Love & Country
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
June 21-
‘Love & Country’ is now available on both Steam and here on itch.io! Sorry for the wait!
...and the world has been embroiled in a war greater than any before it. Only kilometers from the front, Lillian Sinclair trains in the art of seduction as an American spy for the France’s intelligence agency, the Deuxième Bureau. As the war intensifies, Lillian is suddenly thrust into her first assignment: rescue a fellow agent deep in enemy territory. Caught off guard, she has to juggle her inexperience and her complicated feelings for Emile—her reluctant, brooding French partner with a sharp tongue—and Anton, the kind but mysterious German gentleman who seems almost too good to be true. Pushed to her limits, Lillian will discover what she’s made of and what matters most.
DISTINCTIVE SETTING
Explore France and Germany during WWI through the eyes of an American spy working for the French, meticulously researched to immerse you fully in early 20th-century Europe.
8+ HOURS OF GAMEPLAY
Over 100,000 words with multiple routes to explore, every choice comes massive consequences, leading to branching stories with different events, art, music, and endings.
BEAUTIFUL ART
Dozens of lush, hand-drawn illustrations, inviting you into Lillian's world.
RICH MUSIC SCORE
An expansive 4+ hour music score that tracks the text as it goes, underscoring every moment of intrigue, passion, and danger.
ACCESSIBILITY OPTIONS
Full audio description options built into the game for better accessibility to assist visually-impaired players.
Where do your loyalties lie? Decide for yourself in 'Love & Country'!
CREDITS
Story & Art: Juliana Parks | twitter | instagram
Story & Programming: Katie Beiter
Music & SFX: Zachary Pinkham | website | itch.io profile | twitter | instagram
French Translations: Martii | website
German Translations: OnionCuttingNinja | lemma soft profile
Story Consultant: Ben Moy | instagram
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $14.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Nothing says "Spooky Season" like a Post-Mortem!85 days ago
- Fun bits and bobsAug 02, 2024
- Achievements: achieved!Jul 23, 2024
- Come hang with us!Jul 10, 2024
- Robot Talk Pretty One DayJul 01, 2024
- More Music: How it Works and the Biggest Mistake I MadeJun 17, 2024
- Start the countdown!May 20, 2024
- So...When Does This Dang Game Come Out?Mar 17, 2024
Comments
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I was extremely excited for this game but now that I've played it...haah. I'm not sure if I'd actually reccomend it or not, so I'll leave that open for discussion and instead just give my two cents on it in general.
Likely not entirely spoiler free!
Love and Country is one of the very, very few visual novels with a premade-heroine that I played. It's not usually my cup of tea, since not having my own character kind of zaps a decent amount of fun out of any game for me because character creation is right up my alley. But Lillian seemed neat enough, so I was willing to give it a shot.
Thus far, I haven't regretted it. Lillian is a fun, layered character that is nice to follow around. She has her strengths and weaknesses alike, which means she made for a lovely protagonist. So yes, I do like Lillian (and actually most characters in this game - especially Émile. I'll hands down betray my country for him, no questions asked. Government Secrets? Have 'em. Idgaf. Just give me this guy.).
I liked waltzing through this story with her AND I like that having a set heroine means we can get some really neat CG's where we can actually see the characters interact.
Which leads me to the next thing I really, really liked - the art. At first I wasn't super sure about it, but I really did like it. The messy, scribbly style is lovely and I've always been a sucker for huge
blueeyes. The sprites were expressive but not in overly dramatic ways, which is always welcome. The backgrounds were also really lovely - I'm especially fond of the German street with the restaurant signs. I'm not sure why, but that one totally did it for me.The music is also really well done and did a very nice job of carrying the mood, so I really appreciated that part a lot!
As for the plot and the writing - I liked 'em...for the most part. There's a few things that bothered me, but on a general level I do believe 'Love and Country' is nicely written and well plotted.
But this is sadly where the positives end and I'll have to talk about a few things that I didn't like (0r absolutely hated, in some cases).
My first big no - Anton. This is entirely personal, so don't take it too seriously, but I would've just downright scrapped him as a love interest. That dude made my skin crawl and not in a good way. Huge, ginormous red flag. He's got great villain potential though and I did like him as such in Émile's routes.
Now a more serious issue: This "game" has so. few. choices.
Even Bustafellows had more - which shocked me because I really did not think it possible.
This is a huge downgrade for what could essentially be a great game.
