Episode 108 - Visual Novels

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

This episode we’re discussing Visual Novels! We talk about what visual novels are, whether they count as books, reading novels we’re much too young for, being unable to suspend our disbelief, watching videos at 2x speed, monetization, watching vs playing, linear vs divergent stories, and more! Plus, this episode is like 75% tangents!

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In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Things We Read (Played?) This Month

• Bury Me, My Love
• Dungeons & Lesbians
• • Stream with Matthew and RJ
• Serre - “A visual novel about a girl and an alien drinking tea and falling in love!”
• • Stream with Matthew and Meghan
• Speed Dating for Ghosts
• Order a Pizza: A Visual Novel
• • Stream with Matthew and hosts of Finish It! Podcast
• All the streams on YouTube!
• Our Twitch channel

Matthews list of (more) Visual Novels he enjoyed playing

• A Mortician's Tale - “a story-driven death positive video game where you play as a mortician tasked with running a funeral home.”
• Arcade Spirits - “a romantic visual novel that follows an alternative timeline where the 1983 video game crash never occurred.”
• Don’t Take It Personally, I Just Don’t Like You: The Camping Trip - “a lo-fi relationship dramedy about camping illegally on government property in the chill of early autumn, having public anxiety attacks in crowded shopping malls, the people we choose to be with, and what we do when they don't choose us back.”
• The Night Fisherman - “A short tale of inhumanity in the English channel."
• The Outcast Lovers - “Driving home late one night you encounter a refugee in distress.” (Sequel to The Night Fisherman.)
• Us Lovely Corpses - “a short surreal-horror-romance visual novel about helping a friend.”
• Watch Me Jump - “a digital story of scandal and betrayal, played out in four quarters.”
• Mission: It's Complicated - “a visual novel about getting superheroes to fall in love, and the shenanigans that happen along the way.”
• Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator - “a game where you play as a Dad and your goal is to meet and romance other hot Dads.”

Other Media We Mentioned

• Choose Your Own Adventure (Wikipedia)
• Doki Doki Literature Club! (Wikipedia)
• Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess (Wikipedia)
• Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim
• • Orcs that RJ drew!
  • More orc(cupation)s that RJ drew
• Radical Dreamers (Wikipedia)
• Butterfly Soup - “A visual novel about gay asian girls playing baseball and falling in love.”
• 2064: Read Only Memories (Wikipedia)
• Now Kiss! YouTube Playlist of visual novel streams by Kathleen de Vere
• Finish It! Podcast
• Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form by Anna Anthropy
• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty
• Ask a Mortician
• Signs of the Sojourner - “a narrative card game about relationships and connecting with people.”

Links, Articles, and Things

• Bingo Sheets for podcast
• Visual novel (Wikipedia)
• Gamebook (Wikipedia)
• Text-based game (Wikipedia)
• Interactive fiction (Wikipedia)
• Point-and-click adventure games (Wikipedia)
• Twine (software) (Wikipedia)
• Pandemic (board game) (Wikipedia)
• RJ’s itch.io page
• Pricing Hobby Games: An argument for pricing your small independent games.
• How One Gameplay Decision Changed Diablo Forever
• Why So Few Violent Games?
• Visual Novel Maker Says It Will Replace Its Striking Writers
• Visual Novel Writers Win Pay Raise After 21 Day Strike
• Visual Novels (TV Tropes)

5 Visual Novels (and 1 amazing resource) by People of Colour

• Blerdy Otome: this episode’s list would not be possible without Blerdy Otome, who reviews otome games, visual novels, and related media! Check out the Blerdy Tribe page of her website for tons of Black game developers, artists, podcasters, and other folks to follow!
• ValiDate: a forthcoming romantic visual novel about 12 adults in Jercy City navigating new relationships and the harsh realities that come alongside them. Features an array of character art by artists of color and a narrative developed by an all people of color writing team.
• One Thousand and One Days: an LGBTQ+ fantasy otome based on the mythology of ancient Persia and Islamic lore.
• Pairs: a romantic sci-fi visual novel featuring two superheroic couples and four perspectives to see their stories from.
• Us Lovely Corpses: a short surreal-horror-romance visual novel about helping a friend. Matthew’s stream of this game can be found here (check the content warning in the video description).
• Order a Pizza: play as a divorced dad trying to order the perfect pizza. Matthew’s stream of this game can be found here.

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Join us again on Tuesday, September 15th we’ll be giving an update on media we’ve been consuming that’s not for the podcast!

Then on Tuesday, October 15th we’ll be reading Comedic/Humourous Novels!