So I was wandering around ESGS aimlessly looking for something that caught my eye, when I headed to the indie stands. And lo and behold, I did not expect to see Yangyang Mobile holding their own booth at the event. I know them because I played their game The Letter (2017) the year before and I loved the hell out of it.
This time, they were promoting a new game in the works called Love Esquire and unlike The Letter (2017), which was a horror game, Love Esquire is more of a parody of dating sims. Since I was curious about the game, I had asked for an interview with Czar Estaban, the project manager of Yangyang Mobile. And she said yes.
Details About Love Esquire
I had heard about Love Esquire before and I was curious about what this visual novel had to offer that differed from the last. I personally like the feel of the game and I was curious to see what Yangyang Mobile could do with a dating sim considering their talents for writing horror.
I asked her if Love Esquire is going to release for any other gaming console out there besides just the PC. We are PlayStation Galaxy after all and thus cover PlayStation games. I also asked if they had any plans to push The Letter (2017) to the consoles as well.
Czar: We’re actually in talks with the publisher, so we could release Love Esquire on PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and the Nintendo Switch.
Though she didn’t guarantee that this would happen. But she merely made the mention that they’re currently in talks with the publisher. Here’s to hoping they succeed. Xbox players also have a chance to play this game in the nearby future if the stars align right. The same also applies for The Letter (2017).
Speaking of The Letter (2017), I had also asked what made Yangyang Mobile want to shift the tone from a horror visual novel to a dating simulator.
Czar: It’s really more of because we just want to create a fun game after The Letter. Because The Letter was really depressing. People were crying over the characters. This time we wanted to make something that would be fun. At the same time, we wanted to diversify our portfolio. Love Esquire has this mixture of RPG gameplay and mechanics.
For those who played The Letter, they can definitely remember that the animation was top quality. While not necessarily the kind you’d see in Japanese visual novels, the fact that they moved and wasn’t stagnant shows just how much effort Yangyang Mobile invested into making the game.
Czar: For Love Esquire, we are taking a different approach for the animation. Most of our sprites are animated frame-by-frame. They are drawn frame-by-frame. So it would actually look smoother than The Letter. Though to be clearer, most of these sprites are from the RPG campaign sprites, not the visual novel section of the game.
As of now, a demo is released for download on their website. It actually took them six months to get all the sprites for the demo alone. But the details up above weren’t the only things Czar was willing to share. I had also asked how much of Love Esquire was complete, and she had this to say:
Czar: I’d say about 50% done. I’m honestly not sure, but I’d give it about 50% because certain stretch goals in our last kickstarter campaign and the game full voice acting, CGs would be animated, and the background as well. Our initial estimate for the release for the game would be pushed back because of those additional features.
Originally, the estimate for the release of Love Esquire was going to be around April the next year but it might take a little longer considering all the work Yangyang mobile has to put into the game.
People might also be wondering if there was going to be any adult content in Love Esquire and I had decided to ask the question. Unfortunately, I did it after the interview so I have no recording of it.
Czar: It’s really because of legal issues that we can’t do that. Philippines has a law that prohibits us from adding those kinds of contents. However, the game would be moddable, so it is possible to see these sorts of things. But despite not having any 18+ content, it would still have those scenes that might border on those.
During the interview, I…also might have drifted off to unnecessary subjects because I was fanboying too hard and wanted to get some details about The Letter (2017). Sorry about that…but hey, I bought this cool key chain of my favorite character in the shop as a souvenir!
Hope to see Yangyang Mobile again next year!