In light of the long academic break I'll be having due to my recent week-long class suspensions, I decided to write as much as I could in this duration to make up for the past deadlines I barely made through. However, this time, I want to take a break from the manga reviews for a little commercial—a little spotlight for the other media of BL: visual novels, anime, and of course manga. And so with this idea in mind, I thought up an outline for the proceedings of this small project, which can be found here.
For this blog post, I'll be putting one of the major contributors of yaoi to the spotlight: visual novels. Keep in mind that these little highlights will only be short descriptions and reasons for recommendation, so I won't be going into detail with analyses and the like. And I'll try my best not to ramble too much that they end up as long as my usual in-depth reviews.
For this blog post, I'll be putting one of the major contributors of yaoi to the spotlight: visual novels. Keep in mind that these little highlights will only be short descriptions and reasons for recommendation, so I won't be going into detail with analyses and the like. A
Visual Novels
Of all the different media that canon yaoi has been a part of, visual novels are perhaps the longest, most detailed in terms of story, and consequently the most striking, in the sense that the length gives them a chance to create a whole world of their own, be it a magical, futuristic, criminal, or dystopian world, along with their own characters. They are more likely to leave an impression on players because of the wider artistic freedom and broader range of techniques to use, whether through the music and sound effects, the visuals, or even the descriptive narratives themselves. (This is why visual novels will always have a special place in my heart.)
To avoid confusion, I'd like to clarify that by 'visual novel' I pertain to both Japanese visual novels proper and its adaptations which includes original, standalone English VNs with gameplay adapted from the traditional Japanese visual novels, as well as derivative fanworks (like some doujin soft). For this post, I'll be focusing on the traditional BL games.* The other adaptations I'll be saving for later spotlight posts.
To avoid confusion, I'd like to clarify that by 'visual novel' I pertain to both Japanese visual novels proper and its adaptations which includes original, standalone English VNs with gameplay adapted from the traditional Japanese visual novels, as well as derivative fanworks (like some doujin soft). For this post, I'll be focusing on the traditional BL games.* The other adaptations I'll be saving for later spotlight posts.
Japanese Visual Novels Proper
These are the Japanese visual novels published by companies such as Nitroplus, Spray, Karin Entertainment, Murder Koubou (マーダー工房), PIL/SLASH XXX, etc. that have the traditional minimum player interaction, use of non-visual techniques, and a multitude of routes or perspectives contributing to a broad and intricate storyline.
To be honest, this might actually be the hardest category for me to choose only one example to highlight. Nevertheless, trying my best to pick out the finest diamond among a pile with seemingly equal luster, with reasonable justifications, I chose Lamento.
Developed by Nitro+CHiRAL (N+C for short), the BL branch of the visual novel company Nitroplus, Lamento ~beyond the void~ is a fantasy story of half-human, half-cats called ribika and it tells the story of Konoe, a ribika who becomes the victim of an odd curse before being doomed to be the sacrifice of his desperately cannibalistic village. It's set in Sisa (シサ), an island where the ribika live that is slowly decaying with what they call the Void, a sickness spreading that takes the form of either poison in the forest that hurts upon contact, or a disease that makes the eyes, ears, and/or limbs disappear. Lamento demonstrates how Konoe's journey to find how to undo his curse and seek who placed it has led him to meet other ribika and learn that his curse might be more related to Sisa's affairs than he thought.
Lamento is probably the longest visual novel in existence, but for good reason. It has a highly detailed and meaningful story, interesting character designs (by the wonderful Yamada Uiro) that do not conform too much to established character types in Japanese media, a magical soundtrack befitting of the game's theme of fantasy, and skilled voice actors that fit the characters well and give them more life—
—all of which actually present in a good number of excellently-made visual novels. So what makes Lamento so different? Why do I recommend this to you dear readers, choosing it over the others with similar good qualities? (This is aside from Lamento being the latest one I've played due to the recent complete English patch release by the team at AarinFantasy.) That prime attribute that this game had the edge of, as I see it, would be how the world was created. For one, the genre of fantasy gives the game an edge with the farther horizon in terms of artistic freedom, and Lamento utilized that advantage well.
Lamento is not just about Konoe's adventures as we walk him through the game—it's about Sisa, it's about the world and the people in it, and how beautifully, how creatively, and how intricately it was made. The writers definitely thought everything up to the bone that the world of Sisa had its own history, culture and customs. You can actually activate your imagination with musings and "what-ifs"; that's what makes a well-utilized fantasy literature—"Lamento ~beyond the void~"—beautiful.
