''Love and Deepspace'' ( zh, s=恋与深空, p=Liàn yǔ Shēn kōng) is a 2024 Chinese 3D

otome game An is a story-based romance video game targeted towards women with a female protagonist as the player character. Generally one of the goals, besides the main story goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the female main player char ...

. It was developed and published by (with publishing outside

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

under Infold Games), which released for Android and iOS on 18 January 2024. It is known as the first 3D Otome game, receiving generally positive reviews and achieving commercial success.

Gameplay

''Love and Deepspace'' is the first 3D

, which replaces semi-anime 2D character design with semi-realistic 3D modeling. It also allows customizing the female protagonist, both the appearance and voice. This 3D art style makes the game more immersive and has attributed to its widespread popularity. It follows a

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

pattern while monetized by gacha and in-game purchases such as gift packs, monthly cards and characters' costumes. ''Love and Deepspace'' merges intense monster-hunting gameplay with a

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

universe setting, where "love knows no bounds". It provides the opportunity to establish relationships with five love interests, who are Xavier, Rafayel, Zayne, Sylus, and Caleb. Players take the role of a Deepspace Hunter, wielding a superpower known as Evol to confront the cosmic beings known as Wanderers. The love interests serve as supporting characters—people players naturally connects with throughout their journey. The gameplay features

action-RPG An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a video game genre that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing game genres. Definition Action role-playing games emphasize real-time combat whe ...

combat, allowing players to team up with their chosen love interest to take down Wanderers using combinations and light parrying mechanics. It presents its story through visual novel segments at times and fully animated, voiced cutscenes at others.

Development and release

''Love and Deepspace'' was developed by Papergames, a Chinese video game company based in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. It was globally released for Android and iOS on 18 January 2024. It is the second installment in the Mr.Love series.

Music

The version 1.0 theme song of ''Love and Deepspace'', which inspires the game's title, is sung by

Sarah Brightman Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano singer and actress. Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made ...

. Brightman describes the song as "exud nga mysterious and ethereal ambience ... tinged with a little bit of melancholy." The version 2.0 theme song titled ''Visions opposées'', is sung by

Mikelangelo Loconte Mikelangelo Loconte (5 December 1973) is an Italian singer, writer, composer, musician, performer and artistic director. He was born in Cerignola, but began his acting and performing career in France, in the musical ''Les Nouveaux Nomades'' by ...

and produced in collaboration with the original creators behind

Mozart, l'opéra rock ''Mozart, l'opéra rock'' ("Mozart, the rock opera") is a French musical with music by Dove Attia, Jean-Pierre Pilot, Olivier Schultheis, William Rousseau, Nicolas Luciani, Rodrigue Janois and François Castello, lyrics by Vincent Baguian and ...

. The version 3.0 theme song is a

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

song titled ''Cosmic Encounter'', performed by vocalist .

Reception

''Love and Deepspace'' has gained wide popularity worldwide since its global launch on 18 January 2024. Its download numbers surpassed 10 million by the third day of its launch, and by 2025, it boasts 50 million players worldwide. In

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, ''Sensor Tower'' reported that it was the most downloaded and highest-grossing interactive story game from January to September 2024, amassing nearly $30 million. As of March 2025, the game has an accumulated global revenue of over $500 million on the Google Play store and Apple's App Store, with markets outside of China accounting for 40% of the total revenue, based on data from analytics firm Sensor Tower. Studies attribute the success in revenue to both the blend in 3D and ethereal games elements, as well as the 'SHEconomy', since the game is realistic and caters to women's needs and desire for equality, respect and independence.

Legal actions

On 26 August 2024, Papergames issued a statement demanding the removal of a

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (an abbreviation of ''disrespect'' or ''disparage'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feu ...

by rapper ''PACT'', which it said contained unauthorized use of gameplay footage with distorted and derogatory remarks, and would take legal actions on this matter. After the statement, ''PACT'' deleted the video in question and re-released a version with no gameplay footage, in which the rap song and lyrics were captioned the same as before, while this new video version was lately deleted. This first court session was conducted on 14 January 2025 at the Yangpu District People's Court of Shanghai.

Characters

There are five love interests in-game, who are Xavier, Rafayel, Zayne, Sylus, and Caleb.

References

External links

* (in Chinese) * (in English) {{Template:Papergames 2024 video games Papergames games Android (operating system) games IOS games Otome games Video games featuring female protagonists Video games developed in China Multiplayer and single-player video games Gacha games Free-to-play video games