It begins as each Japan-set relationship sim price its salt does — with a switch scholar.
It is Aya’s first day on the ominously-named ‘Love-Love All-Women Excessive Faculty’, and so they’re (understandably) just a little nervous. Shy and socially anxious, they hope they’re going to handle to make a pal or two. Seems their classmates are keen – maybe just a little too keen – to get acquainted. Aya is ready upon by a stampede of besotted younger ladies, however Aya does not have romance on the mind themselves. “I Simply Need To Be Single!” they yell. Cue chirpy acapella theme music.
I Simply Need To Be Single!!: Season One, lately launched on Steam in Early Entryis a sport you would be forgiven for overlooking on a Steam Retailer that immediately is filled with visible novels from Western indie devs. A handful carry a reverence and understanding of the medium (the wonderful VA-11 HALL-A, for instance), however many take a mocking, ironic strategy, or exist primarily to titillate, such that followers have grown cautious. Tsundere Studio’s debut, I Simply Need To Be Single!! stands out from this crowd.
Billed as ‘aromantic, asexual, and nonbinary’, I Simply Need To Be Single!!’s participant protagonist, Aya, is a mirrored image of its mononymous lead developer ‘m.’. “I am nonetheless figuring issues out about myself and this sport is an extension of that,” m. tells me over Discord. “The story on this sport is basically about discovering your self and who you need to turn out to be.”
Aya’s probably aromantic id is mirrored within the mechanics and presentation of the participant’s conversations with their classmates. On the high left of the sport’s snazzy however unobtrusive UI, two meters may be discovered. The primary of those, the ‘Favorability’ meter, fills as much as a complete of 5 hearts. There is a separate meter for every heroine, color-coded to their monochrome paper-cutout designs. Choose the ‘appropriate’ (i.e. emotionally clever) response out of your dialogue choices and a coronary heart will probably be added to the Favorability meter, your dialog accomplice’s face lighting up with heat and recognition.
Courting sims are sometimes maligned for his or her core mechanics — saying the ‘proper factor’ to obtain romance is a philosophy that sits uncomfortably with many. I Simply Need To Be Single’s conversations really feel extra reasonable of their push and pull, and sharp writing renders everybody’s needs and wishes recognisably three-dimensional. “I actually like the concept on this story, you’re taking part in as an unnoticeable side-character, and everybody round you is a protagonist or important character in their very own story,” says m. “Every of them are going by means of developments and having adventures. You are merely alongside for the journey.”
That is to not say that the style’s beloved character archetypes aren’t effectively represented. Your tutorial verbal spar is with ‘Random Woman’ (pink), the sexually-aggressive stalker kind who actually needs to get to know you. Subsequent, you are launched to Kaede, the category rep (orange), who adjusts her glasses and reveals you round college. Pulling classroom doorways open, we encounter: Katsumi, the idol; Akanethe athlete; Mika, the gyaru lady; Shizuka, the artist; Chloe, the robotic; and, sneaking up behind you, Nozomin, the delusional ‘chuunibyou’ character.
“I needed to make them look as completely different as potential, however nonetheless interesting,” explains character designer Tsungelique. “I gave Akane a extra muscular physique. She’s a sporty lady, so her physique kind ought to mirror that. With Kaede, I needed a softer determine. It is uncommon in anime for a chubby, or not-so-slender lady to be seen as engaging. We knew we needed a darker skinned character, and having Mika, who’s a gyaru, but in addition half-Japanese was essential to us.”
Aya can solely deal with a lot. The opposite meter is their ‘Stress Stage’, which fills as much as a complete of ten skulls. A cranium is added at any time when your dialog accomplice will get just a little too aggressively flirtatious, combative, or offended. It is a good means of translating social anxiousness right into a sport mechanic, crafting empathy by threatening the participant with a state of affairs that they’re going to equally need to keep away from.
For a debut sport made by a tiny crew, I Simply Need To Be Single!! is remarkably polished. Menus are responsive, and filled with amusing wordplay and sight gags. Conversations are damaged up by manga panel interludes that function the sport’s cutscenes. The sport’s humour is self-reflexive and winking, harking back to outsider indie hits similar to Undertale. Its construction and aesthetic strategy take clear cues from Danganronpa. Nothing right here feels overly spinoff, however the sport’s elements match collectively neatly and confidently, contemplating style forebears fairly than merely copying them.
Visible novel relationship sims are often clearly delineated and divided by their characters’ genders and sexuality. The traditional classes embrace bishojo (by which a male protagonist courts ladies), otome (by which a feminine protagonist courts males), and yuri (by which a feminine protagonist courts ladies). Right here, the vibes are enjoyably ambiguous, I Simply Need To Be Single!!’s flirtations and conversations span the tropes of each bishojo and yuri, and transcend them. “Most relationship sims are closely focused in direction of both particularly feminine or male gazes and I needed one thing that might work for each,” says m. “Making the protagonist nonbinary permits much more folks to think about themselves contained in the sneakers of the character, together with those that do not feel snug with their id.”
It is a remarkably healthful and thought of final result for a undertaking that began as a joke that they’d made in a Discord server in the course of the pandemic — “what if there was a relationship sim however the aim was to not date anybody” — full with a tongue-in-cheek emblem bearing the title that may finally grace the Steam retailer. The sport’s advertising as an ‘anti-dating sim’ is a savvy elevator pitch to get gamers’ consideration, nevertheless it undersells the nuances of Tsundere Studio’s style intervention. “It is easy to make a sport that’s ‘anti-romance’, however this is not that sort of sport,” they are saying. “There are nonetheless some mechanics that are not absolutely revealed but. I am within the relationship side of our sport. What does it imply to be in a relationship? What does love imply with out friendship? I would like the participant to search out out the reply to these questions and take a look at themselves.”
The sport was efficiently funded through Kickstarter in March of 2022 and the neighborhood has been engaged and excited in Tsundere Studio’s Discord server since. “I used to be moved by the quantity of people that mentioned that the sport helped them really feel represented not directly,” displays m. “This sport has been the fruits of my self discovery over the previous few years, each by way of the story and the characters and in how a lot I’ve modified over the course of improvement. We have needed to face many challenges. I am glad we have come up to now.”
Within the sport’s present launch, solely the prologue and first chapter can be found, their complete playtime spanning a few hours. Two main content material updates are presently in improvement, every including a brand new chapter. Tsundere Studio hopes to finish Season One inside the 12 months, however they’re eager to not put a stable date on it. The Early Entry strategy feels becoming. I Simply Need To Be Single!! remains to be determining what it needs to be and the way it matches into the world. For these of us going by means of comparable journeys, Tsundere Studio’s sport is a welcome mirror of empathy and risk.
