Ten Years of VNs Now Special Feature: Fifty EVNs JP Recommends (29-11)

15. Tomboys Need Love Too! (Zetsubou Games)

I hooked Kai and Chris up for Kai’s Mom. We all did.

This is a game with a narrow focus: two childhood friends realizing their feelings for each other run far deeper than just friendship. Well, Kai is a little oblivious, but Chris? Chris is all in. What makes this game work so well is not only are the obstacles in their relationship well established and written to be dealt with as you’d expect teenagers to deal with that kind of drama, but the relationship itself is so well written and their banter hits the nail so square on what you’d expect from two long-time friends, it just makes you root for them harder. Even the ‘third wheel’ option here has some depth and delves into a lot of mean girl tropes in fiction with a handful of interesting outcomes, despite my distaste for some of them when I originally played it years ago. Still, I wish this was the blueprint for romance games. Maybe one day someone will pick up the formula?

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