L.O.L.: Lack of Love
Developer - Love-de-Lic
Publisher - ASCII Corporation
Director - Kenichi Nishi
Producer - Hiroshi Suzuki
Designers - Keita Eto, Hiroaki Ishibashi
Scenario - Ryuichi Sakamoto
Writer - Kenichi Nishi
Composer - Ryuichi Sakamoto
Genre - Evolutionary Life Simulation, Single Player
Dreamcast Release Dates - November 2, 2000 (Japan); Unreleased in North America and Europe
Current Average Price - $120
L.O.L.: Lack of Love is something special. The final game developed by visionary Japanese game designers Love-de-Lic, and with a scenario and musical composition by the famed Oscar-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lack of Love is one of the most heartfelt, earnest, and strangest video games I’ve ever played.
It’s an evolutionary life sim with a thesis and scenario that quietly (yet deeply) explores the themes of human over-consumption, environmentalism, survival, and nature.
The object of Lack of Love is to guide an animal organism through the evolutionary process, starting from an egg and growing through multiple forms into a complex large animal. Throughout the process the player controlling the animal must survive by any means necessary. These include forming symbiotic relationships with other creatures, fighting for survival, eating, sleeping, and excreting. The organism must also avoid an invading robotic force which seeks to terraform the planet for habitation by humans, who are fleeing an overpopulated and dying Earth.
The game has virtually no HUD, no words, and very little direction. The music is sparse and lonely, almost devastating at times. The game is opaque and frustrating, cryptic and very difficult. It made me want to give up dozens of times within the first two hours.
By the end of the game I had tears in my eyes, but not from frustration. I was moved by the game's deftly delivered message about the struggle for survival and about the environmental harm that comes with human involvement in a place.
It's a sneaky, beautiful game with a lovely heart.
Development
L.O.L.: Lack of Love was born out of conversations between Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also created the Dreamcast system’s ethereal startup jingle) and Love-de-Lic founder Kenichi Nishi (Chrono Trigger, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, Chibi-Robo!). The two had met previously and bonded over discussion of their mutual interest in the Gaia hypothesis, a theory that proposes that all living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a complex self-regulating system that in itself maintains and perpetuates the conditions necessary for life to exist. Nishi and Sakamoto shared the belief that above all else, human beings should care for one another, for the environment, and for life itself.
While Kenichi Nishi would write and direct the game, it was Sakamoto who dreamed up the scenario and the game’s title; this was intended to question the many ways in which humanity’s lifestyle tends to “lack love.” Given Sakamoto’s day job, he also composed the musical score and handled sound design.
Critical Consensus and Legacy
L.O.L: Lack of Love is an unusual video game, and one that doesn’t offer the player much in the way of conventional instruction. It drops us into a world and requires that we figure out how to survive with virtually no direction, or user aids. This requires a significant commitment to problem-solving, and naturally means that the barrier to entry is prohibitively high.
At the time of its release in Japan, IGN’s Anoop Gantayat played and summarily dismissed L.O.L. as weird and frustrating, never seeming to grasp the game’s finer points or underlying themes nor seeming to care enough to try further. (After Anoop’s brief preview, no further articles about Lack of Love were ever published by IGN).
The game was reviewed by Famitsu in Japan, where it received scores of 9, 6, 6, and 8 for a total of 29/40; not a fabulous rating.
Still, other publications seemed to grasp the beauty of and meaning behind the game. GamesTM magazine called it “one of the Dreamcast’s best-kept secrets.” Computer and Video Games magazine published a review which included praise for Ryuichi Sakamoto’s stirring musical score, calling it “one of video gaming’s finest audio moments.”
The game did not sell well, and it was never localized to any territories outside its native Japan. However, interest in Lack of Love has been constant, if only heard at a low murmur. In an interview in 2010, Kenichi Nishi mentioned remaking Lack of Love for a modern console, saying that he believed the game “would be accepted more widely now because we are more seriously dealing with climate change and global warming.”
Despite this, the game has not been remade, nor ported to another console, nor was it ever released in any territory outside of Japan. As such, copies of the Dreamcast exclusive tend to sell for a fairly high price.
Despite the cost, Lack of Love is a game worth experiencing.
Sakamoto at the Heart of Lack of Love
Throughout his life, Ryuichi Sakamoto was an activist. He advocated for demilitarization, he organized anti-nuclear concerts, and he gathered artists and musicians to formally urge governments of the world to eschew war. For decades, he spoke out against nuclear proliferation citing the dangers of nuclear weapons and the environmental damage caused by nuclear waste.
Beginning in June of 2014, Ryuichi Sakamoto would spend the final decade of his life in treatment for various cancers, yet even during these difficult health struggles, Sakamoto continued his work to protect the environment.
In his last year on earth, he published a letter to the governor of Tokyo protesting a plan by the Tokyo government to redevelop the Jingumae neighborhood of Shibuya, a plan which would require the destruction of numerous hundred-plus-years-old trees. In the letter, he cautioned against actions which would destroy the natural world for short-sighted financial gain, and implored the government to value and protect the trees which their ancestors had planted.
I believe that this last piece of activism is particularly indicative of the heart and soul of Sakamoto, and by extension, the heart and soul of Lack of Love.
Throughout the game, and by way of the tiny creature we shepherd through the environment, we are constantly reminded of our vulnerability, of our humble place in the world. We’re made to walk in the shoes (pseudopodia?) of a micro-organism, then ever more complicated creatures, and to ultimately succeed we must learn to live within the natural order. When humanity appears through its analog, the robots, we see an insatiable need to consume, to tame, to conquer, and as a result, everything burns, everything is crushed, everything is upended.
The ending of Lack of Love shows us that this upheaval and destruction is not inevitable. When humanity’s envoy is rendered powerless, it (the robot) is forced to live at peace with nature.
The planet is saved, the creatures survive, the sun shines and the plants and animals flourish. As the credits roll and Sakamoto’s stirring orchestral composition swells, we see Lack of Love’s final scene, a vision, I presume, of its creators’ idea of paradise. A planet unsullied. A world at peace. A place of love. ∎ James Tocchio