Master Recs: Deliciously Messy Visual Novels
CW: mentions of torture and SA
In this line of work (as in, relentless media indulgence), there simply isn't enough time to properly dissect and dissertate every opus I come across, to give them the massive, sprawling, meandering essays they deserve. Alternatively, I might not have enough material to write an article on a singular subject - which, I must stress, is not indicative of its subjective quality. The following list was made in order to unleash my spare thoughts unto the world, to uncage my many musings on a few delectable, deliciously messed up visual novels. Some of you will eat well today, I'm sure. Let us begin.
Butterfly Æffect: Papillons à Quatre Mains by ebicon
This is a neat project. Both a tribute and parody of classic romance visual novels that turns itself around into self-eviscerating Horror. It's not the most original of concepts, I'll admit. As such, I do not have that many thoughts about it. I did enjoy it, though. It's arguably the best version of that exact (let's call it) Post-Modern subgenre in the sense that it doesn't smash your cranium open with meta-textual allusions... but it sure loves its references!
What's clever about it is how the very expected "twists" reframe the overarching narrative through swift POV changes in the midst of extended torture segments. I shall elaborate: the main character was never the main character. He was a caricature of a VN protagonist, whose stupidity is (mostly) played up for laughs, who followed bad advice from his insufferable chad of a roommate, himself a spoof on the Best Friend trope, in the hopes of scoring a girl.
However, what this funny loser never realized is that he just happened to intrude upon two whole sets of psychotic women already involved with one another in their ongoing Toxic Yuri Murder Saga. Every route ends with him being horribly slaughtered by whomever he pissed off the most.
These sequences are, indeed, lengthy and uncomfortable, made chiller by presenting the first person narration of his torturers, the real protagonists. In the end, he was but a simple, unimportant extra, a mere chapter in a longer story that was never about him - or about you. The "real" plot has barred you, the player, from accessing it in the most explicit way it could muster. No catharsis for you! The manner by which the prosaic texture morphs from comedic to morose to skin-crawling is properly whiplashing. The writing itself is quite good too.
I am of two minds here. On one hand, I believe this title can stand of its own two feet. We aren't privy to the full picture when it comes to these women save for what they themselves may choose to reveal, and that is fine. Not knowing, lack of a resolution, are the point. On the other hand, purely from a reader's perspective, it feels wasteful to conclude the game just as it was getting good. Right at the moment when it did away with the funny gag VN shtick and the true diegesis reared its blood-soaked mug. It's akin to a prologue or a first act more than a full title. We must keep in mind that, at the end of the day, Butterfly Æffect was a Jam contest entry. Hard limits were going to be placed on it regardless of ambition, skill and vision - of which the developers had plenty. I most definitely shall keep an eye on their future projects. I consent to viewing fictional depictions of sexual and violent content.
Parasocial! Paranoia! Paradise! by seven_cents
Here is a "fun" one. You are an obsessive fan who has just kidnapped their favourite streamer girl. You chained her inside your house. However, she instantly turns the situation around, trapping you in her own twisted idea of love. The situation eventually escalates to a full-on nightmare, a realm built on fear and delusion, punctuated by horror both physical and psychological. The VN is, obviously, a cautionary tale about parasocial relationships but it also works as a study on co-dependency, self-loathing and, yes, Masking.
The bubbly, colourful (fake) aesthetics juxtaposed to the dreary, sketched-out darkness surrounding The One Room drive it all home. The radical shift in the art direction dispels whatever dream of happiness your sad mind might have concocted.
The game has a typing mechanic which is initially meant to instill a semblance of control. It is subverted when you become unable to progress unless you type in the exact words she wants to hear. A simple yet elegant way to convey your own inability to let go of your obsessions... Also, this happened.
Spooky meta-textual visual novels, specifically the ones deconstructing the trope of the Ideal Girlfriend, are a dime in a dozen but ParaParaPara is still worth a read. It's short, inexpensive (free), makes its salient points through insalubrious means and it is visually distinct. Think of it as a streamlined version of Slay the Princess and you'll understand its appeal.
Sisterly Bliss ~Don't Let Mom Find Out~
I do love me a Yuri game that manages to cover the entire spectrum of Girls' Love fiction in a scant few hours of play: from vanilla-flavoured 'But we're both girls (and twins)!' forbidden romance to Yandere SA/Murder combo, to puppygirl slavery - which also involves murder. You know... the three categories!
Sisterly Bliss is short and sweet, or exceptionally spicy, depending on how one-sided the relationship gets. It's aesthetically gorgeous and the girls are lovely/terrifying. A good/bad time for everyone involved. Play it/don't.
Return to Shironagasu Island by Hyogo Onimushi
This is the sort of seemingly unassuming work you might buy for a dime during a sales' period, forget you ever owned it, re-discover it, start read it and lose your goddamn mind in the process! At first, it appeared to be an extremely obvious Mystery Murder game, one whose premise could be summarized as 'What if an Umineko fanfiction became a totally original title?' and whose protagonist could best be described as 'What if Phoenix Wright was super mean to his teenage assistant?'
The unassuming descriptor does a ton of heavy lifting here, because the manner by which you might be tempted to cynically dismiss Shironagasu as yet another Ace Attorney clone will soon turn into the downfall of your sanity! And I cannot, for the life of me, explain why. I wouldn't exactly call it good or structurally sound; in fact, some of its aspects can be quite irritating (such as its dated, occasionally bigoted sense of humour) but when the rug is pulled from under your feet, it's the start of a relentless chain reaction, a veritable Rube Goldberg machine of gut-punches.
