It’s been two decades since women and young girls everywhere were all but mandated to choose between Team Edward and Team Jacob, and in the time since, the unquenchable thirst for sexually-charged fiction and “Romantasy” has only intensified. This desire is part of what has made the mobile dating sim Love and Deepspace a global phenomenon–well, that and it’s stellar writing, frenetic combat, and shockingly deep gameplay. But whereas vampire fans have had their fantasies somewhat indulged since the game’s inclusion of Sylus back in July 2024, all the werewolf girlies of the world have been left wanting–until now.
After year and a half of anticipation and build up, Love and Deepspace has finally revealed its sixth love interest, Valko. With cherry-colored hair, amber eyes, and a feral temperament, the 26-year-old Alpha/company chairman is a Romantasy reader’s dream, and certainly fills a role left open by the game’s current line-up of love interests. So why is it that fans seem slightly… underwhelmed?
In a Reddit thread asking “What does everyone think of Valko?”, the overwhelming majority of liked comments were negative. “He looks so out of place next to our boys, I’m underwhelmed,” a user wrote. “I’m sorry but bro looks like he follows looksmaxxing accounts,” added another.
A frequent (and understandable, if we’re being honest) source of criticism is Valko’s ears. Based on his reveal trailer, it seems as though Valko with have four of them: two human ears, and two wolf ears. “Can’t say I’m a fan of the ears… I hope they’re retractable,” a Reddit user wrote on another thread. “I so, so, so dislike it when they do that,” another user wrote. “He [has] a really nice design otherwise and then: [Four] ears!”
Though a bit more lighthearted, fans across both Reddit and Instagram have joked about having a “Werewolf at home.” I’ve seen this clip of Rafayel wearing wolf ears shared repeatedly today, and it’s just as funny each time I watch it.
However, an even bigger complaint leveled against Love and Deepspace has been making the rounds, too, and was perfectly summarized by Reddit user VickyKujikawa.
“If they don’t improve the farming resources nodes, more ways to get diamonds, and start releasing main story at a good and normal pace like other games, this is ass. I’m sorry. If the way to ‘move’ the story is to release more [love interests], this is just bad writing and planning […] This guy comes out of nowhere because [the] main story apparently is nonexistent and I guess we will continue having random ass multibanners for the sake of whaling. I really hope the game gets better but I don’t have faith anymore.”
In addition to being a narrative-driven dating-sim and an action game, Love and Deepspace is, undoubtedly, a gacha game, and therefore has a lot of ways for fans to drop a lot of money on it. In my experience, Love and Deepspace has always done a relatively good job at providing enough content that players don’t need to drop money to have an enjoyable experience–however, that balance has shifted over time. With Valko’s addition comes more love interests, and with more love interests comes more opportunities for monetization and more money spent by completionists who are eager to obtain every Memory the game has to offer.
Not much is known about Valko other than what was shared on Love and Deepspace’s official website, though it speculated that he could be an escaped experiment from EVER, “a powerful organization known for pursuing controversial and ethically questionable research,” according to Fandom. Valko is scheduled to make his debut when Love and Deepspace Version 6.0, A Shattered Quiet, launches across mobile devices on July 9.
