Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing unlocked

Written by Jack Allin — February 14, 2021 at 10:34

The pandemic has been wreaking havoc on single people's love lives, and now art is mimicking life in Romantic Distancing, the spiritual successor to last year's character-driven romcom adventure, Half Past Fate.

After hitting it off when they first met, a "pandemic-induced lockdown turns Robin and Stephen's budding romance into a star-crossed story." Now the two would-be lovers will need to "cope with both their own circumstances and the struggles of staying connected online" if they're to continue developing their tenuous attachment while physically separated from each other. Will they be able to "learn to love from afar," or will the fledgling couple succumb to the trials of a long-distance relationship in the most extraordinary of circumstances?

There are both similarities and differences between Romantic Distancing and its predecessor. As before, the new installment features an overhead 2.5D pixel art presentation with a "cute, catchy chiptune soundtrack," and once again players will make "impactful choices that direct the story." Rather than following three different couples during several different periods of time, however, here the tale is focused only on one as they struggle to deal with the very immediate challenges of social lockdown. Players will experience both Robin's and Stephen's sides of a "charming and honest slice-of-life story set in all-too-familiar circumstances," offering a very personal look into the "intimate environs of each other’s quarantined lives."

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Half Past Fate: Romantic Distancing is releasing today on Steam for Windows and Mac, and the Nintendo eShop for Switch.