Mini-Series

## Introduction and history

Mini-Series are a new five chapters format that was established on April 13th, 2021, with the release of Mark Leviels and Viktor Bartholy's story routes and this format ended with the mini series based on Giorgio Maccini's story route. The mini series ultimately lead to the demise of 1492 studios and the Is it love? franchise as fans didn't found the route interesting that were mini series with exceptional cases like Parker Sparke, Conrad Bartholy, Mark Leviels and Viktor Bartholy.

These stories are dedicated to side or new characters and previous 2nd love interests who the team doesn't like to expand on the eleven chapter format and by the team it's been told to be a method to discover multiple love interests in a very short period of time. However, this justification has been lashed by fans a lot to the point most fans don't play these stories unlike the times where every fan used to give time and money to play new routes irrespective of whatsoever the character is.

Despite high criticism, these series have continued to move on despite many fans voicing the problems with these stories. The story offers sloppy romance and misleading plots via advertisement and has said to be unfair because four characters who were highly demanded by fans like Haku Kobayashi, Nao Arasaka, Lisa Parker, and Owen Hobbad were not given mini-series, but rather Chad Williams, Lucifer Lightbringer and Caleb Rosewood are thriving examples of this along with Parker Sparke.

A total of twelve mini-series have been made and released. All of these stories are available in the Is it Love? Stories app exclusively. Every universe in Is it Love? has a mini-series except for Blue Swan.

The mini series idea as said by Ubisoft was started in the year 2019 under the approval of Claire Zamora. However, Claire herself during a conversation with an Instagram fan has said she hasn't been apart of any ideas regarding Is it Love? after her final work that she put in on Daryl Ortega's story route. The poc term has been misused and gave some fans the idea that poc only means African-American people, when poc actually includes Asian American, Latino, South Pacific Islanders, and even Native American and Indians.

From February 8th, 2022, Is it Love? made changes to the mini-series. Now instead of releasing all chapters in one day, they will now take five weeks total to release the full season. the first chapter will come once a week. However, the length of story and the number of secret scenes is still the same. This move was done so fans would have hype like they used to for long running stories, as fans will be able to be kept on edge thinking what will happen next.

But fans have felt this is a very useless method to keep hype and interest of people. Despite this, the biggest problem of sloppy romance and unexplained attractions towards the main character still remains and fans read these stories to see the development in love but since this element is so faulty and not many people sing praises of these stories like they do for the eleven chapters format.

## End of Mini-Series

Following the final chapter of Giorgio's mini-series in September 20th 2022, Is it Love? had made an announcement to make a stoppage of publishing new stories and updates to the game series, much to the anger and hate by many fans because they wanted to give other characters to have opportunity to have their main story routes for years and the team had often ignored them since. It was revealed that the Is it Love? had suffered financial problems caused by Ubisoft and to the devastation to the creator of the game series, Claire Zamora who was informed by Ubisoft about their recent announcement of the stoppage.

## The mini series pass

Is it Love? has offered players a chance to read all mini-series without the use of energy which can be done by spending $19.99 (plus tax) on a Mini Pass. It gives you unlimited reading but only for the mini-series.

## About Mini-Series

Mini-series consists of five chapters which each lasts around one hour with the fifth chapter being around one hour and thirty minutes long. The series features seven secret scenes in the story and has an often criticized romance pacing as compared to the eleven chapters format. Each mini-series seems to be trying something different with its main characters. Mark's route was the first route depicting an Asian main character. Conrad's was the first story to technically be a sequel to a previous story route and feature a main character who was already an established character in the previous route. Joe's story was the first to feature a main character that was not a part of Carter Corp and etc.

The mini-series focuses on LGBT and diversity more. ( LGBT however is seen only on one story ) Most of the fans support the diversity but sometimes the mini-series showcase them in a bad way.

The mini-series punch line is "5 intense chapters" and have been claimed by the team to be a breath of fresh air among fans by the team but a majority of fans have opposed to this format and accused the team of showing favoritism and discrimination among fans and characters they choose to. Some fans have already grown tired of the format and think it's already been overused and are always underdeveloped, and with a very cheap budget while some others like the change in pace and do find it refreshing who don't care for characters that went as mini-series. But now the refreshment has died and this is seen as a way to abuse this format for quick cash grab as writers don't wrote this story with any passion and some girls harshly criticized saying it's basically like a Tinder story where couples are dating to get laid and force relationship to escape depression and anxieties. This format also leads to their downfall by suffering financial problems and many fans are no longer invested this format afterwards.

In one interview that was centered around mini-series, the team said that mini-series are a novel like concept meaning to get to the point of the story, and are stories that they can enjoy and have access to everything like they do when they get a new novel. But now ever since the recent change that was brought to mini-series, it is now like a limited edition series.

