I’ve said before that video games need to be about gameplay first and foremost. Today I would like to contradict that by talking about my admittedly brief experience with a less talked about genre: the visual novel. If you’ve ever read a Choose Your Own Adventure book you should grasp the basic premise pretty easily, you read a story (with anime illustrations, that’s where the visual part comes into play) and at certain key points you make decisions about what choice the protagonist will make. The most well-known VA that I’ve played is called Katawa Shoujo, it’s a simple VA that was made by 4Chan board /v/ of all places. The story follows (as they often do) a nondescript, dark-haired boy delivering the narrative from a first-person perspective as he makes the discovery that he suffers from a heart condition that forces him to move from his normal high school to a specialized private school for disable students. While there you meet several different girls, each with their own disability and who deal with these afflictions in different ways. Considering the fact that this game comes from /v/ your only expectations are most likely ‘cute anime grills, this time also cripples’ and maybe it starts out that way but as you read through the story and delve deeper and deeper into the relationship with whichever girl your choices have lead you to you will find a surprisingly heartfelt and emotional roller coaster regardless of which girl you find yourself with.

Each of the girls in this game have their own emotional baggage and will influence your own state of mind in different ways, you will undoubtedly find something relatable in each of the girls and if you allow yourself to be drawn in you’ll find yourself questioning your own lot in life and how you deal with the cards you’ve been dealt. Your choices influence what story the game tells you but they all carry the same message: allow those who love you to support you, but ultimately the choice to change and better yourself must be your own. You may look at this game and think that it’s mindless smut for /v/irgins but if you look deeper you’ll find an amazing story that plays with your heart, a story that makes you laugh and cry and fall in love, you’ll find a story that shows you that you never know what something holds until you’re willing to take a look beneath the surface.