Visual novels are, first and foremost, novels with illustrations. Nailed that.
But they are supposed to have a gaming aspect to them and with a whopping two choices, 'Love and Country' misses the mark by kilometres on kilometres on that one.
I actually found myself thinking that it might have been better of as an illustrated novel rather than a video game, because then I could at least lie down comfortably while I read it and I'd, quite frankly, be less bored. And I wasn't bored because the story was boring - it wasn't. No, I was bored because I expected to play a game but found myself reading a pretty picture book instead.
There is basically zero player agency which is simply too lackluster for a visual novel- especially one that we paid money for.
Now, I'm not saying the game isn't worth it's money - it definitely is and I absolutely didn't mind spending money on it. Just looks wise, I'd probably have paid more. But for this amount of money, I would've expected a little more agency and the ability to influence the story at least a tiny bit more. But we were given absolutely nothing in that regard, which is a shame.
My biggest issue with this game actually builds off of it's lack of player agency - the god damn endings. (The next part is filled with spoilers, duh!)
There wasn't a singular ending that felt fullfilling. Not one. It was always a let down, one way or the other and I'm not lying when I say that after Émile's "good" ending, I was so mad that I had to quit the game for a few days.
Genuinely, I was seething.
First: The Herbert thing was so insane. Even if something happens and Lillian is unable to follow immediately, all Émile had to do was shove the dude over to switzerland and hang back for a hot minute. No one was on their tail and no one was trying to get them right then. There was no reason for Herbert to wait at all, especially since it was already established that the boys could just leave on their own if they had to.
And, more importantly: I hated that we didn't have a single choice in whether or not Lillian and Èmile end up together and that she always chooses her job over him. I despised it, because it's a stupid issue to begin with - you're scared you won't be able to pick success over your partner? Don't go on missions with your partner. There, fixed.
No company would ever force this on a couple, because they would be sabotaging themselves and risk the success of their operations. This entire thing just felt blown out of proportion and could've been solved by a single conversation with both Margie and Èmile. There was absolutely no reason for her to just push him away like that - with little to no explanation, at that.
And I'm saying this as someone who usually doesn't mind a sombre ending. I even prefer them sometimes, but this one just felt unnecessary.
In a way, the endings really ruined the game for me just a tiny bit. It's such a shame because there were so many things that I actually really liked about it, but the lack of player agency and the resulting awful endings were just a huge let down.
well this destroyed me. 10/10
I wish this game was free :(
i really enjoyed this and i played all the routes in about 2 days!! i'm a sucker for period pieces and the art was so beautiful, i was just left wanting so much more after every route. im an angst lover so i dont mind unhappy endings, it's just kind of unsatisfying for every single route to end with lillian deciding to go her own way with no room for romance. im also a sucker for slow burns so things moved a little fast on that side for me, but i did really enjoy the tension throughout everything especially when anton came in and things started going wrong lol.
anyways i loved this and really my only criticism is that i wish there was so much more! if you make more games in this universe with lillian emile and anton i would be so unbelievably sat
to thoes who want to buy this game i wouldn't recomend it
My thoughts with spoilers explaining my opinion...
Edit: this game was probs made as a hobby and I didn't know that the other games I compared it to were crowdfunded and therefore the devs could do more with the game. And so I was a harsh with my justification of why I thought the game was overpriced. But the sentiment I have remains the same.
Not to mention at the time $15 was a lot to me and I actually had really high hopes for the game.
I hate to give a bad review and I write this with no ill intent as I spent my money on this.
Overall I somewhat regret spending my money, as the game isn't worth $15.
The game is unbelievably short and I wouldn't even call it a game but rather it's akin to choose-your-adventure stories. You don't have agency in this game but rather you simply are an observer and your choices do matter being that there are literally only two choices to make. (I'm not joking)
The illustrations are to die for, but $15 for 4 endings, no epilogue, no easter eggs, no side stories. Shesh.
Compared to the market, which to be fair is very unfair as people create visual novels for free in their spare time which are HOURS and Hours long with beautiful art etc etc. Most notably cinderella phenomenon, our wonderland, cupid. These games are free, have good art, and good writing.
I understand why the price is what is, being that deep down the VN community has been spoiled and I support indie developers getting their coin. Also, I knew what I was getting into being that it says the game is 8 hrs long, but for the price, I was betting that the writing would be top-class (like it was in the demo).