While mini-series features less drama and sex, it has a lot of bad points and drawbacks that can not be seen as unforgettable. Viktor Bartholy has been considered a toxic representative of a love interest due to his main character being obsessed and too submissive.

Most mini-series have a typical structure to the story, like the first chapters are introducing the lovers and characters, the second chapter is the couple sharing their first kiss, then chapters 3 or 4 features the sex scenes and small arguments while the 5th and final chapter is for the plotline and dealing with the antagonists in the stories. Some bad endings actually culminates to another mini-series, main characters became single at the end or are remained as a couple.

## Story Routes

Both Mystery Spell and Carter Corp had the highest number of mini-series being 4 followed by Fallen Road being 2 and Secret Palace only having 1. While Sunrise Valley was made to be a universe exclusively for mini-series but so far only has 1. Here are the dates the mini-series story routes were released.

April 13th, 2021: Mark Leviels (Carter Corp)

April 13th, 2021: Viktor Bartholy (Mystery Spell)

June 24th, 2021: Conrad Bartholy (Mystery Spell)

August 26th, 2021: Zac Hudson (Fallen Road)

September 28th, 2021: Joe Kicks (Carter Corp)

November 3rd, 2021: Cameron Cooper (Secret Palace)

November 23rd, 2021: Sarah Osborne (Mystery Spell)

December 21st, 2021: Caleb Rosewood (Sunrise Valley)

February 8th, 2022 to March 8th: Lucifer Lightbringer (Fallen Road)

February 23rd 2022 to March 23th: Chad Williams (Mystery Spell)

April 15th 2022 to June 1st: Parker Sparke (Carter Corp)

July 26th 2022 to September 20th: Giorgio Maccini (Carter Corp)

Note: Lucifer's mini-series will be now updated every week, hence this will be the first mini series to last for a month. In Parker's mini-series, originally the final chapter was ended on May 25th but was moved to June 1st due to delay.

## Upcoming Mini-Series [Cancelled]

The team has always been discriminating and upsetting many fans while giving the turn on who will be the next in mini-series. Until, now some characters that were shown in a trailer when the mini-series were teased for possibly getting a future mini-series.

The list below are just assumptions because of the original trailer, nothing has been confirmed yet. But following the announcement of the stoppage, these characters to have their own mini-series are no longer to be given new stories.

* Lisa Parker
* Ashton Darrow
* Sohan Heka
* Ludwig Eberwald
* Nao Arasaka

Lisa Parker is debatable as Is it Love? has shown more interest in Nao Arasaka, Owen Hobbad, Loan Huxley, Esteban Dias and Ashton Darrow instead.

Since ,the team will no longer released any stories the following mentioned characters are considered as scrap characters for the story.

## Possible Mini-Sequels [Cancelled]

Despite as said in the article that the team has no plans for sequels in mini series, it still is possible that they can do it as some of the mini series have demands from fans for sequels and second seasons. Possible mini-series sequels/second seasons are:

Mark's & Viktor's routes: These routes were the most popular among fans and a lot of them have wished or demanded that they should get sequels too as these mini-series sold more than the other 7 routes.

Sarah's route: It might be shocking but, it's been hinted that Sarah may receive updates due to her season's cliffhanger ending by the team. Fans, unlike Mark and Viktor's, have not expressed that much hype for possibly giving her for a sequel.

Mini-series when concluded the team on website have quoted-

"The first mini series about \_\_\_\_\_\_ is over, but, don't worry he/she will be back!"

This could be possible that one day team may give them updates or perhaps make these characters appear in other mini-series or story route.

## Positive Critiques & Uniqueness

Despite its many criticisms as you will see further down, each mini-series has a first in something and has had some positive feedback.

