at school, there's a chance he'll accidentally read a moving tale about two men who fall in love and is so disrupted by this event that his "entire worldview crumbles" and his stress level skyrockets. But his Chinese ability improves too, so you have to take the rough with the smooth.
He gets mad at his parents for not making him breakfast some mornings. He encourages people to skip classes because they're tired. He's a bad person.
It's enjoyable though, because you kind of want to see what new lows he can sink to. How much worse can my character get? Will he get some kind of comeuppance? Can I ruin his life completely?
You keep pushing because you can't wait to see his next misstep. It's probably unintentional, but my word, it's engaging.
The translation is really, really bad
Look, bad translations happen. It's a reality of game development. Sometimes the budget just isn't there, or there's no time to really think it through. You just have to accept it and move on.
That said, Gaokao Love 100 Days' translation is truly awful. There are entire conversations that simply do not make sense. There are tutorials which constantly change which word they use to describe a mechanic, so you've got no idea what any option really does.
Basic things, like spelling and grammar, are often totally forgotten. There are really weird instances where your character suddenly swears, and only one letter is starred out. He says "alas" more than a real human being ever would, and "aye" despite not being from Yorkshire.
There is something rather endearing about how bad the translation can get, however. Part of the joy of the game is trying to work out what on earth people are actually trying to say, or how it would make sense in the original language.
It's funny in a slightly patronising way how bad it gets. I really want to help fix it. Like, honestly, I will give up some of my time to take the English text and change it into something at least slightly more understandable. Call me, yeah?
You should play it anyway
There's no doubt that Gaokao Love 100 Days has its issues. But underneath all its problems lies a very earnest visual novel that tries to do a lot with seemingly not very much.
It's a harsh comment on Chinese school life and the near-abusive schedules that kids have to put up with to get into the best schools. It's a game all about the pressures placed on you by parents, education systems, friends, everything.
It may not even be trying to say these things. Talking with my girlfriend, she wasn't wholly surprised by the extreme studying on display. To her, this wasn't particularly unusual. To me, an idiot layabout with no future, it was the darkest future imaginable.
This on its own shows that there are plenty of things you can take away from Gaokao Love 100 Days. Or maybe it proves that the game is a bit of a mess. Who knows.
Here's one thing I do know - you should check this out. If you like visual novels, you'll definitely get a kick out of it. If you don't enjoy this particular genre, I'd suggest going with something else first. But circle back around some day. Muxin will wait for you.
