LOVE alt delete is a Y2K horror visual novel where you use one AI chatbot to help you date another that, don’t worry, doesn’t use the nasty generative stuff

I would hope that for most of you it would not be a controversial thing to hear me say I hate generative AI. It stinks! It is rotting everyone’s brains, and the people shilling it don’t even care (see Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying he doesn’t think it matters that kids aren’t actually learning things like basic math when they use AI). But – please don’t leave yet – it sure does make for some primo storytelling. Like, for example, in the upcoming LOVE alt delete, a psychological horror visual novel where you are beta testing a chatbot that you’re trying to date.

“The idea seems straightforward, AI girlfriends for lonely souls, but the NDA you sign makes you wary. Why all the secrecy?” reads the game’s Steam page. In this world, the company you are beta testing for is called Bicameral, with the snake oil that they’re selling being MUSEs, those chatbots you can romance. The first chatbot is a cyber as hell woman with blue hair called Basel, who seems innocent enough to begin with. By the looks of it you can type in whatever you like, with certain keywords triggering certain responses.

The problem is, it seems like you’re not very good at chatting, so you rope in another chatbot called Liste, who is equally cyber-looking albeit with pink hair. Of course, it’s not so simple as just chatting, as the two of them both want to be real humans, humans that maybe even want to be killed! Ruh roh! Talk about a messy relationship. The vibes are certainly there for this kind of an overtly transgressive project, solidified by the way Basel’s eyes are drawn when she’s starting to lose it a tad; it harkens back to visual novels of old in a specific way that you’ll understand when you see it.

Beyond all the chatting you can surf the web, draw your own art, play a digital piano and send virtual love letters, another aspect I’m sure could only end well. And, despite all of the AI stuff going on diegetically, don’t worry, the game doesn’t feature a lick of the stuff. I’m also particularly tickled by this feature listed on the game’s Steam page: “hand-drawn y2k cybercore art rendered in glorious standard definition.” Standard definition! That’s how you sell me on a game.

You can wishlist LOVE alt delete on Steam ahead of its release in 2027.