The best short stories in Russian for the computer. Visual novels. Briefly about how games are created in Renpy

Against the backdrop of the development of the interactive cinema genre, with the presence of such things as Life is Strange, The Walking Dead and other quality examples, the visual novel genre has somehow faded and diminished.

But, nevertheless, this does not mean that he disappeared completely. The portal site presents to your attention the TOP 10 visual novels that are worth paying attention to in 2017.

10.

The earth is no longer suitable for life. Earth is no longer trusted as a home, and the colonization of new planets now falls to the crew of the ship Everett, consisting of the brightest and best from Earth.

Quantum Suicide is such Danganronpa . There is a ship. There is a player. There are a bunch of characters stuck on this ship with the player and the opportunity to communicate, build relationships, think through plans, and... die.

Of course, there is also a mastermind. Everything is in place. And even a little character customization is also present. How long you can survive on the ship is your only concern.

9.

It just so happens that all the wildest dreams and goals require money. And the protagonist of World End Economica found himself in a similar situation.

What made this visual novel famous were its authors, including Isuna Hasekura, author of the beloved manga Spice and Wolf.

There are, of course, similarities in these two works - World End Economica is a rethinking of “Spice and Wolf” in the modern, capitalist world. This is what makes the novella unique and worth reading.

8.

Although Va-11 Hall tries very hard to position itself as a “bartender simulator”, it still has much more of a visual novel. And mixing a variety of cocktails is more of a way to get to know the characters and their taste preferences better than a separate, well-developed layer of gameplay.

This game flaunts a special aesthetic that simultaneously incorporates , anime and retrowave. A cozy picture made in the style of pixel art hides many stories about the visitors of your bar and their past.

It is worth saying that getting to know them and communicating with them is really interesting - as well as mixing a variety of cocktails for them. Va-11 Hall is a pretty good field for experiments and a good way to relax.

7.

In the near future, Anonymous;Code shows us, a second layer of reality awaits us - just like in The Matrix, it will be layered on top of the real world .

The simulation of the real world with the people living there became the main theme of Anonymous;Code, a new work from the authors of the legendary Steins;Gate.

This visual novel features colorful characters, among whom anyone can find their “favorite” and get to know them better. While it may be similar to The Matrix, the visual novel doesn't try to rest on its laurels and comes up with its own intriguing plot.

6.

Another wild fantasy about the future - with the only difference that in this case we are dealing with the human psyche.

In PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness, a continuation of the atmospheric anime series, players will deal with a strange and slightly paranoid future world in which every person has a chip embedded with their psychic characteristics.

To overcome the dominance of maniacs and crime, the government thus monitors the mental state of people, “cutting off” those who show any instability. The main characters will again have to understand the secrets of this world and what a “psycho-passport” is.

5.

Hatoful Boyfriend appeared - and thundered with a flurry of funny let's plays, in which gamers really did not understand what was going on around them, and why they had to flirt in this dating simulator with... pigeons.

But yes, it is the pigeons in this game that are a replacement for the usual set of male characters. Hatoful Boyfriend, like some other projects, took a swipe at the entire dating simulator industry in its own way, and did it in such a memorable way that it naturally took off in the visual novel market.

It’s worth at least playing this strange life simulator, in which only pigeons study, and you are the only person among them and making fun of the vast array of stereotypes surrounding the visual novel genre. Maybe you will see... The bird of your dreams.

4. Amnesia: Memories

No, no, wait, no need to remember Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The visual novel Amnesia: Memories is in no way related to this universe, despite the similar name.

This is an otome novel, and from the genre it follows that you will be a beautiful heroine, choosing from a bunch of male characters your one and only. But despite the stereotypes about "harem men", Amnesia: Memories differs significantly from them, since in the novel the main role is played by psychology rather than anything else.

According to the plot, the main character loses her memory of her name, hobbies, tastes, lifestyle, family and everything else. And it is her decisions and actions that will be the very lever that will return her memories.

3.

Yes, yes, another short story with cute Japanese schoolgirls. But Tokyo School Life got third place in this TOP for a reason - believe me, there is a reason for it.

This is the story of an ordinary Japanese schoolboy who moves to a new place and meets a trio of girls who will meet him here and there.

