q.u.q. is probably the oddest game I’ll play this entire year, and I say that with the utmost adoration of this game. It’s a short visual novel, I was able to 100% it in less than 2 hours total, getting all 10 endings, and every achievement. But that’s fine, this game is 2 dollars, so it lasting slightly shorter than 2 hours is completely fine. And with what I experienced while playing q.u.q., I ended up really enjoying it. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect game, I feel like there’s one slight issue I have with it, but I still really love it for what it is.
Now, if you were to ask me what happened in q.u.q., I could not answer you. The steam description describes it best, a girl wanders a desert, carrying a big gun. If you were to ask me to explain any more than just that, I couldn’t answer you. While for some games, I can see that being a negative, but for the case of q.u.q., it’s honestly one of its strongest aspects. q.u.q. is a very abstract game, putting you immediately into the game with little explanation of what’s happening, and everything learned is simply accepted on face value. Through that, I feel like this game is more focused on the experience that you have going through with it than simply just playing the game itself. Getting invested into the game’s vibes, and seeing the deals that come with the few characters you meet along the way. With the few characters found in q.u.q., and the short time you have with each of them, they make quite a strong impression. Because of how abstract q.u.q. is in this regard, I can see it not being everyone’s cup of tea. The lack of any real explanation to what’s going on, and the heavy layers of abstraction and shifting tones might be disorienting and off-putting to some, but I really love it.
And other positives I really have to give this game are in its artstyle and music. When it comes to the artstyle, it’s absolutely gorgeous, while keeping the heavy layer of abstraction that I adore about the game. How things are stylized is gorgeous, and I really adore it. On the other hand with the music, it’s just downright amazing. I love how well it fits each environment that the game has, and every single song is amazing. Though I’m biased because I love these kinds of tracks in games, the lyrical credits theme of q.u.q. is amazing, and I wish I could explain why.
Before I get any further here, I want to mention the one slight flaw I had with q.u.q.. Now, the game has 10 endings total, and while most are easy to find, as there’s very few choices in the game that you need to make, getting some other endings is rather difficult. Particularly, certain endings require very specific choice combinations that you eventually have to sort of guess to figure it out. While I love the lack of explanation for the story itself, I do wish there was a bit of guidance in regards to how I get certain endings, though maybe the guesswork is part of it as well.
Now, usually my conclusions come at the end of my reviews, but because of what q.u.q. is, I really want to try and analyze q.u.q. to see if I can find proper meaning out of it. That means that everything beyond this paragraph will focus on the game itself, spoiling a lot of what occurs. Regardless of that though, I really adore q.u.q.. It’s a hard to properly explain visual novel that I think is worth experiencing. I mean, it’s a 2 dollar, less than 2 hour long game, so there’s not really much harm in trying it out. And I really suggest doing so, it’s such an intriguing game, and I’d love to have people to talk to about it, and examine it with.
[Now, as said prior, beyond this point will be looking and examining q.u.q., and what I believe it could possibly mean. I will be mentioning heavy spoilers. Don’t read past this unless you don’t care about being spoiled]
Now, before I examine what I believe could be the meaning of q.u.q., I want to say I don’t think q.u.q. has one set meaning to it. Referencing the steam description yet again, it asks the reader “Who is that girl? What is her destination and goal?”. The game seems to ask you these questions to get you to asking who the player character is, and why she is like this. Through that, I feel like this could then be said to say that the meaning of q.u.q. is really what the player gets out of it. There could be so many different meanings gotten out of q.u.q.. The meaning I get may not be the one you get, and reasonably, neither would be the correct one, because there probably isn’t one.
Now, to what meaning I got out of q.u.q., I feel like it’s the mind of the player character, trapped in a harmful cycle, probably due to the death of Teia. Now, that might be a bit cliché, but I see a lot of points lead me to that conclusion. First off, when it comes to the major endings, destroying the clock tower restarts the game back from the beginning. Noclue Whatitwas is the one that tells you to destroy the clock tower, which seemingly is what perpetuates the cycle. Noclue Whatitwas, is also the Stranger, so it feels clearly that this cycle is inherently a bad thing. The Stranger is a perplexing character because of this. It’s very likely that The Stranger kills Hacchi (the player character) on your first, and multiple runs as you try to get every ending. And in one ending, The Stranger even claims that they love Hacchi. It’s like an unhealthy obsession, and because of it, I feel like The Stranger is a sort of negative mental force. Not to be too serious with my own mental issues here, but I feel like I have a version of The Stranger in my own head. Feeding me with negative thoughts, and accepting those thoughts it feeds me with which eventually lead to my death, but this aspect of my head is obsessed with me, and never leaves me alone. Which in a way, feels similar to how The Stranger is in relation to Hacchi.
And I find it noticeable how the credits only play when you get the ending that occurs when you Destroy the Sky. It feels like it’s the only proper ending in that regard, which makes it much more important I feel. And because of that, I feel like it represents the breaking of the cycle, freeing Hacchi from the mental prison that’s she’s trapped herself in. In that regard, it made sense that her design has her wearing an outfit that looks like prison garb. It doesn’t mean that Hacchi has moved on over the death of Teia, but she’s granted herself an escape from the cycle that was slowly killing her, and maybe in the future she’ll be able to move on.
Am I right in this regard? No, probably not. As I said prior, I don’t think this game has one specific and exact meaning, it’s one where you find the meaning yourself. This is just simple what I got out of the game, and what you’ll get out of it will be noticeably different. If you’ve played q.u.q. and got a different meaning out of it, please let me know I really want to hear others thoughts about this game, because I find it really interesting. And if you’re reading that and you haven’t played q.u.q., please give it a chance, I really love it.