This game, first of all, is not for the weak of heart... and I don't just mean that it's scary as a horror game. Horror and BL are two things that I don't see mixing as much, but this VN exceeded my expectations. There are a lot of triggering events in it such as bullying, gore, mutilation, death... But if you're like me and you can get past that with only a few mental scars, it's actually an enjoyable playthrough. I especially loved the soundtracks used in the game; they were beautiful at the right moments and would make you panic with the main character Kazuki when he's being chased, etc. (True story. I legitimately felt my heart race on the first chase scene while hoping that he wouldn't get caught.). The art was well-proportioned in that there were no androgynous ukes (in terms of body build, at least. But the face is about borderline.) and it looked like a toned-down version of Sweet Pool the way I saw it. However, unfortunately, there are neither licensed nor patched translations of it yet.
Now that you're done reading, I hope I convinced you to try the games, or to play it again if you already played them! ;)
* I use the terms 'BL game' and 'visual novel' interchangeably. BL game is defined by Wikipedia as "usually referring to visual novels or H games oriented around male homosexual couples for the female market", meaning not all BL games are visual novels (some are H games) and not all visual novels are BL games (some are not yaoi). This blog's main subject is obviously yaoi so I'm not using the two terms strictly in terms of technicality, but solely to prevent bulky, repetitive writing.
Developed by Nitro+CHiRAL (N+C for short), the BL branch of the visual novel company Nitroplus, Lamento ~beyond the void~ is a fantasy story of half-human, half-cats called ribika and it tells the story of Konoe, a ribika who becomes the victim of an odd curse before being doomed to be the sacrifice of his desperately cannibalistic village. It's set in Sisa (シサ), an island where the ribika live that is slowly decaying with what they call the Void, a sickness spreading that takes the form of either poison in the forest that hurts upon contact, or a disease that makes the eyes, ears, and/or limbs disappear. Lamento demonstrates how Konoe's journey to find how to undo his curse and seek who placed it has led him to meet other ribika and learn that his curse might be more related to Sisa's affairs than he thought.
Lamento is probably the longest visual novel in existence, but for good reason. It has a highly detailed and meaningful story, interesting character designs (by the wonderful Yamada Uiro) that do not conform too much to established character types in Japanese media, a magical soundtrack befitting of the game's theme of fantasy, and skilled voice actors that fit the characters well and give them more life—
—all of which actually present in a good number of excellently-made visual novels. So what makes Lamento so different? Why do I recommend this to you dear readers, choosing it over the others with similar good qualities? (This is aside from Lamento being the latest one I've played due to the recent complete English patch release by the team at AarinFantasy.) That prime attribute that this game had the edge of, as I see it, would be how the world was created. For one, the genre of fantasy gives the game an edge with the farther horizon in terms of artistic freedom, and Lamento utilized that advantage well.
Lamento is not just about Konoe's adventures as we walk him through the game—it's about Sisa, it's about the world and the people in it, and how beautifully, how creatively, and how intricately it was made. The writers definitely thought everything up to the bone that the world of Sisa had its own history, culture and customs. You can actually activate your imagination with musings and "what-ifs"; that's what makes a well-utilized fantasy literature—"Lamento ~beyond the void~"—beautiful.
Extra bonus in passing...
With that said and done, I also have another visual novel to recommend in passing, as a bonus: PigeonBlood by PIL/SLASH XXX:This game, first of all, is not for the weak of heart... and I don't just mean that it's scary as a horror game. Horror and BL are two things that I don't see mixing as much, but this VN exceeded my expectations. There are a lot of triggering events in it such as bullying, gore, mutilation, death... But if you're like me and you can get past that with only a few mental scars, it's actually an enjoyable playthrough. I especially loved the soundtracks used in the game; they were beautiful at the right moments and would make you panic with the main character Kazuki when he's being chased, etc. (True story. I legitimately felt my heart race on the first chase scene while hoping that he wouldn't get caught.). The art was well-proportioned in that there were no androgynous ukes (in terms of body build, at least. But the face is about borderline.) and it looked like a toned-down version of Sweet Pool the way I saw it. However, unfortunately, there are neither licensed nor patched translations of it yet.
Now that you're done reading, I hope I convinced you to try the games, or to play it again if you already played them! ;)
* I use the terms 'BL game' and 'visual novel' interchangeably. BL game is defined by Wikipedia as "usually referring to visual novels or H games oriented around male homosexual couples for the female market", meaning not all BL games are visual novels (some are H games) and not all visual novels are BL games (some are not yaoi). This blog's main subject is obviously yaoi so I'm not using the two terms strictly in terms of technicality, but solely to prevent bulky, repetitive writing.
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