Tokyo School Life is distinguished by elaborate 3D animation of the heroines, which is why the sprites in this game are not soulless images, but living 3D models.

The picture here is nice to look at; in addition, the plot is equipped not only with the usual , but also with kind, heartfelt humor that will brighten up any cold evening.

2. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator

"Dream Daddy" was just as loud and funny as Hatoful Boyfriend - partly because of the banter built into the game's premise, partly because of its unusual concept.

You are a dad who comes to a quiet town for the Best Dads competition, and you are ready to prove that you are the Best Dad. Among the contestants there are enough contenders for victory, and in order to beat them all, you will have to recognize your opponents by sight.

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator is worth attention because of its unusual pictures, drawing style and a well-absurd plot, which has enough memorable moments.

1.

And there was no need to even doubt the gold medalist of this TOP. The Danganronpa franchise is a crazy fantasy about a murder school, filled with unique, well-developed characters, and a seemingly ordinary plush toy running the show as the headmaster.

It sounds like nonsense - but, believe me, it plays very cheerfully and excitingly, given the presence of truly unique, inimitable characters.

In the new part of Danganronpa V3 Killing Harmony, the madness seems to be gaining momentum and reaching a climactic ceiling with the revelation of the secret of all previous parts at once.

Video: Danganronpa V3 Killing Harmony trailer

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A visual novel is a subgenre of text quests, where the gamer participates little in the gameplay, mainly being an observer, a spectator. Sometimes he is required to make a decision that will affect the further development of events.

What genre is it

Visual novel is not a virtual dating simulator, as it is characterized by a large gaming audience. In such entertainment, the player mainly follows the development of events on the other side of the screen. The plot is revealed through text inserts, pictures, animation, sound and musical compositions. Also, fragments of anime-style videos began to appear in the novels.

A genre appeared in the land of the rising sun. It also develops there and is popular mainly among teenagers.

Peculiarities

Visual novels have unique features that distinguish them from dating simulators.

1. A short story can include several genres: fantasy, horror, science fiction, love story.
2. The story is an important part of the gameplay, unlike quests.
3. The presence of ecchi scenes (anime with elements of erotica and explicit scenes with a hint of sexual intercourse, without its demonstration).

With the advent of Western countries on the market, games in the romance genre began to be transferred to portable devices on Android and consoles with the removal of erotic scenes.

Game process

The story is told from the first person, the protagonist is an observer of the development of events. The visual part consists of a background that changes every day, part or location, and sprites - the characters. Often the story is divided into days rather than chapters, allowing progress to be assessed each evening.

Important moments are accompanied by the visualization of large images with a lot of small details and may differ in style from the main scene. These inserts can be viewed at any time after they are opened. To see them all, you will have to play through the game several times, making different choices at branching points in the plot.

Some representatives of the genre (Symphonic Rain is an example) require the user to solve a simple task performed in the form of a mini-game. In this case, you need to play the specified melody on an unknown musical instrument.

Branches in the genre

Novels are divided into several types; among all, we will consider the most popular.

Sound

A very mediocre picture is actually completely replaced by high-quality sound. Music is often written specifically for the game, and the roles of the characters are voiced by professional voice actors. There are very few such games in Russian.

Adventure (ADV)

Text is displayed in a small window in the corner (usually bottom left), the rest of the space is occupied by a background with characters. Brief, frequently changing sentences, colorful effects, beautiful windows for selecting actions are the characteristic features of the subtype.

Otome

Games for girls, where one lady is surrounded by bishounen men - young and femininely handsome.

Kinetic

The player is only a spectator; due to the lack of plot branches, he is unable to influence the course of events.

A visual novel (or visual novel) is a computer game that is a subtype of the text quest genre. The player can choose from several character behavior options and then watch how the story develops. Our top 10 visual novels will tell you about exciting games of this genre.

10 Phoenix Wright: Ace Lawyer

9 Kikokugai Cyber ​​Assassin

8 Swan song

7 Ever 17: Escape from Infinity

6 Country of Wheels, Sunflower Girl

5 Clannad

4 Girls with disabilities

3 School Days HQ

2 Lucy and the infinity she wished for

One of the few programs designed for creating visual novels. It allows you to add various multimedia inserts (music, video and even mini-games) to the narrative. The only thing it doesn't have is a visual editor for editing the game - everything is done in a notepad-like editor using a special scripting language.

