Loved

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Describe Loved here.

No.

Ugly creature.

Loved by Alexander Ocias is a short platformer about... well, this is one of those games that the developer encourages you to interpret yourself. The game rather simply controls with the arrow keys, with up jumping and down ducking. On occasion, you're given choices you make by clicking on the bold words on the screen. The narrative text follows you throughout the game. It will order you to do or not do things at certain points in the game. The game will alter the game world and your ending depending on how consistently you obey.

The game design is stark, minimal, and unsettling. The narrative is confrontational, and you're left to interpret your own meaning from the often cruel tone. It's a quick but interesting art game.


Tropes used in Loved include:
  • Bold Inflation
  • But Thou Must!: Played with. The game does "punish" you for not doing as the narration directs, but you can still play through, ignoring its directives. The only time you have no choice but to obey is at the end, when it says "DO NOT FAIL". Even if you die, it doesn't count it as a failure (i.e. you don't get insulted), and it still says "DO NOT FAIL" until you obey.
    • At one point you are asked: Do I own your body, or your mind? (You don't get to reply "neither".)
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Even when the whole thing is going epileptic, anything that hurts you remains red.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist
  • Failure Is the Only Option: If you select not to get instructions: "You will fail."
  • Forced Tutorial: Averted, as you don't get a tutorial at all. Even if you ask the voice to teach you how to play, it will reply "You do not deserve it". It will then mock you if you try to use a button that isn't used in the game (for example, pressing SPACE to jump will yield "You are wrong", and using the mouse gets "Not that, you will control nothing".
  • Gender Flip: Done to the player. Whichever gender you select at the start, the game will refer to you as the opposite gender all the way through.
  • Hint System: The voice starts out like this.
  • Interface Screw: The game world gets... trippy... if you disobey.
  • Mission Control Is Off Its Meds:

Throw yourself into the barbs.
Player: "Hell no." *jumps over barbs*
How disappointing.

  • Multiple Endings: It depends if you're obedient or disobedient, and on the answer you give at the very end.
  • Purely Aesthetic Gender: The beginning of the game asks for your gender. If you say you're a man, the game calls you a girl. If you say you're a woman, the game calls you a boy. One ending of the game likewise asks for your gender. If you say you're a boy, the game calls you a man. If you say you're a girl, the game calls you a woman.
  • Take That: The whole game to many modern games, according to Word of God.
  • Video Game Tutorial: Played with. The controls, however, are not explained - if you ask the voice to teach you how to play, it replies "You do not deserve it", and then mocks you if you try to use a button that's not used in the game - pressing Space gets "You are wrong", while using the mouse yields "Not that, you will control nothing".
  • Violation of Common Sense: The voice sometimes orders you to do things that go against a typical gamer's reasoning, including jumping into a pit of spikes and not touching a statue (in this game, statues act as checkpoints).
  • What the Hell, Player?: Disobeying will lead to the voice saying some pretty nasty things to you.

Good girl.