2017
A decent visual novel with a cool atmosphere and memorable characters. The costumes are really cool and I kind of want a film based on this, well the plot is already very similar to movies like Saw 2 and Escape Room, but gayer.
To me its biggest flaw is that it lacks more player choice, you can play the game for like half an hour without being presented with dialogue options, and that breaks immersion. Even though the whole point is that Adam is a himbo so you can't change his personality much, you still could have more of a say in how he interacts with the rest of the characters.
I honestly just looked the puzzles online, I don't really like puzzles.
It has multiple endings which is always good. The killer reveal is controversial but I personally think it's fine.
Speaking of fine, Bart.
To me its biggest flaw is that it lacks more player choice, you can play the game for like half an hour without being presented with dialogue options, and that breaks immersion. Even though the whole point is that Adam is a himbo so you can't change his personality much, you still could have more of a say in how he interacts with the rest of the characters.
I honestly just looked the puzzles online, I don't really like puzzles.
It has multiple endings which is always good. The killer reveal is controversial but I personally think it's fine.
Speaking of fine, Bart.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/HuFe/list/gay-visual-novels-ranked-bara/
This visual novel also contains a simple and enjoyable farming simulator, and you get money to buy repairs for your farm, it's kind of addictive. There's tons of voiced dialogue so that I don't have to read, and the characters are also managable: if you want one of them to f off, you can terminate their story immediately and you never have to talk to them again, and if you want to test many romances at once you can also do that for most of the runtime. Some characters interact with each other which is nice.
The downside for me was that the writing is not that great. I dated Butch, the bearish store owner, and turns out he's really into prepping and BDSM, and that's kind of his entire personality. Same with the hillbillies, at first you think that they are savages, but turns out they are well read and they want to from a throuple with you, and that's the whole joke (I did learn a few things about throuples though). And Nuzzler the wolfman was my first furry experience (Not counting the Iron Bull) and I really wasn't into his stupid dog personality, but now I kind of want to play a full furry game to explore what that's like. The sister character felt really cliche as well, you always start hanging out with a platonic female character in these games.
For a few hours I was pretty hooked, so I'm glad I played it.
This visual novel also contains a simple and enjoyable farming simulator, and you get money to buy repairs for your farm, it's kind of addictive. There's tons of voiced dialogue so that I don't have to read, and the characters are also managable: if you want one of them to f off, you can terminate their story immediately and you never have to talk to them again, and if you want to test many romances at once you can also do that for most of the runtime. Some characters interact with each other which is nice.
The downside for me was that the writing is not that great. I dated Butch, the bearish store owner, and turns out he's really into prepping and BDSM, and that's kind of his entire personality. Same with the hillbillies, at first you think that they are savages, but turns out they are well read and they want to from a throuple with you, and that's the whole joke (I did learn a few things about throuples though). And Nuzzler the wolfman was my first furry experience (Not counting the Iron Bull) and I really wasn't into his stupid dog personality, but now I kind of want to play a full furry game to explore what that's like. The sister character felt really cliche as well, you always start hanging out with a platonic female character in these games.
For a few hours I was pretty hooked, so I'm glad I played it.
2019
https://www.backloggd.com/u/HuFe/list/gay-visual-novels-ranked-bara/
The Overall Game
A visual novel with a great retro-futuristic atmosphere and design, set in an alternative future where the videogame crash never happened, so the world ended up completely submerged in the industry’s aesthetic and way of life. The main story is that you look for work at an arcade, and the place ends up becoming the place you call home. It focuses on child friendly relationships and deep connections, leaving the romance aspect as secondary and optional. There's 7 romanceable characters, 3 boys and 4 girls, and they can always be interested in you, no matter the gender you choose. They hired actors to perform a few of their lines, and they also say quips like “Will do!” from time to time, and this helps them become fully fleshed out characters. It would be nicer if the game was fully voiced because I don’t like to read, but oh well.
Big Feature 1: Character Creation
You can play as any gender you want, and the game offers a significant amount of customization for the main character, a rarity in these kinds of games. This is similar to Dream Daddy, but instead of focusing on having lots of shit to choose from, the main objective is to be able to show all possible customizable characters in the unlockable wallpapers, which is pretty cool in concept. However, I have some complaints with this system: The head/face shape is not customizable, therefore they focused on making it as gender neutral as possible, but this has the consequence that your character always looks ambiguous, you can't be femme or masc no matter how hard you try (And they don't even offer any facial hair options, I'm screwed). They also don't let you choose your body type, so you are forced to be skinny.
Big Feature 2: Point System
Another big part of the story is that you have a robot helper named Iris. She keeps track of your personality points, and of your friendship points. You can flirt with any of the characters along the way, but once you get closer to the end of the game, Iris tells you that it’s an ideal moment for you to start a romantic relationship with one of the characters. And she acts as matchmaker, telling you the friendship points you have with each person, and she offsets the score taking into account your personality points, offering your perfect suitable match. You can choose to igore her advice and choose another person, and you have the option to be asexual or to remain single, but I don’t think you have the option to be polyamorous, and I’m sure that is disappointing to the community.
