Lovely Lady RPG
by DAS POPPY UND MIA KUNSTKOLLEKTIV
Finished: ✓Note: This is an 18+ game so keep that in mind. Also heed the numerous content warnings in the store page.
Side note: The game is also available on Steam and I think that the video trailer is worth experiencing if nothing else.
This is absolutely not a game for everyone (if the above note didn't hint at that). Looking at the store page will immediately tell you if you are or are not interested in the game. But, if you are anything like me, and are willing to dive into something strange that you might bounce off of immediately, this is a game worth trying.
From the store page:
Lovely Lady RPG is a game about wandering around and just sort of seeing what happens. After waking up with a hole in her ceiling, a cosmic space Orb embedded in her chest and no recollection of basically anything, Ghost sets out to continue her life as best she can.
It's a visual novel, so there's a lot of reading. In the game, you have a limited amount of actions per day, and there's a bunch of things that you can do. So, you make actions each day, see what happens, and the actions you take will influence the ending. The game is small enough that you can hold most of it in your head all at once and subsequent playthroughs are fun to route through. Every run, you gain little bits and pieces of information that you can use in a new playthrough. There's quite a bit to keep multiple playthroughs interesting: loads of chance based interactions and secrets to discover.
I assume that the writing is by far the most divisive thing about the game. It does not hesitate to inject internet culture and "random = funny" type humor into the dialogue whenever it can. To most people, this is a major annoyance and a reason to turn the game off and never play it again. To me, it is a unique flavor. In a way, the game forces you to reckon with the fact that it was made in modern times. Despite the fact that the game takes place in a intricately crafted world, the game forbids you from fully immersing yourself in it, constantly reminding you of the material reality in which this game was made, and the people who made it. The effect of this is that the game is very strange and silly.
When I was playing this game, the silliness had a "disarming effect", allowing me to sincerely introspect on the game and its themes. You're dumped into this world and just expected to deal with it. The world has been going on so much longer than you have, and there is so much to catch up on. So much history, so much life, strife and bloodshed, and it could all be taken away in an instant by nuclear war. Everything you do is done in a scramble: a rush to keep yourself afloat, piece your life back together, figure out what the heck is going on, and not go insane in the process. There is never enough time to do everything, and you're always missing something.
You are cursed with watching your body slowly disfigure itself against your will unless you jump through the hoops of the gender clinic that wants you dead, or seeking life saving medicine through other means, assuming that you can find and afford it. You are cursed with consciousness, cursed with having to grapple with the weight of living, of knowing, of believing, of hoping that this all means something.
Given all of that, what else can you really do? What else can you do other than fix the hole in your roof, poke a landmine, listen to the radio, work at your job, be pushed against a tree and bitten, get estrogen from the back alley, look for lost sheep, run around in the forest, have a cigarette extinguished on you, feed a random snake in the woods, look at movie posters, swallow someone else's spit, play board games, go to a corporate sponsored pride parade, lick the blood off of your wall, and pay your rent (or not)?
Lovely Lady RPG is horny, childish, awkward, crass, ridiculous, random, memey, and kind of gross (depends on what you're into). But, it's also visceral, heartfelt, intricate, poetic, queer, and the jokes do land sometimes. In its absurdity, in its whirlwind of existence, you can tell that it comes from a deeply personal place. It's something that you could only make if you were committed to taking your brain out and trying to make other people understand it.
I paid a little extra for the game and also got the art book. It has a bunch of cool behind the scenes notes and developer commentary. In the art book, the developer, Poppy, describes what the game is about really well:
The world is bad, but as long as you have one more walk in the countryside in you, as long as you can make women smile, you are never truly defeated.
It is not the most profound game in existence, but it is certainly a game about existence.
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