Venus Blood Frontier – a normie's perspective

This is a Kickstarter campaign-related post. Check out my review of the game here!

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by Ninetail and I'm not in any way affiliated with the studio – this is simply an expression of my personal interest and support for the game

There are two days left until the end of Venus Blood Frontier translation Kickstarter campaign - a huge undertaking by Ninetail, who decided to bring to the West one of their most expansive and technically complex game, as pretty much their first step outside of Japan. One that apparently proved successful, even those the game's fate was uncertain just a week ago, before two individuals put an absurd amount of money on the table, to sponsor some custom story content - I applaud their dedication, as thanks to them, the English version has a good chance of being the best and most complete release of Frontier, something we rarely get as Western VN fans.

          But, why am I even talking about this, on my EVN blog? Why did I support this game and don't hide my excitement about it, even though it's not only a bit outside my main interest, but also, in the Japanese version, includes depictions of sexual violence that I have no interest in whatsoever? To put it as simply as possible, it's about the kind of story it tells, and the kind of choice it offers to the player. But first, a bit of a digression...

With all Star Wars: The Old Republic's failures, it was possibly the only game that caught the fantasy of playing as a Sith, with the freedom to embrace the Empire's brutality or try to reform it

A good few years ago, a now-dying MMO called Star Wars: The Old Republic was released by Bioware, promising to be the first title of this kind to offer a deep, personalised story for every player character. As I Bioware fan, I pre-ordered it and jumped right into the action as a Jedi Knight... And dropped the game before max level, deeply bored by the gameplay and storyline. The fantasy of being the saviour of the galaxy was just as over-the-top and bland as what I've seen in hundreds of RPGs before, the flashing lightsaber and Star Wars soundtrack not being able to make it that more engaging.

          However, two years later, I came back with the resolution to check out the other side of the coin - Sith storylines. It wasn't a natural choice for me, as I abhor most "evil" choices in RPGs, never being able to follow a truly dark path. I can accept my character being harsh, or even ruthless in following their goals, but not without the underlying cause being just. In other words, I'm a huge pussy that can't harm undeserving pixels without feeling sick. What I found in the Empire storylines, however, was mesmerizing to me. With my approach, they were stories of people that found themselves in hopeless circumstances, looking for ways to go through them with some kind of honour and looking for power to change their reality for the better. The game offered freedom to conform to the expectations, becoming a murderous maniac, or subvert them and find your own way through the horrors and challenges before you, creating a perfect fantasy of being a Sith - freedom through power, with the possibility to remain relatively pure, but without constraints put on you by the Jedi Code. For me it was, and is to this day, the best role playing experience I've ever had, in the quite literal sense of the term.

Loki is never really a "good guy", but if you can steer him to become a ruthless oppressor or a benevolent tyrant who uses force to change his ravaged world for the better

What all this has to do with Frontier though? A lot, actually, as the protagonist, Loki, is in a very similar position to the Sith of The Old Republic. He's a high-ranking demon, an ancient enemy of mankind sent on a mission to conquer the last bastion of humanity. He's a villain by default, having all the means and motivation to cruelly subjugate the human lands, along the goddesses that protect them and corrupt them into willing servants (through some very non-consensual meeting with tentacles) - servants who can help him to get his revenge on the Demon King, murderer of his parents and claim the supreme rulerships over his crumbled world. Considering how weak his forces are initially, the game pretty much compels you to use all the resources at your disposal, without looking at the moral value of it all.

          It, however, also offers a different path and many choices that lets you craft your personal story and your own interpretation on what Loki is really about. Will you be a just ruler, or wreak havoc across the land? Will you corrupt the goddesses to gain powerful servants, or leave them as they are and earn their loyalty through your actions? Will you romance one of them, form a harem, or skip that part of the experience altogether? The options are... Well, not limitless, but impressive, in a way that is pretty hard to find in Western media. A compelling anti-hero, in my opinion, is an extremely rare occurrence and one that should be celebrated.

I know keeping the goddesses pure and following the Law route strictly is not the "main" allure of the game for most, but the option to do so is in no way an afterthought or a lesser experience

And now let's address the elephant in the room. While you can imagine how I will play this game, it's not really what this series is known for in Japan or what some would consider an "intended" way to experience it. The corruption mechanic is pretty much the selling point of the Venus Blood series and the original cover of Frontier leaves no doubt that tentacle rape is its core element, part of its identity even. I'm also not sure how playable the Chaos route, normally full of such h-scenes, will be in the all-ages version of the game. However, the existence of Steam version and the way it was marketed in the West makes it possible to experience the game's storyline and impressively deep SRPG mechanics regardless whether you're ok with that kind of content or not.

         So why I'm writing all this? I do because I want you to consider supporting the Kickstarter - it's very close to the first stretch goal, with will include additional guarantees for the translation quality of the final product, including full retranslation of the trial portion of the game. This is something that will likely influence the future of this title and the possibility of other Venus Blood titles reaching the West. And above all, I want you to keep an eye for this game, which not only caters to my personal "storytelling fetish", but also seems like an great piece of entertainment that has something to offer for pretty much anyone - hardcore eroge fans, people looking for strategy RPG with a compelling narrative and even VN fans in general, considering how flexible the difficulty settings are, up to the ability skip much of the gameplay and focus on the story parts. It is something worth supporting and cheering for and I hope you'll consider giving it a chance, either now or when the English release is out.

Thank you for your time!