I’ll start, as always, from afar, so that you get a deeper understanding of the idea :)))

This was back in the 90s, when they still didn’t even dream of having computers in every home :))) I somehow fell into the hands (then still a fifth or fourth grader) of one magazine... I don’t even remember the magazine itself, but in The addition to it is firmly stuck in my memory! And it was called simply: “History Quest.”

The whole story was contained on 30 pages of printed text in A5 format. These pages had to be cut and sewn in the required sequence, after which reading could begin...

The whole point of the story was that its plot developed depending on your personal choice! In fact, you became, as it were, the main character of the story, and the ending of the story depended on what you chose to do at one time or another! That is, having read the next page to the end, you had to select one of the available actions and, depending on this, proceed to reading the specified page.

Thus, the beginning of the book had one thing in common, but whether you reached the happy ending depended on you!

At that time, my comrades and I read the book to pieces (in the literal sense of the word :))). Some of us even tried to come up with our own quests. And now, after so many years, I came across a program that allows me to create similar games, but on a computer!

She's called Renpy(and, to be very precise, Ren’Py) and is intended for creating visual novels (or visual novels, to be more accurately translated from English).

What is a visual novel?

A visual novel is a computer quest game, which is a narrative in pictures with several characters (they are superimposed on the background in the form of sprites), whose replicas reveal the storyline. The storyline itself, as in other text quests, has several branches, the transition to which depends on the player’s choice!

Essentially, this is something like a comic book, but, firstly, here the characters’ lines are usually written at the bottom of the screen (and not in “bubbles”, as in classic comics), and, secondly, the player, as has been repeatedly emphasized, can influence on the course of the game, making your choice in certain situations.

This genre of computer games is most often associated with anime and manga, since visual novels originated in the Land of the Rising Sun, where these styles were the most popular. However, this is not canon, since you create your own game from scratch and are free to decide how it will look!

Briefly about how games are created in Renpy

If you have already been inspired by “great feats” and decided to make a “super-mega game”, then I hasten to disappoint you a little... The fact is that Renpy is not a visual editor!!!

This means that the game will have to be written manually using a special scripting language based on Python. True, the language is not too complicated and with due diligence you will master it in a couple of days (not all of it, of course, but the basic functions).

And yes! Drawings for the game will have to be done in a separate graphics editor, since Renpy does not have one...

If you still haven’t changed your mind about creating your own game, and learning a new scripting language doesn’t scare you, then my further article with an example of a game, I hope, will be a good hint for you in mastering Renpy.

Getting started with the program

To start working with the program, you need to download the archive with it to your PC and unpack it into any folder convenient for you. In the archive, in addition to the program folder itself, you will find the “Bonus” folder with a couple of Russian-language manuals for Renpy, which may be useful to you when mastering the scripting language, as well as the source code for the game I created, which I will describe below.

After unpacking from the archive, Renpy is ready for use, so let’s go to the folder of the same name and launch the program using the renpy.exe file. The Control Center window will appear in front of you:

This window consists of two sections: in the upper part there are items for managing the currently selected project (by default “Demo”), and in the lower part there is a menu of the program itself (items coming after the “Renpy” heading).

To begin with, I propose to launch a demo game that will introduce us to almost all the features of Renpy. To do this, click the “Launch” button in the “Demo” game menu:

A pretty girl in anime style will give you a tour of all the features of the Renpy program. To navigate through the frames of the game, use the usual left click of the mouse. It also serves to select the desired item in the game menu. We practically don’t use the keyboard (except if the game requires you to enter some data, for example, your name).

Start creating your own game

If you have already familiarized yourself with the demo game, and the desire to create has not left you, then let’s start creating your own visual novel.

I decided to create an educational game for little schoolchildren to help them remember the 2 multiplication table :). The main character of my game is Pikachu, and the plot will naturally revolve around a duel with another Pokemon, to defeat which you need to know the multiplication table by 2 :). So let's get started...

First of all, we need to return to the Control Center and click the “New Project” button there. We will first be asked to enter the name of our game. I entered the first thing that came to mind - “PikaPikaBum” :). This name does not affect the course of the game itself.

