I love reading and reviewing visual novels. I'm especially invested in getting more people to try independent English VNs they might not have heard of, but I read plenty of translated Japanese ones too. I also sometimes make some of my own!
Hey, since I still get new followers and notes on my old posts on here once in a while, I thought I’d post again to inform anyone who doesn’t know that I moved this blog to WordPress a few years ago! Check out my new posts there if you’re interested in my reviews and analysis of visual novels and other games and media. I think they’ve really improved over the past few years, and I’ve written some I’m really happy with recently, like Revisiting Katawa Shoujo and No Thank You and the Amnesiac Protagonist. You can also follow me on twitter for more updates on my other writing! Thanks for reading.
Due to tumblr’s new rules against adult content, I will be moving this blog to WordPress. You can now find it at parttimestorier.home.blog. Even though I don’t think anything I’ve posted so far would break those new rules, as I always censor any pornographic images I post in my reviews, I don’t want to take the risk that something I worked hard on might get taken down. I also want to show solidarity with the many erotic artists I know and respect, who are scrambling to transfer their work to other sites now that this sudden change has put their livelihoods at risk. I will leave all my old posts up on this site (as long as they don’t get flagged), but any new posts will be at parttimestorier.home.blog instead. You can also follow me on twitter, and on itch.io if you’re interested in my work as a writer and developer. Thanks to everyone who has read my reviews in the two years I spent on this site, and I hope you’ll continue to read them on WordPress.
Upcoming Visual Novel: The Light at the End of the Ocean
I've been hard at work for a long time on this project, and I'm really excited to have some of the art done now so that I can finally show off some progress! Introducing the upcoming visual novel The Light at the End of the Ocean.
A young woman wakes up in a lighthouse with a head injury and no memory of the shipwreck that brought her there—or anything else, for that matter. A stone-faced, stoic Lighthouse Keeper assures her that help will arrive soon, but seems unwilling or unable to help her figure out whom or where she is. Help the Lighthouse Keeper’s Guest uncover the mysteries of the island and its inhabitants in this point-and-click visual novel about unlikely friendship and loss of identity.
Staff So Far
Writing and programming by Jane Titor (that’s me!)
Character art by Dahlia Wilder
Background art by Pia Alit
Item art by Red Chan
GUI by Namastaii, with modifications by me and BunnyAdvocate
Main Characters
In-Progress Screenshots
The backgrounds aren't done yet and will be in full colour in the final release. Other things might change too!
Since this blog is more focused on my reviews of other VNs, I'll probably be posting most updates on twitter rather than here, so please follow me there if you're interested. I also have a work in progress thread on LemmaSoft, and I'll eventually be publishing on itch.io. Thanks for reading!
Today, I’m really excited to bring you a review of Trainwreck Studios’ new supernatural romance visual novel Nowhere Girl! Way back when I was first getting started with this blog, I wrote a review of Trainwreck’s first VN, Animal Lover, an otome about rescuing cute boys from a curse that turns them into animals. Nowhere Girl has an equally bizarre premise, with a female love interest this time—one who’s magically chained to you until you fall in love with her, and who’s also a ghost. And in case that’s not awesome enough, Nowhere Girl pulls you in with a beautiful opening animation, followed by an encounter with a narrator who has a personality and wants to read you poetry. After those first five minutes, I was totally hooked. But if you’re not as sure as I was about whether Nowhere Girl is your thing, the rest of this review will go into some more detail about why I liked it, as well as some minor things I didn’t like as much, while avoiding spoilers as much as possible.
Nowhere Girl really shines with its characterization of Pseudo, the ghostly main heroine. I especially appreciated her character design. I find that pretty often in media, if the reader is supposed to sympathize with a ghost character, the ghost will just look like an attractive human who’s slightly translucent. But while Pseudo is still cute, she has bright blue skin, and the whole lower half of her body is just a big ghostly tail. It makes her look a lot more interesting, distinctive, and not-quite-human than most other supernatural love interests I’ve seen in VNs. She also has several varying poses, making scenes of dialogue with her especially dynamic and fun to read. If the goal of Nowhere Girl is to make you fall in love with Pseudo alongside the protagonist, I think it will work on a lot of readers.
However, as much as I enjoyed Nowhere Girl, it is a little rough around the edges. For one thing, I suspect that letting players choose the protagonist’s gender might have been an afterthought, as they tend to read as male even if you select the female option. One example that stood out to me is that the main set-up for the plot involves getting extremely drunk with a random dude you just met in a bar. I don’t know many women who would even consider taking that kind of risk, no matter how bad a day they’re having. There were also a few other points in the story when I felt like some more variation based on protagonist gender would have helped—nothing huge, but once the idea got into my head, I just kept noticing little things that could have done with a bit of a change. But of course, for those of you who prefer to choose a male protagonist, none of that will be an issue at all.
There were a couple other aspects of the story that I didn’t like at first, but as I read on, I started to appreciate them more. At the beginning of the narrative, the protagonist is harbouring a secret crush on their friend and co-worker Holly, and their internal conflict about their feelings for her is one of the major problems that stands in the way of attempting a relationship with Pseudo—aside from the whole ghost thing, of course. And at first, I felt like the writing could have done more to really establish what’s so special about Holly and why the protagonist likes her so much, since I didn’t think that she was particularly interesting or that they even seemed to have much in common. But I eventually started to understand that the protagonist’s connection with Holly really was supposed to be as strained and artificial as I thought it was. They were clinging onto the fantasy of what a relationship with her would be like, when they really needed to step back and realize how far removed their ideas were from reality in order to move on. There were also some early scenes in which I found Pseudo really annoying, such as when she’s forced to follow the protagonist to work, and keeps distracting them and making them seem crazy to onlookers by making comments only they can hear. But while reading those scenes was really frustrating, it also effectively made me empathize with how the protagonist was feeling. So while some aspects of the writing of Nowhere Girl might not appeal to all readers at first, they’re successful in achieving what I imagine the writer intended, and they just might grow on you.
Finally, I won’t say too much because I want people to be able to read this review without spoilers, but I was pleasantly surprised with the direction Nowhere Girl took towards the end. There was some deeper worldbuilding in it than I expected, and I would love to see Trainwreck Studios explore this setting again in another project. If you’d like to check it out, Nowhere Girl is currently available at a discount or in a bundle with Animal Lover on itch.io, and it will also be released on steam soon. Thanks for reading!
Short Reviews of Short Visual Novels: Halloween Edition!
With less than two weeks left until Halloween, I’m sure I’m not the only who’s in the mood to curl up with a pumpkin latte and something scary to read. Fortunately for everyone else who feels that way, I’ve been in that mood for several weeks already, so I’ve already read several spooky—or at least supernatural-themed—visual novels I can recommend! This special Halloween edition of my short reviews of short visual novels series features ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and pretty much any other creepy creature you can imagine.
Vicarwissen [VNDB|itch.io]
This entry in 2016’s Yuri Game Jam tells the story of two paranormal investigators who find themselves trapped in a creepy museum on the night that legends say the werewolf-like Vicarwissen creatures meet for a horrific banquet. I knew I would like Vicarwissen as soon as I launched it and saw the main menu, which perfectly sets the tone for the story with the image of a cellphone displaying a silly snapchat of the heroines next to a textbook about the Vicarwissen myth. The game maintains a fun balance of cute and creepy throughout, and its point-and-click elements add a lot flavour. I would have liked a little more detail about the backstory that various objects hint at, but maybe that’s something the creators could expand on in a prequel instead! I had a lot of fun with this one, so I’d certainly love to read anything else they come up with.
First Kiss at a Spooky Soirée [VNDB|itch.io]
If you want something Halloween-themed but aren’t actually into horror, look no further than First Kiss at a Spooky Soirée, from the consistently cute catalogue of NomNomNami. In this one, you play as an adorable witch named Marzipan who’s determined to get her first kiss at a party full of other magical creatures—some of whom are pretty different from what you might expect. I was especially impressed with this game’s unique CG gallery that appears like polaroids on the main menu screen. I just wish that the routes had been a little bit longer so that I could spend more time with this cast of supernatural sweethearts! Also, this was an entry in the same yuri jam as Vicarwissen, and so was one of my all-time favourite short VNs, Once on a Windswept Night—2016 was clearly good year for supernatural lesbian VNs.
