VIDEO GAY-MER | Why do we love visual novels so much?

What do queer gamers/developers love the visual novel platform so much?

Coming Out on Top game trailer

Visual novels are an art form, and when done right, they are an amazing storytelling tool. We've seen a lot of good, queer visual novels in the past years - or games that are about as close to visual novels as you can get. Just last year, we had two instant classics: Butterfly Soup and Dream Daddy, take the world by storm. Not only did they showcase incredible queer stories, but they managed to do it without any ounce of mockery or depressing melodrama.

So, I got curious.

What makes these kinds of games so incredible? And why are there so many? On Queerly Represent Me - a large back log of games with some sort of queer representation within them- 215 games are listed as visual novels. That's the largest genre of games on the list, clocking in at 20%. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is - and that's significant. What draws queer gamers and developers to these specific type of game? I think that visual novels not only provide a simple, fun escape from the harshness of modern queer depiction, but they are also accessible, and cheaper than most other video games on the market.

In my last article, I wrote about a game called Butterfly Soup - a beautiful visual novel that covered the lives of four queer, Asian woman going through high school during Prop 8-era California. I gushed about it, and talked about how it's unabashed happiness just made me smile. And that's not something that happens in a lot of major games or successful indie games. Even a beautiful game like Gone Home, is mired with intense drama, reminding the audience about how much it can suck to be a queer person. That doesn't exist in games like Butterfly Soup.

There's an inherent layer of sexuality that exists in a lot of these kinds of games.

A huge example is a gay dating sim, Coming Out on Top, a very NSFW visual novel about a young, freshly out, college senior who is looking for love and sex. This game has a huge selection of guys you can seduce, and even goes the extra mile to have you come out to your friends and actively maintain your friendships. All the while, you are treated to some saucy pics and scenes of your gay character actually having/enjoying sex.

It's liberating, because even when queer people are depicted having sex - it's never correct. There's always that one scene where the guy doesn't use lube - and then you cringe, cause you know they got hurt. The visual novels I've played don't have that problem - because they're made by queer developers.

I think queer visual novels exist in such volumes because they can be easier to make than other games like RPGs of even exploration sims.

I can't say I'm an expert on game development, and visual novels definitely have their own set of challenges, but they can be made easily thanks to user friendly game engines. This accessibility allows young, queer game devs the opportunity to start making their own queer stories - and in an industry where people are starving for queer characters, they're bound to find an audience!

Visual novels are also cheaper for queer gamers to buy. Even a game like Dream Daddy, produced by the incredibly popular Game Grumps, went up for only 14.99. And Butterfly Soup is still free. This is worlds cheaper than most AAA games that include very basic forms of queer representation. So, there's a level of financial accessibility available for these types of games that don't exist in other places in the market.

In the end, visual novels make queer characters more accessible to a starving audience by being cheap - and they can empower their audience by giving them an escape from the misrepresentation they receive from mainstream media. These games are about queer characters, and made for queer people - and I only hope that the rest of the industry can follow suit. Until they do though, I'm just going to go and replay Dream Daddy for millionth time and cry about how beautiful Robert is.

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FILM & TV

South Park: Fractured but Whole's surprisingly positive queer relationship

Who would have thought that a game based on the worst show ever would have a surprisingly sweet gay-centric side story.

Giphy

So, listen...

I don't watch South Park. I will never watch South Park - and honestly, I don't think that my life will be missing out a lot from not watching South Park. My problems with the series and even the game which I am talking about today are endless. Do I take the show too seriously? Maybe. Yeah, I definitely do, but I have my reasons. Still, despite all of that I would be a liar if I said that Fractured but Whole managed to cover some pretty deep topics with a surprising amount of care - was it perfect? No. But there was definitely something there.

When I bought Fractured but Whole during this past Steam sale, I didn't expect to walk out of it with this odd amount of respect I now have. I expected to play a decent RPG with a mildly annoying amount of jokes - and it definitely delivered on that part. However, not having watched the show, I was surprised to learn that two central characters - Tweek and Craig (pictured below) - were dating and currently facing some relationship turbulence.

I proceeded with their quest line cautiously - after all, the few times I've encountered South Park, I was unimpressed (couch-cough Big Gay Al cough-cough Mr. Slave). In the beginning, you have to help Craig get his laptop back from Tweek, who requests their shared pet hamster in exchange. This struck me as funny and definitely reminiscent of the kids of childhood relationships that kids would have together. After you do this, you are given a note from their father - and you have to convince both of them to get some counseling.

They agree, but only if you go with them. After this, you have to go through the rest of the game before you can continue their storyline. It's very sweet, and I won't reveal too much more. I just kept waiting for the ball to drop and for it to take a gross turn. I kept expecting their relationship to be the butt of some sort of joke, or for their friends to make some sort of comment, but they seem to be okay. Even their parents are worried for their kids happiness - there's nothing mean spirited or offensive. You are just a friend helping out your two gay friends.

Of course, it wouldn't be South Park without that odd layer of creepiness. Craig's dad, whose name I didn't bother to learn, gives you a strange side quest of finding yaoi fan art of his son and Tweek throughout the town of South Park. It's not a huge part of the game, but there's something off about it. It may have been a throwback to the show, but it still really rubbed me the wrong way.

Luckily, the positive LGBTQ+ content in the game doesn't stop with Craig.

There's a pretty good bit in the game where you're able to decide your character - The New Kid's - sexuality and gender. It's played kind of like a joke, but it didn't really land and instead managed to be just a really good little section of the game. You basically pick both your gender and your sexuality through a slider. It only affects the game a little bit with dialogue options from your parents when they go home.

The best part is that every time you make a decision, a group of rednecks come up in a truck and you get to beat the crap out of them. It happens multiple times over the course of the game, and it never stops being satisfying. I don't know what Stone and Parker were thinking when they made this game, but honestly, they managed to make some parts of it cathartic. When you weren't beating up these red necks, you were playing as a character who could be a non binary pansexual.

Does it make up for the rest of the game? Not really. It's still South Park, and a lot of the other jokes tend to be more misguided and just plain unfunny. But I can say that these specifically queer moments manage to be a speck of gold in the mud - and at least added some limited enjoyment to my experience.

If you want my advice, just watch the YouTube compilations of Craig and Tweek's scenes in the game - you won't be sorry. Or if you really want to play, you can pick it up on any console. After all, we do need to support positive queer content. Even if it takes place in an annoying little mountain town.

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