That's why it is so difficult to discuss it or even recommend it. Your enjoyment is entirely predicated on how little you know about it beforehand and how much you would assume it's borrowing from the titles that directly inspired it. It's one of Those Games. I shall, however, spoil one singular scene from Shiroganasu because it was The Moment that started changing my perspective on what this baffling trip was going to offer. There will be minor gameplay spoilers after this. Be warned.
Up until a certain point, the game played like a regular AA title, with lots of pointing, clicking and investigating. That all changed when someone threw a freaking Black Mamba inside a room with both my character and two other girls. One of them gets bitten by it. Unexpectedly, a red bar appears atop the screen. It begins depleting, ever so slowly. It turns out, you have ten real-time minutes to find an antidote or the girl croaks. There is no pausing, no saving and the timer keeps going during dialogues. You have to carefully read the lines to figure out what to do next but you can't take too long processing the information because time is running out. Meaning, the game is actively punishing you if you are a slow reader! It's a legitimately tense, panic-inducing section. Luckily, our main guy just so happened to have been bitten by a Black Mamba on three different occasions, somehow making his blood a natural snake poison deterrent! They transfused his super blood into her, thus saving her life... Believe it or not, things only get wackier afterwards. What else can I say? Give this game a shot. You shan't forget it, any time soon.
Tsukihime by TYPE-MOON
Tsukihime is the first title TYPE-MOON has ever published. It is what gave them their initial rise to prominence before Fate/Stay Night became the otaku pop-cultural juggernaut that defined the studio for decades to come. As such, it occupies a fascinating position within their oeuvre.
I am, however, not interested in unpacking that legacy. I am far more interested in analyzing it as its own art piece, a product of its specific environment, and what it has to say for itself, sans the burden of hindsight. Well, I say that but it's impossible to truly tackle this work with "virgin eyes", so to speak, exactly because it is a product of its own environment and cultural osmosis - such is the case with all Art and the human experience, after all. That's what drew me to it!
I have so much to say about it yet so little at the same time. Every thought or criticism I may levy towards this game will always be coloured by the true nature of what it is: an erotic doujinshi game made by a bunch of amateur otaku to be sold at conventions in the year 2000. A debut work in both the best and the most loaded meaning of the term. It's an overly ambitious VN, a massive undertaking of a project carried by the sheer power of Passion and Creativity. Flawed, messy, inconsistent yet incredible to behold.
It will smack you across the head with some of the wildest, most face-throttling hooks ever conceived by a feverish human mind, the juiciest concepts and the nerdiest power-sets, only for them to awkwardly overfill their recipient.
Tsukihime is a game with many (individually great) ideas that convolutedly clash together, resulting in a work that lacks overarching narrative cohesion. A classic case study of untamed ambition meeting the reality of story-crafting. It is also a VN that falls prey to edgy genre conventions that most likely were only there to ensure the game would sell. Once again, this was an independently made game to be sold at a Comiket booth - there were certain expectations attached to it. In short, it doesn't quite come together but it is, nonetheless, shockingly good in unique areas. Those moments are what makes this VN into something truly special - beyond its "charming" status as a first work, that is. Let me tell you about The Scene that actually hooked me, line and sinker, into the mesmerizing world of Tsukihime. It happened when our "normal guy" protagonist spotted a blonde beauty walking down the street and became overwhelmed by the desire to cut her into seventeen pieces. Which he proceeded to do.
The entire sequence is horrific, viscerally unpleasant and purposefully framed like sexual violence. Its execution is heightened by how unexpected it all was. Our guy, the player avatar, who yearns to live an ordinary student life, turns into the most violent killer in the world within the span of a few minutes. When he comes back from it, he is scared by what he had become, the vivid memories of the event shaking him to his core... Which is why it is so funny that the girl he had just dismembered shows up again the next day, all smiley, casually waving at him.
This is how the game introduces Arcueid, the main heroine, the titular Moon Princess. She's a super vampire who's immune to True Death and that's not even the most insane part about her or this entire novel... That is also all I shall elect to say about it.
In truth, there is a lot to enjoy here: great characters, complex romantic dynamics, skin-crawling suspense, laugh-out comedy, etcetera. If nothing else, it is an early showcase for Nasu's skills as a writer and Takeuchi's talent as an artist. The baby steps of a future big time studio. Greater than the sum of its parts, the love and care behind it superseding the flaws of the total package. It is, in every definition of the word, a doujinshi and that's what makes it fascinating. I cannot help wanting to be less critical of its most glaring issues.
To reiterate, it is difficult for me to judge it harshly with the knowledge of what it is and the (presumed) conditions by which it came to be. Moreover, I genuinely liked it for what it does right, the impeccably flavoured parts of its decoupage. At its core, this is a story about monsters yearning for humanity, humans becoming monsters, human monsters and monstrous humans. The fear of death, the fear of life, and how we desperately cling to our own notions of normalcy as a means to keep us going. All caveats aside, I do believe it is worth experiencing, not merely as a historical artifact but as an artistic object in its own right. I have never cared too much about TYPE-MOON and Fate/Stay Night but I am definitely a Tsukihime fan now. Send help.
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