Bishoujo Mangekyou: A Girl's Cursed Legend [VNDB|fan translation patch]
This Japanese VN’s fan translation patch came out just in time for the Halloween season! In the first entry of the Bishoujo Mangekyou series, a creepy teacher attempts to prey on a high school student, only for their roles to be reversed when it turns out she’s a vampire who wants to use him for a constant supply of blood. Sexual content is definitely the main focus of this one, but it has some really fun and unique h-scenes unlike anything I’ve seen in other VNs—one of my personal favourites involves the protagonist playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on piano in spite of an increasing amount of distraction. And there’s still an interesting story that explores power dynamics in relationships tying it all together, plus some absolutely gorgeous art and a bit of animation. The patch does have the occasional awkward phrase or minor technical issue, but I think Euphemic Translation still did a competent job for their first release, and I’m looking forward to seeing their future efforts.
Speed Dating for Ghosts [VNDB|itch.io|Steam]
Speed Dating for Ghosts is exactly what it sounds like: a game in which you play a ghost who attends a speed dating event in hopes of meeting another ghost to go out with. Its strange, surreal world is populated with a variety of unique characters—I found all of them so intriguing that it was hard to pick which one I wanted to date first. Unfortunately, Speed Dating suffers from a lack of standard features that I’ve come to expect from other visual novels. Partway into my first playthrough I wanted to save the game, only to discover that hitting escape immediately quits to the main menu, and that there was no skip function to help me get back to where I was. But if you don’t mind those little problems, there are nine bizarre and wonderful ghosts waiting for you, each ready to take you on the date of a lifetime . . . so to speak.
Carmilla [VNDB|itch.io]
Finally, my last spooky VN recommendation involves more vampires, in a digital edition of one of the earliest vampire stories in English literature. The visual novel version of Carmilla adds an informative in-game encyclopedia, expressive sprites in anachronistic outfits, and a bit of metatextual commentary to the text of Le Fanu’s classic novella, making for a fun combination of past and present storytelling techniques. It also includes some well-done effects that accentuate the impact of the story’s creepier parts. Since developers Visual Gothic adapted the story with only minor changes, it’s a lot heavier on narration than the majority of visual novels, and I wonder if it could have improved it a bit to cut down on that a little more and take full advantage of the medium by letting the visuals speak for themselves. But of course, the original story is a classic for a reason, and I would recommend this adaptation to anyone who enjoys their horror with a bit of a slower pace.
Finally, I can’t write a real review of it because of how biased I am, but if your taste is skewed more towards silly monsters than the scary variant, you might also enjoy the demo of DemiDato! I’m one of the co-writers for this project and I can’t wait to give you the chance to meet its full cast of zany characters sometime soon. And whether you try that or another one of the VNs on this list, I hope you have a happy Halloween!
Jane: Today I'm trying out a new review format. My friend Bishounen-P—whom you may know as the developer of Strawberry Daiquiri—and I both read Nurse Love Addiction recently, and we found that it gave us a lot to discuss. So we'll be presenting both of our thoughts about it to you in this collaborative review.
Nurse Love Addiction tells the story of Asuka, a slacker who ends up going to nursing school in lieu of any other life goals after finding a note she wrote as a child saying she wanted to be a nurse when she grew up. Her sister, Nao, enrols in the same program, and Asuka soon finds herself torn between feelings for Nao, their teacher, and two mysterious students in their class.
Bishounen-P: Before we get into the details of it, I'd like to just say that I absolutely adore the art in this game. It's definitely the first thing that drew me into the game, so I'll be adding a lot of screenshots from it as well.
If you're interested in playing NLA, I'd personally recommend going Kaede -> Sakuya -> Itsuki -> Nao, but you can also switch the last two and still be OK. It's up to you.
J: It's unfortunately difficult to talk much about NLA without spoilers, but we both enjoyed reading it, and you might like it too if you're a fan of Kogado Studio's other VNs like Symphonic Rain.
BP: It's definitely one of the most unique yuri VNs I've ever played, and had a unique twist on the typical incest route. If you're looking for more interesting yuri VNs, I'd personally recommend Fatal Twelve. For a classic but beautiful incest story (that isn't yuri) I'd recommend Kana ~Imouto~.
Before we get into the spoilers, however, I'll go ahead and say right off that bat that I absolutely recommend NLA. It's a fun ride, and also scratches that yuri sweetness itch when you want it to.
Nurse Love Addiction is currently on sale at 55% off on Steam until Friday at 1PM Eastern Time.
Beyond this point, there will be major spoilers for all of Nurse Love Addiction.
Kaede Route
BP: When I first started this VN, I was immediately drawn to Kaede. I thought she was absolutely gorgeous, and I was very fascinated by the idea of a teacher route and what might happen in this route, especially once I realized there was more to this story than what first originally meets the eye.
J: How did you feel about how the route handled the issue of teacher/student romance? I'm always hoping to see more stories explore the complexities of how the power dynamics inherent in dating an authority figure can raise questions about the student's ability to truly consent to the relationship. I'm not sure if NLA really dealt with that, apart from some mentions of it being a "forbidden relationship" they have to keep secret.
BP: I agree they could have handled that better. While I did appreciate the little quips about them hiding it from others, Asuka and Kaede needing to keep their professional lives separate from their romantic one, and eventually coming out about it to Kaede's superior, it didn't delve much more into it beyond that. Perhaps it was because the two of them are adults, and they had already worked on making a concentrated effort towards keeping it low-key and separated from school.
BP: Along with that, I wanted to mention their relationship itself, removed from the taboo aspect. To me, it felt like the two of them really loved each other. It always made me smile when they would catch each others' eyes and just smile and think the other's name. To me, that aspect made it feel more "real." And then, when Nao and Sakuya confront Asuka and start telling her that she "didn't really love Kaede," it completely caught me off guard. Even now, I still think that they were just envious that Asuka picked someone who was completely irrelevant to the other three women.
J: Yeah, I think you're right about that. Asuka should learn not to take relationship advice from people who are clearly also in love with her! I liked that in the good ending, if you communicate more with Kaede about the letter and admit to the mistake of stealing it, Asuka's fears about Kaede still being in love with her ex-girlfriend turn out to be totally unfounded. It's such a cute scene when Kaede thanks her for helping her get back in touch with the ex, and Asuka assumes that means she's getting dumped, and then Kaede goes on to explain that it was just nice to have a chat with her after so long and that she still loves Asuka.
BP: In the bad end, Asuka betrays Kaede's trust and ends up in an adulterous relationship with her. Along with what you said, I think the only reason Kaede went back to her ex in that ending is because of the lack of honesty and communication on that side. Regardless, it was a sweet route overall.
Now, let's move onto the stranger routes.
Sakuya Route
BP: Going straight into this route, it throws everything you knew about this story out the window when Asuka gets stabbed. I was blown away. Who stabbed Asuka? Why? What's going on with Itsuki and Sakuya? And then you overhear Nao saying that she should have killed someone. How did you feel when the VN took a sudden change of tone?
BP: An accurate representation of my feelings during Sakuya's route.
J: I actually messed up and got the bad ending, which involves the stabbing part as well, before getting Kaede's route like I had intended to do first. I was so confused.
I did sort of get the idea that things were going to get weird early on though, just because of the way I had heard people talk about this VN. It seems like it's fairly common for VNs to set you up to think it will be cute slice-of-life romance at first, and then suddenly throw in a bunch of dark twists and catch you off guard. So when people recommend a VN to you but they're kind of vague about why they like it and say things like, "just play it, trust me," you can tell it's going to be one of those. And while some of those can definitely be well done, I think a lot of the time what people like about it is just how much it surprised them. Whereas if you go into it having read a few like that, and you know it's sort of an established trope of the medium, it has a lot less impact.
NLA is absolutely fun to read because of what a wild ride it is, but at times I suspected that the writer's intention was to continually ramp up the twists and the violence in order to make people say, "Wow, I can't believe I thought this was just a cute yuri VN," and then recommend it to their friends for the shock value rather than for the story.
