I’m changing things up a bit today. I don’t play exclusively AAA titles, so here’s something a little different.

Class of '09 touts itself as an “anti-visual novel.” Instead of a typical dating sim where you get to score with tons of hot anime girls by saying all the right things, you instead play AS the girl, rejecting guys around you and wreaking havoc on everyone’s social lives.

It’s considered a period game, taking place in the late '00s. Which makes me feel really old hearing people waxing nostalgic for the 2000s. I graduated high school in 2002; my nostalgic frame of reference is the '80s-'90s. 😖

Warning: This is a very dark game. There are about 15 endings, depending on your choices. I haven’t played through them all yet, but the best ending I’ve seen so far left you single and alone for the rest of your life, working cashier at a fast food restaurant to pay the bills. A lot of endings have you murdered, committing suicide, stuck in rehab, etc. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a happy ending for the protagonist.

This particular story in the screenshot got started when I decided to tolerate my best friend being a White Nationalist and not let a difference in politics get in the way of our friendship (Oops). It led to her starting a “White Pride Party” that literally everyone in the school joined except for me.

The nerdy Jeffrey only joined the club because he was a social pariah and it was the only group that accepted him. In order to test his convictions, I asked him out on a date and forced him to choose between egging a synagogue and dating me. Which led to the hilarious line in the screenshot. And also led to the WPP turning on Jeffrey. Double oops.

There’s another game called Class of '09: The Re-Up that I own, but haven’t played yet. It claims it’s not a sequel or a remaster, but additional stories branching off the original game. If I ever get around to finishing this first game, I’ll check it out.

  • mox@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    12·
    2 months ago

    Your description reminds me of Doki Doki Literature Club, which also takes the dating sim visual novel format in unexpected directions. To avoid spoilers, I can’t say much more than that, except that it’s free and that I found it interesting despite all these things being far from my usual taste in games.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      I had a feeling one of Satan’s helpers would show up here. I second this commenter go play it blind.

        • Coelacanth@feddit.nuEnglish
          7·
          2 months ago

          I’ll throw in another vouch for it. Play blind, look up absolutely nothing about the game before playing.

        • dracs@programming.devEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          It’s a good game. Just don’t take the content warning at the start lightly. I’ve tried to finish it twice but haven’t been able to get more than a couple of hours in.

        • mox@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          The tag notified me, so mission accomplished. You don’t need to tag someone when replying to them directly; Lemmy notifies them about replies.

          • cobysev@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
            31·
            2 months ago

            True, but I didn’t want to thank you and NOT the person I was directly responding to. And I thought it was kind of weird only tagging one name and not the other.

            Maybe I’ve just been socializing on Discord too much. I’ve gotten used to tagging everyone I’m talking to directly.

    • Battle Masker@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      I’ve seen so much from/about that game I forgot that you can still spoil it for some people. I just knew everyone knew about it, given how it enveloped the internet for a brief time after it was out