After entering the name of the project, we will need to select a theme for the dialog boxes and the game interface in general:

We will see the appearance of the theme in the window on the right when we hover the mouse over the name of the theme in the list on the left. You can apply the design you like by clicking the mouse (later you can change the theme at any time in the Control Center in the “Select Theme” menu).

A couple of seconds after creating the resources needed for the game, Renpy will redirect you to the Control Center, but now at the top there will be not a demo game, but your own!

You can launch it now, but there is nothing in it other than standard menus and pre-installed replicas:

Editing game options

Now we see only, so to speak, the tip of the “iceberg” (that is, the outer shell of the game). The rest of it (that is, all the contents that we will edit) is hidden from us in a folder that can be accessed by clicking the “Game Folder” item in the Control Center:

By default, there are 6 files here, two of which contain all possible information about the game. The “options.rpy” file stores settings for the appearance and theme of your visual novel. In a file named “script.rpy” we will write the entire plot of the game.

You can open these files for editing in any Notepad, but it is better to use the built-in text editor with Renpy syntax highlighting. You can run it by clicking the “Edit Script” item in the Control Center:

An editor window will open, in which there will be two tabs (like in a browser) with both files we need. Using the buttons on the toolbar, you can split the window view into two parts and open both files for viewing at the same time (see screenshot above)!

I suggest you immediately pay attention to the options.rpy file. If you know English and have at least a little understanding of programming (even at the HTML level), then here you will find a lot of useful things that will help you completely personalize the appearance of your game. I want to draw attention to a few of the most basic parameters:

1. Line "config.window_title = u"Ren'Py based game""(see screenshot above) allows you to set the title of your game window (this is to the left of the “Collapse”, “Maximize” and “Close” buttons). Here you can enter the name of your visual novel. Please note that here and below, before the line in Russian, you need to put the English letter “u”;
2. If you add the line below "config.windows_icon", then you can use it to set the game icon, which will be displayed to the left of the window title;
3. Line "mm_root" sets the background of the game's main menu. You can set the background in the form of a picture or a specific color in RGB format (see screenshot below);
4. The "gm_root" line allows you to specify the background of game dialog boxes. The data format is the same as in the previous line:

As I already said, in the options you can correct all the parameters, but we have considered the main ones, so we will consider that our acquaintance with the settings was successful :). Now let's save the settings and move on to editing the game script itself.

Announcement of game sprites and characters

Every game script in Renpy must start with an "init:" service part:

Here we must declare all the images and characters that will be used in your game (except for those backgrounds that you have already specified in the settings).

Advertising an image (and video) is quite simple:

1. First you specify the data type (image);
2. Then, separated by a space, the nickname of the picture (or video) by which you can call it in the game (any name in English);
3. We equate all this to the name of a real image in quotes (preferably in .png / .png format (with an alpha channel - for character sprites) or .jpg (for backgrounds)).

Please note that for convenience, it is better to preface background aliases with “bg”.

When all the images are announced, a list of characters is written under them:

1. The first thing to do is put the “$” sign. This tells the program that you are creating a character;
2. Next, separated by a space, the character’s nickname is written to call him in the game;
3. All this is equated to the service word “Character”, after which the following information comes in parentheses:
   • the name of the character, which will be displayed above the line, in single quotes (if the name is in Russian, do not forget to add the “u” symbol in front of it);
   • character name color (set as in HTML: color = "#RGB").

This concludes the preliminary part of the game. But before proceeding with the analysis of further code, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the Renpy scripting language is hierarchical!

In practice, this means that all data related to the same section, scene, or block must have the same indentation from the left edge of the editor window. As they say: “A step to the right, a step to the left - execution!” - that is, a code error. Therefore, be careful!!!

Script writing

To write the script we use scenes and menus:

The scene always begins with a name, which is specified by the auxiliary word “label”. It is best to start writing a scene (if it is not nested in another scene) from the very edge of the window (on the left) without indentation. There is always a colon after the scene name!

The next line always sets the background of the scene. To do this, write the service word “scene”, after which indicate the alias of the desired image. The background of the scene and all its subsequent elements (cues, functions, transitions, etc.) are indented (best done with the “TAB” button).

