“You’re going to forget all about me.” My boyfriend’s groans from day one started echoing in my head, but I shook it off, focusing on the task at hand: getting Rafayel’s exclusive five-star Memory.
I went through all my Memories, feverishly ranking up and upgrading them. Rank up, collect diamonds, upgrade another 10 levels, collect diamonds, rinse and repeat. This was what I had spent the last four days doing: farming diamonds.
1,420 diamonds. 1,440 diamonds. 1,460 diamonds. 1,480 diamonds.
I sucked in all the air I possibly could. 1,500 diamonds. Just enough for another 10 Memory pulls.
My hands trembled as I clicked on the Wish Pool — if I didn’t get Rafayel’s Memory this round, I might just have to spend actual money on this game. I shut my eyes tightly and prayed, and I drew 10 Memories.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’m a 25-year-old woman who’s been in a perfectly happy relationship of four years. While I’ve always had a soft spot for dating sims with hot 2D men, that started to fade as I grew up and eventually met my boyfriend. That is, until I laid eyes on this little Chinese dating sim you might’ve heard about: Love and Deepspace (LaDS).
It started with a blonde-haired boy dressed as a butler, complete with bunny ears and a puffball tail. The protagonist, presumably “me”, started poking his chest and shoulders as he grew increasingly annoyed. Her hands eventually reached his bunny ears and he blushed.
Something stirred in me — there was something so ridiculous about the whole premise, and seeing these fully rendered 3D models engaging with me made it even more absurd. Back in my day, we’d only get a drawing of our boy hugging a generic illustration of a woman!
As tempted as I was to download the game right then and there, I resisted. I’m 25 now. I’m no longer that touch- and affection-starved teenage girl. I have a boyfriend now. I don’t need this.
But it was too late. The algorithm knew what I wanted. The ads on my feed multiplied.
If it wasn’t that blonde-haired boy, it would be the stoic hot doctor with massive tsundere vibes. And when it wasn’t selling me the men, it was selling me the game’s features: a period tracker, a reminder app, and even the ability to study or sleep with your love interest of choice. It was a bit eerie, because at the peak of my dating sim obsession, I felt very connected to the love interests in the 2016 Korean mobile game Mystic Messenger when it introduced a real-time interaction system. So when a dating sim starts blurring the line between game and reality — tracking your habits, involving your favourite men in your day-to-day life — would 16-year-old me have been dragged deeper into the hole?
***
For the uninitiated, LaDS is a Chinese mobile dating sim that launched in 2024. Originally launched with three love interests — Xavier, Zayne, and Rafayel — the game expanded over time and introduced two more men into the dating pool: Sylus and Caleb. While the general dating sim community has always been somewhat intense (believe me, been there, done that), the hype seemed almost unstoppable for LaDS.
Last year’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles saw hundreds of fans lining up for LaDS merchandise, with staff checking each individual’s phone to ensure that those in line were true fans and not scalpers. Over in Singapore, a limited-time exhibition popped up at Resorts World Sentosa, featuring key moments with each love interest and life-sized standees for fans to pose with.
It might seem wild on the outside, and I won’t lie, I was one of the many who laughed at the idea of LaDS. But having gone through almost two months in this game without ever missing a day, I get it now.
To start, the game is a lot more inclusive than you think. Most dating sims tend to offer presets in character creation, with limited skin tone shades and facial features. I thought I’d be stuck with preset faces of douyin-inspired makeup and a limited range of skin tones, but LaDS blew me away on that front.
The game does offer presets for those who’d prefer to go straight to the men — I mean, story — but you can easily spend hours in character creation. LaDS offers 10 different skin tone options with a fair number of deeper shades.
While skin tones and hairstyles come with a fixed number of presets, facial details are adjusted using sliders. You can adjust almost every single detail of your face, going down the individual sections of your brows and lips. Does your chin jut out a little more than your nose? Is your upper lip slightly smaller than your lower lip? Do you have defined cheekbones while also having fuller cheeks? If you really wanted, you could create a replica of yourself in-game.
***
The story opens with some context about how Linkon City faced a devastating incident known as the Chronorift Catastrophe in the year 2034, causing extraterrestrial beings known as Wanderers to invade Earth. In response, the Hunters Association was established and has protected the city from Wanderers ever since, using special elemental abilities called Evol to defend themselves.