* Some do like the idea of mini-series and feel like there is more room to explore and experiment with new, unused ideas and characters.
* There is less filler due to less chapters.
	+ This means less pointless interactions with many characters that don't further the plot as seen in a lot of full story routes.
* Mini-series pass purchase makes fans want to reread the story again without needing to spend money. It's a very cheap 10x as compared to long runners, but for some economical fans it's considered a treasure.
* Some like that they don't have to read as much and there are more fast-paced, quick to sex relationships, as some people don't like slow burn relationships or long stories.
* The less time spent on side characters that don't add anything to the plot and being harassed by secondary antagonists like Cassidy Sparke less, and not having to be in as many embarrassing or uncomfortable situations like being sexually harassed or being in danger.
* Mark's route in particular was overall well-received and featured a likable, unproblematic main love interest according to most.
* Samantha Gautier's redemption arc from Peter Bartholy's route being carried over to Viktor and Conrad's story routes, where she was officially redeemed in Conrad's route. Some enjoyed that her character was finally given more depth, and felt it was time for her to be redeemed and show more maturity.
* Mini-series have been more diverse when it comes to friends in each story. In Mystery Spell and Carter Corp, only Sarah and Lisa would be the best friends of players but in recent mini-series, Jenny Blake and Grace Leviels replaced Lisa as the best friend in Mark and Joe's routes. In Viktor's route, Elena replaced Sarah as the best friend, and then Nao Arasaka replaced Elena in Conrad's route and served as the first male best friend, and in Sarah's route, Elijah Osborne took over the role as the best friend.
* Certain characters that appeared as antagonists in previous routes appeared as allies in other stories. The best examples are Celeste Devolt, Ivana Oswald-Descieux, Samantha Gautier and Grace Leviels. Both Ivana and Celeste were against the relationship of the player and James Oswald-Descieux, taunted her, humiliated her and other things but in Cameron's route, Ivana was a kind and supportive aunt to the player and Celeste served as the best friend type character, replacing Beth Young.
* Some mini-series are considered great for change of tone and settings too. Fans were now happy that they don't have to suffer from Lorie's antics anymore and how the main characters in Mystery Spell no longer have to attend school and feel more adult like.
* Characters like Nao Arasaka, Elijah Osborne and Nayati Yellowtail were very well received and fans hope for them to receive future story routes.
* Even though it was slightly criticized due to it's dark undertone and taking place as a sequel with Elena as the main character, Conrad's route was overall well received due to those reasons and some fans want Is it Love? to take that approach again with other story routes, such as a possible Owen Hobbad story route which takes place after his ending from Adam Peterson's story route.
* Most of the main characters are considered well liked and relatable except for a few.
* Some fans like that there is more of a chance for certain antagonists to get story routes now like Viktor did. Some of them being Giorgio Maccini, Steven Simons, Charles Huxley, Loan Huxley, Samantha Gautier, Liang Shaw and even Carl Weaver.

Mark's route:

* First non-American Carter Corp main character who is a Chinese.
* First main character who was divorced.
* First married and then divorced love interest.
* First love interest with a child from a previous relationship.
* First route where the player does not know Matt Ortega at all.

Viktor's route:

* First route dedicated to an antagonist.
* First main character that was not a student or an au-pair to Lorie Bartholy.
* First Mystery Spell route that did not feature one of the Bartholy brothers except Drogo and Nicolae.
* First route where Samantha Gautier is never rude to the player.

Conrad's route:

* First to take place after a previous story route's bad ending and technically serve as a sequel.
* First to feature a character who had appeared in a previous story route as the new main character.
* It has the most deaths acknowledged, and the only one where all of the Bartholy brothers are dead due to Viktor instigating a car accident.
* First story to have Samantha serve as an ally rather than an enemy.

Zac's route:

* First to features a secret scene in Chapter 3 where there are two versions of it depending on your choices, where you could read it either from the player's or Asmodea's point of view.
* First story route to feature a threesome between two women and one man during a sex scene, and first story route where the player willingly has sex with a woman.
* First story route where the player can actually ended up with the second female love interest in the bad ending.

Joe's route:

* First to feature a main character was not apart of the Carter Corp company.
* First story route where the main character has a sister and a nephew.
* To feature other characters who were guest characters outside of their respective routes.

Cameron's route:

* First to feature a main character who is related to a love interest from another route, being James Oswald-Descieux.

Sarah's route:

* First story route dedicated to a female character.
* First story route to feature a lesbian main character.
* First main character who was designed by a popular Is it Love? fan artist, @missaubreythorne/miss\_throne\_art..
* First route that introduced one of its new original characters during an extra love scene.

Caleb's route:

* First universe and story to be introduced by a mini-series rather than a full story route.

Lucifer's route:

* Another story route takes place after a previous story route's bad ending and technically serve as a sequel.
* First story route to feature a love interest who is the father of a main character from the past story route.
* To feature a previous main character from a long running series on-screen as a side character.
* To feature a returning main character from the previous mini-series on-screen as a main villainess until the final chapter.
* To feature a widowed main character.
* To receive weekly updates instead of releasing all chapters in one day.

Chad's route:

* First story route to feature a love interest who became a side character from the past story route.
* To feature a second love interest who became a guest side character.
* First story route where the players got the bad ending for the first time after finishing the entire mini-series despite trying hard to get the good ending, making this mini-series the most upsetting hard to get the desirable end. Fans have violently bashed the team for their work efforts and laziness in writing.
* First story route where the player's pet is a ghost.
* First Mystery Spell route where the player's pet isn't Isabella Jones in her owl form.