After the background, characters are added. Their appearance is specified by the service word “show”. To hide the desired hero, use the word “hide”. The syntax here is simple: first, the function word is indicated, and then, separated by a space, the alias of the character sprite (that is, the desired picture).

For the “show” parameter, you can set the location where our hero will be displayed using the word “at”. By default, the character sprite's position is set to "center", which aligns the image to the bottom edge of the window and center. If you need our hero to be displayed at the central point of the screen (as was done in our test game), then you need another parameter - “truecenter”.

The position can also be specified using arbitrary coordinates. To do this, after the character sprite alias, we write “at Position”, after which we set the necessary parameters in brackets:

• xpos - horizontal position (set in pixels or tenths of the game screen);
• ypos - vertical position (same units);
• xanchor and yanchor - the horizontal and vertical anchors of the sprite image, respectively (the point that will be considered the center of the image);
• xalign /yalign - horizontal/vertical alignment.

The last thing that concerns working with characters is the effects of their appearance and disappearance. To add an effect, at the very end of the line of the hero’s description (after marking his position), the service word “with” is written, after which any of the possible options for their display should be indicated. You can see all the options in the demo game.

After specifying all the visual parameters, you can begin writing the actual replicas. Replicas can be either personalized or not belonging to any of the game’s heroes.

Reply in Renpy is always written in quotes. If we put the character's nickname before the quotation marks (indicated before “Character”), then the name of the hero we need will appear above the replica. If you leave the line without additional parameters, then the phrase will not belong to anyone.

Menu structure and transitions to the desired scenes

To create a choice situation for the further development of the plot, Renpy uses a menu system. The menu is part of the scene structure (that is, it starts with a tab) and contains a number of buttons that can be pressed by the user.

The menu has its own hierarchy. This means that all items are tabulated from the menu initialization line. The structure itself is as follows:

1. The service word “menu:” specifies a new menu in the current scene. The menu must belong to the stage, that is, it must begin with an indentation, just like the cues. Don't forget to put a colon at the end;
2. The second required component of the menu is a button with an answer option (that is, a menu item). A button is a word (or several words) enclosed in quotation marks and indented relative to “menu:”;
3. If we want the character’s replica to be displayed at the bottom when the menu is displayed, then it needs to be placed before the first menu item (see screenshot above). It will differ from the paragraph only in that before the words in quotation marks we will have the pseudonym of the character we need, to whom this replica belongs;
4. Additional actions and remarks that appear after clicking on the menu button are written with tabs relative to the menu item to which they belong.

Additional actions also include the function of moving to the desired scene. With its help, through the menu, we can create unlimited branching scenarios. Typically, scenes in Renpy follow each other in the order in which they are written in the script, however, if we need to “jump” to an arbitrary scene and continue the story from it, we can use the “jump” command.

After the command, all we have to do is add the name of the scene we need to get to and that’s it :)

Using the menu you can create quite complex effects. For example, in my game I only used the menu(!) to organize the Pokemon battle system! This is what I ended up with :)

A little naive, but nevertheless colorful :). And keep in mind that this was done in one day!

Game release

Once you've finished creating your game and it's fully functional, you can release it to the world! To do this, you need to go to the Renpy Control Center and click on “Game Release”:

The function of checking your game for errors will start, after which (if no errors are found, read the lint.txt report), you will be asked to continue creating the game. Naturally, click “Yes”:

In the next window we will be asked for which platforms you are planning to release your game. By default, all available operating systems are selected (Windows, Linux, Mac), but you can uncheck the boxes and leave, for example, the game only “for Windows” :). After this, all we have to do is click the “Release game” button and wait until the archive with it is created. You will find this archive next to the game's working folder.

You can distribute the finished archive with the game as you please. You can put it on the Internet for public access, you can distribute it in torrents, or you can burn it to disk and sell the game in transitions :).

Advantages and disadvantages of the program

• a ready-made free engine for creating visual novels;
• wide functionality;
• A fairly easy-to-learn scripting language;
• possibility of releasing commercial games;
• Russian language support.

• there is no graphical interface for editing games;
• there is no sane manual describing all the built-in functions of the program;
• To work with the settings file, knowledge of English and HTML is required.

conclusions

Renpy, unlike other game designers, does not have a graphical mode for working with the project! Is it good or bad? On the one hand, of course it’s bad :(. It would be much easier if it were possible to configure all scenes in visual mode. However, on the other hand, the program teaches you and me that without difficulty, neither here nor there :)) )

Even if this is not full-fledged programming, it still gives us the opportunity to look at the process of creating a game through the eyes of a programmer and understand “how they do it” :).

