Infinite Blue Demo - First Impressions

Indie studio Velvet Fox Games just dropped the demo for their instant messenger otome game, Infinite Blue. In the game, you as the player, along with six strangers, have a messenger app mysteriously downloaded onto your phones. In the course of 10 real-time days, you will have the opportunity to grow close to these strangers, chat with them on the messenger, and learn why the app was installed. The lovely Velvet Fox team was kind enough to give me an early look at the demo before the official release and I am excited to share my thoughts!

Game Details

Genre: Mystery | Indie Otome | Chatroom
Tentative Release Date: 2023
Where to Play: Android | iOS
Similar Games: Mystic Messenger | Blooming Panic

Story

A pinging sound signals a notification on your phone – a chatroom app has been mysteriously downloaded that can’t be uninstalled. You’re not the only one.
You and six strangers, all living near the same city with different backgrounds and lifestyles, come together to try and understand why they were chosen to be a part of the app, and just who installed it. As the days pass and you become immersed into each other’s lives, it’s not long before these strangers begin to take an interest in you. At the same time, a literal and figurative storm is brewing, and somehow, you’re at the center of it.
As love blossoms and thunderclouds form, your choices will change the course of these stranger’s lives forever.
Official Synopsis

Characters

Voice Cast

Rory Gatlin – CV: Mylo Reid

Leo Roselund – CV: Lou Fox

Brooklyn Hayes – CV: Mike Young

Milo De Luca – CV: John Q Kubin

Tobias Fox – CV: Scott Sherman

Alexei Demidov – CV: Orpheo Fenn

Features

FREE-TO-PLAY: All six routes available to play through in their entirety, with purchasable/gatherable in-game currency to unlock additional features such as common route skip, opening the next 24 hours of gameplay, and utilizing character choice indicators for ease of getting on routes and achieving different endings.
10 DAYS OF REAL-TIME GAMEPLAY: Chats/events appear in real-time, but can be completed at your own pace. In other words, you don’t have to lose sleep, or worry about playing a chat in time! The only penalty for not completing a chat on time is loss of in-game currency, but even this is not needed to play through the game.
PLENTIFUL CHOICES AND ENDINGS: Ample choices simulate real chat conversations and determine the path you take in the story. With four different endings per character, you can experience the good, the bad, and the in-between.
CHATROOM/PHONE CALLS/EVENTS: Chat with characters in-app, talk to them on the phone once on their route, and meet them in visual-novel-mode events.
CUTOMIZABLE NAME, PRONOUNS, AND PROFILE PICTURE: Choose your own name and profile picture as it appears in-game. Select she/her, he/him, or they/them pronouns. Your appearance will be kept vague/hidden in CGs to allow for self-insertion if so desired.
SLEEK USER INTERFACE: A modern and sleek user interface with a polished chat system. The full game will include animated chat backgrounds, stickers, and stylized chat bubbles to really bring the messenger to life.

Infinite Blue Demo Review

In Infinite Blue: Scavenger Hunt, you will be introduced to and get to know the characters for the first time and try out the messenger system for one day of real-time gameplay as the boys try to win you a prize in a city-wide scavenger hunt!

You and the boys have already been talking and are familiar with one another, but have yet to meet in person. On a whim, they decide to compete in a city-wide scavenger hunt in order to win your heart – and a prize! They will keep you updated on their progress on the hunt via the messenger, figure out different clues, and compete to be the first one to win you a gift. Your choices in the chatroom will give the boys a boost and determine who makes it to the finish line first!

The demo gives you ample time with each of the love interests, and I will admit I have my favorites. Sweet boy next door Leo and stoic Milo, caught my eye, but all the LIs are fun dynamic characters. Though, Alexei lost me when he started chatting about spiders–I hate spiders. Most of the chats are pretty causal with guys popping in to the messenger between work and other daily activities. The conversations were pretty chill—ranging from work woes to stuff they plan on doing during the day—it really has the same vibes as a Discord server. Usually messenger app games can get daunting, but I found that I liked the little sneak peek into everyone’s lives and the banter between the boys was fun and upbeat.

There are also some voiced lines in the demo that are well worth unlocking. This is a stellar voice cast, some of whom many indie game fans will recognize from other projects.

You can interact with the other characters in the chatroom by making choices that effect the flow of the conversation and raise affection points with one of the LIs. There’s an indicator that lets you know when you’ve raised the affection of a specific character. In Infinite Blue there are tons of choices and chat variations. So I definitely recommend spending time playing around with different choices. Also, there are six endings, one for each of the LIs and 1 neutral ending.

At first glance, Infinite Blue has a lot in common with Cheritz’s mobile otome Mystic Messenger. In which players interact with the various love interests via an in game messenger app or through phone calls and in game events. Chatrooms in Infinite Blue occur in real-time, unlike Mystic Messenger there are no penalties for missing chats. In the demo and in the final release players can enjoy the story at their leisure. For instance, players can enjoy new chats as they unlock or by waiting to read through the day’s chats in one sitting at the end of that day.

The Verdict – Is Infinite Blue Worth Playing?

For their debut game, Velvet Fox Games pulled out all the stops for Infinite Blue. The character designs are gorgeous, rivaling those of some mainstream Japanese otome games. The messenger interface is sleek and easy to navigate, giving the look and feel of a real messenger app much like Line. There game even sends out notifications to your device when new chatrooms are available.

If you enjoyed Mystic Messenger, but also want to have a life, you’ll love Velvet Fox Game’s Infinite Blue! Dive into the fun, casual real-time chatroom experience without the hassle of having to actually having to play the game at all hours of the day and night.

Thank you to the Red Velvet Games team for giving me early access to Infinite Blue for this review!