Parker's route:

* First story route to feature a love interest who was a relative to the former antagonist.
* First story route to represent an Indian player but in a misinterpretation way.
* First story route to depict the player having pet but was not shown on-screen.
* First story route the player has a friend that is unseen in story in terms of render.
* First player with an unnatural hair color due to it being dyed in royal blue hair.

Giorgio's route.

* First story route to feature a main character who is a former prosecutor and an avenger by masquerading herself by working undercover with the antagonist turned love interest.
* First story route to represent an Italian main character who is also related to the second love interest.
* First route where the player goes corrupted in the non-canonical good ending.

## Negative Criticism and Controversies

Ever since it's inception, mini-series have received a lot of backlash, toxicity and anger from fans the following reasons are:

* The birth of the hate for mini-series started with Mark and Viktor, as these two were hyped for four months with ads, trailers, promotions and backgrounds. During this time a lot of fans felt they were going to have the 11 chapters format, however on April 5th, 2021, fans were shocked and some were even angered after learning these two were going to be part of a new, shorter format that no one asked for. Ever since then, the fandom of Is it Love? has been considered to be dying and fans started to hate and become toxic with Is it Love?. The team itself is highly responsible for what the fandom has degraded itself too and some feel they should be held accountable for this.
* The secret scenes of mini series has been poor as compared to detailed diversity of Secret scenes seen in long running series. Most secret scenes of mini series have Botched characters or characters with inconsistent skin tones. Caleb's player was whitewashed constantly in secret scenes. Sarah's player had botched lips in the bad ending to the point of fans had to go edit the secret scene to match with the original description of the player's features. This is one of most embarrassing cases to be witnessed. That also happens to Lucifer whose skin tone is almost tan had been whitewashed in the secret scenes of the final chapter to depict him being light tan.
* The mini-series provides poor pacing of romance and is often rushed.
* The fans have accused the mini series to force players into a relationship. This is seen in Zac, Sarah, and Lucifer's route.
* The fans have also put angry accusations on the team regarding them not listening to the fans' feedback on mini series as these mini series have shown no improvement in Chapter length secret scenes or updates.
* A lot of angry fans want the team to at least try to do sequels on Mark and Viktor's story but the team remains ignorant, biased, and discriminating towards fans.
* Chad who was only a side character in Conrad's mini-series and since he is a black character (as accused by many critical fans of Is it Love?) is set to get mini series before the characters like Sohan, Ludwig and Nao. This setup, had been mostly angered by fans.
* The secret scenes of mini series are recycled mostly from the old routes. For example, Lucifer's secret scene from chapter 2 is a reused scene taken from Jake's route which was the very first secret scene in the first chapter. Cameron's sexual secret scene pose from Chapter 3 was a reused secret scene from Joe's mini series seen in Chapter 4. The secret scene of Caleb's from Chapter 5 where they kiss was also a reused secret scene from Daryl's story.
* The mini series are hated by many fans for its poor format and fans have been begging for old system to return.
* Main characters are often less dramatic than full fledged ones, but almost all of them have a cliché, sad backstory inserted, which is often referred to as the "poor me" background. Sarah's main character was not accepted by her parents and was betrayed by her only best friend, Mark's main character was abused by her ex-husband Alexander, and never dated anyone after that, Cameron's main character suffered from PTSD and depression after the tragedy that killed three spacemen in her current work as an aerospace engineer at the fallen Zenith 3, Zac's main character was not loved by her father Lucifer due to his abuse towards her and was a control freak in wanting to overthrow her father and his throne, Elena had a dysfunctional family and her best friend was murdered by Viktor. This is usually done to make fans feel bad for them and force them into thinking or make them feel that the rushed feelings and relationships with their love interest is just a way to cope with the crippling depression they are suffering from and that they are more vulnerable to quick romance as they tend to cure a broken heart.
	+ Fans have also criticized how easily the love interests fall in love with you which they find to be unrealistic and some of them show no chemistry.
* Characters like Cameron Cooper and Mark Leviels who were shown to be guys who would be a good representative of slow burn romance were ruined by the team as they made these two the most docile and fall for the player very quickly. Mark's character was completely reset. He never considered dating his colleagues and this is shown in Gabriel's Season 2 where he pushed both Jenny Blake and Cassidy Sparke away as he had no interest in dating his colleagues. Despite this, the team made him fall for his colleague quickly, which is absurd and contradicts Claire Zamora's writing of Mark. Cameron was shown in James Oswald-Descieux's route to be *friend-zoned* and had no relationship with anyone except with the player as his friend.