If you are full of ideas and the desire to create, if you want your story (or even a novel) to be seen by the whole world, then Renpy is just the program that can give you the opportunity to express yourself and your talent!

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Recent months have brought a flood of scandals related to the sexualization of women in video games, some of which were frankly ridiculous, and some of which were self-evident, although they still provoked heated protest from some of the public. For me, the most exciting game for girls is the fighting game Devil May Cry of any edition. Dante is so hot that controlling him in a series of frantic combos for a woman is like watching the lithe vampire from Bloodrayne jump on her victims in the past, or playing Lara Croft for a man. All these things are, of course, very individual. I wondered if there were games where only men are eroticized, and the woman chooses. In other words, we are not talking about the beauty of the male body, which is a side effect in games, because the torsos and muscles of the heroes primarily symbolize strength. No, we are talking about games where men are objects that can be possessed, about an exclusively female adventure. All released games are suitable for female players, but one sector remains not covered for them. For men, there is a whole range of straightforward erotic games ranging from Sexy beach to a rapist simulator. For women, the situation is different - they are offered either creepy abstractions of sex in the Sims, or narrative branches of developing relationships with companions in role-playing games (say, Bioware). In RPGs, companions are not objects, but individuals, parts of the plot, so the comparison would be unfair.

Dante's new look has fans on edge.

The only nation I know of that makes romantic and erotic games for women is the Japanese. This is all the more surprising since Japan is an extremely conservative country in relation to both social and gender roles. This regimentation and conservatism has various enchanting side effects in the form of absurdist humor, unusual subcultures, exotic ways to relieve tension and, of course, porn culture - from panties (shots of girls' panties) to hentai.

The most harmless and beautiful relationship games for women are otome (visual novels and/or romantic dating simulators). A visual novel for girls is an interactive slideshow where the plot includes a romantic adventure between the main character and one of (or several, which is less common) a set of basic anime types of men who are equally ready to become her chosen one. A mysterious Byronic brunette, a cheerful boy, a shy half-child, and so on. men are integrated into the storyline (escape, schooling, fantasy plot, search for artifacts, war of kingdoms, etc.). The plots can be different - from detective or fantasy to everyday life, but the main character of the story is a girl who, in the course of the story, falls in love with someone. Romantic otome novels are sublime, serene, their world devoid of serious adversity, and they are mainly aimed at young girls who are capable of experiencing romantic interests with the help of imagination and the flimsy support of a series of pictures. However, if you are no longer a young girl, but have retained the ability to easily fly into reality with unicorns, princes and tragic love, then you will also like it. The plot is presented using text comments and is accompanied by static shots of the heroes, and the heroine can periodically make choices in order to captivate this or that handsome man. It all ends with a chaste kiss.

Of course, women who play otome also stream and post playthroughs on Youtube, and it's quite a spectacle. Comparing the passage of a horror game by a grimacing, cheerful man and the passage of "Dandelion" by an unknown girl is priceless. Having seen this, you can be sure that the world will not surprise you with anything. Here, . As you can see, games evoke genuine emotions, lol.

The key core here is the plot, because otome novels are, rather, not games, but interactive books, where the girl is given the opportunity to choose some branches of the plot. You can compare them to an interactive comic book. There are otomes that mock the canons of the genre, but in general they are similar to each other and cover the same sector as romantic television series. Some otome novels have a simple gameplay and economy - in order to win the right handsome man you need to work, work and work (Always remember me) and/or train various characteristics in the spirit of “creativity”, “discipline”, etc., in order to win a certain male character. This gameplay is monotonous and often completely kills the romance, but it can fuel the desire to finally end it and get the hero you need. Stat-based games are considerably more boring and less eventful than simple visual novels, but with the right combination of boring routines and the brilliance of rare flashes of plot, they can achieve nuclear effect. It can be difficult to get stat based otome heroes, but even a loss in this genre is framed as light sadness and expectation of something new. In other words, classic otomes are filled to the brim with cats and love. There is no eroticism in them, but due to the romantic tension, it definitely unfolds in the head of the girl playing. Otome captures the imagination and keeps it running for a while after the game is over.