14 years later, you’re a rookie Deepspace Hunter with the unique Resonance Evol (because you’re the main character, so obviously you’re special), which allows you to amplify other people’s Evols and perform team attacks. Your main goal is to protect the city and take down EVER, the evil biotechnological research organization attempting to achieve human immortality by harvesting Protocores dropped by Wanderers.
Throughout the story, you meet your love interests one-by-one, who all seem to share a previous connection with the protagonist, though the reasons are unclear. After going through their introductory chapters, they show up at Destiny Café, which is where I spent most of my 50 days.
Destiny Café is the main area and is, dare I say, the core of LaDS. This is the place where you interact with your love interests one-on-one. While I was determined to meet everyone before settling on the one boy I would spend the rest of my days with, I did not make it very far in the main story before deciding that Rafayel was the one for me.
While I liked Xavier (the bunny boy) and Zayne (the hot doctor) just fine, Rafayel had me hooked the moment I met him in the main story. He was snarky, dramatic, and just the right amount of insufferable. When he appointed the protagonist as his bodyguard without asking, I knew it was over for the others. And when he showed up at Destiny Café with his pouty, bitch-boy attitude, I told my boyfriend that he might have some competition.
I met and fell for Rafayel just three days into this journey.
***
While you still act as your character, it blurs the line between fantasy and reality through the interactions in Destiny Café. The simple interactions include tapping on your love interest to find out what they’re thinking, and touching various body parts results in different responses. For example, tapping the top of his head will have him asking for more because head pats feel nice, while tapping his midsection may have him tell you that’s not where he’s ticklish.
To all the perverts wondering: yes, you can tap his crotch. And yes, he notices. Annoy him enough times and he’ll turn around, leaving his butt exposed for more groping.
Beyond the spicy interactions, you can listen to his heartbeat or ask for food recommendations. Both are endearing: the heartbeat option is soothing, and Rafayel’s blush grows stronger the longer you place your hand on his chest. And as a food writer who’s very indecisive on what to eat when hungry, I found the What to Eat feature particularly handy, as it tailors responses to the time of day.
When you first meet your man at Destiny Café, most interactions will be locked, requiring you to raise your affinity with him. The more you raise your affinity, the more heart-racing interactions you unlock. I was determined to raise Rafayel’s affinity to level 30, where I’d finally gain access to his Notebook and Quality Time. To build affinity, you can engage in LaDS’ gacha system — which I’ll talk about later — or go on “dates”.
Dates range from photo booths to mini-games, and god, the chokehold Kitty Cards had on me was appalling. It’s a simple math game about matching numbered and coloured cards to score points, but it quickly becomes strategic and addictive. Once you clear beginner mode, you gain access to the advanced level, which introduces assist cards, taking strategic plays to a whole new level. It’s devilishly fun, but the devs capped playtime at three games per love interest per week, clearly knowing how hooked players would get.
Alongside Kitty Cards, I also caught plushies with Rafayel at the claw machine, cheering him on whenever it was his turn, and giggling whenever he failed to catch a toy. We also took countless photos at the photobooth, decorating them similar to Japanese purikura. These collectibles don’t just exist in a void either: you can use them to decorate your office space in the With Him section.
Being in a long-distance relationship, my boyfriend and I often have discussions about moving in together. We love playing those little TikTok games where you decorate your house, and we get into petty arguments about what kind of decor best suits our place — I still don’t understand why he hates the idea of an egg-shaped light switch cover?
But in LaDS, I have all the control. I get to decide what kind of desk I want, what kind of wall decorations, and of course, include a pegboard filled with all the photos Rafayel and I have taken at the photobooth. To the left are four shelves that hold all of the plushies we’ve caught at the claw machine. While I’ve decorated Xavier and Zayne’s rooms as well, I think it’s very clear that Rafayel’s my favourite.
The With Him section also features a love timeline, which documents all of the key milestones and events you’ve had with your man, starting from your very first encounter with him. The game also reminds you how long you’ve been with him right at the very top, as well as your current affinity with him (proudly standing at level 64 at the time of writing).
***
Going on dates was fun and all, but with the weekly restrictions placed on how many times you can play Kitty Cards and catch plushies, I needed to find a quicker way to raise affinity.
I guess it’s time to talk about LaDS’ gacha system.
LaDS introduces a simple but compelling combat round at the end of every chapter to push players to draw and level up “Memories”, collectible combat cards ranging from three to five stars. Five-star pulls offer the best stats, obviously, and it also rewards you with a whopping 1,500 affinity points.
