The Poet's Visual Novel

Now, I am yet to see a single Hong Sangsoo movie, but I have played and enjoyed all the previous game jam VNs by the director Purkka, so I was exited to dive in with this one as well (why yes, I am the person who drew Helsinki that one time, hi hello). Think it’s about time I actually reach out for the people behind these games instead of lurking eternally.

The aftertaste of The Poet’s Visual Novel is… somber, but in a very mundane way. Artists from different creative fields meet and yearn to connect with one another through their shared love for art, but their conversations remain weirdly surface-level. The repetitive coffee scenes emphasize the feeling that even when these characters really try to break the ice between them, they never quite succeed. Partially this might be blamed on the fact that the cast (narrator included) never learn to see each other as individuals behind the monikers of “a poet”, “a painter” or “a game developer”: partially it is because some of them (Markus specifically) are using the VN project as means to more personal ends.

That said, even Markus doesn’t strike me as wholly deplorable. Sure, he ends up cheating on his wife with a woman he’s infatuated with. Sure, he’s a confirmed ChatGPT user whose inner dialogue at times hints that he might be relying in generative AI it even in normal social situations, struggling to put his phone away while talking with Minna one-to-one. Then again, his passion towards video games as an artform feels real: if it weren’t, he wouldn’t have ranted about the state of the industry so passionately to his friend even before he and Minna cross paths. As for Minna, sleeping with married Markus is something she does in her own volition, and as her final rug pull tells, she too never quite learns to understand nor respect games as art. While she and Daniel seemingly manage to bond more easily, their relationship is still at the awkward first states with no guarantees as to what might happen to them in the future. As much as the characters wish to see them coming together as fate, the reality proves much more complex.

One thing I’ve enjoyed about all of Purkka’s VNs is their insistence of locality. As a fellow Finn, I love how casually Finnish everything is: the train cafe is an actual VR dining car, the film festival the characters attend is obviously the Helsinki International Film Festival, and the few minutes walk through the Kamppi-Forum tunnel is depicted in all of its mystifying glory. While My Municipality and Wolf in the Wardrobe have probably proven challenging for some foreigners to enjoy, some of us live in the shadow of Matti Vanhanen’s stupidity and Päivi Räsänen’s homophobia, and drawing from these realities rather than creating something more “culturally neutral” (read: reflecting only that which white Americans are familiar with and willing to accept) is a creative choice I respect tremendously.

As I’ve already said, the game’s aftertaste was somber yet mundane. At the end of the day, the three creative minds meeting results in a handful of enthusiastic yet awkward conversations and failed attempts of intimacy. Larger political fears loom in the background: Markus’ precarious working situation, the empty business spaces at the Kamppi end of the underground tunnel and the middling (but I can assure you, probably ridiculously expensive) drink choices at the cafe all paint a bleak picture of the world that the characters live in. As an unemployed person from an arts-related field trying to make it in the worst economic situation her home country has faced in decades, the game’s downcast tone resonated deeply within me. Life’s a dreary slog sometimes, and people and opportunities that initially appear promising might leave us disappointed: even then, the poem at the end encourages the player to at the very least consider the option of embracing hope.

hehe
The Novelist's film just being linked on the help screen was fun

Surprisingly pointed to call Renpy really easy to use and while using Godot.

Also yeah My respect for Markus was shattered immediatly after heairng he uses chatGPT to figure out what food to feed the ducks jeez

When you want to make a movie, but you don't have irl people willing to act a script.

So you force pngs to talk for them for you.

(Joke comment)

This one caught my eye because of the creator's comment that they were inspired from the works of Hong Sangsoo! It's not often that a furry VN is inspired by an acclaimed filmmaker from my home country. I was introduced to Hong's work by his latest film, "What Does That Nature Say to You." So I can't say I'm an expert on his work, however I can definitely see the inspirations and parallels in this work. There's something homely and intimate about this dialogue between these characters that make me feel very comforted. I am a lover of "art about art" and the meta premise was very cool imo. There's also something about a Finnish written work inspired by Korean cinema translated into English that makes this for a really interesting diverse set of influences. Really loved this one and found it interesting!