The Latest Tragedy (and Blessing) To Happen in The Mobile Gaming World

The devastating loss of a character who hadn’t been released yet

Offical art from Infold Games of the sixth love interest Valko

On June 30th, just one week after the teaser and official trailer of the sixth love interest in the hit gacha game, Love and Deepspace, Infold Games, the company that developed the game, said that they would no longer go forward with the release of the sixth love interest, Valko, and no other love interests would be added in an official Twitter statement.

“We have decided to cancel both the launch and any further development of the new love interest. We also commit that no additional love interests will be introduced in future content plans.”

— Quote from the official statement on June 30th

When I heard the news, I was absolutely devastated.

I wouldn’t consider myself a day-one player; even so, I was playing the game long before Sylus and Caleb were introduced, so I’ve seen a lot of drama, especially when Caleb was released due to his character archetype and dark themes.

So, I wasn’t surprised that Valko was receiving backlash; it’s happened before.

But I was not prepared for this degree of backlash.

On Twitter, accounts, including Stix, were posting about how the players sent funeral arrangements and cursed banners to the company HQ to show how much they disapproved of Valko.

A screenshot for Stix’s (@/ByteStix) coverage of the situation on Twitter.

Infold should’ve handled this situation better and prepared for the negative reaction, but I also understand that the developers are under a lot of pressure. It’s been five days since all of this unfolded, and I’m honestly still scared. The parasocial behavior from fans escalated and went way too far. That’s why they gave players twenty total gacha pulls as a peace offering, but if anything, this made the fanbase angrier.

Their decision to take Valko away was unfair.

I will say, I didn’t like him at first, but he warmed up to me.

The more I watched the trailers and saw the fan art and edits, the more I fell for him. What I wasn’t going to do was send him hate on social media and threaten the lives of company staff. It’s just not right, especially because the development team behind Valko worked so hard on him. The amount of time, energy, and resources going into making Valko come to life. His voice acting — which he has four (English, Manadrin/Chinese, Korean, and Japanese), myth card animation, story writing, his 3D rigging, among other things. This includes how his cosplayer was supposed to show up at Anime Expo LA this year. All of that went down the drain.

Valko’s release was supposed to spark joy, create a stronger community, and bring people together, but it did the opposite.

One of the main “criticisms” against Valko was that he was he shouldn’t be in the game because he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the cast.

Valko’s appearance was hinted at in the main storyline, especially surrounding the lore of Aethercores, a material that has been a plot point since the beginning of the game. He is the CEO of a company that works with this substance, so it makes sense that he would be interacting and developing a relationship with the MC. There were always meant to be six love interests. There are also six different color types and protocores, a relic used to enhance cards/units in the game. He is also meant to be Rafayel’s foil. Each love interest has a “rival” or dark counterpart. Xavier has Sylus, Zayne has Caleb, so it’s only natural that Rafaeyel would get his foil.

All the love interests add to the main character’s lore/story and progress the storyline.

I do agree with this sentiment — that this game is meant to have six LI’s — but it clearly can’t handle that many. Sylus and Caleb, the fourth and fifth romancable characters respectively, haven’t had a main story update in 500 days. This imbalance between the original three and the newest two was felt throughout fandom spaces. That and the farmable currency in the game has dried up for most players who are more progressed in the game.

It’s not easy making a game like this. It takes years of planning, development, and beta testing to make sure everything is right. So it’s extra infuriating to know that the plan for Valko’s story was scrapped, but the outrage is understandable.

Valko wasn't the problem, but he was the last straw because fans are tired of being ignored.

The fandom misdirected their hatred for the company at Valko, thinking that it would fix everything, but it made everything much, much worse, and now Infold/Papergames has to do damage control.

The Chinese government ended up getting involved when the number 731 was brought up as a reason to cancel Valko.

This number was used in a side story in the game related to Xavier — not Valko — but it’s significant enough to be used for “leverage” because of its ties to WWII. Unit 731 was a human experiment operation conducted by Japan. It was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of people, including Chinese people, and there are no known survivors. It’s a very dark part of world history and should be handled delicately, but it was unfair for the number to be tied to Valko because he wasn’t released yet.

The side story was out two months before he was announced.

It is Infold’s fault, not Valko’s, so we should band together and try to get him back at all costs.

This whole situation breaks my heart, but there is hope:

• People, players/fans of the game, as well as non-players from other fandoms, are coming together all over social media. His tag #BringValkoBack has been trending online for days now.
• There’s a shrine/display made for him at Anime Expo LA (AX), and it’s been getting bigger by the day. Unfortunately, it’s ending today (July 5th, PST), but happy to see fans gathering at conventions to celebrate him. I especially love seeing the Valko cosplayers.
• There was fundraising for both wolf conservation and several billboards in his honor. There’s also a website attributed to him, made by a Love and Deepspace player, that has the most up-to-date information about the boycott and how to get involved; it’s also in multiple languages.

There are still ongoing petitions for him asking for signatures. So, if you can, please sign them. Also, I have a lot of resources and information linked in this article, so please don’t be shy and click on them, share them, and boost engagement. Any kind of help and support is greatly appreciated.

Petition Links:

• Bring Back Valko As a Love Interest As It Was Intended
• Bring Back Valko
• We Love Valko. Bring Back Valko!

Here’s the link to a Medium article, made by another Love and Deepspace player, that tells the story of the situation from start to finish. (My article was meant to be more of a reason/rant about how he should be in the game). Unfortunately, there aren’t any official updates from Infold or Papergames — as of late — but no news is good news. It means there’s a chance to sway the executives up top because they’re watching us spread our love for Valko worldwide.

Also, a general note for signing petitions: offering money is optional, and they shouldn’t be asking for money. But if you can donate to any of the causes, please do so. Voting with our wallets is one of the best ways to have our voices heard.

As a closing remark, even if/when we do get back Valko, we don’t know if Infold is going to fix the game’s problems (ex., lighting issues for darker-skinned characters, including options for textured hair, and unfair treatment of LI’s), so continue to speak up about the company’s mismanagement and demand that they be fixed. This is a Triple-A game; there is a level of quality that fans deserve. It’s a hard fight, and it takes a while for change to happen, but when it happens, it’s worth it. Just remember to pace yourself and make sure you’re taking care of your physical and mental health, you’re eating, you’re staying hydrated, and you’re sleeping well. You can’t protest and participate in peaceful demonstrations if you’re not well enough!

This is much more than just discourse about a fictional character. The outcome of this situation will set a precedent and determine the fate of Infold’s other games and possibly the fate of the otome/romance genre as a whole in China. This situation is a big deal for gamers everywhere.

We have to fight and fight as one.

I’m so proud of this community for sticking together and creating something beautiful out of this tragedy, and I hope to see more progress made before July 9th.

Every story deserves a chance to be told.