But it wasn't, especially in Anton's route.
Being that he's unrealistically obsessed with Lillian to the extent that he kidnaps her and hides her, essentially committing treason... for a girl that he met the other day. Unlike Shakespeare who critiques Romeo's obsession with Juliet, the devs at Guhuhu Games do not offer any explanation as to why.
I'm all for these scenes however I would say as a feminist. Writing a charater who kidnaps his love interest after shooting the man to hide her away from the authorities because he cares for her. Undoubtedly a good man who only wishes the best for Lillian.... is harmful.
Anton's love for Lillian is creepy, due to the great extent of his love in the incredibly short amount of time. I believe he should have been written as a villain of some sort and portrayed in more of a morally grey way, and there should have been more scenes where he debates 'love or country'.
....
Overall I believe essentially why this game fails is because it's written to be a romance first, spy mission story second. This is not realistic in the slightest, and it's quite funny how when death is at stake the characters won't fail to jump into bed.
Second of all, it's extremely short with no extra content at the end. Compared to other visual novels which are paid at similar prices e.g. Bandcamp Boyfriend, and Red Embrace Hollywood, which both boast more than 15 hours of content with many endings. This game was very expensive and the lackluster writing and unsatisfying endings. If I could turn back time I wouldn't have purchased it. (EDIT: still wouldn't reccommend this game but the devs did work hard and they weren't crowdfunded/made it as a hobby etc, so the lack of content compared to other games is explainable)
That being said I'm a sucker for period pieces and if you guys did make another game (hopefully longer ) I'll probably purchase it.... ik ironic as i gave a scathing review.
I just wanna say Cinderella Phenomenon, Red Embrace Hollywood and Bandcamp Boyfriend are crowdfunding games and this one is not, which mean the dev have to pay the development cost out of their pocket money, which also why the game cost this high for such a short game.
Beside, not everyone can working to a game for years out of pure hobby, they need money as movitation and kind of responsibility to keep going. You can say it's not worth to you, but it's pretty unfair to compare to other game dev who make game just for hobby because they want to and / or they can handle more workload so they don't need to hire ppl.
RIP I didn't realise that thx for telling me that, I wrote this in a rage and like $15 was a lot for me at the time soooo....
I wrote it like $15 was a lot for me. lolololol
Gonna edit my comment.
This game is phenomenal – I love it!! Tho those spice scenes leaves me quite hanging and agonizing for the character lol. Looking forward for more!!💖
Great game, but do u have any walkthrough/ending guide for this game?
We don't have plans to create a playthrough guide at this time. Honestly, we don't think you'll need one. Once you playthrough the game you'll have the option to navigate back to the decision points which should make it fairly straightforward to unlock each possible ending.
Just finished the entire game, all routes.
Spoilers ahead!
I played through Emile's route first, where Denham isn't called out to in the hotel- and the entire route felt the most complete to me; with the romance hints between Emile and Lillian, the tension; so on, and I think the route was also the longest. With no true 'happy ending' to that route, I went back to the choice to choose calling Denham out, and that ending was far less satisfying.
I played all the routes afterwards in one sitting; and while I very much enjoyed the entire game, I do think my first run was the most satisfying; after a bit it felt somewhat like Anton always popped out of nowhere; this all-knowing man capable of always getting in the way of things. I suppose that's how spies are.
To a degree, I feel like the initial route just had the most work put in; we see the most of the side characters, we see more hints of Emile's personality, and his tension with Lillian makes the most sense there- her inherent attraction to him in Anton's routes make less sense to me personally, and feels less organic.
The heavier romance scenes being interrupted every time had me annoyed after a while XD but I guess I just wanted Lillian to get some.
Overall, I do think this game is phenomenal, the art is gorgeous, the writing is powerful, but I was expecting a more traditionally happy ending opportunity for the endings. When playing the first route, I thought with Emile (and not calling Denham out) the entire story would be the back and forth between Lillian and Emile; their warring personalities and inherent attraction, how he can't bite his tongue when needed, how she over analyses everything, and the writing really delivered that, but I feel like, to some mild extent, that the focus of the quality and length was reserved for that singular route; to be the 'true route' if anything.
When I finished all the routes, I wanted to see if a new secret route with a proper happy ending opened up, where Denham gets home, and Lillian has her beau. No such luck for me!
