Now to tackle two games that cover some uncomfortable subjects and one about a thorny issue that needs addressing.
Boyfriend Dungeon
In most dating sims in the role of the female protagonist, you simply date a guy, in Boyfriend Dungeon he becomes your weapon to breakout of eldritch horror dungeons, the game is the first instance I've seen of a disclaimer for uncomfortable topics, as it covers instances of controlling behaviour and topics of abuse, this lowers the tone of a game far too silly to even contain such subjects, also if you have to warn your target audience of a subject that they ultimately expect in a game where you date multiple guys on different levels of behaviour, you've already failed. I downloaded it for a joke but it just makes me depressed.
F-Tier Game
Coffee Talk
A visual novel like VA-11 Hall-A Cyberpunk Bartender, but this time instead of making cocktails listening to Synthwave in a neon stylish world where every character is interesting, you run a midnight coffee shop where the local fantasy cast talk about political and social problems listening to Lo-Fi. Cover such thrilling topics like, generational divides formed by racist bigoted parents, racial profiling, overprotective parenting, the toxic gaming industry, a spaceman who wants to smash and a novelist who never leaves the coffee shop. The only interesting characters are Jorji the Police officer and the Orc Indie game designer who really gives no shits. The sequel is more of the same, it's an interesting concept especially the logistics of a midnight coffee shop but I really don't want to talk about these subjects, my Bing news feed already does enough of that. I'd give it a lower rating but I also found out the creator of the game died during the production of the sequel while researching, considering where the creator came from, it's any wonder they decided to cover these topics.
C-Tier Game
Calico
Imagine a world where nothing bad happens, no wars, no racism, no sexism, no bigotry, and every animal is tame, friendly and cuddly, that's Calico, a world created as the ultimate safespace for every colour of the rainbow spectrum of the LGBT+....however long this abbreviation is, they seem to add more every time I pass my local pride hub. Any who, you run a cafe and get to play with all the animals around the island while learning some useful magic to make the experience more special also doing fetch quests for the townsfolk, the game is very poorly made as phasing through floors and getting yeeted into space are common occurrences but my overall feeling is "Don't you think you deserve better than this?" I'm reminded of the 90s gaming scene where girls had to fight for even a scrap of a half decent game instead of Barbie Horse Trials 5 the Pinkening. Now I'm looking at the same scenario 25 years later for the Pride audience.
Animal Crossing and Disney Dreamlight Valley succeed at the cozy life sim better as you can at least create the game to fit your image, Calico can't even give you a decent wardrobe to wear let alone a decent environment to live in because it's stuck in a permanent safespace, probably do a lot better with some design tips from Ru Paul's Drag Race.
Trash-Tier Game