BP: The difference of opinion in this part is part of why I wanted to do this in the first place! So, I had known that you thought of it that way, so I was sorta keeping an eye out for tricks the VN might be playing on me. Throughout all of the common route, I had a feeling that something was off. I knew there was more than meets the eye (thanks to Itsuki for the tip: "It's not what it seems" right off the bat.) After playing Kaede's route, and going into this one, though, I think I sorta get it now.
BP: The way I see it is… The reason nothing weird happens in Kaede's route is because she is completely separated from the "true story" behind Asuka and her past. Kaede's route is the "ignorant" route, where Asuka just goes on and becomes a nurse. But once you move past that, into the relationships with the other girls… Itsuki tells her "you probably don't want to know this" and she was right, because Asuka regretted it. Maybe more here later
The only person I felt like was "making fun of" Asuka for forgetting was Sakuya's twin sister, Kyoko. But again, that was mostly just her being low-key yangire. And I'm not even going to get started on how much I tend to hate "secret twin" twists!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that to me it ALWAYS felt like there was something they weren't telling me, and that I'd find out later.
J: I guess part of the reason the twists felt kind of forced to me is that there are just so many in Sakuya's route, a lot of which are kind of cliché, and they come in such quick succession. In what I think must be less than two hours of reading, you find out that you have amnesia and forgot your childhood friends, plus you also have a forgotten marriage promise with one of those childhood friends, who also has a secret twin who died, except now she has a split personality and thinks she's the dead twin sometimes, except maybe she literally does have the dead twin's soul inside her also. It's just twist overload. But that doesn't mean it's not fun to read. I also really liked the sheer insanity of both endings—a bad one in which you marry a corpse, and then a "good" one in which your dead girlfriend is reincarnated as your daughter and tries to seduce you. But even that pales in comparison to some of the disturbing content in the other routes, which we'll discuss next.
Itsuki Route
BP: Okay, let's just address the elephant in the room. In Itsuki's bad end, Asuka literally eats her dead body so she can see Itsuki's ghost.
J: Or possibly because she's just insane and the ghost isn't even real, yes. I think that has to be my favourite bad ending, and it's the reason I might actually recommend Itsuki's route as last instead of Nao's—because then that's the final escalation of how dark and bizarre this VN gets. I like how the way it's written is kind of subtle, so it takes you a while to pick up on exactly what's going on. It's really effective horror.
BP: I agree. I didn't realize what was going on until Nao talked to her sister, and Asuka said she only saw Itsuki while she was eating. At that point I was like… "This is actually really terrifying, huh?"
Along with that, I appreciate how much of a mysterious character Itsuki is throughout the entire thing. During the common route, Asuka keeps overhearing Itsuki having these bizarre and cryptic conversations on the phone. Itsuki then confronts her, and says she's going to take her to this "lab" which will "change her life forever." I thought at the time, "wow this is escalating really quickly!" But it turned out to be the hub for her doujin group. But that didn't answer all the questions that came from the previous conversations! I think it was at that point when I realized there was more to NLA than I thought.
BP: Besides that, though, I will say that my favorite scene in Itsuki's route (aside from the bad end) is when Asuka confronts Itsuki and figures out exactly what's going on in her mind. And I love the way Itsuki resolves that argument, by kissing Asuka and then telling her "it wasn't a real kiss" and just walks out. It was a good way to get Asuka to shut up without getting violent, and it still left a real sting in her heart.
J: The whole plotline with Itsuki's doujin group is really interesting. I like the part where you eventually get to play Itsuki's unfinished video game, and it gives you a lot of insight into her character and motivations. Since I spend so much time analyzing media, both for work and as a hobby, it's exciting for me when characters IN that media ALSO start analyzing media and it's important to the plot.
The main thing I wanted to discuss about Itsuki is how she's the one who ends up infodumping most of the story's twists at you, like when you meet up with her in the karaoke booth and she shows you the video and just directly tells you all about the past you forgot. I thought that part might have been a lot stronger if Asuka started gradually having flashbacks and recovering her memories, rather than having someone just tell her about it. But it is also kind of an interesting way to deal with an amnesiac protagonist character—to have her struggle to reconcile who she is now with who other people tell her she was in a past she still can't remember. What do you think?
BP: I had a little bit of an issue with it at first, but I feel better about it after playing Nao's route. As such, this is a good opportunity to segue into the discussion of Nao's route!
Nao Route
BP: So, while I will admit I didn't expect nor want any weird supernatural/sci-fi stuff to happen, I'm not TOO bothered by it. Nao erasing Asuka's memories over the years explains why she has weird dreams about the past, along with her not really remembering anything that Itsuki tells her while also feeling like the stuff she says is "right." I have a lot of bizarre ideas from time-to-time, and I've always wanted to see a different take on the classic amnesiac protagonist. I guess the trope of slowly remembering things over time exists for a reason, but I personally appreciated this unusual approach.
Now, to discuss the sister route. As veteran VN readers, we've seen incest routes time and time again, typically culminating in "but we're not REAL siblings because we're not blood-related!" At the end of this route, when Nao called that out, I was very pleased by Asuka's subversion of the trope by kissing her with her bloody mouth and going "Well, now we are!"
J: Yeah, I think I would have rather had the information about Asuka's past shown to me than to just have it all filled in as exposition, but you're right that it's a unique approach to that trope.
I agree, that part of the route is a good commentary on the way incest routes are often handled. I think the common strategy of having them not be biological siblings is pretty silly, since even though it might make some readers feel like it's a little less gross, they still grew up as siblings and that's still the defining element of their relationship. So it's an interesting moment when Asuka also declares that that doesn't make a difference in her own way. Also, that comes off the heels of another one of the most disturbing moments in the story, when Asuka swallows Nao's vomit out of her mouth in order to get the effects of the potion Nao has been drinking. That was disgusting.
BP: Oh, no! I was hoping you weren't going to mention that part! I was taken out of the moment in that part. Like, I get it, Asuka, you would do anything for Nao. You were trying to save her life. It was certainly a good way to shock both Nao and the reader.
BP: I also found Nao's bad end pretty disturbing. I'm not typically bothered by depictions of BDSM although I'm not into it myself, but the idea of Asuka choking Nao (for hours!) until she passes out (for more hours!) was REALLY scary to me. Asuka can be a really terrifying person sometimes.
J: Yeah, that was clearly not a healthy relationship. This VN doesn't pull any punches with its bad endings.
Now that we've discussed all of the individual routes, let's address the unique setting this VN seems to have—one in which it gradually becomes clear that no men seem to exist in the world at all.
BP: Yes! I noticed it early on when Itsuki was being vague about the gender of Sakuya's parents, but I was willing to shrug it off as a coincidence. From then on, there were more clues. In Sakuya's good end, Kyoko and Asuka have the reborn baby of Sakuya, and there is no indication of the child being born from sperm donation or adoption. Along with the scene at the beach in Itsuki's route when Asuka is getting hit on by a bunch of random girls. Even in a yuri VN with no male characters, it is atypical for there to never be any mention of men, along with even the creepy characters hitting on the MC also being female.
J: I had to look this up to be sure, but there's actually one part in the VN where the class is studying "pregnancy through IPS cells," a kind of stem cell that people are still doing a lot of research on. So I think the implication with that is that they've developed a way to have children without men contributing DNA. This obviously raises a bunch of questions about whether there were ever any men in this society. If there were, where did they go? Did they just die off when women no longer needed them for reproduction? Or did the women actively eliminate them?
BP: I just love how subtle it is. There's always a sense that there is something more to the story. You can say the same thing about their society that you can say about the VN itself:
Jane: Thanks for reading our review of Nurse Love Addiction! I hope to have a chance to write some more collaborative reviews soon. And if you're interested in seeing more of Bishounen-P's work, you can follow her on twitter.
BP: Thanks again for doing this collaborative review with me! To the readers, keep an eye out for more BP&J Discuss in the future!
