Love and Deepspace Needs to Take Representation Seriously

Inclusion and representation have always been a hot topic in the otome game world. I recently wrote a separate article about this, as it has been coming up more and more as otome games have increased in popularity. This week, hugely popular 3D otome game Love and Deepspace came under fire as fans continued to push them for a bug fix that has been needed since the game’s launch; darker skinned characters become invisible in certain cutscenes or moments throughout the game, reducing them to almost 2D looking silhouettes.

I had obviously heard about LADS as a longtime otome game player, but I hadn’t tried it for myself. I was absolutely shocked when I heard about this issue through an article on IGN. The fact that it still hasn’t been fixed and has been around since launch definitely shows where Papergames’ priorities lie; with white and light-skinned players. The game prides itself on huge amounts of character customisation and first person moments to make it feel completely immersive, so how could they overlook something this huge? It makes thousands of people’s MCs look like Danganronpa culprits.

This silhouette bug has been an issue since launch, breaking the immersion for thousands of players. Source: MoonkissedMuse on Twitter

When IGN reached out to Infold they actually responded, despite the fact that they must have had many support requests, emails and social media comments from actual players alerting them to this issue. They sent IGN a fairly generic response, saying that “Every comment, whether it’s about visuals, storytelling, or representation, helps us better understand how our work resonates across different perspectives and cultures.” But I didn’t see any promise to actually fix the issue in question! It’s a bug! You can fix it!

Love and Deepspace is a Mobile Game of the Year Award winner, and I would expect any game with this many players and marketing itself as a fully immersive otome experience to take matters like these seriously. This bug has been around for years at this point. POC players deserve to have the same experience as anyone else, and they’ve not been able to do that fully since the game’s launch. All players need to be a priority.