Subverse is in a terrible state at the moment. Beyond it being a heteronormative male-gazey nightmare (one which will prove to be especially inaccessible for anyone with interests that exceed its limited scope), it will most certainly fail to fulfill the desires of even its core audience.
Here are my fundamental issues with Subverse broken down into bullet points:
- Erotic scenes are not cleverly interwoven within romantic character arcs. Instead, players level up their women through battle and purchase simple (and underwhelmingly short) clips through a vendor. There’s very little additional character development for the women. It feels as if StudioFOW was convinced that their audience would have no interest in the cast’s personality. Who needs compelling stories that grant the player a personal attachment to the character right? Just add a bunch of sex scenes and call it a day!
- Every woman is strikingly gorgeous and scantily clad. Every man is fully clothed or intentionally ugly. I understand this game is meant to appeal to the male gaze, but I don’t see how applying similar expectations of attractiveness on the male characters would have detracted from the experience? I want to see sexy men too.
- Previous point especially applies to the main character. He looks like what a 4chan user would use to describe the word “cool.” He also acts like a 4chan user: He’s sexist, obnoxious, vulgar, perverted, acts like a total prick, and yet the entire cast of women want him desperately. He’s the wet dream self-insert for incels. Every other man in Subverse also acts this way.
- Inability to modify your player character (besides from skin tone during erotic scenes) is disappointing. I would have loved if StudioFOW had created a system where the protagonist has two sets of genitalia or the ability to switch between them freely (this is so StudioFOW doesn’t have to create two separate erotic scenes for each character model). And with this system, you can select if you wanna play the feminine body type or the masculine body type. And giving the main character an actual design would be nice. Intentionally obscuring the protagonist and giving them a painfully ugly outfit sucks.
- I also advocate for the ability to romance and engage in erotic scenes with men, but I imagine the fanbase would be very upset about the “homosexual agenda” being forced into the game. It would have been exciting if the world was full of all sorts of characters that aren’t limited by gender.
- Why does it feel as if every gameplay mechanic exists separate from the actual goal of the game? The space shooting and tactical combat are mini-games interwoven between visual novel dialogue. And even the erotic scenes feel like a tertiary addition. I would have loved to be able to use the world map to engage with events around the universe that allowed me to interact with new characters, select dialogue options, and actually feel like I have a stake in what’s going on in the world. Instead, all you do is shoot ships, read terrible dialogue, and then purchase irrelevant sex scenes with tokens.
- The only gay character I met within my first three hours of the game tried to force himself on another man. Gotta love that we’re still seeing the “gay men are predators” stereotype prevalent in 2021.
- The story is awful. And that wouldn’t be a huge issue if that weren’t the primary focus of the experience, but instead of prioritizing the development of the female cast and the inclusion of character arcs that give them more depth, StudioFOW decided they should force the player to sit through an exhausting amount of exposition (told to the player in visual novel format) about where the protagonist came from and what their goal is within the world. It’s genuinely baffling that Subverse, a game that is largely meant to be about the female cast, takes the focus away from those characters and instead shines the spotlight on the 4chan-esque protagonist that spews vulgarities in an australian accent every two seconds.
- The sexual topics represented in Subverse seem surprisingly vanilla thus far. For a game that’s meant to be unhinged, all I’ve seen in three hours is light teasing and basic sex positions. The inclusion of monsters is the only thing that isn’t vanilla.
- The writing is far too self-aware, creating a level of cringe that truthfully breaks immersion. Within the first few minutes of the game, one of the female characters comments on how “there will be something to jerk off to after this battle.” I understand that Subverse is trying to be a “parody,” but it’s disheartening that the game would rather try to meme rather than give us a reason to be attached to any of the cast. So far, most female characters are one-dimensional and exist only to appease the player’s libido. Fortune is the only exception from what I’ve played so far, but even then, it’s hard to imagine that this will go anywhere. All of the story is told through a main plot riddled with exposition, unnecessary world-building, and this incessant focus on a plot to take down an evil government. There’s seemingly no room for compelling individual character arcs.
- Before I played Subverse, I was most interested in the female cast. I wanted to get to know them and I wanted to feel like I was earning my scenes with them. I wanted to see fully developed arcs SEPARATE from the main story. This is a basic dating sim foundation, so my expectations didn’t feel particularly ridiculous. I’ve gotten none of this so far. Instead, I’ve sat through exposition about the world, details regarding a protagonist I despise, and short erotic scenes that have no connection to the story. This shit sucks.