Recently, I had a chance to talk with d Marie Licea, developer of Us Lovely Corpses, about the creative process behind this fascinating “surreal-horror-romance” visual novel. Us Lovely Corpses is a VN I considered reviewing for this blog when I read it, but I struggled to write a review that would be interesting and accessible—explaining the parts that most impressed and resonated with me would mean spoiling it completely. But I encourage anyone who can handle some disturbing content in service of a great story and heartfelt message to try it out. This interview will start with some more general questions, and it includes a warning farther down before any spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses appear.
Question: Did you always plan for the story of Us Lovely Corpses to be a visual novel, or did you consider other mediums as well?
Answer: In its earliest stages, Us Lovely Corpses was actually planned as a comic! I came up with the original idea somewhere around 2014-2015—it was going to be about 10 pages, and would just cover the scene that ended up being the game's finale. Alex and Marisol (who weren't named yet) were very different—they were much younger, Alex wasn't really "a witch," and Marisol was originally a boy!
I sat on the idea a while, and the longer I did so the more I wanted to explore the history of these characters, which made for a longer and more unwieldy comic. Then in 2015, when I started learning about visual novels, it hit me that the concept could work really well in that format, especially when the "exploration" element came in.
Q: Were there any particular visual novels that influenced you?
A: Yes! The reason why I started getting into visual novels specifically in 2015 was that because that was the year We Know The Devil came out!
We Know The Devil totally shifted my viewpoint as to what a visual novel could be—no diss to dating sims, but before WKTD, I, like most people, just saw VNs as dating sims and occasionally something like the When They Cry series.
WKTD totally changed that for me—a short, incredibly contained story that also managed to be about so, so much, in a surreal, horror-inspired atmosphere . . . it really blew me away! Not only was it the game that got me into visual novels, but you can definitely see a lot of its influence on Us Lovely Corpses.
Besides WKTD, there was also Her Tears Were My Light, a fairly minimalist love story that used the "rewind" function in Ren’Py as part of the story. Utilizing mechanics as part of the narrative was a really cool idea to me that also ended up in ULC. (side note: I met and hired Alex Huang to do the music for Us Lovely Corpses because I loved the soundtrack for HTWML so much!)
Finally, I was really into the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) trilogy when I was younger, and the evidence gathering segments were a big part of those games. I originally envisioned the "rose clipping" segments of ULC like those parts, where you'd have to select each rose before cutting it, but sadly that was a little too complex for me at the time, and I eventually decided to go for something more simple in order to complete the game. But that initial idea was a big part of what made me try Us Lovely Corpses as a game, so it ended up still being a big influence in the end!
Q: Besides technical things like those mechanics and the exploration element, do you find that you have a different style of writing in visual novels as opposed to the stories you've done in other formats, like twine and comics?
A: I'm not sure if this is always the case for visual novels, but I find I have to format my writing differently when writing for VNs—specifically, in length of sentences and paragraphs. I've found my writing worked a lot better in Us Lovely Corpses the more I broke everything up into smaller fragments—larger ones or paragraphs didn't work as well, which can be a problem for me because my writing can tend to get a bit wordy!
This has to do a lot with the pacing of visual novels and how the player/reader is a big part of that. Control over pacing is a big part of why visual novels appeal to me, but you also have to think differently to get the best result.
Technical stuff aside, I found that, at least for ULC, my actual writing style remained pretty much the same. I think this has the benefit of making the writing in Us Lovely Corpses seem unique, but has the disadvantage of posing a problem for a certain something I didn't see coming at all: Let’s Players!
A few people have made videos of their playthroughs of Us Lovely Corpses, which is incredibly exciting, but when I watch them, I can't help but feel bad for them because they always read everything out loud . . . which means, with my somewhat wordy style, they have to do a LOT of talking!
I haven't actually gotten complaints about this or anything, but I still hope people who make videos of their playthroughs of ULC keep some water nearby!
Note: the next part of the interview contains spoilers for Us Lovely Corpses, as well as discussion of mental illness.
Q: As the story progresses, it becomes explicitly clear that the “monster” is Marisol’s bipolar disorder. Did you ever think about leaving the metaphor more ambiguous, and if so, what made you decide to be so direct instead?
A: I'd say if the "monster" was one specific thing, it would her Ocular Rosaceae, as it's the one specific thing that gives a physical form to Marisol's thoughts and unhealthy behaviors. But even that, in a way, is not taking into account her bipolar disorder and depression, her jealousy towards Alex, her self-loathing and introversion . . . "the monster" is all of those things, because at its core, the monster is mental illness. And mental illness is never just one thing, but many things and factors interacting at once to create something much bigger than a single diagnosis.
All that said, it's not incorrect to say that Marisol's bipolar disorder is the monster; it's just more accurate to say it’s part of Marisol's monster. Back when ULC was still a comic, I wasn't going to talk about specific diagnoses, but as the story grew I realized I wanted to talk more explicitly about mental illness. I don't exactly remember where the idea came about, but early on in the writing process I got that idea in my head of Alex finding that fake corpse and finding that doctor's diagnosis. In retrospect, it was a really, really weird scene, especially as it comes right off the heels of realizing what you thought was a dead body was just a weird joke, but I do like what it represents—in the middle of this surreal trip into a house filled with talking flowers, the story suddenly halts as you soak in this very blunt reminder that, magic aside, this is a world that is representative of the real world. Marisol may have a magical disease and be best friends with a witch, but she's a very real girl, so to speak.
So that harsh reminder is part of why I wanted to be so direct. I guess the other part would be that I just wanted to make no bones about it. Some things you want to leave up to interpretation, and some things you don't. From the very, very beginning the story was always about mental illness, so it just felt right to me to be upfront about it.
Q: One thing I noticed that I thought showed a lot of attention to detail in ULC was that in one of the rooms you explore there are two famous paintings that both have connections to suicide (Millais’s Ophelia and van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows). Are there any other little symbolic details like that you added to the story that some readers might have missed?
A: Ah, I'm glad you caught that! If I had stuck with the more Ace Attorney style of gameplay I would have liked to put more small details like that in. As it stands, the big example is probably pretty obvious—Alex's notes about each rose are fairly close to the standard "flower language" of different rose colors in real life. The fact that yellow roses can mean "jealousy" or "friendship" depending on what source you use actually ended up working very well with the story.
The last names of Alex and Marisol are probably pretty obvious: de Rosa ("of the Rose") and Flores ("Flowers"). Something that's probably less apparent is Marisol, a name that originally comes from a contraction of "Maria de La Soledad" ("Our Lady Of Solitude"), one of the titles given to the Virgin Mary.
Q: Was the flower language the reason you used roses rather than any other flower, or were there other inspirations for that as well?
A: There were a number of reasons! One being that Revolutionary Girl Utena was a big influence on my style and particularly on several parts of the game. There's also the whole dichotomy with roses/thorns. And there's also the simple fact that I have fun drawing roses!
Q: For my last question, are you working on any other visual novels right now?
A: I am as a matter of fact! I'm working on a visual novel set in Japan about some high school kids who explore a strange house. It's still in fairly early stages, but I think if I give it my all I will actually have a demo ready in time for Halloween, which would be great!
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing that demo—even more so after learning about all of the serious thought d Marie Licea puts into the details and themes of her work. If you’re as excited as I am about updates on her upcoming projects, you can follow her on itch.io or twitter, and considering supporting her patreon. Thanks for reading!
“If someone gets pulled into the lake, they’ll instinctively reach for anything to hold onto. Do not let that be you.”
I had been looking forward to reading Lake of Voices ever since I first heard about it. Its character-focused supernatural horror sounded exactly like the kind of thing I like. And I definitely wasn’t disappointed when it was finally released on Steam and itch.io last week. With full voice acting and beautiful art, Lake of Voices is especially high quality for a free release, and I would recommend it to any fans of visual novels who can appreciate a bit of the grotesque and uncanny.
