Nova Hearts: The Spark has the potential to be your new favourite dating-sim
Nova Hearts, also known as Nova Hearts: The Spark, keeps you guessing.
The concept of Nova Hearts is intriguing from the get-go. A superhero turn-based dating sim with overt inspiration from your favourite Japanese tokusatsu franchises? What’s not to love?
Players take on the role of Luce, a young but awkward woman whose return to the place of her birth quickly puts her in the firing line of the weirdest escapades imaginable. After reuniting with her childhood friends Will and CJ, they drag her to a garden party that has them meet up with Luce’s childhood crush, Sacha. Shenanigans occur, and intergalactic furry balls of rage attack them — essentially triggering a superhero transformation sequence that’ll have your inner Sailor Moon squealing in delight.
In playing the first chapter, what stood out immediately was developer Lightbulb Crew’s commitment to a distinctive art style. They already earned that reputation with their debut game, Othercide, with its striking use of reds, black, and white colours to convey the game’s bloodthirsty combat and dismal tone. Now Nova Hearts looks to do the same. But instead of a dystopian world, players are thrust into the bright and vibrant cityscape of Vermillion, where each background art is jaw-droppingly beautiful. From Luce’s bedroom, which gives us details of her artistic style and preferences, to the delicately lush green of the rainforest gym owned by CJ’s mom, each location is detailed and ripe with character.
As for the characters themselves, the jury is still out on that one. Not because Luce, CJ, Will, and Sacha are not compelling, but with only the first chapter of Nova Hearts being available, it feels as though I’ve only managed to get a taste of what these characters are like. CJ is hard-working to a fault with an interest in fencing, whereas Will is a happy-go-lucky puppy dog of a woman who probably has ‘when life gives you lemons, make gin and tonic’ as a bumper sticker. Sacha is… spoilerific, but let’s say… awkwardly horny.
Luce is a little different. With Luce, the player is able to determine her personality with dialogue choices, but from what I’ve seen so far, the subtleties with Luce’s personality of an awkward and struggling woman with a secret seem natural considering the supernatural events that plague her and the rest of the Vermillion citizens.
Being a superhero dating sim with turn-based combat, it’d be remiss of me not to point out the obvious: everyone in Vermillion just so happens to be ridiculously hot. Nova Hearts is already fairly aware of that, particularly when it comes to your superhero counterparts. Each outfit is sleek and reflective of the character’s personality, with Luce taking on a more street-artist look, CJ wearing a garment that looks like futuristic fencing armour, and Will going for the old favourite of a skin-tight, latex superhero outfit. What I doubly enjoyed about this was how Lightbulb Crew portrayed characters of different body types as attractive. For as long as video games have been around, fair few have gone out of their way to showcase the numerous body types out there, with fat bodies in particular often being left to the wayside or used to represent grotesque monsters and/or villains.
So, I was excited to see that Will’s confidence and her desirability are significant to her character. She’s the one everyone wants to hang out with, the girl everyone wants to date, and she’s the one wearing the stereotypical sexy latex outfit. And she looks damn good in it too.
As far as dating goes, I was able to hit on several characters and define Luce’s sexuality through dialogue choices. Will brushed my interest aside, which leads me to think that this romance will be a slow burn or that your companions have defined sexualities. CJ, for example, seems to only be interested in men. But again, I only had access to the first chapter, so this could very well not be the case.
Texting is a key component of Nova Hearts. As Luce, you’ll communicate with a number of different characters through this system. Much like any young adult, Luce’s phone is also their lifeline, giving players the option to look at the news (often about their own exploits as a superhero vigilante), their relationships, as well as power-ups that are useful for upgrading their and their companion’s abilities.
At first, I didn’t quite think much about this overt reliance on the mobile, especially as Luce seemingly has to rush home to even use it, but Nova Hearts manages to balance dialogue between texts, in-person events, and even battle remarkably well. Sometimes you’ll have hard-hitting conversations just as you lay the smackdown on enemies, and other times you’ll be teasing each other in a group chat — just like in real life!
As someone who loves the narrative and story side of things a lot more when it comes to my video games, I was delighted to find that Nova Heart’s turn-based combat had me in a chokehold by the time you had all three members in your party, and I was a little disappointed there wasn’t more of it as I came to the end of the first chapter.
Just like their outfits, each character has a range of abilities that reflect their personalities and ‘class’ in the team. To compare Nova Hearts to ye olde fantasy RPG for a second, Luce is a mixture of a support unit and a damage dealer. She’s able to give out an average amount of damage, while also healing her allies once per fight. CJ, on the other hand, is the tank, able to attack multiple enemies at once and taunt enemies to attack him, all while using his armour to deflect hits and leave the battle unscathed. That leaves Will, who is more of a glass canon than anyone else in the team. A few hits will knock her down, but she has an ability that’s so powerful that it can delete enemies from existence with just one move.
The game uses a system of having each ability take up a time/turn slot. For example, Luce has an attack that takes up two slots, and so if an enemy attacked her with an ability that takes up only one, the enemy would attack first. It’s a little convoluted, and at first, I didn’t quite understand why the developers hadn’t made it so that each character would have a static turn order, but the more you get into the game’s combat, the more it makes sense on why not: it’s all about strategy. With each ability taking up a different sense of time, it’s up to players to navigate which moves are more efficient and when it is best to use them.
As an example, Luce and CJ have the potential to combine their attacks into one — attacking all the enemies on the field, and granting the chance to confuse them. However, this ability takes a while to build up, and by that time several enemies could have attacked and reduced either of their health to 0. Timing is everything and strategy is king in Nova Hearts.
My one complaint is that, at this moment in time, enemies simply aren’t varied enough. Outside of the occasional shake-up during the chapter’s last end sequence, each enemy you face is the same, with the same moveset, look and animation. I understand that this is only the opening chapter, but it doesn’t bode well that you can outmaneuver the enemy with such ease, simply because you’ve fought only them since the very start.
While there needs to be a few tweaks here and there, overall, I’m optimistic about Nova Hearts future. It’s a far cry from Othercide, both in tone and look, but variety is the spice of life, and if there’s anyone who I think can pull off a superhero dating sim with style, it’s Lightbulb Crew.
Nova Hearts: The Spark (Chapter 1 only) is available to play now for PC.
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