Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- was originally a Kickstarter Korean visual novel released in 2010 whose success resulted in a translation for an international audience. Having only Hatoful Boyfriend under my belt, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of a typical visual novel. Suffice to say, due to the overwhelming positive responses and premise similarity to the anime Chobits, my interest was piqued.
At the outset, our protagonist (you), is a high school kid who hates technology and robots. I know this because he repeats it often, as if I would forget after a few scenes. However, one day after school while taking a common detour through the dumpster landfill of a robotics company, he stumbles upon an extremely humanoid robot lying in a pile of parts. Uncharacteristically drawn to it, he tries to turn it on but it spazzes out. Soon, he is discovered by a security robot and without much hesitation, he scoops the pretty girl robot up and runs away. Thus begins his life with one of the many robots he supposedly hates.
Of course, after some trial and error, the robot turns out to be Lucy, an alpha model of a completely new series that was never released to the public. Unlike other androids, she is extremely capable of expressing and reading emotions, and can even cry. Furthermore, she comes equipped with all types of existing models’ capabilities, such as health care, cooking, cleaning, etc. With a complex learning system included in her software, she can look up any unknown word and process its meaning, while adding more information to it as she experiences new things. Still, at her core, she is simply programmed code that executes as needed.
Our protagonist, who has spent most of his life by himself with an absent dad and practically non-existent step-mother, suddenly finds himself with Lucy, who will tirelessly wake him up in the morning, prepare home-cooked meals, chat with him, and welcome him home after school. Naturally, he latches on to her unyielding attention and starts to question his hatred for robots, his own developing feelings for Lucy, and the realness of Lucy’s emotions. Eventually, he has to come to a decision about these floating internal conflicts. As the story progresses, the player also comes across snippets of android Lucy’s life in the lab before she was discarded in the dumpster, and discovers why something so revolutionary was cast aside.
Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- is a visual novel through and through. Only one decision ultimately matters, and the rest unlock achievements that simply look pretty. In fact, the game even teases you about inputting your name, and instead coquettishly denies it. The thing that bothered me the most was that between each chapter, a screen showing the Three Laws of Robotics would appear. Yes, I get it, just like I get that the protagonist hates robots. Please stop shoving it in my face.
For the most part, the writing is rather unbearable, with only android Lucy’s statements being the general saving grace. It’s possible that due to my inexperience with visual novels, I have too high an expectation for the writing, though you would think that for a novel, the writing would be of utmost importance. There are many instances where the protagonist says, “I think I will do this,” a scene change occurs with some sound effects, and the text reads “the protagonist does this.” I don’t need to be told it twice, particularly since the scene change and sound effects already show that it has occurred. As the game progressed, I found it harder to identify with anything the protagonist said or did.
Furthermore, Lucy tries to inject philosophical questions about the identify of robots and their place in society, but it’s handled poorly and feels shoehorned into the story rather than organic. In part, I think it’s because the writing style of the protagonist’s day to day life contrasts significantly with that of the heavy questions, and it never seems like the protagonist is actually capable of saying such things. I’ve seen other games handle these intricate questions better and with more subtlety. Still, I enjoyed the ending, and it seems there are a few alternate results possible.
Amongst all these complaints, I must say that the voice acting for android Lucy is among the best I’ve heard in awhile, although if I have to hear the word “juin-nim” (master) one more time, I might smash my headset. Lucy retains her original Korean voice, but the emotions carry over wonderfully. Pleasant but forgettable tunes are littered throughout. Sound effects in the game are surprisingly crisp and accurate, and make up for the complete lack of animation. When Lucy starts cooking, the enticing sizzling almost made me smell food. However, the graphics mainly consist of static images with overlaid character cutouts, which make for a dull visual experience, though this is in line with typical visual novels. Regardless, the anime art style is charming to look at, even if repetitive, and Lucy’s emotions are often well reflected in the drawings.
Given the overwhelming positive regard for Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- and the questioning of technology’s place in our lives, I’m surprised I did not enjoy it more. Nonetheless, I’m sure it has its place in certain demographics, and though I couldn’t get into the story, I can see it heavily affecting those who do. For those like me who, at least in this case, see androids for what they are regardless of packaging and features, the blurring of lines for a high school kid is much less relatable.