* The unwanted personality reset of characters. Sarah's character reset was the only appreciated one. Joe and Zac became depressed and sad in their mini-series while in other stories they are cheerful, confident and sarcastic. Viktor on the other hand went from a power hungry tyrant who doesn't care about anyone to an awe-struck man who easily fell in love with the player and had changes made to his personality to fit the story better. However, the fans are getting more angry when the player from Fallen Road was given a personality reset in Lucifer's route which she became hostile towards both Zac and the player due to their species as a demon.
* For being predictable and reusing the plots from the early work of the Is it Love? founder, Claire Zamora.
* The fact that love interests of color or LGBT nature only get mini-series and have never had a full story route, some feel it is unfair and racist that Is it Love? only gives full story routes to straight, white male characters (excluding Daryl and Matt) while the characters that don't fit that category are reduced to mini-series with less time and developing.
* The another criticism that fans do feel is that, mini series are just a filler series and has no impactful plots as seen in long formats. Some mini series do contain huge potential for realistic setting but the team doesn't try to expand it as it may be really too deep for a very short story. An example for this is basically the route of Viktor's. The story if was a full series then it would have explored Viktor's evil side more and the theme of story would have been from enemies to lovers. But instead they did not capture the great hidden potential.
* The release of Cameron Cooper's route before Julian Devolt's was met with anger and backlash with fans, and also because Secret Palace only had one established story route, and felt it was too early for the universe to be reduced to mini-series.
* Lucifer Lightbringer from Fallen Road who was just mentioned in Zac Hudson's mini-series was met with hate too as fans expected Caliel, Kean or Danael to be the next story route from Fallen Road.
* Zac's mini-series was highly sexualized, and replaced the main character from Fallen Road for a new main character, who was also highly criticized and hated given the new main character had no chemistry or true love for Zac because of her original plans in overthrowing her father Lucifer. That also happens when she became the main villainess in her father's mini-series until its final chapter.
* Some fans have labeled the mini-series as cash grabs and are only made to stall and keep players occupied and happy while the team works on 2nd and 3rd seasons for already established story routes such as Daryl Ortega and Drogo Bartholy's, which is why they don't seem to have a lot of thought put into them.
* Some feel like Is it Love's way of showing diversity is by promoting certain black characters, and feel as though Is it Love? only sees black people as people of color and no other ethnicities.
* Caleb Rosewood whose story started the new universe, Sunrise Valley, has been the least viewed route by fans.
* Joe's mini-series was criticized for having Niño di Luca as the 2nd love interest, as fans knew that the 2nd love interest in a mini-series is an illogical thing to exist as it's already a very short story.
* Conrad's mini-series received some backlash for making Elena Gabe the main character and his story be set after another story's bad ending.
* The controversy of whitewashing Caleb's main character.
* For having no development of characters and secret scene/images being predictable with no diversity and just has cliché kiss & sex scenes in it.
* Fans feel this is a lazy effort made by the team and they are being exploited for quick money. This can be termed as acceptable due to how many mini-series have been released and the lack of focus on already existing routes or creating new full story routes.
* In a survey on the official Facebook page, 70% of people are against the mini-series format. Despite this, Is it Love? continued to ignore its fans petition and pleas.
* In a survey conducted by Is it Love? regarding opinions, fans have agreed that mini-series are not a good thing to keep on happening, and fans filed a petition and pleas too for getting the first 2 mini-series (Mark & Viktor) to be remade and released as full story routes.
* Is it Love? lied to its fans by saying if they support the Mark and Viktor mini-series, then they will consider making full routes for them, but Is it Love? abused the sentiments of its fans and just used their success to make more, unwanted mini-series that no one asked for. Some fans have started to hate Is it Love? because of this.
* The less hype it brings for its characters and it has been ridiculed for its constant use of the word "intense".
* The team lied to fans about mini-series being test subjects as this mini-series have now become the only format given to characters.
* In Chad's mini-series, Aiden Williams, the older brother of Chad Williams is portrayed as a second love interest during the promotional artworks and trailers but when you read the whole chapters, Aiden is not a second love interest at all but portraying as a major antagonist who murders the player's brother and Chad's best friend, Francis, much to the dismay of fans who liked Aiden to become a love interest.
* Most female antagonists had reused their respective portrayals in other full routes, Cleo is the main example of a villainess, having blinded in love with Viktor Bartholy which she calls him as Victorius as well as her desire to find him. Her portrayal was a reused scene from Celeste Devolt in Secret Palace which she became blinded in love with James but her attempts to kill both Chad and the player with her necromancy magic due to her desire to find Viktor is also a reused scene from Ka-Ata-Killa in Sebastian's route in Mystery Spell.
