No Spark

The term spark can refer to small fiery particles emitted from a blaze or the striking of certain objects, but it can also refer to a sense of excitement or a tense feeling. It can refer to small ash particles, but it can also refer to a sense of excitement or a tense feeling. Lightbulb Crew’s Nova Hearts is an RPG that believes it possesses the latter quality, as it focuses on romantic sparks flying and superheroes fighting for love and justice. It’s an intriguing premise that many of us can appreciate, but an overall poor execution sees any such sparks fizzle out before they ever get a chance to kindle.

Luce has just returned home to the town of Vermillion after a year away in the big city. Running away from her problems and hoping some time at home will help ease her anxiety, Luce reunites with her friend Will and new acquaintance CJ, in what she hopes to be some fantastic summer adventures. Instead, the trio is hit by a cosmic force and transformed into superheroes. With their newfound powers, Luce, Will, and CJ must battle the strange threat that has taken over Vermillion and uncover the secrets within.

Nova Hearts has a familiar premise that pays homage to classic magical girl stories, such as Sailor Moon or Magic Knight Rayearth. Our heroines are granted unique powers, but are also forced to come to terms with the fact that having special abilities often causes more problems than it solves. The game is very inclusive with its cast of characters, showcasing a wide range of individuals from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, as well as some of their struggles that come with their gender identity. Unfortunately, that is where the praise ends for the story, because what players are treated to is a disjointed experience with a group of underbaked characters and a narrative that tries to capture too much in such a short runtime.

Nova Hearts is a case of sounding great on paper, but failing in execution. Many RPGs incorporate visual novel elements to varying degrees of success, and in Nova Hearts, players will often make selections without fully knowing what they are committing to. In Nova Hearts, players will often make selections without fully knowing what they are committing to. As Luce, players make all kinds of different decisions, such as who they wish to romance or how Luce should handle a particular situation. The problem is that these decisions have no real payoff, nor do they add anything to the main story. There is a lot of focus on players being polyamorous with many of the characters, everyone comes across way too immature and horny to understand how sex even works, and when the game does try to shoehorn in mature themes, such as kink, it comes entirely out of left field. Given the absence of content warnings, players may be forced to engage with subject matters that could be triggering.

What’s worse is that, even for a five-hour game, nothing in the story feels cohesive. The characters’ immaturity really undermines the serious subject matter being discussed, which is a shame, as, if a bit more care had been exercised, the narrative could have included some fantastic discussion points and impactful moments. Except for one story beat involving Luce’s mother, there isn’t enough appeal with these characters to root for them. There are even times where it’s hard to understand what the real theme and focal point of the story are, and the game’s last chapter does a bizarre U-turn as to who the true protagonist is, which is a questionable twist for an unlikeable character that the game tries desperately to persuade the player is better written than they actually are.

Everything about Nova Hearts‘s story and characters feels like they needed a second or even third pass to ensure that they made sense, while there are also typos throughout and a weird lack of punctuation. The issues lie in that the game doesn’t know what is more important: telling a fantastic story or allowing players to be as horny as possible. This reviewer loves a horny game as much as the next person, but a lot of what is present here lacks emotion, opting instead for a kitchen-sink approach, to the game’s detriment.

Another underbaked element is the game’s combat system, which isn’t fun. Nova Hearts uses a timeline system, but it is far more rigid than it ought to be. The first turn for every character and enemy is a planning phase. Each character has different types of attacks, each of which must be charged for a certain number of turns before it can be performed. Some characters can even pull off combos, though that requires careful placement on the timeline and dumb luck to avoid being interrupted by the enemy, which is a common occurrence.

The main problems with this system are that it’s slow as molasses and offers no flexibility in movement, since most attacks take a long time to execute. There is no way to speed up battles, characters share a points pool to upgrade attacks, and there are no leveling or growth systems, meaning characters will always have the same low number of hit points, making them very susceptible to being one-shotted by late-game enemies. Coupled with the slow, regular encounters and the spongey bosses, it often feels that there can be more fun found in watching paint dry than diving into another battle.

The soundtrack feels as slapped together as the rest of the game, with unremarkable tracks that often do not fit with what is happening on-screen. Music has the power to evoke empathy, but the soundtrack misses the mark by failing to help underscore the story’s more emotional sections. Graphics fare better, as there is a lot of vibrancy in the game’s animated scenes. The game’s still artwork is pleasant enough, though there is a lack of enemy variety, adding to the monotony of its combat portions. While not beautiful, the graphics are serviceable, colourful, and do a good job of complementing the game.

I do not enjoy being harsh on any game, but I can’t recommend Nova Hearts. It’s a game with no spark or excitement. While I don’t mind some chaos and messiness in my stories, and prefer that, the story, characters, combat, and music all suffer from a level of disjointedness that is too noticeable to overlook. This is one of those games where more time in the oven and a less-is-more approach truly could have helped it hit its full potential. Unfortunately, as it stands, Nova Hearts is a half-baked game that tries to do too much, and does none of it well.

 

Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.

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