My Personal Taste
The game has a linear story that focuses mostly on improving your arcade workplace and becoming friends with everyone along the way, so it forces you to spend some time with all the characters, even when you don’t like them very much. This initially annoyed me, as I didn’t care about 90% of the characters, but in retrospect it’s actually kind of cute, and now I'm feeling very nostalgic for the whole experience. I honestly just played the game because I wanted to date Percy, and I did just that. If you put a ginger bear in your game, I will play it. The funny thing is that he turned out to be a good lad just like me: kindness was our largest personality trait, so we were actually compatible on an emotional level. The Percy romance is so cute that I consider it one of my favourites of all time, and as a big sucker for a good romance storyline, it made the entire game for me.
The Overall Game
A visual novel with a great retro-futuristic atmosphere and design, set in an alternative future where the videogame crash never happened, so the world ended up completely submerged in the industry’s aesthetic and way of life. The main story is that you look for work at an arcade, and the place ends up becoming the place you call home. It focuses on child friendly relationships and deep connections, leaving the romance aspect as secondary and optional. There's 7 romanceable characters, 3 boys and 4 girls, and they can always be interested in you, no matter the gender you choose. They hired actors to perform a few of their lines, and they also say quips like “Will do!” from time to time, and this helps them become fully fleshed out characters. It would be nicer if the game was fully voiced because I don’t like to read, but oh well.
Big Feature 1: Character Creation
You can play as any gender you want, and the game offers a significant amount of customization for the main character, a rarity in these kinds of games. This is similar to Dream Daddy, but instead of focusing on having lots of shit to choose from, the main objective is to be able to show all possible customizable characters in the unlockable wallpapers, which is pretty cool in concept. However, I have some complaints with this system: The head/face shape is not customizable, therefore they focused on making it as gender neutral as possible, but this has the consequence that your character always looks ambiguous, you can't be femme or masc no matter how hard you try (And they don't even offer any facial hair options, I'm screwed). They also don't let you choose your body type, so you are forced to be skinny.
Big Feature 2: Point System
Another big part of the story is that you have a robot helper named Iris. She keeps track of your personality points, and of your friendship points. You can flirt with any of the characters along the way, but once you get closer to the end of the game, Iris tells you that it’s an ideal moment for you to start a romantic relationship with one of the characters. And she acts as matchmaker, telling you the friendship points you have with each person, and she offsets the score taking into account your personality points, offering your perfect suitable match. You can choose to igore her advice and choose another person, and you have the option to be asexual or to remain single, but I don’t think you have the option to be polyamorous, and I’m sure that is disappointing to the community.
My Personal Taste
The game has a linear story that focuses mostly on improving your arcade workplace and becoming friends with everyone along the way, so it forces you to spend some time with all the characters, even when you don’t like them very much. This initially annoyed me, as I didn’t care about 90% of the characters, but in retrospect it’s actually kind of cute, and now I'm feeling very nostalgic for the whole experience. I honestly just played the game because I wanted to date Percy, and I did just that. If you put a ginger bear in your game, I will play it. The funny thing is that he turned out to be a good lad just like me: kindness was our largest personality trait, so we were actually compatible on an emotional level. The Percy romance is so cute that I consider it one of my favourites of all time, and as a big sucker for a good romance storyline, it made the entire game for me.
2019
Extremely pretty artstyle and some cool ideas, but to me the gameplay was painfully annoying, I didn't understand how to even play correctly with the melee characters (Without dying immediately). Maybe the 2 player mode is more fun.
2019
I got pretty into the first one, but with this one I just didn't even understand what was I supposed to to, and I don't think any of the new additions were particularly thrilling.
A return to form after the 3rd one and a decent ending for the franchise. I didn't get that invested in the story, but the artstyle this time was so gorgeous that it kind of compensates for everything.
https://www.backloggd.com/u/HuFe/list/gay-visual-novels-ranked-bara/
This visual novel really feels like a passion project made by a single person, and a little rough around the ages because of it.
Very similar storyline to Coming Out On Top (It's also about a recently out college student). But it takes a more realistic everyday approach.
The story is so repetitive that it might be so on purpose to simulate a daily routine: I ended up dating Dan, and the entire romance consisted of making love in either of 2 places, going to eat pizza at the restaurant, or watching something on TV/stage, with very little character or relationship development going on.
The characters are sort of divided into 3 groups: the jocks, the nerds, and the gays, with some boring storylines going on in each and some intertwining with other groups. But same as the romance, everything moved painfully slow. The game just feels pointlessly long.
I don't like the art style much. Adam the roommate is basically the main guy and his face looks particularly awful.