This is the third VN by developer GB Patch Games that I’ve read, and each time I’ve been impressed with their ability to come up with unique story ideas. A Foretold Affair casts the player as a mysterious masked seer who has had a vision of their future spouse, and tasks them with convincing their soulmate of their destiny without creeping them out too much while also on the run from bounty hunters. And while I thought GB Patch’s 2017 NaNoRenO entry, My Magical Divorce Bureau, suffered a bit from trying to fit too much into too short a story, it’s still worth checking out for the hilarious concept of a divorce lawyer working in a world where various supernatural creatures are trying to force each other into marriage all the time. Lake of Voices keeps up this trend with its setting of a massive lake only traversable by a sprawling maze of magically shifting bridges, with the help of a nameless guide who won’t spare a thought for letting one of his charges die if it means the others survive. It’s a really fun and spooky setting that I was excited to learn more about as I played.
The one element of Lake of Voices that wasn’t quite to my taste was the structure. The VN contains a multitude of choices, many of which are timed, leading to several different possible outcomes for your trip across the lake. While this does add a sense of uncertainty and urgency that works really well for the story, I find that I usually prefer fewer choices. Having a lot of freedom to control the protagonist’s actions and change the story can be fun at first, but when I read VNs, I like to make sure that I’ve seen all the branches and haven’t missed anything before I call them finished. Too much branching can make me frustrated and overwhelmed on my quest for 100% completion. But fortunately for people like me, one Steam user created a helpful walkthrough for all the achievements—which is much more helpful in navigating the lake than the story’s own curmudgeonly Guide.
And despite his incompetence at his job, the Guide was probably my favourite character in the VN. His standoffish and mysterious nature intrigued me, and it was exciting when I finally found a path that led me to learning more about him. But it’s hard to pick just one favourite character when each of the travelers seeking a way across the lake also has their own goals and secrets to discover. I enjoyed every route of Lake of Voices, and I hope that anyone else who tries it out does too.
My latest recommendations for visual novels that take a few hours or less to read. This installment features an eclectic mix of stories that fall on different parts of the spectrums from realism to surrealism and serious to wonderfully silly.
One Night, Hot Springs [VNDB|itch.io|Steam]
One Night, Hot Springs is a really sweet and heartfelt little project that I’d recommend to pretty much everyone. Its art style is adorable, and it tells the story of a young transgender woman named Haru who’s nervous about joining her best friend on a hot springs vacation. While the VN takes a serious approach to depicting some of the issues transgender people face in society, it also has an overall positive message about things gradually getting better. Make sure you get all the different endings to fully experience some of what makes Haru’s life difficult, as well as the ways she works to overcome those difficulties with a little help from her friends.
You Left Me [VNDB|itch.io]
Made in 48 hours for the game jam Ludum Dare, You Left Me tells a surreal story about trying—or failing—to survive after the death of a loved one. Developer Angela He’s unique art style makes all the environments and characters you encounter equal parts beautiful and disturbing, and I have no idea how she managed to do it all within the time limit. The only minor issue is that I wish the game had been structured in a way that forces you to spend more time investigating its strange world, since it’s possible to stumble across some of the endings without doing much, thereby missing a lot of detail. I definitely recommend taking your time to explore everything this one has to offer.
Mermaid Splash: Passion Festival [VNDB|itch.io]
Mermaid Splash: Passion Festival has to be one of the cutest visual novels I’ve ever read. Its sweet and simple plot about a young mermaid trying to decide which skill to show off at an upcoming festival introduces you to a wide variety of interesting characters and locations, all rendered in a bright and pastel-coloured style that reminded me of cotton candy. A little bit of drama in the various routes keeps the story from being too uniformly happy all the time, but dedication to communicating with your partner and pursuing your passion will always lead to a positive ending. I read this one while recovering from dental surgery, and it was perfect for cheering me up and distracting me from the pain I was in, so I especially recommend it to anyone else in a similar situation!
Dr. Frank’s Build-a-Boyfriend [VNDB|itch.io]
This game grabbed my attention with its wacky premise of a mad scientist reanimating a corpse so he can date it, and held my attention with a storyline that was, in a way, surprisingly down-to-earth. Grave-robbing aside, Dr. Frank is just a guy who feels sad and inadequate, and who’s desperate to prove to himself and the world that he’s smart and cool and totally over his ex-boyfriend. I really enjoyed getting to know him as I explored his spooky mansion in point-and-click segments, looking for clothes that would fit the monstrosity I chose to build with “tragic anime boy” coloured hair. Check this one out if you’re interested in a good mix of offbeat, morbid comedy and genuine emotion.
Moonlight Crossing [VNDB|itch.io]
Finally, the most recent short VN I read was a 2017 NaNoRenO entry about a faerie trying to repair a crashed spacecraft so she can visit a friend on the moon. Some of its extremely energetic dialogue came off a little too childish for my taste, but I might very well be an old curmudgeon, so I’m sure some other readers would find it cute. And while some of the characters’ outfits are scanty enough that I wouldn’t recommend reading this one in public, they do have some lovely design; I especially liked the protagonist’s long purple hair. If you want to watch some pretty magic girls run around and get up to silly shenanigans in a world that combines fantasy and sci-fi elements, Moonlight Crossing is for you.
As always, I hope my short reviews can inspire some people to pick up a short VN or two they hadn’t heard of before! And if you do, enjoy!
This review contains some minor spoilers for Hadaka Shitsuji, but I’ve tried to avoid anything major. It also contains a lot of discussion of sexual assault.
Years ago, when I was first getting interested in visual novels, I started reading a strange story—one about a young man named Tomoaki who becomes the master of a mysterious mansion, where sexy butlers wait on him hand and foot. It wasn’t long before one of my choices led to the unexpected outcome of Tomoaki sexually assaulting one of the butlers. Then, in the bad ending to end all bad endings, I watched helplessly as Tomoaki downed a mysterious drug that caused his penis to engorge to a massive size and subsequently explode. Confused and unsettled by these bizarre events, I didn’t read any further at the time. But there was always something in the back of my mind that drew me to this weird VN called Hadaka Shitsuji. I just had to know what in the world it was all about. Recently, I finally un-stalled this first VN I ever stalled, and what a wild ride it was.
I’m glad my stalling meant the official translation was out by the time I got back into it, so I could appreciate great lines like this one.
Before you read any further, if you’re looking for a portrayal of good, healthy BDSM with safe words and aftercare, you’re not going to find it in Hadaka Shitsuji. Hadaka Shitsuji is entirely about rape and sexual torture—but in this case, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I know I’ve criticized some other VNs for including graphic rape scenes in my previous reviews, but my issues with those were mostly that I felt the creators were blind-siding the readers with unnecessarily disturbing content. Hadaka Shitsuji, on the other hand, makes no claim to be anything but extremely fucked up porn, and my views on porn are generally pretty liberal. People can’t help it if they have weird fantasies, and as long as everyone involved in the production of porn that caters to those fantasies is a consenting adult, and any potential consumers of that porn are clear on what they’re getting into, then I’m glad it exists so that people who are into some weird stuff can enjoy it.
Even weird stuff like “bukkake udon.”
And I’m also glad Hadaka Shitsuji exists, because in a way, it’s absolutely fascinating. According to VNDB, it was essentially a solo project by developer Togo Mito, with the only major contribution by other people being the voice acting. That means one guy sat down and wrote, programmed, and illustrated this extremely long, extremely weird, and sometimes extremely complex magnus opus of butler rape. This VN has five main routes, a short true route and side story, and a couple short side routes, as well as a bunch of alternate scenes and endings that take a lot of experimentation to unlock—so much so that the most comprehensive guide I could find wasn’t even always right. There’s one CG that has fifty variations, because you have multiple choices about the order in which to undress your chosen butler (although some of those variations lead to inconsistencies in the following scene, which is kind of funny). There’s another scene where you have six or seven choices about which vegetables from the kitchen you’d like to shove up another butler’s ass. All of this was lovingly rendered by one passionate madman, and experiencing it is like getting a rare glimpse into the mind of someone who must love sadistic rape fantasies more than life itself.
And I read all of it. All of it.
And honestly, overall, I enjoyed it. While I would likely have found a lot of the content in it very disturbing under other circumstances, the characters and situations are all so silly that it very rarely feels at all real. People with darker tastes than mine may consider that a flaw, but I appreciate it, as it allowed me to find many of the h-scenes funny, genuinely enjoyable, or at least not that bad. The only exception to that was the route for the youngest butler, Arisato. His character flaws and emotional reactions to Tomoaki’s abuse made him come across as a little more realistic than the others—or at least a little more evocative of sympathy—making many of his scenes uncomfortable or just sad. But if you find this journey through the mind of Togo Mito as interesting as I do, Arisato’s route is worth suffering through just for the final scene, which speeds straight past highly disturbing into so completely absurd that I couldn’t help finding it hilarious. I won’t spoil it—it’s something that truly has to be experienced.