From my first three hours with Subverse, I have come to the conclusion that it does not appeal to me. Perhaps I should have seen this coming, but I’m disappointed nonetheless.
Here are my fundamental issues with Subverse broken down into bullet points:
- Erotic scenes are not cleverly interwoven within romantic character arcs. Instead, players level up their women through battle and purchase simple (and underwhelmingly short) clips through a vendor. There’s very little additional character development for the women. It feels as if StudioFOW was convinced that their audience would have no interest in the cast’s personality. Who needs compelling stories that grant the player a personal attachment to the character right? Just add a bunch of sex scenes and call it a day!
- Every woman is strikingly gorgeous and scantily clad. Every man is fully clothed or intentionally ugly. I understand this game is meant to appeal to the male gaze, but I don’t see how applying similar expectations of attractiveness on the male characters would have detracted from the experience? I want to see sexy men too.
- Previous point especially applies to the main character. He looks like what a 4chan user would use to describe the word “cool.” He also acts like a 4chan user: He’s sexist, obnoxious, vulgar, perverted, acts like a total prick, and yet the entire cast of women want him desperately. He’s the wet dream self-insert for incels. Every other man in Subverse also acts this way.
- Inability to modify your player character (besides from skin tone during erotic scenes) is disappointing. I would have loved if StudioFOW had created a system where the protagonist has two sets of genitalia or the ability to switch between them freely (this is so StudioFOW doesn’t have to create two separate erotic scenes for each character model). And with this system, you can select if you wanna play the feminine body type or the masculine body type. And giving the main character an actual design would be nice. Intentionally obscuring the protagonist and giving them a painfully ugly outfit sucks.
- I also advocate for the ability to romance and engage in erotic scenes with men, but I imagine the fanbase would be very upset about the “homosexual agenda” being forced into the game. It would have been exciting if the world was full of all sorts of characters that aren’t limited by gender.
- Why does it feel as if every gameplay mechanic exists separate from the actual goal of the game? The space shooting and tactical combat are mini-games interwoven between visual novel dialogue. And even the erotic scenes feel like a tertiary addition. I would have loved to be able to use the world map to engage with events around the universe that allowed me to interact with new characters, select dialogue options, and actually feel like I have a stake in what’s going on in the world. Instead, all you do is shoot ships, read terrible dialogue, and then purchase irrelevant sex scenes with tokens.
- The only gay character I met within my first three hours of the game tried to force himself on another man. Gotta love that we’re still seeing the “gay men are predators” stereotype prevalent in 2021.
- The story is awful. And that wouldn’t be a huge issue if that weren’t the primary focus of the experience, but instead of prioritizing the development of the female cast and the inclusion of character arcs that give them more depth, StudioFOW decided they should force the player to sit through an exhausting amount of exposition (told to the player in visual novel format) about where the protagonist came from and what their goal is within the world. It’s genuinely baffling that Subverse, a game that is largely meant to be about the female cast, takes the focus away from those characters and instead shines the spotlight on the 4chan-esque protagonist that spews vulgarities in an australian accent every two seconds.
- The sexual topics represented in Subverse seem surprisingly vanilla thus far. For a game that’s meant to be unhinged, all I’ve seen in three hours is light teasing and basic sex positions. The inclusion of monsters is the only thing that isn’t vanilla.
- The writing is far too self-aware, creating a level of cringe that truthfully breaks immersion. Within the first few minutes of the game, one of the female characters comments on how “there will be something to jerk off to after this battle.” I understand that Subverse is trying to be a “parody,” but it’s disheartening that the game would rather try to meme rather than give us a reason to be attached to any of the cast. So far, most female characters are one-dimensional and exist only to appease the player’s libido. Fortune is the only exception from what I’ve played so far, but even then, it’s hard to imagine that this will go anywhere. All of the story is told through a main plot riddled with exposition, unnecessary world-building, and this incessant focus on a plot to take down an evil government. There’s seemingly no room for compelling individual character arcs.
- Before I played Subverse, I was most interested in the female cast. I wanted to get to know them and I wanted to feel like I was earning my scenes with them. I wanted to see fully developed arcs SEPARATE from the main story. This is a basic dating sim foundation, so my expectations didn’t feel particularly ridiculous. I’ve gotten none of this so far. Instead, I’ve sat through exposition about the world, details regarding a protagonist I despise, and short erotic scenes that have no connection to the story. This shit sucks.
From my first three hours with Subverse, I have come to the conclusion that it does not appeal to me. Perhaps I should have seen this coming, but I’m disappointed nonetheless.