The writing is not terrible and I'd still recommend it for people that have already played and liked similar games, if they have nothing else to do.
The sequel is worth $20 so I won't be playing that anytime soon.
This visual novel really feels like a passion project made by a single person, and a little rough around the ages because of it.
Very similar storyline to Coming Out On Top (It's also about a recently out college student). But it takes a more realistic everyday approach.
The story is so repetitive that it might be so on purpose to simulate a daily routine: I ended up dating Dan, and the entire romance consisted of making love in either of 2 places, going to eat pizza at the restaurant, or watching something on TV/stage, with very little character or relationship development going on.
The characters are sort of divided into 3 groups: the jocks, the nerds, and the gays, with some boring storylines going on in each and some intertwining with other groups. But same as the romance, everything moved painfully slow. The game just feels pointlessly long.
I don't like the art style much. Adam the roommate is basically the main guy and his face looks particularly awful.
The writing is not terrible and I'd still recommend it for people that have already played and liked similar games, if they have nothing else to do.
The sequel is worth $20 so I won't be playing that anytime soon.
As a big fan of Kitty Powers' Matchmaker (2014), it pains me to say that I just didn't have fun with this one. It implemented some really cool ideas and minigames, but playing it feels like a chore, like micromanaging a C-tier Facebook game.
2014
https://www.backloggd.com/u/HuFe/list/gay-visual-novels-ranked-bara/
The Citizen Kane of western gay visual novels. The story is a simple "coming out as gay in college and start dating people" with options as inspired as the teacher, the roommate, and the jock. I chose Amos at first and his storyline was not good. I also played the other 3 I mentioned, and those were OK.
The game also includes a few random single dates, and those characters have a bit more personality. But most importantly, you are able to personalize if each individual character has facial hair and chest hair, amazingly gay. Oh, you can also date your pet fish for some reason.
The Citizen Kane of western gay visual novels. The story is a simple "coming out as gay in college and start dating people" with options as inspired as the teacher, the roommate, and the jock. I chose Amos at first and his storyline was not good. I also played the other 3 I mentioned, and those were OK.
The game also includes a few random single dates, and those characters have a bit more personality. But most importantly, you are able to personalize if each individual character has facial hair and chest hair, amazingly gay. Oh, you can also date your pet fish for some reason.
The differences of opinion in the fandom are always very intriguing, each game being completely different to the one that came before. I personally consider Dragon Age 3 one of my favourite games of all time.
I absolutely love the characters and romance options. I agree that without the DLC some aspects like the ending are lacking, but the full experience is worth it. I love the epic feel it has, the story, exploring the beautiful maps, it's just a blast.
The dragons are the best of the franchise, no question.
I absolutely love the characters and romance options. I agree that without the DLC some aspects like the ending are lacking, but the full experience is worth it. I love the epic feel it has, the story, exploring the beautiful maps, it's just a blast.
The dragons are the best of the franchise, no question.
It's hard to enjoy it when you have experienced the books.
The writing is on a similar level to Season 6 of the show, make of that what you will.
Asher Forrester is hot though.
The writing is on a similar level to Season 6 of the show, make of that what you will.
Asher Forrester is hot though.
A delightful gaming experience, this is high art. I only wish it was a bit harder to beat.
2014
An experience that stuck with me forever and I always go back to get a taste of it from time to time. The setting is fictional but it's mosly based on the Bosnian War. It is a game that gets up into the perspective of the average folk, not being heroes, just trying to survive in a war zone.
I highly recommend playing on the normal settings before trying any of the weird "create your own character!" shit that they added later, one of my favourite things about the game is getting to know the main characters.
My favourite character is Bruno 'cause I think he's cute. He's actually the most hated character because he's the most selfish one. His attitude during the war is a sharp contrast to his backstory and endings: he used to be an optimist, but his positive attitude led to him telling his friend to stay in the city and not to worry about the upcoming conflict, so now he feels really guilty, and all he wants is to find her. And as a guy that has a girl best friend, I love the fact that he doesn't seem to be in love with her or anything, it's a platonic boy-girl friendship, we don't get to see that often in media.
I highly recommend playing on the normal settings before trying any of the weird "create your own character!" shit that they added later, one of my favourite things about the game is getting to know the main characters.
My favourite character is Bruno 'cause I think he's cute. He's actually the most hated character because he's the most selfish one. His attitude during the war is a sharp contrast to his backstory and endings: he used to be an optimist, but his positive attitude led to him telling his friend to stay in the city and not to worry about the upcoming conflict, so now he feels really guilty, and all he wants is to find her. And as a guy that has a girl best friend, I love the fact that he doesn't seem to be in love with her or anything, it's a platonic boy-girl friendship, we don't get to see that often in media.
A good looking puzzle-war game. It failed at making me emotially invested, but it's a nice experience overall.
The most important game of all time. A witty depiction of the horrors of capitalism.