* Fans of Viktor, Mark, Conrad, Joe, Sarah, Cameron, and Zac have highly criticized this format as these characters were expected by many fans to get full story routes and felt like they deserved them.
* Mini-Series have no plans for sequels and second seasons as mentioned by the admin of Is it Love's Facebook page on a private DM conversation with a fan.
* The mini series has less substance on characters as compared to soap opera format of Is it Love?.
* The love between the main character and main love interest is very unrealistic and superficial. A prime example is Zac's mini-series where the player, most of time, considered Zac as a sex toy and wasn't into him that much romantically despite knowing him for centuries. Mark and his player falling in love madly after only knowing each other for 2 to 3 weeks made no sense to some as well as for Caleb and his player. Joe's love for players is considered rushed and seems forced by many fans. Viktor's love for the main character felt like forced writing by the team to possibly make him seem more sympathetic and less psychotic.
* The mini-series has no big impact on fans, and is actually very cheap to develop and create by the team which is why they were able to make so many in less than a year.
* The controversial hate recently seen for Lucifer is justified as the team wasted one month hyping fans up and then the promotional image of Fallen Road being shown lead to fans think that second season of Fallen Road was coming up. But it turned out that it was another mini-series for an unknown character instead.
* The mini-series has constantly forced fans to lose interest in Is it Love?.
* the player from Viktor's route was heavily criticized and not well liked by most.
* In the full story routes, some main love interests except for Drogo are not shown to use condoms during their intimate sessions with their respective players. But in the mini-series, Mark, Cameron, and Caleb are the only main love interests shown to have condoms in either their pockets or bags whenever they get intimate with their respective players. This scene also caused some backlash from fans due to the team turning the scenes into sex education, and being creeped out when they are seen to have condoms out of the blue, which often means that they were anticipating have sex with the players.
	+ This scene was also taken from the 2008 commercial of Frenzy Condoms in the Philippines where most love interests had kept their condoms on their pockets while the girls are intimately getting ready to get with them. Although in one scene where the love interests had misplaced their condoms all over their jacket and pants which were actually kept on their pockets of their respective pants and jeans.
	+ The team seemed to have good intentions when writing these scenes to show the importance of safe sex and contraception.
* Jenny Blake and Grace Leviels replacing Lisa Parker as the best friend type character as some fans miss Lisa and don't like these characters.
	+ Some also do miss having Matt Ortega as the male best friend type character. While others appreciate the change.
* Following the teaser of Chad's mini-series, most fans are getting more angrier than before while showing more backlash towards the team when they prefer new characters rather than the old ones who were from the full story routes.
* The team is also disliked by fans on how they are making some mini series that takes place after the bad ending of a certain main love interests and becoming unoriginal with ideas. Fans disliked how both Zac and Viktor's bad endings were canonical as compared to the good ending as fans have said they deserve their good endings to be canon. This also leads to other fans are getting heavily spoiled for their plots which is deem unacceptable and unfair by many.
* The mini series have received so many backlash to the point about the IIL team now hardly tries to be original with the story and put lazy effort in work. The angle between the Williams brothers' Chad and Aiden is a reused scene between the Ortega brothers' Matt and Daryl where they both didn't liked each other that much as seen in the first season of Matt's route and were neutral to each other. Cleo appears as a recycled version of Ka-Ata-Killa from Sebastian's route but as a villainess who is blinded in love Viktor and her desire to find him. Mark's story was inspired from an old reused sub-plot from Gabriel's Season 2 where he, Jenny and Ryan go for one month to an Asian country to help Ryan's establish better relationships with Asian branch. Sariel snitches on Lucifer during Chapter 4 of his mini-series is the same as Danael's scene where he tried to snitch on her in chapter 17 of Fallen Road. The rushed writing has ruined the essence of Is it Love?.
* Many fans have rage quitted this fandom due to team's egotistical behavior to some of characters and ruining their personal favorites for quick cash grab. Fans of Lisa who were promised for a mini-series have not gotten the story that was teased for over a year ago. This case is also same with Sohan, Ludwig, and Ashton's fans.
* The poor marketing of some mini-series like Cameron, Conrad, Mark, and Caleb is an example that how the team has a favoritism mentality as these routes were least advertised before they were released. Zac, Joe, Sarah, Chad, and Lucifer on the other hand were heavily promoted for their mini-series. Viktor can also be counted but since his story's bad ending was culminated for Conrad's mini-series, and using him as the main villain can be counted as publicity stunts by the team
* The mini-series have no plot and are basically just random scenes are thrown into the story and they don't even last for an hour. This is a huge embarrassment and shame as in past Ubisoft used to deliver long detailed well written stories but they gave gone very biased and discrimination ever since Claire Zamora, the original creator left the team.