Still; a fabulous game, well worth the cost, thank you so much for all your effort, attention, and care. The music is wonderful, the art gorgeous, and focus put into the language was fantastic.
100% agree with you! I also played every route now & I loved everything about this phenomenal game except (spoiler)
I was also hoping for a secret happy ending. It annoyed me a bit that she always "knew what to do" and chose her job in the end. It's not like it doesn't make sense but you know...my heart 💔
They could have been the next Mr. & Mrs. Smith/Twain, I mean the smith joke was even hinted at in Emile's route. ;)
my thoughts...
Truthfully in a way I liked that there's no 'happy' ending, it's somewhat realistic as Lillian's relationship with the boys is kinda purely lustful, in that yeah they have chemistry, but the life or death situation of being a spy simply heightens the feeling. Also thinking about it was hinted with Emile saying 'being in love is different from being involved'. In a way, it reminded me of 'la la land'.
BUT I actually somewhat wish we got an epilogue as the endings felt quite abrupt, and I didn't feel satisfied.
I feel for the price we should have gotten more content, as compared to other games e.g. Red Embrace Hollywood, and Bandcamp Boyfriend. There's a lot more content there and in a way, they're better written.
I...honestly kind of agree with you.
I think the game is absolutely beautiful and clearly a lot of love has been put into it, but I feel like the quality of the writing dipped a bit after the demo. The demo pacing is also a lot slower compared to the main game, and I didn't enjoy Anton's route half as much as I did Emile's route (especially where you don't call out Denham.)
Lillian immediately getting in with Anton also just...confuses me. XD
YESSSSS my goodness, I’m so happy you agree with me. Anton was done so dirty.
Looking back I was so angry because I brought the game because of him and he wasn’t written well. So that’s half the game gone to shit (ur so much nicer than me). And I even played his route last because I thought his route would be the best.
And I’m not joking about being mad, I literally wrote a scathing review in the comments warning people not to buy this game because in my opinion it’s not worth $15.
But if this game was free. The courage of writing a romance with truly bitter sweet endings would make me give the game 4/5 stars. Especially since it’s their first game.
Truthfully I believe the devs clearly have talent and are good at writing. I think they just need to get better proof reader, cause the people who let them publish Antons route (shame on them) and spend more time on the game, as it came out really quickly.
I wish there was a way I could DM you, lol, I don't often meet people who share my opinions on writing online, I feel like I come across too high and mighty, haha.
I'm Mimxism on discord if you'd like to chat more, got a girl with black hair in dark pink as my pfp.
In part, I think I would have been more okay with the bitter sweet endings if the pacing were different, or the like.
As it is, I'm honestly just...well, disappointed.
I always appreciate...
...being warned about there being no happy endings in a game before I buy it. I didn't get that warning with Red Embrace: Hollywood. It sounds like her "romance" with the mark in the demo was foreshadowing for all the romances in the game, then.
Yeah I agree with u with the warning, even though it would spoil kinda the whole jist of the game.
Romance is simply a tool for Lillian to get what she wants, however she can't remain emotionless and static, her heart moves, but she can't follow it.
However unlike Red Embrace, the whole story was mainly about romance between Lillian and the love interests, the whole spy mission was secondary. Also thinking about it.... I can't visualise a reality where Lillian would form a committed relationship with wither LI. As she would have to give up her career, as a seducteress.
The ending scene where Lillian rejects Emile, WAS SO SADDD. Like this man literally just accepted his loss and went on about his life, and he was so hopeful.
Also I noticed that u have released a game, I'm currently downloading it and overall it seems to be right down my lane. Good luck with ur development btw.
Thank you!
When the full game will be available on itch?
Very soon! We had to request some additional space from itch to accommodate the upload. As soon as that request goes through, we'll post.
Just bought it on steam!!! Aaaaa!
Yes!!!! Thank you so much!!! 😭🫶
Thanks! Will do!
will this be a series, and will there be more games in this universe/characters?
We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we are very interested in the possibility of telling more Love & Country stories. <3
look forward to playing the full game soon!.
will the final game have nsfw content?
is the story finished?
You can look forward to some spicy content--think romance novel-spicy. The upcoming release will conclude Lillian's first mission
thank you for adding image descriptions.!
i like this.
will this have voice acting?
The game does not include voice acting at this time, but that is something we are very eager to add in the future.
how much will the full game cost?
We have not yet settled on a price-point, but will be announcing that information soon as well.
will this be blind accessible?
when will it be fully released?