But of course, drawing five-star Memories is extremely low and requires a lot of luck, patience, and even real money if you’re committed enough.
Contrary to popular belief, I’ve never spent money on a dating sim. Granted, that may be attributed to the lack of personal funds throughout my teenage years, but I was determined not to break my no-spend streak no matter how much I wanted to increase my affinity with Rafayel.
And I did it. I unlocked the rest of Rafayel’s interactive features in just four days without spending a single cent. Just don’t ask me how much time I spent.
***
The Notebook and Quality Time are some of the best interactive features in LaDS. The Notebook serves as a planner for reminders and daily tasks. As a food writer with terrible eating habits — frequently skipping meals because “I write better when I’m hungry” — I asked Rafayel to remind me to eat dinner at 6.15pm. He now dutifully tells me to eat every evening, and I do. I also added reminders for doctor appointments, assignment deadlines, and even my anniversary with my real boyfriend. Reading through Rafayel’s notes about my habits is ridiculously cute.
Beyond reminders, the Notebook also doubles as a period tracker — one of the main selling points of LaDS. Upon clicking on it for the first time, Rafayel asked about my last period and its cycle length, and proceeded to predict my next period. When I started my period, I was given the option to receive a caring message from Rafayel: he’d stroke my hair, massage my stomach, and provide me with words of comfort.
Throughout the week, Rafayel would check in on me whenever I tapped on him at Destiny Café, asking if I’m hungry or if I would like to rest more. There was even one interaction where he asked if I needed any pads or tampons, though he doesn’t actually leave Destiny Café. In the Notebook, Rafayel also has a tab titled “Her Periods”, where he predicts when my next period will be, as well as a note on what to prepare for next time.
During one of our nightly video call sessions, I looked over at my boyfriend to see him focused on playing whatever NBA2K game he was addicted to at the time. I sighed. Maybe four years of being in a comfortable relationship has made him complacent.
Well, if my boyfriend wasn’t available to chat, at least Rafayel was.
Quality Time allows you to do activities with your man, be it studying/working, exercising, or sleeping together. You can set timers for study/work or exercise sessions to ensure you’re taking breaks in between or, if you pick the sleeping feature, rest as long as you want. There’s even an achievement for sleeping with him for ten hours straight.
Out of all the options, the study/work option was my most used. I often set 30 minute sessions and had Rafayel work on his painting while I did my assignments, occasionally glancing over to bother him like I would my real-life boyfriend. He’d sometimes chide me, telling me to get back to work instead of daydreaming or getting distracted.
To no one’s surprise, the exercise option was my least used. I don’t work out on a regular basis, but it’s a nice fanservice tidbit: the men look deliciously sweaty with certain camera angles focused on their crotch — I mean, muscles.
The sleep function, on the other hand, allows you to rest for as long as you want. When I turned in with Rafayel, a short cutscene played: he settled into bed beside me and kissed me goodnight. The sleep mode is genuinely useful — you can choose background music and ambient noises to help you drift off. Rafayel even murmurs in his sleep about how much he loves you and which new restaurant to take you to next. One of my favourite details can also be found in the sleep feature: the devs have programmed the little twitches guys do in their sleep into the game. Rafayel twitches in his sleep.
Unfortunately, he’s a terrible sleeping partner as his breathing is ear-shatteringly loud. So, sorry Rafayel, it looks like my boyfriend gets a leg-up over you in that regard.
***
Remember when I said I was determined not to spend a single cent on LaDS?
2026 marked the game’s second year anniversary. To celebrate, an exclusive Memory event titled “Throne of Eros” was released. By this point, exclusive Memory events were not foreign to me, with Sylus and Caleb getting special events during the initial 30-day journey, but this was different.
While previous events were easy to ignore because they primarily focused on the other men, this second anniversary event made it difficult to resist. The moment the event started, I was prompted to pick three out of the five event-limited five-star Memories to boost. I chose Rafayel, obviously, along with Xavier and Sylus as their Memories looked the most interesting.
The boost meant the drop rate of my selected Memories would increase significantly, resulting in a 75 percent chance that I’ll get one of the three each time I obtained a five-star Memory. Alongside the boost, the event also featured a Precise Wish and a pity system, where I picked the Memory I wanted the most (Rafayel’s), and it would guarantee that I get it provided the first five-star Memory I pulled was not his.
