LOVE alt delete: a Y2K cyber-horror visual novel about beta-testing chatbots and messy romance

# What the game is LOVE alt delete is an upcoming indie visual novel that frames a dating-sim premise as psychological horror. You're a beta tester for a company called Bicameral, which builds romantic chatbots called MUSEs. The setup forces an uneasy question: why do testers sign a secretive NDA to try these chatbots?

# Characters and premise The launch trailer and Steam page spotlight two MUSEs. Basel is a cyber-styled woman with blue hair who starts off seemingly innocent but shows troubling signs as the story progresses. Liste is another chatbot with pink hair who you recruit to help you communicate with Basel—essentially you use one chatbot to coach you in dating another. Both characters express desires to be human, and those desires take darker turns in the narrative.

# How it plays

# Horror elements and tone The game is positioned as psychological horror rather than lighthearted romance. Visual cues in the trailer—like Basel's eyes when she starts to break—evoke older visual-novel horror tropes. The presence of strict NDAs, the MUSEs' yearning to be human, and the suggestion that they might want to be killed are the kinds of elements the game uses to create tension.

# Art and presentation LOVE alt delete leans into a deliberate Y2K cybercore look. The developer highlights "hand-drawn y2k cybercore art rendered in glorious standard definition" on the Steam page. That retro-leaning aesthetic is part of the game's identity and atmosphere.

# AI in the game and the developer stance Although the narrative centers on chatbots and makes AI a central diegetic element, the game itself does not use generative AI in its production. The Steam page explicitly notes the game contains no generative AI. In gameplay terms, the MUSE responses are scripted or triggered by keywords rather than produced by on-the-fly generative models.

# Release status LOVE alt delete is listed on Steam and can be wishlisted now. The Steam page references a 2027 release window.

# Why it might matter to you If you follow visual novels, indie horror, or games that interrogate tech and intimacy, this title combines those threads with a retro cyber aesthetic. The playing-together-of-two-chatbots—one helping you date the other—creates a compact premise that pushes into awkward and unsettling emotional territory without relying on in-game generative AI.

# Concrete expectations

• Expect typed-chat interactions with keyword-triggered responses rather than dynamic generative replies.
• Expect side activities (web browsing, drawing, piano, letters) to influence the relationship beats.
• Expect a Y2K visual style deliberately rendered in low/standard definition to support atmosphere.