assuming that jak 2 counts? i think saya no uta should 100% be on here, i know euphoria and swan song are also v edgy vns but i havent read those to say how far they go aesthetically. killing floor 2, they bleed pixels, eversion should work. darkest dungeon?

thanks! added most of those (jak 2, snu, euphoria, tbp, eversion) and revised the description/list to make things clearer and more specific

Why did you add KH2?

everything to do with organization xiii and pretty much anything square-exclusive in kh is about as emo-teen-myspace core as it gets tbh

the descriptor is so vague that you can literally put anything on this list.

a generalization like this will inevitably be broad, and it is a "you know it when you see it" category to an extent. but there is definitely a limit, and i think "punk + emo + hot topic" draws a pretty clear line

some things kinda push the boundary - like splatterhouse and gears of war - but i also would argue that the design philosophy behind a game where you walk around as a skullface dude who beats people with their own arms, as well as one where your bayonet is a literal chainsaw, caters pretty hard to the crowd of people who thinks it's cool to write titles in scratchy fonts and use kh2 riku profile pics

the limit is like, say, fallout 3, which is very gory and over-the-top, but not in a way that really feels overtly stylized

if you have a suggestion to make these things clearer and more specific, or games to remove/add, then i'm totally open to it!

Does koudelka for ps1 qualify?

it would, but shadow hearts is already there. i'll add a note mentioning it anyway

You could make a solid case for Hollow Knight.

that's pushing it imo

hollow knight isnt goth, its gothic

italics do not work mid word, noted

Suggestion time: Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk, Phenomeno: Mitsurugi Yoishi wa Kowagaranai and We Know the Devil
Idk I love this style and can't really say what game fits your description of it

i think milk bag feels more bizarre/horror driven to me rather than edgy. i think if i included it i'd need to put stuff like subahibi on here, and then it'd only get more broad from there

we know the devil feels too of this era imo

phenomeno definitely works. anything to do with that artist is prolly a snug fit for this aesthetic

thanks for the suggests!

I suggest Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Sonic Unleashed and Twilight Princess
Any game where you transform into a wolf or dark vervion of yourself is edgy teen material imo

waaaaay too broad of criteria there

why is it only manhunt 1?

putting them both on is redundant

Painkiller

Bully?

i'm torn on painkiller cause it makes me think more of power metal type shit than what i'm really aiming for here. i'll have to give it another play or watch some footage or something to get a better idea where it's coming from tbh

bully isn't remotely edgy. if anything it's strictly for content reasons which don't fit this list

This one is a lot more mellow but maybe Chulip? I remember there being peeping in on people in gimp gear & shit like that.

The first Max Payne is also incredibly edgy. Possible add there.

big no on both of those. chulip's just weird and max payne isn't edgy in a stylistic sense at all

Fair enough, my bad. Good list btw.

Archangel: Nemesis
would be a good addition

JC Denton from Deus Ex might qualify

@erato_heti no worries, i appreciate the input regardless!

@eeleye_ i stick to one per franchise for the sake of keeping things clean, so thug would be redundant since aw is more punk oriented. lisa is dark but i don't really think it's like, overdesigned in any regard or like edgy aesthetically. killer7 used to be here but i removed it after some friends and i were narrowing down the criteria and realized it was just kinda super-stylish without actually being tonally in line with the rest of the list. quake i've been thinking about but idk it just kinda seems like more horror-driven than anything else... but at the same time it has trent reznor so i gotta think about that one. kane and lynch is more content-edgy than aesthetic-edgy. sh3 would be the most valid sh pick but i think that one's still more horror driven than what strictly fits here. danganronpa KINDA almost sorta maybe. characters like ibuki are totally spot on but that's it tbh. og twewy was here but i replaced neo with it for being even more nu-metal influenced

that was a lot of fucking suggestions tho! thank you!!

@bloodmachine holy shit this is cool thank you

@mutyumu there's nothing really about deus ex that qualifies here. it's just cyberpunk through and through

i feel like max payne 1 could be put here solely because of the ragna rock chapter and just the overall feel of the game

it could not