Love Unholyc is a Visual Novel otome game by Korean company Prettybusy. It was released on iOS and Android platforms on October 12, 2020.
The Protagonist (her Canon Name is Mir but it can be changed by the player to whatever they wish as is standard for the genre) is what is known as an Unholyc (“unholy-see”, a play on the Pope’s title The Holy See). Unholycs are descendents of Asmodeus, the demon of lust, and humans. They are stronger and more powerful and more beautiful than regular humans, and can technically live forever after becoming adults. They can still be killed like normal humans from external forces, however. An Unholyc’s most powerful weapon is their ability to charm normal humans, which allows them to absorb a physical form of desire and lust called acme in order to keep them young and beautiful.
Mir, however, is a little different, preferring to stay in her room and game instead of mingling with humans for acme. With her coming-of-age ceremony into Unholyc adulthood approaching, Mir has to find a partner to give her lots of acme every night for a week during the Black Sabbath, a holy week for the devil’s descendants where breaking the taboos could mean death. When a mysterious letter arrives to help Mir, she and her butler send her to the location in order to prepare for her ceremony. Things don’t go according to plan, however, when Mir accidentally contracts three human men into her partnership. What’s worse, someone else is out there, and their interest in Mir is personal.
Like other games in the genre, the routes are split into different “seasons” of the game. Season 1, “Coincidence”, was released at launch and functions as a common route that explores the main characters’ relationships and how they get to know each other over the course of a week before the Protagonist’s ceremony. The second season, “Fate”, was released December 22, 2020 and had three routes depending on which character’s affection you raised most during Coincidence.
A third season called “Destiny” is in development for a projected winter 2021 release.
Compare with Mystic Messenger, another Korean dating sim with a real-time chatroom premise, of which several gameplay mechanics and characters take inspiration from.
Love Unholyc contains examples of the following:
- Anti-Frustration Features: As of the season 2 update, you can buy a character’s route regardless of if you raised his affection high enough in the common route, for players who don’t want to replay Coincidence again.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: While the English translation of the game is by no means bad, there are some grammar mistakes or misspellings that some players may find distracting. There are some instances where a character will say the name of another character, or even their own name, when referring to someone else.
- But Thou Must!: A harmless example Played for Laughs occurs when William asks Mir if she wants tea to help calm her nerves. Your only responses are “No”, “Never”, and “Are you trying to kill me?”
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Naturally, for a dating sim. Even some of the female characters and the main character herself are cute and/or attractive.
- Childhood Friends: Sol, Hi, and Leo have all been friends since they were young kids.
- Mir, Shallotte, and James Rogers were this as well
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the main characters has an associated color
- Mir’s is purple
- Hi’s is red and/or pink
- Sol’s is blue
- Leo’s is yellow/gold
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Hoo boy. If the main character being a descendant of the demon of lust, and needing to be fed her partner’s desires every night, wasn’t a big enough of a clue the sexual overtones of the game become more obvious as the days go on and the relationships between the characters deepen.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Sol owns a cat named Cat.
- Downloadable Content: DLC for April Fool’s Day and Valentine’s Day is available for purchase in-game.
- Foreshadowing: Several characters’ backstories are hinted at during conversations earlier in the game, such as Hi’s cruel childhood adoption reversals being the reason for his trust issues. This is especially true in regards to William and Eater ahead of their routes’ release.
- Gay Option: Shallotte serves as one during her April Fool’s route. However, it being DLC puts its canonicity into question.
- Golden Ending: Each route has one, along with a Normal Ending and Dark Ending, as well as some Comical Endings halfway through the route. The best ending of a route is difficult to achieve without picking every favorable response.
- Guide Dang It!: The happy ending of a route is difficult to get without consulting a guide for the best responses for each chat room. Even getting most of them and not missing a single chat will still likely only net you Normal.
- Halloween Cosplay: The characters lounging on the home screen can be dressed up in different skins and outfits, including High Fantasy attire and Halloween costumes.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Mir is the MC’s Canon Name, but can be changed to whatever the player wants for better immersion.
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Aside from her three main love interests, Mir’s butler William and best friend Shallotte feel this way for her as well.
- Interspecies Romance: Between an Unholyc half-demon and her human partner
- Lighter and Softer: While not without its dramatic moments, the release of Fate season made the Coincidence season into this. While the theatrics don’t start picking up until the end of Coincidence, the time travel makes Fate much darker since all the main characters already know what’s going to happen at the end of the week.
- Microtransactions: While not as necessary or egregious as other mobile games, you can spend real money in order to buy Time Tickets to read missed chatrooms or unlock the next 24 hours of chats early. You can also buy Characters to unlock their sub stories and routes without raising the affection, among other things.
- Mood Whiplash: Finally, it’s the final day of the Black Sabbath and it’s time to become a fully-fledged Unholyc! Too bad you receive a chat room from your three love interests telling you to run while you can as ominous noises can be heard outside.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Unholycs share a lot of story beats with common vampire tropes. They are humanoid beings that are nevertheless more beautiful and powerful than humans, despite being outnumbered by them. They live in a secret society and many of them are shown to be wealthy. Acme can be easily mistaken for blood in the game’s artwork, and Unholycs are functionally immortal as long as they absorb acme regularly. Even Mir’s and William’s mansion looks like something Dracula could be wandering around in.
- Press Start to Game Over: The very first bad ending you can achieve is in the very first chat of the prologue. William, fed up with Mir’s oversleeping, threatens to delete her game files. Attempting to call his bluff backfires, and William really does delete your game.
- Really 700 Years Old: Unholycs being functionally immortal means they can easily live for hundreds of years while looking like a young adult.
- Retcon: One of the After Stories for the common route has Mir reunite with the boys at Ripeato after the time travel, unlocking everyone’s memories of the past week and reforging their contracts. The beginning of Fate season has the same exact event take place, but with emphasis given to whichever love interest’s route you’re on, making the canonicity of the after story version questionable.
- From a story perspective, William does this at the end of Coincidence’s week, and each route’s Fate week involves dealing with knowing what happened in the retconned week.
- Save Scumming: The game encourages this to a point, providing multiple save slots for the player to return to should they make a mistake later in the route, or to more easily collect all the endings. More save slots can be purchased from the in-game store.
- Shout-Out: Mir, being a gamer, has several of these to different popular gaming titles. In her room she has two figures of 2B and 9S as well as the Triforce on a game box on a shelf.
- At one point, William sends Mir a picture of his hand holding a copy of Link and the cover art looks just like another popular game.
- In Hi’s route, he takes Mir to see a horror movie, and the accompanying CG shows Mir scared by various horror movies and games: Ghostface, Pyramid Head, Natsumi, Jack Torrance, Freddy Fazbear, and Annabelle.
- Two Girls to a Team: Mir and Sujee in the chat rooms. At least it seems that way at first.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Eater has spent at least a century eating Unholycs to gain their power for some unknown reason, and it’s implied his obsession with Mir has to do with a dark and lonely past. Zenon even tells William that “the love between you and your master is nothing compared to his rage.”
