HeartLinks: A Puzzle Called Love Preview

I like a good time manipulation mechanic in games — it’s what I’d choose if I could pick a superpower. Formerly known as DokiToki, HeartLinks: A Puzzle Called Love, sees main character Ai trying to find her crush to confess to them, utilising said powers in a first-person perspective. However, he’s not in the classroom cleaning, so she decides to explore the whole school to find him!

Unfortunately, the way is blocked by a number of locks. Whilst the keys are easily located in each classroom, obtaining them is a different matter as they are usually just out of reach… on top of objects frozen in time, behind glass… that sort of thing. Luckily, the classrooms have some magical items to help you reach them, or at least get them within reach.

Since I was playing the demo, the only items available were a key to unfreeze time, a love letter to freeze time, and a clipboard & brush. That third one copies and pastes materials so, for example, you can make a balloon be made out of rock, or a table become rubber.

Making my way through this early build took about an hour, so just enough time to introduce me to the main characters and mechanics. Outside of the puzzles in the classrooms, you’ll encounter students frozen in time (and some not), who will be grateful to be unfrozen by you. Each person you speak to rewards you with a relationship point, which will, in turn, allow you to upgrade the important characters. Again, it was still early, so I don’t yet know the full extent of the upgrades, but it seemed important.

You can also just have a chat with the important characters, which will help grow your friendships for reasons. The writing is really fun, with Ai being a bit ditzy and more than happy to act like a lovesick anime protagonist, and deuteragonist Justin, the epitome of the straight guy role. He’s a transfer student, and is absolutely not having any of this nonsense — or any more than he has to, anyway.

While Heartlinks isn’t fully voice-acted, at least yet, the performances are great. They elevate the script and suit the characters well, and there’s not much more you can ask from an actor.

Every character I met had a unique design, and I’m curious if that will filter through to the full game. I suppose it depends on how many total characters there are going to be, but since the dev is taking cues from the entirety of anime, they’re unlikely to run out of inspiration soon.

I enjoyed the whole package of HeartLinks: A Puzzle Called Love, and it’s made me quite excited for its full release. There’s no timeline on that, unsurprising given the solo developer (plus contractors), but I’d recommend playing the demo even if you’d rather wait for the full release. After all, it’s unlikely to let you see Demo Hall and attempt to get into Full Game Hall, all with unique dialogue.