* Mini Series has never been Claire's idea because she always has expressed that she wanted to give Mark and Conrad a full route when asked back on 2018 where two fans are concerned about her questions. Claire was never was shown this idea because the IIL team said this idea was from 2019. Another gaslighting shown of why both Jake and James became a full route. These routes were being developed the same time when this idea has been popped up and this isn't first time Ubisoft had been lied.
* While this point may be neutral, weekly released instead of full releases have upset some fans as for a very small story they have to wait a week to read. The team didn't even acknowledge increasing the lengths of the story routes or secret scenes to make up for this. This shows how the team itself just isn't motivating towards the mini-series and don't even listen to many fans.
* The graphics and backgrounds of stories may be excellent but mini series are not anyone's top favorites and are very inferior to long runners.
* There are no extra love events acknowledged to them and if they were there are, they usually aren't romantic at all.
* The mini series love interest have no hobbies details about childhood or any interesting stuff and seems to be a very poor representative of them by reusing the old plots of other characters from their respective main story routes. They seem to be a cheap side version of the popular love interests which causes a huge embarrassment.
* The toned down of the villains' characteristics by completing butchering their original character and personality heard in the original stories is one of the biggest embarrassment seen in Is it Love? Lucifer who was termed as a tyrannical control freak is made into a meek and harmless version and this has made fans to be distressed.
* The misleading advertisement seen in recent mini series have been criticized as well. In Lucifer's mini series, it was shown in advertising that Caliel would play an important part to story but he doesn't appear at all. He appeared on two major advertising on Lucifer's story but was not actually in the plot line at all as he was replaced by Sariel who is actually the player from Fallen Road. Fans of Caliel have claimed this as a clickbait and some claimed it was a dirty trap to lead fans to play the mini series as majority of people played routes like Joe for the Ortega brothers, Sarah for Viktor and the Bartholy brothers and Cameron because of James and Julian who were popular names from long runner series. Morgane Delchamps and Jeffrey Harris were also misleading which they are replaced by Jesse Mills throughout the chapters. For Chad's case, the team said we will be playing as the first love or Chad's first lover. This made fans think that this route was about the reunion of lovers or being established a familiarity but also this was another mis advertisement made up by the team as the player is depicted being the younger sister of Chad's late best friend Francis who is known to use necromancy and was murdered by Chad's older brother Aiden. Both harbors their feelings with one another as Chad had a one-sided crush on her in the beginning. Conrad and Elena were shown in the trailer but they briefly appear at the non-canonical bad ending where Viktor murders Elena first before facing Conrad until Nao rescues him to make their escape. This is also an assumption by fans that this is also a clickbait.
* Fans have not liked on how the mini series on Mystery Spell excluding Sarah follows the "Darkness saga" as these stories are not independent of other mini series and fans have expressed its dislike yet the team still forces this idea.
* The usage of Viktor Bartholy as a major antagonist on all mini series of Mystery Spell is now boring and repetitive and fans have expressed the need for new antagonist or fresh start to other stories instead of reusing the same person over and over again. This shows how stubborn and lazy the team is when it comes to diversity in "some areas." The team just uses poc just to hammer the term "diversity into fans" but there is more ways to show diversity in stories besides always using "People of colour" as target. The fans gave expressed for routes based on horror, murder, mystery, thriller, twisted romance and black romantic comedy. The most mini series have a lot of elements that they reused the minor plots seen in long runners. Only fans who have read all Is it Love stories starting from 2016 to present can point out these lines.
* Even new fans don't care about mini series and have preferences for long runners like Ryan, Drogo, Matt, and Colin. Only 30% of fans have mini series character as a favorite. A very embarrassing era of format change is what we were facing. There is no passion, no love for characters and it was just seen as side characters with pretty body but nothing deep or emotional that make fans love them. The essence of Is it Love has faded within a year. 43% of veteran fans including French and foreigners have grown stagnant to Is it Love ? And have disliked the Ubisoft for playing favortiam or has no respect for sentiments of fans .
* Fans regret the survey of 2019 that was held in December to choose the next love interest for a story as this poll leads to the final long runner seen as Jarod while wave of unfair treatment and discrimination went to those who were participated along with Jarod like Owen, Conrad, Sarah, Zac, Mark, and other characters had faced the unfair fate of being the mini series.
* While fans have always said to team that this format should be played for those characters that Claire didn't wrote like Nao, Chad, Liang Shaw, Ashton, and Sohan but the team has abused the sentiments of veteran fans of Conrad, Sarah, Mark, and Joe by making them in mini series. Claire before leaving the team in 2018 did said she wanted to do long runners route for these people hence Ubisoft didn't respected her original idea for these characters.
