Anyone played/ seen this indie Chinese VN? It recently announced that an English, Japanese, and Korean translation is in the works!!! So now is a good time to gush about it. (Available on Steam)
SYNOPSIS:
You play as Zhao Ying, a high schooler and a bit of a truant, as she navigates through her messy adolescent life. From unrequited romances, familial tensions and contradictions, social expectations, and a desperate calling to be loved that gnaws and gnaws until it hollows her inside, all within the suffocatingly simple and small town.
⚠️Content Warnings: Depictions of self-harm (minor), bullying, domestic abuse (large), other violent acts that may or may not include murder (depends on your route). And depictions of LGBTQ+ discrimination.
⬇️⬇️More gushing below⬇️⬇️
Personal Opinions: The game perfectly places us in the position of Zhao Ying right at the start—a boring and cold winter in a small town with nothing else to do, yet anything would be better than going home. God, does it encapsulate that isolated, suffocating feeling. Ying may have friends, but a deep-seated loneliness still gnaws at her. Being the black sheep of her family embeds the idea that forces her to be an "adult", closing her true emotions off from people who genuinely care about her and other emotional supports. Saying, "their time is more valuable than mine."
Add to that is how most relationships (even if you get their good endings) are still bittersweet. Yes, Ying may have gotten together with her girl, but it may or may not even be mutual, but a relationship founded on a need to fill Ying's emptiness, or a need for escape. Oh, and there're murders too, I guess...
There's still plenty more to say, but I want you to experience it yourself!
TLDR;
It's soooo GOOD!!! Great, atmospheric art and style, as well as soundtrack choice. A wonderful example on how to write the complexities of human relationships. (Most likely) Gives you depression for a week...
PERSONAL FAV: Lu Ting!!!👓🐁
Tips:
• Even without knowing how to read Chinese, you can use a real-time translator programs like Luna translator (takes some getting used to)... If you can't wait for the EN translation :3
Other Non-English Yuri Recommendations:
• 魔法少女ノ魔女裁判 (Magical Girl Witch Trials [JP]) — No explicit romance, but HEAVY subtext (like, three thousand elephants heavy)
• 彷徨之街 (The Street of Adrift [CN]) — Don't play this if you're under 18 (lewdity, explicit violence). Great story, though SOME might say the ending was disappointing.
• Sugar, Sugar, Sugarcoat [JP] — a VERY sweet and VERY cute pixel game where NOTHING goes wrong at all!
(Do give your recs, if any! I'd love to discuss other non-English Yuri games! ........Can you tell that most of these are depressing/horror?)
🪲Some bugs:
• Pictures within phone messages sometimes won't show.
• Zhao Ying's profile on the bottom left corner disappears once you're far into the game (though you could see it as a thematic choice, when she's too deep in her lack of self-worth to not warrant a reflection anymore?)
Making fanmerch of new gen favorites for a local con (because I love bad business decisions).
So far, I've only thought about Buena, Cheval, and Vivlos (No Verxina cuz I'm putting her in a can badge with other Triple Tiara horsies, aka: Ramonu, Still in Love, Almond Eye, Gentil, & Verxina)
I may just be speaking to the void, but what JP Umas do you/ people want/ love? So I can trap them in pins...