Arisato even briefly becomes a literal punching bag as well as a metaphorical one.
Those fantastically ridiculous parts of Hadaka Shitsuji really made it all worth it for me. I was always happy I had stuck with it through the boring, frustrating, or disturbing bits when I got to moments like that bizarre Arisato scene. Another great part is the true ending. While the “twist” is easily predictable, its obviousness kind of struck me as part of the campy charm of the whole VN, and the particular way the reveal happens is still unexpected and entertaining. Hadaka Shitsuji may be another VN I wouldn’t exactly recommend to that many people—who else would want to spend hours upon hours struggling to make the right choices to unlock another weird rape scene?—but I still had a great time reading it. So thanks for giving me that experience, Togo Mito, you wonderfully crazy bastard.
I just released my entry in this year’s Yaoi Game Jam! It’s called Well Met By Moonlight and it’s free on itch.io. If you enjoy short visual novels, gay romance, and hanging out in forests with mysterious strangers, then check it out!
I also helped out with editing for another free yaoi jam game, Strawberry Daiquiri. Both games have the same hard-working artist, and this one takes place in a cool sci-fi future bar. If you try one or both of them, I hope you have fun!
Some Thoughts On Subarashiki Hibi/Wonderful Everday
Subarashiki Hibi—officially translated as Wonderful Everyday and often shortened to Subahibi by fans—is a very strange visual novel. There were some parts of it I really enjoyed, and others that only left me confused and irritated, and I’m not sure which outweighed the other. So I guess it’s time for another long mixed feelings review in which I try to sort out whether I even really liked this VN. Heavy spoilers will begin almost immediately, so turn back now if you intend to read Subahibi someday.
The Spoiler Police are ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice.
One thing I found especially impressive in Subahibi is how it takes a twist that a lot of people might consider overdone and handles it about as well as any writer possibly can. Unlike some other media that simply tosses in a pop culture understanding of dissociative identity disorder as a cheap and easy way to surprise the audience, Subahibi’s portrayal of it is interesting and internally consistent, and also seems pretty accurate from what little knowledge I have of psychology. And there are just enough hints about it in the chapter “Looking-Glass Insects” that I was close to guessing it by the time it’s confirmed in “Jabberwocky,” but I hadn’t quite figured it out yet. I was still a bit surprised by how the reveal played out, but I also felt like I was smart for being on the right track with my theories, and that was fun. From that point on, I was totally immersed in the story, constantly re-evaluating my interpretations of earlier events and looking forward to more explanations. But reaching that satisfying point of the story came at the end of a long and difficult journey.
My two favourite characters turned out to be one and the same.
Before the revelations of “Jabberwocky,” you have to forge through “It’s My Own Invention.” Until the beginning of that chapter, I was really enjoying Subahibi. “Down the Rabbit-Hole” may be a lot slower and less intense than the rest of the story, but I loved reading from the perspective of the smart, proactive, and cynical Yuki. And then she was suddenly replaced by a sex-obsessed, socially incompetent misogynist suffering from absurd delusions. While some later events did make me appreciate parts of “Invention” more in retrospect, I’m not sure any of them justify the excruciating hours of details about Takuji’s masturbation habits, failures to interact with his peers, hatred of women, and discussions with the anime girl he drew on his wall. Every scene just felt needlessly long and irritated me more and more.
Okay, okay, I get it already.
“Invention” also includes a great deal of graphic rape, which I’m not sure was at all necessary. I can see how someone could make an argument that some of the rape scenes are important, because of how they can make the reader empathize with the characters’ trauma, but any emotional impact they have is necessarily diminished by the time you’ve read through more than a couple of them. They eventually become something that’s neither entertaining nor especially disturbing—just annoying and unpleasant. Some of them do have a secondary value in that revisiting them later changes their meaning and demonstrates Takuji’s warped perspective, but others just never come up again. For instance, what was the point of the extensive scene in which Asumi rapes her father before riding away naked on a stolen bicycle? I’ll admit I found some parts of it darkly humorous in their absolute absurdity, but I’d be hard-pressed to come up with an explanation for its importance to the narrative.
And this scene was disturbing for completely different reasons—namely, the bizarre pose Zakuro has contorted her back into.
At least I always had the impression that the rape scenes in Subahibi were intentionally crafted to be disturbing, even if that’s lost in oversaturation, unlike some other visual novels that treat rape like any other sex scene. And while the same problem carries over into the next chapter, “Looking-Glass Insects,” I quite enjoyed that one overall. I much prefer Zakuro as a narrator, I thought the alternate route focusing on her relationship with Kimika was adorable, and as I mentioned earlier, it sets up for “Jabberwocky” really well. “Inventions” is the only chapter I would say I didn’t like, but it’s longer than two or three of the other six chapters combined. And how much can I really say I liked Subahibi if I spent such a large fraction of it just gritting my teeth and pushing forward based on the promise it would get better later?
Come to think of it, this adorable terror basically disappears from the last three chapters. She deserves better.
I’m glad I read Subahibi, and I think I would still recommend it to some people who are patient and willing to put up with some issues. I definitely wouldn’t call it a bad VN, but I’m not sure if I can call it a VN I really liked all that much either. It was just a strange and interesting experience.
I don’t often review games that don’t fall into the visual novel genre, but I was motivated to write this one because I just needed to talk about how much I love Ghost Trick. (And really, it has such a great in-depth plot that it could be an honorary VN anyway.) I bought this game simply because it was available on iOS and I wanted something I could easily play a little bit of while on the bus, but I soon found it incredibly hard to wait until my next bus trip to find out what happened next in its wacky, unique, and heartfelt story. This review avoids spoilers beyond a few early events, because I hope to inspire anyone who might have missed this game to pick it up in the near future.
You can always count on household objects to give good advice.
In Ghost Trick, you play as Sissel, a man who loses his memory but gains supernatural powers after his death. When he encounters other people who have recently died, he can travel back in time to four minutes before their death, and use his limited telekinesis in an attempt to save them. With only one night to spend on the mortal plane, Sissel embarks on a quest to figure out who he is and why he died, and gets tangled up in all sorts of other mysteries along the way. In particular, he keeps getting sidetracked by the multiple, increasingly comical deaths of headstrong young detective Lynne, who has her own case she’s also trying to solve before dawn.
Sissel can also see people through phone calls, and use phone lines to teleport to places he’s seen that way.
One of the aspects of Ghost Trick I found most impressive was the interconnectedness of its events and characters. In a puzzle game like this, I think the player is usually prepared to accept that some things just happen as a thin excuse for more gameplay. I certainly wouldn’t have really taken issue with the occasional puzzle that doesn’t have much bearing on anything, or character who just pops up to be amusing. So it was a very pleasant surprise that even some of the “gamiest” elements of Ghost Trick—such as a ridiculous Rube Goldberg machine you have to use your powers to stop early on—actually end up becoming important parts of the plot. I pretty much spent the second half of the game constantly excited about callbacks to the first half that brought everything together into a thrilling and satisfying finale.
Even the craziest characters have important roles to play.
The only somewhat negative parts of my experience with Ghost Trick were fairly subjective and avoidable. I found some of the later puzzles a bit frustrating, since they started to require more precise timing, and I was really, really bad at pressing the “ghost” button at the right moment. But I’m sure that a lot of other people wouldn’t have that problem, because a lot of other people are much better at games than I am. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it was easier to accomplish in the Nintendo DS version, with an actual tactile button, rather than in the iOS version I played. My second minor issue was that I wasn’t always entirely clear on when saving would let me return to exactly where I was, and when it would send me back to a little earlier in the same segment instead. But that wasn’t really a major issue—just don’t make the mistake of thinking you can save your game in the middle of a four minutes before death sequence, and all other parts of the game either let you save right where you are, or are pretty easy to skip through again anyway.