* While Is it Love? has said that this series you get diverse love interest but however in this mini series love interests are not diverse at all when it comes to person of color aspect. Only black love interest have been given routes along with white love interest. To this date 10 mini series featured only five black love interest from person of colour category back to back but no Asian love interest like Nao who is more popular than Chad and Sarah has not received mini series. Haku Kobayashi who debuted before Chad did not receive a mini series despite he was more well known due to the fact he comes from a long runner as a second love interest while Chad was in a minor mini series of Conrad that many people had played or were not fond of. No Hispanic have been featured till now and some love interest look like minor version of long running love interest for example, Lucifer looks like a tamed mini version of Zac both are demons both got heart of humanity despite being classified as Demon and have inner demons to confront too. Giorgio became a more sympathetic character who can help everyone despite working in the criminal world of mafias.
* Main character from last 7 mini series were all black and has made fans upset as there are many woman that fall on the person of colour category like Spanish, Italian, Indian, Latin Americans and etc.
* The mini series has been told by many players that it needs improvement in its story length and secret scenes but however the team doesn't listen to it Instead They are being too desperate to make some characters "to look extremely hot" so their mini series sell. This shows team is not wanting to put efforts and wants to sell mini using toxic beauty standards.
* The biggest controversy can be seen that is it Love is trying to promote character like Asmodea for a future mini and not Lisa. Asmodea has sexually assaulted two characters and forced them to have sexual contact with her. Lisa is a very selfless person who fans love a lot but team has been really unfair to her. Lana Escobar who is like Asmodea in terms of demeanor but she never sexually assaulted anyone and is a wicked beauty but she also like Lisa and hasn't received any favors from team. Giorgio who is a sexist character with his new update is getting promoted as a love interest. This shows team is now trying to promote toxic abusive love interest somehow over kind empathetic love interest.
* The team as said earlier does favortism in terms of quality given to character in terms of Secret scenes some mini series featured very explicit detailed secret scenes while some poor love interest got a very generic just kisses secret scenes handed to them. These cases involved Conrad, Mark and even Caleb.
* Chad's mini series was considered the most annoying when it came to getting the good ending. 100% of players despite trying hard to get the good ending instead of the bad ending unless they were given an option by Cleo who was the guide on Chad's route to access the good ending. This also shows Anais biased behavior as Viktor in the good ending was killed off but it's really weird to see the writer would pull such a stunt for the love of the character.
* Parker's mini-series and like Chad has been bashed by many fans. Fans did not liked his updated appearance drawn by the team as well as the drawing to his face as many girls were fond and still preferred Parker on his old portrait rather than a new one. This is seen as a very desperate attempt to sell this mini series. It was followed by Giorgio Maccini.
* Fans have now have accepted the fact that mini series are nothing but a way to raise funds for long runner stories and this is a very selfish and discriminating act by the team. The team has lost respect and love from fans and has been depicted now to be best at upsetting fans or making them offended.
* Most mini series has now a thing to continue from canonical bad ending of both Viktor and Zac being used to let other mini series to continue which is again is a lazy effort and possibly in future Lucifer will be used for the plot of other stories to continue by using bad ending as canon.
* The player from Parker's mini-series was a major upset to Indian fans of Is it Love?, especially Bengali ones. As the player was depicted with a very stereotypical skin tone of Indians, being not so fair and not liking of their native culture and being ignorant to her parents seen in chapter 1. The player has been a misinterpretation to the Indian culture and she in her looks was a misleading woman because most fans thought she was a Cuban instead of Indian. This was met with backlash and a sensitive matter in terms of representation. However, there are other Indian fans who gave positive compliments over the player's appearance and skin tone despite the criticism.
* Starting from Giorgio's mini-series, the free reading of 20 minutes was no longer used as players are about to play the game would now spend the energies. This feat was recently criticized by fans stating that the team had been downgraded the systems of the entire game routes.
* Fans also criticizes the lacking of dark romance in Giorgio's route whenever they read his mini-series as the team promotes this similar to Viktor's route to have a dark romance in a darkness saga.
* Giorgio's route however is liked by fans. But the fans are surprised who have written or are experienced in understanding dark romance shunned this mini series for not living to its advertising and mentioned theme.
* Following the announcement of the stoppage by the team, most fans are either upset or angered over their recent announcement and their formal apology was not accepted by everyone since Giorgio's mini-series is the last mini-series to be released by the team and it was another desperation move to promote the story but it was flopped afterwards.