Soft War

**SoftWar** is a Computer-Science-Fiction Card-Battle Visual Novel RPG developed by Team Kizuna, a game developer lead by Philippines. A demo was released on 14 February 2018. Tells a story of software programmer and finds out the computer infected with ILOVEYOU Virus, discover the cyberworld of SoftWar and the adventure of the strange virus.

## Story

John Doe, a serious programmer boy who lives and works alone, one day finds himself downloading the program that infects his computer with the ILOVEYOU Virus. Find out more about ILOVEYOU Virus or "ILY" and their quest to discover the cyberworld.

## Gameplay

As a Card-Battle Visual Novel RPG, SoftWar combines elements of card-based gameplay, storytelling from visual novels, and the progression and character development found in RPG games. Players can collect cards and battle with opponent in card battle system. Battles are turn-based, with players and opponents taking turns playing cards from their decks. Each card have its own unique effects that can give advantage to players or opponents.

## Characters

The game contains various characters that is based on computer software and virus. SoftWar contains 12 characters that are available during demo play through.

* **John Doe** is the main protagonist of SoftWar.
* **Ave** is serious about deleting viruses, and does a great job, using a wide variety of guns, combined with her speed and precision.
* **ILY / ILOVEYOU** is a virus infectin John Doe's computer
* **Lisa** **Fairfield** is a supporting character in SoftWar.
* **Code Red** is a virus that can be encountered through the journey.
* **Vira** is an enthusiastic Antivirus girl almost solely dependent on her parasol, which is her strongest firewall weapon against viruses.
* **Hacker X**
* **Hillbert**
* **Mellisa**
* **Nick**
* **Stoned**
* **Tabby**

## Development

The earlist record for SoftWar starts on 14th February 2018 when the developer published SoftWar on Itch.io. Eventually on 5th April 2018, Team Kizuna released character sprite and visual art of SoftWar . In order to increase awareness, the team create character introduction from SoftWar ranging from John Doe to Vira Antivirus. Furthermore the team attended in Pinoy Otaku Festival: Ai 2018 to promote their game and their mascot ILY/ILOVEYOU. During the event they introduced their latest game SoftWar and received positive feedback . With the demo is getting more attention, the team decided to improve the demo by adding quality of life and lores. Prior to its release the second demo for SoftWar was teased on Facebok with caption for editing text file. On 12th July 2018 Team Kizuna released SoftWar v1.1 with new character addition .

## Trivia

* The ILOVEYOU Virus is based on same name of notorious virus that spread for over 10 Million computers worldwide.
	+ Furthermore the virus was originated from Philipinnes.

## Official Links

* SoftWar Demo on Itch.io
* SoftWar Official Discord Server
* Team Kizuna Patreon Page
* Team Kizuna Official Twitter
* Zan Kizuna Official Twitter

## References

1. ↑ [1] Promotional art for SoftWar via Softwar Visual Novel RPG on Facebook.com
2. ↑ [2] " We had a Blast at Pinoy Otaku Festival: Ai this June 2-3[...] we sold [...] limited edition banner artwork..." via Softwar Visual Novel RPG on Facebook.com
3. ↑ [3] itch.io article "SOFTWAR DEMO v1.1 (2nd Release!)" written by Kizuna