Let's look at some easily accessible examples. I chose them because they are easy to install for beginners. "Yo-Djin-Bo" is an excellent example of a romantic visual novel (VN) that combines adventure with the ability to choose a romantic line with one of the gently competing heroes. In addition, the game is available in Russian, so it’s perfect for analysis.

VN is a small interactive book, which, for flavor, is equipped with music, images of the main characters and their voice acting with the voices of actors (seiyuu), making the characters more alive and impressive. "Yo-Djin-Bo" is entirely focused on girls and their experiences, the heroine is a girl from the modern world who finds herself in the body of a princess of the past. They are trying to kill the princess, and she is protected by a whole selection of attractive men from whom you can choose the one who will remain by your side until the very end. The heroes are as follows: 1) a handsome, effeminate womanizer, 2) a daredevil virgin, brave at heart, but not too diplomatic, 3) a handsome man who looks much younger than his years, 4) a courageous bodyguard older than the heroine, 5) an eccentric, lewd monk, 6) a contemptuous and a skinny bespectacled killer wrapped in bdsm straps. Most of the types are classic for both anime and romance novels, although they are usually limited to fewer options.

“Yo-Djin-Bo” is good because it makes fun of the canons of the genre right “in the frame”, making idiotic jokes, but at the same time honestly works out sublime dramatic romanticism, which even in such a frame touches. The individual lines of the characters are done very well, they are individual and interesting in their own way, although the "good" endings are over-sweetened. However, the same thing happens in romantic comedies on television.

From a romance perspective, the usual tropes at play are:

1) competition between men, the opportunity to choose.
You play as a girl who interests everyone in the company, they gently (or in the form of crude jokes) hint at this in conversations among themselves, creating excitement. Competition, fights between several men are a classic theme of successful (and not so successful) women's novels.

2) the experience of anticipation, daydreaming, which is triggered by an accidental fall into an embrace or the need to cling to a man during an escape.
In Yo-Djin-Bo, a number of these experiences are cleverly funny (and, by the way, completely excluding the male audience) - for example, when the princess thinks about the warm smell of a man's back while being carried by a bodyguard. But when done correctly, it still works.

3) the opportunity to choose a suitable “stereotype” for the development of relationships.
Everyone, no matter how much they deny it, has it. Or there may be several. Some girls like to seduce the innocent, some want to be caught in the snares of a ladies' man who has suddenly become a model of fidelity to her alone, some are turned on by someone else's coldness, and some simply need to rehabilitate the bad guys, putting everything on the line. Any of these options is possible and well-developed. It turns out I like bespectacled killers:

4) the presence of risk and drama.
In Yo-Djin-Bo you can lose your bodyguards, you can die. It gets ridiculous - when everything is fine, for characters with whom no special troubles have happened, a thread is launched in the spirit of the capture of a princess by a terrorist, and so on. The plot cares about women - victory should not be insipid, although sometimes this happens to the detriment of common sense.

5) the experience of “erotic danger”.
In almost all of these games there are moments when the hero suddenly finds himself extremely close to the heroine, making the erotic threat palpable and desirable. This feeling is then reinforced by demonstrating the heroine’s train of thought. For example, in Yo-Djin-Bo, everyone pauses near the bathhouse, jokes for a long time about the possibility of sharing a bath with the princess, and then she washes alone, thinking about the fact that there are so many naked men nearby, oh, oh, no, I think she already blushing. In otome games, the number of times the heroine falls on a man, participates in nightmares, during which he can grab the heroine and pull her to himself, and so on, is innumerable.

7) stylish villains.
They want you dead, they are pompous and mean, but their cunning is attractive. In several endings of "Yo-Djin-Bo", the princess manages to influence even the villains with her beauty and courage.

Japanese otome VNs have one clear feature - as a rule, interest in several characters is not encouraged here, you must choose (and preferably immediately) one. Therefore, Western players accustomed to RPGs are often lost, wanting to chat and find out more about all the characters, and then losing. It is customary to go through the lines of several or all characters sequentially. This unlocks bonuses and makes hidden parts of the story clear.

