21 years later, one of the most beloved visual novel series ever made is about to turn into a mech-fueled strategy RPG

If you’ve ever dipped even a toe into the vast ocean of the world of visual novels, you’ve probably come across Muv-Luv, a 21-year-old series that reigns as one of the genre’s most beloved names. Now, it’s about to achieve its final form: a mech-fueled strategy RPG.

Muv-Luv Tactics was announced this week with a brief teaser trailer showcasing a few mech designs, and bit of text in that trailer confirms that it will be a strategy RPG – pretty much what you’d expect from a game with ‘Tactics’ in the name. Gematsu’s translation of the announcement notes that the game will be crowdfunded, and additional details will be revealed at a “Muv-Luv Day” event on October 19. 

The original Muv-Luv launched in Japan back in 2003, and at a glance, you’d probably have a hard time distinguishing it from any number of other visual novels. You play as a high school boy who’s unremarkable but nonetheless pursued by an array of female love interests and, you know, hijinks ensue – it’s basically what you’d expect.

But over the course of the series, the story turns into a timeline-hopping sci-fi war epic with much higher stakes. 2006’s Muv-Luv Alternative is seen as one of the high points of the entire visual novel genre – it’s currently the number two top-rated game on tracking site VNDB, and it enjoys overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. English-language versions of these games first hit PC back in 2016, and they were ported to Switch earlier this year.

The throughline from ‘high school romance VN’ to ‘mech-filled tactics game’ might not make a lot of sense if you haven’t followed the series, but it’s fully true to the shape Muv-Luv has taken over the years. There’s no word on whether Muv-Luv Tactics will get an English-language release, but given the series’ recent ports and the sheer volume of worldwide visual novel releases we’ve seen recently – from Tsukihime and Fate/stay Night to Kanon and Katawa Shoujo – the odds seem pretty good.

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