And some parts are still hilarious even if you have to watch them twice!
Ghost Trick has the same creator as the Ace Attorney series, and it definitely shows. Each and every one of the characters in Ghost Trick would be at home in the Ace Attorney universe, with their flashy and distinctive designs and their bizarre mannerisms and personalities. But as Ghost Trick goes on, its story starts to get quite a bit darker than most of Ace Attorney, exploring similar themes of murder, the supernatural, and a corrupt justice system in more serious detail. And while you might expect that to make the over-the-top characters seem too out of place, I felt like their absurdity actually worked really well, adding a sort of uncanny element that made the plot all the more disturbing. And none of it took away from any of the more emotional moments either. I had developed a lot of earnest affection for this collection of weirdos by the end, and I think most other people who play Ghost Trick would feel the same way. I would recommend it to everyone who likes games with puzzles and in-depth stories, and probably even to some people who don’t—there’s just so much great stuff in there that pretty much anyone could enjoy.
My latest recommendations for visual novels that take a few hours or less to read. This installment features baseball, magic trees, international espionage, alcoholism, and the actual devil. Well, maybe it was really a metaphorical devil—it’s kind of ambiguous.
Butterfly Soup [VNDB|itch.io]
Butterfly Soup is about four gay and bi Asian girls going to school, playing baseball, and getting up to all kinds of silly shenanigans. It touches on some serious issues, many of them tying into the struggle of defining your identity as you grow up, but it’s also full of comedy and adorable awkward flirting. The over-the-top, internet-meme-influenced style of humour might be a bit much for some readers, but it’s realistic for the fourteen-year-old protagonists. I would have liked to see some of the characters developed further, but I was content to just get a small glimpse of their lives, with what happens in the future left up to interpretation . . . at least until the sequel the developer has mentioned she’s planning on her blog!
Natural - Beyond Nature - [VNDB|Steam]
If you enjoy short, atmospheric VNs, I highly recommend Natural - Beyond Nature -. This bittersweet tale of two young women bound together by both magic and trauma, and the visitor to their remote village who might be able to help them, is a lovely relaxing read. You might want to keep the official guide on hand to make sure you collect all the “fragments” that unlock the endings and bonus content, since the skip function requires you to constantly hold down the button, making a bit frustrating to try to explore all the options yourself. But it’s worth it to see all the pretty art in the ending variations. And I’m always happy to support indie VN developers like Zeiva Inc., who seem dedicated to improving their writing and experimenting with new concepts.
Blind Men [VNDB|itch.io|Steam]
In the BL/comedy VN Blind Men, aspiring supervillain “Doctor Cyclops” is determined to pull off an impressive heist in order to gain a spot in the League of Evil. Unfortunately for him, his plan is disrupted by not one but two secret agents—a flamboyant American and a stoic Russian. As he struggles to pull off his evil scheme, Cyclops might just end up falling for one of his enemies. Blind Men has a bright and colourful art style that really sets it apart from a lot of other VNs—it reminded me more of the TV show Archer than anything else. I had some technical issues with the skip function and the steam achievements, but I really enjoyed the story, which manages to fit some really cute and interesting dialogue in between scenes of comedy and parodic melodrama. It’s another one that I kind of wished was a little longer, since it would be great to see more interactions between Cyclops and either love interest as they continue to work against each other despite being attracted each other. I’m looking forward to seeing what these developers come up with next.
Last Call [VNDB|itch.io]
Last Call’s protagonist, Dawn, wakes up after having fallen asleep in a bar, with no money for a taxi and no charge for her phone. She only has two phone numbers memorized, and both of them belong to people she’s somewhat estranged from after rocky relationships. Whichever number you choose to ask the bartender to call, the story explores some relatable issues through realistic dialogue, and your choices determine whether Dawn moves toward reconciliation or makes things worse. I felt like the writers did an especially good job making Dawn a sympathetic character, in spite of her many flaws and past mistakes. It can be a little difficult to figure out how to get some of the endings—a few of them seem to require getting some of the other endings in a specific order—but a list of them gives a few hints, and I do appreciate the originality of the non-standard route structure. The nice unique art style also adds to the appeal of this very polished exploration of friendship and forgiveness.
We Know the Devil [VNDB|Steam]
An earlier release by the developers of Hustle Cat, We Know the Devil explores the relationships of three teenage friends as they spend a long, strange night in a dilapidated cabin at a Christian summer camp. The art style of sketched sprites over photographic backgrounds might not be for everyone, but I felt that it added to the story’s odd and unsettling atmosphere. The story combines horror and teen angst with plenty of symbolism and mythological references into a weird and experimental work that’s very interesting to read. Furthermore, the contrast between WKTD and Hustle Cat shows that Date Nighto is a group of developers with a lot of versatility. What kind of story they’ll tell next is anyone’s guess, but I bet whatever it is will be fun.
The recently translated visual novel SeaBed (VNDB|MangaGamer|Steam) caught my eye because it seemed like it would address a lot of themes I don’t see very often in this medium—namely, mental health issues in an everyday context and the loss of a long-term relationship, seen through the eyes of adult lesbian protagonists. What I didn’t expect, however, was how much SeaBed would also diverge from typical narrative conventions regarding dramatic structure. Since I finished reading it, I’ve been trying to figure out how I felt about it all, and whether its plotline was unnecessarily confusing or whether I simply wasn’t interpreting it properly. Much like many of the questions raised in SeaBed, I don’t think I have a straightforward answer to that. What I do have is a long rambling contemplation about it. Enjoy. I’ll avoid any big spoilers in the first half, and indicate when they’re coming up later.
Just because your title is metaphorical doesn’t mean you should miss an opportunity to put your leads in bikinis.
SeaBed alternates between the perspectives of three narrators: Sachiko, Narasaki, and Takako. Sachiko is a young graphic designer plagued by hallucinations of her missing girlfriend, Takako; she goes to Narasaki, an old friend who has now become a psychiatrist, for help. For much of the story, Sachiko and Narasaki are both on vacation at the same nearly vacant hotel in the Japanese countryside. Meanwhile, we also see Takako in a “sanatorium,” where she’s in treatment for some kind of memory issue that has left her with only vague recollections of her life with Sachiko. Descriptions of the three women’s day-to-day lives blend with memories and dreams into a unique and strange reading experience.
Excruciatingly detailed descriptions of the three women’s day-to-day lives, that is.
I’m not sure the mixture of slice-of-life and mystery worked very well, although the problem may lie more with my reading of it than with the writing. I might have appreciated SeaBed more if, from the beginning, I approached it the way you might a more abstract text: accept the weirdness and think about what that weirdness might mean on a deeper, symbolic level. Instead, I approached SeaBed like a mystery, constantly looking for concrete explanations that just weren’t there. Scenes in which Takako relaxes and chats with her friends at the sanatorium, for instance, were frustrating to me. I was unable to grow attached to the characters the way you normally would through well-written slice-of-life segments, because I had so many questions about who these characters were, where and when these scenes were taking place, and whether their narrators were reliable, that I was barely paying attention to what was happening in the moment. But maybe if I had been less caught up with theorizing and searching for answers, and had just slowed down and enjoyed the ride, I would have appreciated the writing a lot more.
This scene of Christmas at the sanatorium, for instance, could have been really cute if I was reading it right.
But I’m also not sure if my inaccurate expectations are totally my fault. The description on the localization’s website describes SeaBed as a “mystery visual novel,” and also makes it sound like Sachiko’s hallucinations are the story’s focus. I was especially interested in reading a story about a functioning adult trying to manage mental health issues. And it is about that for a while—the first quarter of the story is fairly straightforward as it follows Sachiko and Narasaki trying to work through which of Sachiko’s memories of Takako are accurate. Aside from a sometimes excessively slow pace, I was enjoying the way the story was going at that point. It was pretty much what I had hoped for. But then the prologue ended, and the perspectives started switching, and I stopped really understanding what I was supposed to be getting out of this VN. Spoilers in the continuation of my thoughts below:
This analysis of the source and nature of Sachiko’s problems might have been my favourite part.