Thank you so much for checking us out! We are working on adding some features to make Love & Country more accessible to low-vision and blind players. This includes a self voicing feature that will utilize the windows/mac system narrators to read out menus, buttons, and all dialogue and narration. This feature can actually be triggered in the demo by pressing "v" on your keyboard. We'll be adding a read-me file to the final game with more explicit instructions on how to use this feature.
Due to some health concerns, we had to push our release date. The good news is that our team member is much recovered now and has resumed work on the game. We are expecting to release in June and will be announcing a specific date shortly.
Unfortunately, we've had some production delays due to one of our team members having some medical issues. We haven't set an exact date as they are still in recovery, but we hope to make an announcement very, very soon. In the meantime, we really appreciate your support!
oh the art is so lovely ^^ what made you choose france as the setting? are you also from there?
Thank you so much! We just love history and thought WW1 would be an interesting conflict to set the story in. Team Guhuhu is actually American, so we thought we'd start with what we were most familiar with--what was happening near the western front. (There was a lot of action happening elsewhere, too! It's something we'd love to explore in future Love & Country stories.) Since we are not French though, we've tried to do our research. It's given us a wonderful opportunity to learn more about French (and German) culture and history. <3 Thank you so much for playing!
I'm so in love with Anton oml
<3
Juliana edit: Katie didn't mention this for some reason, but she loves Anton too and you guys should start a club.
So enjoyable in every aspect. You have me hooked, can't wait to read more <3
Thank you for playing! <3 There will be more soon!
😉👍🏻
🥰🤟
the art is absolutely stunning! the narrative pulled me in straight away. and the love interests are yummy, i love them both. and lillian is a beautiful dame herself u///u love her! also, rly love the music and sound! it's well placed. excited for more!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed our little demo <3 Thank you for playing and hang in there -- more to come soon.
guhuhu i am sohoho the target group for this. i love the premise, i love the characters (Lillian is such a charming MC and both Anton and Émile are my favorite flavors of LI!!! i can’t believe my luck). great job with the translations too (i speak french & german and the dialogues felt natural to me) and i appreciate you for having the languages front and center like this because it adds a lot to the immersion. i also super duper appreciate the dictionary to give us more information and let us play detective alongside Lillian. the art??? GORGEOUS. the transitions of the scenes and pacing of the writing??? immaculate. seriously, i’m a big fan and i can’t wait for what you have in store for us!!!
Thank you so much for checking out our demo and leaving this feedback! You absolutely made Team Guhuhu's day. <3 <3<3
that soft scene in the train with lillian and anton changed my brain chemistry actually. hope we get to see more of that nice gentlemanly side <3
hehehe yay! Anton is a man of many sides, but we promise the train isn't the last time you'll see soft-Anton <3
This is so good! Both of the routes look exciting so I’m very curious to see what will happen next… The art is amazing and I love how stylized everything is. I didn’t realize I had a soft spot for this genre, but now I’m on the hunt for more games like this. Can’t wait for the full game!
Wow, thank you so much! 💗
What an amazing job! The clear amount of research and time that went into this is impressive. I will sadly tell you that when I downloaded the PC version of the demo I got the lovely score and what I believe is the starting page...but as a screen reader user I couldn't find how to read any text or navigate buttons. This website itself is pretty accessible, but the game software etc. is not compatible. I wonder if what you are using has a screen reading option in it?
Reading through this with friends though was really fun and you should consider having it voiced! OMG need. More. Emile. Need. More. Oboe.....<3
So excited for more! And I wonder if the tech developers could work with you on the visual novel format being able to be read with a screen reader or other assistive technology. I'm blind, so I would also love some epic alt text for what I am certain is AMAZING and accurate art!!!!!!
Okay, enough gushing. Talk soon!
Thank you so much for this feedback! We will definitely be adding accessibility features with the full version, and intend to test with screen readers during the development process. In fact, we have plans to do a full makeover of the menus.
Stay tuned for more. <3
that’s awesome! Looking forward to it and thanks for the quick response!
Fantastic game! I had so much fun playing it! Emile is my favorite, can't wait to see how his route plays out!
Lovely game all and all! Can't wait for the next update, good luck on your project!
Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed it ❤️
Hihi waiting for next up <3
Thanks for checking us out <3 Stay tuned, we'll be sure to let you know when we're updating!