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Goodbye to Liar! Post
This past week, the English version of the Liar! app finally closed service after seven years, and I won't lie - I'm definitely sad about it.
I had to think for a bit to remember how I originally heard about this game, because I honestly could not remember. I'm pretty sure I just searched up dating sims on the Play store and downloaded it on a whim while at the airport with nothing else to do and waiting for my Midnight Cinderella tickets to reset, lol. Was terribly amused by it, and before long I found myself calculating just how many mini game Cool Points I would need to unlock each chapter within the time limit for S-rank.
I think I might also have to credit the game for being what got me into doing exchanges on AO3! Fandom-wise, I used to mostly hang out on the otome game side of tumblr after torching my old el jay identity. Cut to fall of 2017 and I found myself looking into what Trick or Treat is and how to sign up (think I first noticed in the collection tag of a fic I liked). I saw Liar! Office Deception in the tagset, and I was extremely "!!!" about it and knew I had to get into this scene. It wasn't me, I swear. I had no idea how fandom nominations worked at the time.
In any case, I had such an awesome time that year, and I've been hooked ever since!
I was kind of caught off guard when I started to realize "Wait they are really are just going to just straight up remove these games". I missed out when the Shall We Date? games were taken down (so sad about Niflheim...I wanted to romance the skeleton one more time lmao) and I was determined to not let that happen with Liar! Let's just say I underestimated how much time it was going to take.
The localization was great imo, and though they certainly took a few liberties (on replay a lot of these character POV exclamations of "Jesus" and "Christ" are jumping out at me as a bit incongruous, lol) I think the Voltage translation team definitely had the right spirit, and the Main Character's dialogue was one of things I loved most about her.
Really, I loved just about everything about Liar! except for the distribution model. By all accounts, the fourth and fifth routes are every bit as good as the previous games, if not better (not to mention the Male MC/Apartment/Cruise mini sequels that also look super fun). It just feels so bad that a good game doesn't get to stay around just because it didn't meet some earnings benchmark. For sure, I enjoyed it way more than many buy-to-play VNs I have. I didn't mind the daily ticket timegate, but I imagine the format put a lot of people off. I didn't spend much money on Liar! which I guess makes me part of the problem. Bought the LINE stickers but nothing else. In hindsight, I found the game to be quite generous in terms of content. Over the years, I was able unlock every ending, all the Lovers Routes, and tons of Liar files (CGs + sidestories). The only non-paywalled one I remember missing was the Tokyo Game Show data I milssed because I fell asleep and forgot to log in before rankings updated. Admittedly, I was really neurotic about doing the Flirt Time mini game whenever it was up.
I saved everything I could (those recordings are taking up half of my SD card...totally worth it, imo), but I'm going to miss having this game on hand for some lighthearted amusement whenever I was in the mood for otome Ace Attorney. I will continue to try playing the JP Doubt! app (which also recently got restructured + had user unlock data reset RIP) but it's gonna be slow going given how poor my Japanese has become.
There were just many things I liked about the game. I laughed A LOT, and I always enjoyed the mystery and drama of finding "The One", even though in most routes I shipped MC way more with the Liars or other side characters, lol. I loved the multiple endings for each Liar! that could be anything from heartwarming to horrifying to completely WTF. It even had replay value given the extra dialogue for false accusations.
Also:
THESE ABSOLUTE GOD TIER BGMs!!!
I did reach out to Voltage about porting this game to another platform like the Switch, which they've done for some of their other retired otomes. Got a standard "Thank you for your feedback" email in response, so I wouldn't hold my breath. This would have been so good as a standalone title. I would recommend it just for the music.
Overall, I really loved this game, and I wish it didn't have to come to this.
I had to think for a bit to remember how I originally heard about this game, because I honestly could not remember. I'm pretty sure I just searched up dating sims on the Play store and downloaded it on a whim while at the airport with nothing else to do and waiting for my Midnight Cinderella tickets to reset, lol. Was terribly amused by it, and before long I found myself calculating just how many mini game Cool Points I would need to unlock each chapter within the time limit for S-rank.
I think I might also have to credit the game for being what got me into doing exchanges on AO3! Fandom-wise, I used to mostly hang out on the otome game side of tumblr after torching my old el jay identity. Cut to fall of 2017 and I found myself looking into what Trick or Treat is and how to sign up (think I first noticed in the collection tag of a fic I liked). I saw Liar! Office Deception in the tagset, and I was extremely "!!!" about it and knew I had to get into this scene. It wasn't me, I swear. I had no idea how fandom nominations worked at the time.
In any case, I had such an awesome time that year, and I've been hooked ever since!
I was kind of caught off guard when I started to realize "Wait they are really are just going to just straight up remove these games". I missed out when the Shall We Date? games were taken down (so sad about Niflheim...I wanted to romance the skeleton one more time lmao) and I was determined to not let that happen with Liar! Let's just say I underestimated how much time it was going to take.
The localization was great imo, and though they certainly took a few liberties (on replay a lot of these character POV exclamations of "Jesus" and "Christ" are jumping out at me as a bit incongruous, lol) I think the Voltage translation team definitely had the right spirit, and the Main Character's dialogue was one of things I loved most about her.
Really, I loved just about everything about Liar! except for the distribution model. By all accounts, the fourth and fifth routes are every bit as good as the previous games, if not better (not to mention the Male MC/Apartment/Cruise mini sequels that also look super fun). It just feels so bad that a good game doesn't get to stay around just because it didn't meet some earnings benchmark. For sure, I enjoyed it way more than many buy-to-play VNs I have. I didn't mind the daily ticket timegate, but I imagine the format put a lot of people off. I didn't spend much money on Liar! which I guess makes me part of the problem. Bought the LINE stickers but nothing else. In hindsight, I found the game to be quite generous in terms of content. Over the years, I was able unlock every ending, all the Lovers Routes, and tons of Liar files (CGs + sidestories). The only non-paywalled one I remember missing was the Tokyo Game Show data I milssed because I fell asleep and forgot to log in before rankings updated. Admittedly, I was really neurotic about doing the Flirt Time mini game whenever it was up.
I saved everything I could (those recordings are taking up half of my SD card...totally worth it, imo), but I'm going to miss having this game on hand for some lighthearted amusement whenever I was in the mood for otome Ace Attorney. I will continue to try playing the JP Doubt! app (which also recently got restructured + had user unlock data reset RIP) but it's gonna be slow going given how poor my Japanese has become.
There were just many things I liked about the game. I laughed A LOT, and I always enjoyed the mystery and drama of finding "The One", even though in most routes I shipped MC way more with the Liars or other side characters, lol. I loved the multiple endings for each Liar! that could be anything from heartwarming to horrifying to completely WTF. It even had replay value given the extra dialogue for false accusations.
Also:
THESE ABSOLUTE GOD TIER BGMs!!!
I did reach out to Voltage about porting this game to another platform like the Switch, which they've done for some of their other retired otomes. Got a standard "Thank you for your feedback" email in response, so I wouldn't hold my breath. This would have been so good as a standalone title. I would recommend it just for the music.
Overall, I really loved this game, and I wish it didn't have to come to this.