If we talk about the sexualization of characters, then VMs affect three types of perception: some of the characters openly exploit their sexuality - we see Jin’s abs (the acquaintance itself begins with a conversation about nipples), Ittosai is almost naked, etc.; the other part is appearance (Bo is a bishounen, Yo is a young asexual boy), the third is classic “masculine” qualities that also evoke a response in women (reliability, courage, readiness for self-sacrifice, loyalty). In other words, the straightforward sexualization of the body is combined with personality traits. The hero becomes desirable not only because he is attractive, but also because he behaves correctly. Also, the very way the story is presented encourages fantasy. The main idea of ​​the approach is well understood here:

But this does not change the fact that the writers gave each character a great story. For example, during my research I spent several pleasant hours playing the game. In addition, visual novels are good for those who do not have serious gaming experience, because here you don’t need to do anything except select lines that trigger a certain branch of the story. Those. low barrier to entry.

Another good example of the genre is the novella (P)lanets: the life of normalcy has ended(you can also download it freely in English there). The novella is not very inventive, although it is nicely drawn, but the plot and dialogues in it are well developed. Also in the novella there is an unusually businesslike and sensible heroine, who is not inclined to overestimate someone else’s beauty or be too impressed by someone else’s rudeness. Most often, the otome heroine is shy, and this does not suit everyone.

A schoolgirl falls, hits her head, and acquires telepathic abilities. Just when she realizes that hearing people's thoughts is terrible, she is taken from her home by Kai, an unfriendly tsundere whose thoughts she cannot read. Kai, along with the friendly, cheerful Ryu and the shy, handsome Lukan, study at a special school for children with amazing abilities. The heroine will have to learn to block the ability to hear other people's thoughts, and at the same time make friends with the guys, unravel their secrets and fall in love with someone. In Planets, the school atmosphere, friendship, hope for the best are well conveyed, and all the boys are great guys with whom you want to always stay. Not for the sake of any finals, but simply as a pastime in a sunlit classroom.

As for romantic lines, (P)lanets: the life of normalcy has ended! you will need to choose almost immediately. Kai acts like a jerk, he is cold, abusive, lonely and has an unknown power that everyone around him is afraid of. Some women are not able to resist such a situation if the balance between “asshole”, “mysterious” and “smart/powerful” is correctly adjusted. He responds to all attempts at contact immediately - and in a completely different way than a romantic girl might expect. Planets is successful in that the main character reacts to everything adequately and with humor, without turning into a wuss. If you insist for a long time, Kai will open up, save you, all his powers, soul and body will belong to you, lalala. In this, games are much better than reality, where such types are not scoundrels with a heart of gold, but simply boring, unpleasant people. Anyway, Kai is great. His animosity is well written and winning through hardship is a lot of fun.

The other two characters are much more friendly and welcoming, they are ready to support you and are more open, so communicating with them is much easier. Lucan is the most popular guy in class, with long blond hair, piercings and a confused face. He himself does not seem to enjoy the waves of attention from the girls (who even organized his fan club) and is constantly trying to hide from them. Therefore, meeting the main character, who talks to him as if he were an ordinary person, almost immediately makes Lucan her friend. If in order for Kai to recognize you as a friend, you have to run around the entire game, then you don’t need to persuade Lukan. Shyness turns him into a child, which not everyone finds attractive, but Lucan also has an unexpected secret. Ryu laughs and has fun, but this superficiality also hides the drama.

Planets is a nice, light piece of music, similar in feel to Mamoru's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

As a game based on leveling up, consider Korean Dandelion: wishes brought to you.. This is an unusual dating simulator with beautiful art, many tragic endings and an unusual plot. At the same time, this is a diabolical, long juicer with monotonous gameplay, a tiny number of story scenes and the need for hours (!) to perform the same actions in order to pump up “femininity” or “knowledge of art”. I think the previous sentence comprehensively describes this type of game.

What role did Reiji play in this route? He served her a shit ton of alcohol:roll: And at the end he’s all like “i’ll comfort you...with my penis.” So they end up at his penthouse (lol?) and do it...and not even in a romantic way! He pushes her against the freaking glass for the whole world to see sigh. God damnit Tiaramode.

I'm a fan of hers. We need more bloggers like this in Russian.