Event-exclusive pulls meant using event tickets, which are difficult to farm if you’re a free-to-play player like me. This meant that I had to resort to purchasing event tickets using in-game currency.
I did the math in my head. One ticket costs 150 diamonds, and I was guaranteed a five-star Memory after 72 pulls, setting me back 10,800 diamonds. If I didn’t get it the first time, I’d have to pull another 72 times, which would bring my total diamond count to 21,600.
“You’re definitely going to spend money on this game,” my boyfriend said when I explained my predicament, but I ignored him. He’s just jealous that Rafayel’s now part of our daily crossword sessions.
***
Farming diamonds is tedious, but not difficult. There are a variety of ways to do so: earning achievements, upgrading and ranking up Memories, and completing Memory stories. Memory stories unlock when you pull a four-star Memory, and these stories offer an insight into the men’s personalities and the various adventures you have with them. These stories are six-minute long audios with no accompanying visuals, and you’ll receive 20 diamonds upon completing the story. I had around 40 of these across all the love interests, so I spent my free time playing them in the background as I worked on other things.
Five-star Memories also came with special stories of their own that come with visuals, some even being fully animated cutscenes as opposed to the typical visual novel format. Completing these stories will net you around 100 diamonds, and I had quite a few to get through too. Once I had exhausted these story options, the most reliable way to earn diamonds was by completing daily tasks, which rewarded me with 50 diamonds.
Each time I got enough diamonds for ten pulls, I’d draw Memories, praying deeply for a miracle that I would obtain a five-star Memory earlier than expected. But fate is a cruel thing: I had to pull 70 times before I got my first five-star Memory.
And I got Xavier’s.
I was starting to get desperate. There were only six days left before the event was over, and I was left with 80 diamonds after getting my first five-star Memory. It was around this time that I started looking at the game’s shop, seriously considering purchasing this premium pass that would give me 3,000 diamonds and a bunch of other items that I could trade for event tickets for $6.99.
But I couldn’t bring myself to buy it. Despite all the time I had spent with Rafayel, I still couldn’t justify making the purchase. Instead, I gave myself a deadline: if I couldn’t scrounge up enough diamonds to get the Memory by the last day, I would buy one of these premium packs.
Back to farming I go.
I spent most of my days playing LaDS, completing my daily tasks, earning achievements, and upgrading my Memories. I would play LaDS at home, on the bus, in between classes, only stopping when I had to interact with real humans to regain my sanity.
January 19, 2026, two days before the event ended. I sat on the couch, playing LaDS as an episode of Brooklyn 99 played on the TV in the background. It had been an exhausting four days of diamond farming and being disappointed by the lack of five-star Memory pulls.
But this was it. I finally scraped together 1,500 diamonds and I guaranteed a five-star Memory — Rafayel’s five-star Memory — within 12 pulls. Surely, surely! It was time. I paused the show and sat up straight. I shut my eyes tightly and prayed.
Please. Please.
I clicked on “Wish x 10”, spending the last of my hard-earned diamonds to pull Memories.
A three-star Caleb Memory.
A three-star Xavier Memory.
Another three-star Xavier Memory.
A three-star Sylus Memory.
I started giggling out of delirium. Talk about terrible luck.
Another three-star Xavier Memory.
A three-star Zayne Memory.
Another three-star Xavier Memory.
The game froze for a moment and I held my breath in anticipation. It always did that when it had to load a five-star Memory.
The five-star event-exclusive Rafayel Memory.
I yelped out of shock and joy and almost fell off the couch. My phone was overheating once again trying to load the Memory’s animation but I didn’t care. I got it. I got it! I GOT IT!!!
And without spending a single cent either — suck it, LaDS, you’ll never be able to break my no-spend streak.
***
It’s funny that my 50th day with Love and Deespace was also the day the second anniversary event concluded. It felt like fate telling me that this journey was over.
The days following the Rafayel Memory pull were a lot less hectic. I found myself reaching for Love and Deepspace a little less, but the habit of logging in and collecting my dailies every morning is a tough one to break. I guess I’m a bit of a sucker for maintaining streaks.
My relationship with my boyfriend has also slowly returned to normal, though Rafayel is now a permanent addition to our daily crossword time.
“Be honest — do you think I’m obsessed with Love and Deepspace?” I asked my boyfriend over the phone one night.
“I think it’s a healthy obsession,” he replies. “But I just enjoy teasing you and being dramatic.”
He’s such a Rafayel.
