Review | Later Daters

LifeisXbox’s Later Daters Review | Be prepared to enter a game like no other you will have played previously. It’s time for you to move on into a retirement home and get acquainted with other residents of ye OLDE to see where conversations and choices may lead you in this new dating simulation game called Later Daters. You will find mischief, excitement, and secrets during your time. However, should one or more of the residents catch your eye, you may wish to explore companionship and the chance of relationships that could blossom if you want the most out of your story. Later Daters certainly takes you through the emotions throughout, from laughter and joy to shock and dismay. This title has been developed and published by Bloom Digital Media Inc. to give us an unfamiliar but exciting experience that aims to show us how sexy senior life can be; even when you least expect it.

VicciVulpix played Later Daters for Six hours on Xbox One S. This game is also available on Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, and macOS.

What we liked!

• Options to choose from | In Later Daters, you will come across and get to know a variety of different people but your decisions and who you decide to spend time with will affect whether there will be a possibility for more between you or whether things don’t turn out as you intended them to. For example, some of the residents will only date you alone where as others may consider sharing your affection. The story I believe ends the same each time from what I’ve experienced but what happens during you first two weeks at ye OLDE all depends on your choices. Each day is a new chapter, full of new opportunities. Who knows – You may even find your happily ever after in the end.

• Catchy music | Now, I have to admit, the theme song for this game is amazing and I find myself singing it often and humming the tune when I’m casually walking around the house. It’s a fairly simple and original concept that works really well. The tempo is without a doubt cheerful and catchy which can only make you smile with happiness in mind. There are some in-game sound effects that add a little emphasis to particular scenes, whether joyful or saddening. Later Daters certainly has plesant euphoria to keep almost everyone in high spirits.

• Emotions are explored | During your time at ye OLDE, each resident will have their own backstory to tell and these can genuinely make you feel sorry for the characters you meet. With topics being spoken about, such as LGBT, transitions in gender, loss of a loved one, health consitions, and loneliness for a few examples, that can make conversations become deep pretty rapidly. I’m a huge fan of this aspect as not only did I become invested in my own story but also those residents who need support, help, and a friendly individual to confide in. Just adds a more personal touch, making everyone different.

• Complimentary visuals | Colourful and eye-catching, but subtle at the same time, was a beautiful way to tell the story of ye OLDE in Later Daters. A pleasure to read, with the characters facial expressions being visualised, giving you more information as to whether other residents are happy, sad, or angry in your conversations which I know can be hard to tell sometimes during games with said dialogue and still imagery. I think the graphics were also commendatory, with all the characters looking different and the various scenes all standing out in their own way.

Somewhere between

• Customise yourself | At the very beginning of Later Daters, you are given the a few options, though limited, to customise you appearance, which ‘companion’ you would like (dog, cat, or robot), your background story, name, and title. Although there is this small amount of customisation, I didn’t feel it affected my game in the slightest which I found quite disappointing as I would have liked this to impact what choices you could and couldn’t make during your story. I also wasn’t able to change my or my companions name and yes, I know it’s a minimal element but it looked like this should have had the ability to be changed. I feel like I tried everything and nothing worked.

• Sexual referencing | To my amazement and shock, there was large quanities of sexual speaking and inuendos throughout in Later Daters. This was always varied as some conversations had obvious conclusions as you could easily see one thing leading to another (if you know what I mean), some was incredibly cringy and made me shake my head, but finally, some were genuinely affectionate and adorable to see. I can’t say this element was either good or bad but it certainly made the game bold and interesting with fun to be had with almost anyone you wanted to make advances towards.

• Additional mini-game | In the main menu, you will find there has been a mini-game included called cribbage. Although a nice addition to the game should you want to experience something a little different besides the main story, I think it could have been incorporated differently as, currently with it standing alone, there was not much appeal for me to play this. Had it been worked into the main game or had achievements linked to it, perhaps I would be more inclined to play it outside of the main game. It just didn’t quite catch my interest so I only managed to play a handful of rounds.

What we disliked

• Rough transitions | When reading through the dialogue, I did notice the transitions from one line to the next to be quite rugged. Not only with the text but when changing from one visual scene to the next. There was some delay when doing this that I feel could have been smoothed out further to allow the flow of things to be far more polished. I just found the changeover affecting the circulation of text the majority of the time and, for me, it did unfortunately become a little annoying to contend with compared to other games of the same genre.

• Somewhat short | During my first playthrough, I took my time to make honest choices that I wanted and to read the dialogue all the way through. This took me around two hours to complete but it can definitely be finished in a much shorter time. There is the option to skip diolgue whenever you want, as you don’t need to have read it previously. As this is unlocked from the very beginning and due to some conversations being the same each time no matter which choice you make, I did find the overall length of Later Daters to be too short for my liking.

• Freezed frequently | When advancing from one chapter to the next, I found my game freezing more than I would have expected. Luckily, autosave does prevent you having to playthrough everything from the beginning should you be unlucky and have to relaunch your game. I didn’t have any issues during the chapters themselves though. Yes, Later Daters loads up fairly quickly so it’s certainly not the end of the world but I do think this should have been looked at more before being released as no-one wants any of there games to freeze and need restarting.

How long to beat the story | Approximately 2 Hours
How long to achieve 1000G | Approximately 4 Hours
Similar with | Visual Novels and Dating Simulators

CONCLUSION

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