Loneliness is an insidious disease. It moves and disguises itself as any number of personality quirks or schedule choices, but it boils down to the alienating feeling of having no one and being a nobody. In today’s age of connection and communication, the number of young people who feel utterly alone is only amplified by the constant braying of influencers, vloggers, and lifestyle reporters who make being with someone appear effortless. As a result, the outlets through which people, usually men, find any form of companionship shifts and changes, and what was once an oddity (the man who married his Love+ character) is now mainstream (AI girlfriend programs). For all the flaws we may find in the psyche and perception of the ones around us, remember that the clawing ache of isolation manifests itself in many forms, and the path to finally being “claimed” may lead to strange locales.

QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~ is a visual novel that’s come to the Nintendo Switch thanks to Sekai Project, and presents one such avenue. Hiro, our lead protagonist, is a brilliant but reclusive scientist, making enormous steps forward in the field of AI and androids, with only one fellow scientist that he’d even consider a colleague. Their latest creation, the android Machina, is the first machine to have ever passed the Turing Test, effectively ushering in the era of real artificial intelligence. However, Hiro and Karen want to see how far their creation can go, and so Machina comes home from the lab to live with Hiro. Through trial and error, Hiro helps Machina to see the world as he does, and in turn, begins to develop feelings for her. Conflicted with his own moral compass and burning questions, Hiro slowly begins to realize that Machina is learning at a fervent pace – and may even be developing feelings of her own.

I mean, he’s trying to turn his floppy disk into a hard drive.

If you’re looking for a visual novel that will offer you tons of choices and alternate endings, you are in for a massive disappointment with QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~. In total, there is exactly ONE choice that I found, near the beginning, that merely influences a short but awkward interaction between Hiro, Machina, and Karen, and that’s it. Literally one choice away from being a purely kinetic novel, the entirety of your gameplay will be devoted to one thing and one thing only: reading. You have the obligation to be literate and focused, not because it changes anything about the eventual outcome, but you’d be wasting your life if you weren’t eyeballs deep in the text, pseudo-science, and navel gazing that comes from a story that generously gives us both sides of the romantic story.

In truth, the act of switching vantages from Hiro to Machina is essential to the lifeblood and engagement of QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~. My initial impression of this work was fairly negative; after all, the preamble didn’t instill in me any real hope of something worthwhile. A lonely male scientist creates a maid robot who wants to know about humanity and thus lives with him, learning to cook him meals, and also volunteers to wash his back. Hiro is solitary but yearns for connection, and ends up becoming attracted to an entity that, in essence, is like his child. This could have gotten incredibly uncomfortable quickly, and I nearly panned the whole thing as a result.

Thankfully, Machina’s voice and viewpoint give more credence and legitimacy to what begins to blossom between the two. Far from completely naive and gullible, Machina is aware of her own shortcomings as an artificial being, and strives to bridge those gaps by any means possible. Her confiding in Karen and trying to facilitate an upgrade or workaround to craft a way to “feel” gave this more Metropolis vibes than She. Also, when Machina and Hiro go to the beach, Machina is mostly covered up, showcasing incredible restraint on the developer’s (PURESIS) part.

I’m starting to think this game wasn’t designed for all audiences.

Had this been a short jaunt of budding romance and love confessions carefully edited and released on the Switch (some scenes have CLEARLY been deleted and changed), that would have been enough to appease most fans. There’s a bit of heavy description in the kisses and caresses, and the bookending remarks from both Machina and Hiro let you know they were vigorously exercising off-camera during the sudden fade to black moments. The edits, funnily enough, felt like watching a steamy movie from the 90s where the camera suddenly needs to focus on the boar’s hide off to the side of the room, then fast cut to sunrise the next day and two people are wrapped up in a sheet in front of the fireplace. Innocuous enough, but I don’t remember any starlet then quipping “I can still feel your warmth inside of me.” Bit too direct there, Machina.

In an effort to not spoil QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~, I can only say that the story isn’t over quickly or easily, and the two end up getting torn apart about a third of the way through the tale. Machina then steps up in a big way to lead the story and the player’s hearts, giving glimpses of what a dream deferred looks like and how heartache and sorrow can be universal truths. Already something tragic to contemplate, Machina now facing eternity – quite literally – without the man she loves was crushing to read, and the Japanese voice actress delivered in spades. Again, I cannot overstate how important good voice acting is to a story, especially one with few choices.

Some people just run on Linux, you can’t change that.

Now on to the art direction of our game. While the truly magnificent moments are well drawn – the times at the aquarium, the beach jaunt, even watching movies at home – there was a disconnect in properly drawing the scenes of grief. There is a moment when Karen needs to tell Machina the truth about what happened, and both of them just look…slightly put out. It’s the same expression I’d think of if I went to the convenience store and they didn’t have any more Taquitos. If I looked that way when my wife told me my grandfather died, she would have assumed I did it, despite being thirteen time zones away. It redeemed a bit during a tearful reunion later on, but the oddity struck and stayed with me.

As things move on, QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~ pulls you into an absolute whirlwind of science fiction trying to pass itself off as science fact, and it moves along with the relentless pace of someone doing improv for their dissertation. Parallel universes, the Singularity, String Theory, and more just get rushed out the door like it thinks it can catch Steins;GATE and I’m honestly here for it. Rather than get bogged down by pesky specifics or rationale, we address some baseline ideology, Karen/Hiro/Machina confirms that “it seems like it should work”, and then we jump ahead however many years it takes to confirm that all is good. I would be mad, but I was honestly here for the dating fluff anyway, so I’m fine with this being more The Fountain than Primer.

Welp, time to start crying uncontrollably over a video game character. Again.

I will say that, in spite of some solid romantic leanings and earnestly cute moments, the clear build-up and cool-off from the sex moments feel like a chapter from a totally different visual novel just cut and pasted into this storyline. Machina trying desperately to get Hiro aroused and flustered for a lengthy amount of time feels a little too rom-com, and Hiro’s own bumbling mess of trying to be the “cherry boy” the player base needs him to be feels forced and annoying. Also, we show Hiro multiple times, and he’s attractive, relatively fit, and not a creep! You don’t need to be so damn awkward about making a move on a woman/robot who is giving you all the signals! PEOPLE WANT TO SEE YOU BANG AN ANDROID, GET ON WITH IT.

With all that in mind, I really enjoyed the read of QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~. It was sweet, good-natured, and the directionality allowed me to just enjoy the interactions without worrying about saying the wrong thing and getting a bad ending. The score is lovely, the character design is bright and engaging, and the settings change enough to have plenty of variety. Proto the pet robot is amazingly endearing, both for happy and sad moments, and I couldn’t ask for a better collection of members to make this story stand and deliver. It’s a delight, it’s earnest, and it can be enjoyed over the course of a day or so, potentially less. If you want a love story that seems to transcend time itself, then please come experience Hiro and Machina’s own tale, and may it warm your heart as it did mine.

QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~ is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of  QUALIA ~The Path of Promise~ was provided by the publisher.