Haven is an RPG with loading screens that show a rare side of love and sex

Stories usually require suspense and drama to be compelling, but once you are addicted, you may feel a little protective of the poor characters who experience that suspense. This may explain why fans like to portray characters in more mundane situations, such as being at a coffee shop regularly or picking out a casual outfit for the day. In port, the developers have already done the work for you.

port is a dystopian scientific RPG about two lovers who become refugees after defying the orders of ‘the matchmaker’, a mysterious entity that decides who you can get along with. Although I have not yet beaten it, during my eight hours with the game I had one of the best written interactive experiences I have had recently. The conversations between Yu and Kay, our heroes, feel, of course, a rarity in video games that often feel like they were written to sound funny and funny.

It helps the voice to act port is great, and adds a real sense of chemistry between the two inferences. They quarrel, they are silly, they are vulnerable, they are ridiculous – the game shows everything that touches a relationship behind closed doors. To fall in love is to create your own little world, complete with your own language and customs. If done badly, it can all be boundless – for example, who wants to hear a boyfriend and girlfriend come up with pet names? Hell, sometimes, if you linger too long in the world of the game, the two will just start dating. But to portIt’s a great credit, I did not find any of this gross – instead I found that they have their romance root.

But again, the game needs stakes, right? You spend your time trying to hide from the forces you want to tear apart, but even if the danger does not exist, there are constant concerns about Kay and Yu’s chances of survival. They are stranded on an alien planet, cut off from everyone and have little to eat or to entertain themselves. Even though they are figuring out how to survive, there is the question of whether the two can really continue to live alone, just fulfilled by each other’s company.

What struck me, however, as I went through it all, is that, despite the drama of the actual game, every time you enter a new area, a loading screen will appear. And the loading screens are the opposite of the intense pressure of the game itself. Here, the game depicts quieter moments between the two, such as brushing each other’s hair or sitting on the couch and playing a video game. It can get pretty household: there are drawer screens that appear to be Yu and Kay arguing about taking out the trash, or picking out a tie for an evening out.

The fact that I even noticed is unusual. Instead of just zoning out or browsing on my phone during charging time, as in 99% of the games I play, I actually started looking forward to Port’s dozens of loading screens. It was a welcome postponement of the central dilemma of the match.

According to creative director Emeric Thoa, the purpose of these charging screens is to show Yu and Kay’s “first time” for everything.

‘The first time they cooked for each other, the first time they got sick, the first time they slept on the couch, the first time they had an argument, the first time they kissed, the first time that they cried in front of each other, the first time they made love … a little look at their previous life before leaving everything behind to escape on a deserted planet, ”Thoa said in an email. The screens were set up by the character artist Koyorin, and they focus entirely on the characters. There are no text or gameplay hints, and there are few colored elements.

At first, the loading screens look almost random, but they are not. One loading screen happens to show Kay, the male protagonist, cooking nothing but an apron. While it captures the dynamics between the two perfectly, there is also a later version of the screen that shows Yu cooking in nothing but an apron. Both versions of this make sense within the context of a romance. But the developers wanted to earn the player’s trust before portraying Yu in the game.

“We felt it could be considered a rude stereotype,” Thoa said. “So we developed a feature that enabled us to gradually ‘unlock’ these loading screens to make sure that some of them would only appear in the middle of the game or the final. This way, some of the images can not be seen until you really know the characters, until you know that Yu is in control and that she is just playful. ”

port was recently released for Nintendo Switch, and is part of Xbox Game Pass. You can also play it on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. Even if you are currently scared of the upcoming Valentine’s Day of February, I suggest you check it out. port out. The depiction of sex and romance in the game is soft enough to melt the hearts of even the most rogue skeptics.

‘port is about showing heroes in their daily lives, ”said Thoa. ‘It’s about what’s under the curtain, between takes. This is the love that is never shown in our culture of epic entertainment. ”