The original Fame Game was mostly a parody. This was smart because if the romance failed at least it could be funny. Unfortunately, I could only stomach one play through. The Fame Game II is unrelated to the first, aside from it also being set in Los Angeles. The second game has more sincerity and reduces the satire. It also targets the Chinese market, with spoken Mandarin and two domestic actresses. Despite this, the horrendous dialogue and character issues mean it cannot be recommended.

You play as He Shuhan, who gets mistaken for a rich playboy. You contact this playboy and he offers you money if you continue pretending. While this sounds like an interesting premise, the game lacks suspense. You will never fear being exposed.

An underworld heiress named Ayaka, played by FMV veteran Zhong Chenyao (ZCY), is positively smitten over you, despite having never met your double. While ZCY is great and interacts well with the camera, her character is misused. She behaves like a pushover yandere, nearly always on the verge of laughter. Even when it seems like Shuhan has been sleeping around, she plays a board game with the other woman. Her background as an underworld figure is wasted, which is disappointing given the templates in Refate: Echoes of Desire and Charming Hearts.

Your personal assistant, Mia, knows who you really are and covers for you. She also makes it clear you are not to touch her—coincidentally, a request I’ve heard many times in real life. Her no-touch policy is from unexplained trauma, rectified via desensitization therapy, but this part is unsatisfying. While Mia is interesting romantically, her acting is a fraction robotic at times.

Camille is a seductress. She’s the most consistent, personality wise. Unfortunately her audio is the most inconsistent, often out of sync, muffled, or with bad volume. She messes up the most lines too. Many scenes, not just with her, needed another take.

Claudia is your older (unrelated) sister with a rare character trait—split personality. Unfortunately her alternate persona makes interactions disturbing. The character needed tweaks to work in the context of a romance genre.

Finally there is Li Sisi, who appears near the end much like Tiantian in Tomorrow’s Love Puzzle. Initially, she plays the ‘straight man’ against these other weird characters, which is a relief. As your ex-girlfriend, who still has feelings, she’s the most natural and wins by default. Sisi only speaks Chinese, which helps too.

English dialogue is often horrendous with many clunky sentences. It even repeats lines in adjacent scenes. There is a bit with Camille and lights that made me think my brain had evaporated. ZCY speaks English occasionally, which is odd, but her broken English is not the problem. When characters fluent in English speak like they had their second lobotomy this week, that’s a problem. Bad dialogue leads to cringe and insincerity. While not a direct parody, it gets awfully close by accident. Blending Chinese and English is tough, but it was done better in Love Begins with Goodbye.

The endings are horrible too. Most are short and emotionless. Some are nonsensical, like Mia’s snowflake ending. The assumed-identity setup has zero payoff. There are some positives. It is funny, sometimes even on purpose. The interface is great, with the option to highlight favor like in Hello Love: 18 Again. Video quality is decent. It even has some neat audio diaries.

But unless you are fan of ZCY or enjoy when your body contorts upon hearing another dreadful line, you are better off maintaining your current identity and staying away.

Best Romance