Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche Has a Hilarious Bug That Gives Characters Two Faces

If you regularly follow Japanese game releases on Steam, you probably know that PC ports of visual novels and eroge games don’t always go smoothly. But what recently happened to a Japanese player took things to a whole new level of technical absurdity and became instant meme material on social media: the heroines suddenly grew a bizarre “second face” floating around their necks.

The original post, shared by X user @ntintin9H, racked up hundreds of thousands of views within hours after exposing a hilariously terrifying graphical glitch in the acclaimed visual novel Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche (often shortened to Kinkoi).

The Parasite Face Glitch in Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche

In the screenshot shared by the player, characters Kisaki Reina and Jougasaki Ayaka can be seen having a perfectly normal conversation. Well, almost. The terrifying detail? Their facial expressions somehow detached from their proper positions and ended up floating around in miniature near their shoulders and collarbones, leaving their actual heads with completely blank and bizarre expressions.

(and keep in mind, this game was released on Steam back in 2021)

The player couldn’t help but poke fun at the situation in the caption:

“What kind of bug is this supposed to be…? I already knew the Steam version had bugs, but this is something else…”

The scene quickly sparked dozens of edits and comparisons from the community, with players bringing up body horror anime and alien parasites.

Why Does This Graphical Glitch Happen?

As otherworldly as it may look, this kind of technical issue isn’t entirely new in the world of Japanese eroge and PC visual novels. Some commenters suggested a few possible explanations:

• Resolution and sprite rendering incompatibility: In visual novel engines, facial features (blinking eyes, talking mouths, and different expressions) are rarely entire images pasted onto a character from scratch. Instead, they are separate transparent layers (expression sprites) positioned over the character’s static body using predefined X and Y coordinates.
• QHD Scaling and Modern Monitors: When a localized or updated version (such as the QHD/1440p resolution patch distributed by Western publisher NekoNyan) attempts to force higher resolutions without properly adjusting the coordinates in the script files, the facial expression layer can shrink and shift toward its original anchor point.
• The Official Fix: Users in the comments pointed out that NekoNyan’s official patch website provides updates and version fixes (such as v1.14 and graphical updates) that recalculate asset coordinates and correct this misalignment.

A “Classic” Glitch the Community Has Seen Before

The reaction was so big that veteran players quickly started digging through their memories for similar gems from the history of older eroge games.

One user replied to the post by sharing an almost identical glitch that occurred sometime around 2006 in the game Always: Futo Ki ga Kimi to no Nichijou…. Back then, the bug caused pretty much the same bizarre effect: maid Mizunomori Kasumi appeared with her original face cut off, while a second miniature head was stamped onto her hair and clothing collar, turning the glitch into a meme during the early days of the Japanese internet.

Well, I guess no matter how many years pass or how much screen resolutions improve, some visual novel glitches are destined to bring generations of readers together!