My confusion about where the story was going and how I was supposed to interpret it never dissipated, and I was completely surprised by the supernatural turn it took in the end. Maybe that’s my own error; after all, Narasaki does tell you at the end of the prologue that Takako is dead. But since right after that you start seeing scenes from Takako’s perspective, I don’t think many readers would immediately conclude, “I guess this is the afterlife.” My thought process was more like, “I guess either this is a flashback, or Takako isn’t really dead. And if she isn’t really dead, why did Narasaki say she was? Is Narasaki wrong, or lying?” I was searching for answers to those questions the whole time. One of the theories I came up with was that, much like a particular film I really enjoy, Sachiko and Takako had actually chosen to forget each other intentionally, and Narasaki was trying to keep them apart in accordance with their wishes. I’m not sure if the VN expects its readers to just take Narasaki’s statement that Takako is dead at face value. I certainly might have appreciated the story more if I did, but I also suspect a lot of other readers wouldn’t. I’d be interested to know what other people think.
I felt like the VN was just mocking me at this point. “Haha, I bet you’re coming up with dumb theories about how two people are really the same person and stuff like that, aren’t you?”
I find it hard to pass judgement on SeaBed, because while I’m not sure if I’d say I really enjoyed reading it, I think a lot of the problem was that I couldn’t let go of my own inaccurate expectations of it. I’d like to reread it sometime, knowing the direction that it takes, and try to figure out how much of that was my fault, and how much of it—if any—was the writing’s failure to guide readers in the right direction. Does the strangeness and ambiguity of the story make it too easy for readers to interpret it totally wrongly, or was I just missing hints and clues because I was stubbornly clinging to the wrong idea about what kind of VN it was? I think SeaBed might contain some good lessons for me as both a writer and a reader, about how to prevent readers from being disappointed when a story changes direction, but also about how to shed my preconceptions as a reader and just see where the story takes me. I might recommend SeaBed to others who’d be interested in that kind of learning experience. But I’m not sure I’d recommend it as a fun read.
Do you ever wish you could take a break during the work day to just play with some cats? Nineteen-year-old Avery Grey (whose pronouns and appearance are up to the player) is ecstatic to be able to do just that after finding a “help wanted” sign in the window of a cat café in Hustle Cat (VNDB|itch.io|steam). The only problem with what seems like a dream job is that the owner, a weird goth guy named Graves, kind of seems like he’s hiding something . . . and Avery’s cute coworkers really spend a lot more time at work than they need to . . . and what’s that growing on Avery’s face in the mirror? My review of this cute story about a strange café will avoid any major spoilers.
Best job interview ever.
Each of the romance routes in Hustle Cat are short and sweet, and they build toward the resolution of the true route as well as having side plots in which Avery helps one of her coworkers with another problem. My personal favourite route in terms of plot and character development was the one for Mason, the café’s aloof and stoic chef. But while I liked that they didn’t drag on for too long, I felt like they could have slowed down the pace just a little bit to show Avery spending more time with her love interest and other friends as their relationships progressed. The interactions between the different characters are all adorable, so I think they could really shine in some more “slice of life” type scenes.
Pictured: A tragically missed opportunity for a “Nekonomicon” pun
In my opinion, Hustle Cat’s biggest flaw is some technical issues that held me back from fully appreciating its story. I read pretty quickly, so usually the first thing I do when I launch a new VN is set the text to appear on screen instantly instead of crawling into view gradually. Hustle Cat doesn’t seem to provide that option, and skipping through already read text felt slow and cumbersome to me as well, making it frustrating every time I had to go back through the common route and make different choices to unlock a new love interest. That being said, I think the developers did actually try to do something interesting with the skip function. There are some scenes that occur in every route with slight variations for your love interest—for instance, you can always explore the café’s mysterious basement, and the coworker who catches you snooping will be the one you’re on the path to falling for. I noticed that if I had the skip function on when scenes like that started, it would just slow down a bit rather than stopping, allowing me to easily skim through what I had sort of already read without missing the little differences. That would be a great feature for other VNs that have some commonalities between routes to implement, but I would have appreciated it more if it was more customizable.
This is a great screenshot to show your friends out of context when they ask what you’re reading.
I especially liked that Hustle Cat had some elements of multiple route mystery, with some of the strange events of the other routes finally making a bit more sense once you unlock Graves. I had been really looking forward to learning the secrets behind his ostentatious persona throughout the story, and I wasn’t disappointed. If anything, I would have been happy to read a lot more backstory about Graves and Nacht—@datenighto, any chance you’re working on a prequel? I’d love to delve into more of the worldbuilding that was touched on in this story, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants some cute, inclusive romance with a bit of mystery and a lot of cats.
I recently finished reading Highway Blossoms, a short and cute visual novel about two women falling in love on an impromptu trip across the American Southwest. Overall, it was an enjoyable relaxing read, although I had some issues with it I’d like to discuss in this post. I’ll try to keep my review free of any detailed spoilers, but I will be mentioning some aspects of plot and characterization that give a little bit away.
Highway Blossoms’ biggest strengths are its atmosphere and characters. There’s something about American road trip stories that I tend to really enjoy—the kitschy charm of small town diners and tourist traps, the historical significance of the big landmarks, and even the long stretches of desert highway are all really appealing to me. Maybe it just seems exotic to me because I’m a Canadian without a car, but I like it. And the contrasting personalities of the main characters—cheerful and naïve Marina and grumpy and cynical Amber—allow for a lot of comedic moments as well as more serious scenes in which they learn to understand the other’s viewpoint. Amber got especially believable and sympathetic for me as I gradually realized that some of her standoffish personality was a way to hide her anxiety, although her habit of over-analyzing everything got a little bit frustrating to read sometimes. I was glad to see her start to deal with some of those issues as the story went on.
The pacing and structure of the story seemed a little weird to me, however. The opening scenes set it up to look like the main plotline will be about a treasure hunt, and we also learn that Amber is doing some sightseeing on her way to a music festival, so I expected the festival and the final stretch of the treasure hunt to coincide somehow. Instead, the treasure plotline gets largely resolved about halfway through, the rest of the story focuses more on the development of the romantic relationship. Then once that’s resolved there was a little more about the music festival that I didn’t really think was necessary. I think it could have been better if the treasure hunt lasted longer, with the romance happening at the same time, and the music festival as an even briefer scene at the end. As it was, some parts felt needlessly slow and I wasn’t always sure where the story was really going.
Also, while I don’t have anything against linear visual novels, I think Highway Blossoms could have benefited from some interactivity. Finding the treasure requires the girls to do a little bit of riddle-solving, and there’s even a mechanic that lets you go back and re-read entries in the journal of clues they’re following. You’d think that would mean that you’d really have to pore through the journal yourself so you can make the right choice about where to look for the treasure, but there are actually no choices in the VN at all. There’s also a blackjack game later on that I didn’t find particularly interesting, but maybe it could have been more fun if there had been some kind of minigame and a bad ending if you lost.
Finally, I was a little uncomfortable with the way the treasure hunt had the girls traipsing around the Navajo Nation’s landmarks of Shiprock and Canyon de Chelly in search of gold. I’m not an Indigenous person myself, so I don’t mean to claim to be offended on that community’s behalf. But considering the history of colonialism and continuing conflicts over land rights, I think depicting presumably white characters pillaging Navajo land for personal gain is in very poor taste. But maybe I should appreciate that this story does at least acknowledge the issue, even if it doesn’t fully explore the implications of the characters’ actions.
I may have listed a lot of issues I had with Highway Blossoms, but I do still think it’s a cute story. And as you’ve seen throughout this post, it has some really nice art tying it all together. I especially appreciated that when the characters are driving—which is often—there’s actually an image of them in the front seat of the RV, with several different variations on their facial expressions. It’s a big step up from some other VNs I’ve read that just slap the sprites over a car background, and it makes the dialogue during the drive much nicer to read. The CGs are all very pretty as well. And when you finish the game, you unlock a “goofball mode” that adds some sillier jokes into your next playthrough of the game if you choose to turn it on, which is a nice amusing way to end the experience. I’d recommend it to people who enjoy lesbian romance VNs regardless of its flaws, and I hope to see more work from the developers in the future.
