1. Given this game being called Genderwrecked, the fact that the developers stylize it in all caps and replace the Ds in the logo w/ vampire mouth vaginas, I figured it was going to be somewhat angrier in tone than it was. It's actually a nice game that makes you feel good. What a disappointment!
2. What's not a surprise is this game deals w/ gender issues. It takes a particular focus on genders involving more than one part of male-female binary or outside of it entirely.
3. The best thing about Genderwrecked is its sense of humor. It's not really laugh-out-loud funny but still sincerely thoughtful and clever at every turn. In an indie world where lots of indie games try to be indie funny, it's refreshing to find one that actually indie is.
4. The style of humor used is what is commonly called dad jokes and it is actually called that in game. You would think they'd find some gender neutral term for dad jokes like groaners or something but calling them dad jokes actually becomes story relevant at one point. This is some motherfucking science, people.
4. The gameplay is essentially the part of Shin Megami Tensei games where you talk to the monsters and try to convince them to join their party w/o all the being bored to death by million year long dungeons and confusing plot lines--and definitely w/o Atlus's troubling treatment of trans-people.
5. Okay, that's a bit of a stretch but all you do is talk to monsters. It's a visual novel.
6. The post-appocalypse world depicted mostly looks like ASCII art done in contrasting shades of the same color. Monsters are hand-drawn and intricate. The focus is clearly on the monsters, which makes sense. Some are twisted and grotesque to the point of being silly. Others are just silly. It's all a lot of fun.
7. In contrast to the rather loud visuals, the soundscape is sparse and harrowing. It is an endless, layered drone that straddles the border between ambiance and music.
8. These two elements play off each other well. The goofy monsters are disarming but the disquieting soundtrack keeps you from feeling too comfortable. Genderwrecked is not dealing w/ an easy subject so you don't want to breeze through it too happily. You need to take time and think.
9. Your choice in Genderwrecked is limited to three basic options. You can fight, talk to or kiss the monsters. After the first one, I opted to kiss absolutely everyone. It worked out great and was liberating in ways you could not imagine. Definitely, definitely will be kissing as many things as possible in video games from here on out.
10. Whatever option you chose, you interact w/ each monster in an attempt to learn more about its gender identity. Your mission, you see, is to learn the meaning of gender in this post-apocalyptic world. Why that is your mission is never explained. I guess someone just decided it had to be done and you were close by.
11. The game starts you out w/ a monster that feels it has no gender and moves you on through to monsters that have a clear idea of what their gender is, ones that don't feel the current norms adequately describe them and so on. It runs the gamut and that is the point. Importantly, none of the monsters seem to feel pushed into a gender role. They explore the idea w/ you and come to their own conclusions.
12. This gets to why Genderwrecked tends to give you a fuzzy feeling. Gender issues are felt most poignantly by people who are frequently
dehumanized for where they fall on the spectrum. In making the
characters that face the same challenges actual monsters, the developers, Ryan Rose Aceae and Heather
Flowers, had to strike a precarious balance---which they did in a way that
seems both somehow both effortless and well considered. This makes it feel like you can do the same in real life. It feels good to not be judgemental.
13. Genderwrecked was a surprise to me. I was expecting something personal in a specific way, a "this is my experience" kind of game, but it's not that at all. It examines a more universal experience and succeeds quite admirably in tying in an individuals relationship w/ their gender to all the other aspects of themselves.
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