I just finished a game that I didn't expect to play or like. It's called
Volleyball Heaven and everything from the blurb to screenshots suggested cutesy romantic lesbian shenanigans. I like queer stories, but saccharine love isn't my thing. I prefer more subdued, allusive romances. But boredom prevailed, so here we are.
This game surprised me, a lot. My overall opinion is positive, but I'll start the with the biggest negative because it colours everything else. The plot was written by a writer as a story, not by a developer making a game. This is simultaneously its biggest strength (and the reason for my recommendation) and greatest weakness (more in a bit).
The protagonist is Kayla, a somewhat unstable, penniless hillbilly lesbian who, in her own words, knows nothing about nothing. She moves to the big city to join her best friend Lana to attend college with her, and unwittingly joins the beach volleyball team of 4 potential LIs.
Unfortunately, because the story was not written with gameplay in mind, large parts of the plot only happen on certain LI paths, so you must play them all (on separate saves) for the events to make sense. Even then, there are gaps. Characters make references to things that you couldn't have known due to your choices. Plot points are sometimes alluded to without any follow up. You can work around most of these issues yourself. A little filling in the blanks, a bit of imagination and trying to read the author's mind goes a long way.
If that hasn't dissuaded you, great! Because now we get to the good stuff Despite its title, description and cute screenshots, this is a
dark game (though never on-screen or titillating) with surprisingly good character writing. I'll try and put the really juicy bits in spoilers.
The four LIs (Lana, Zoe, Jade, Rika) are all strong personalities that don't mesh well together. The volleyball team is a small part of their lives, but it gives them a shared history which is full of tension and unhappy memories. Their initial reaction to Kayla ranges from benign disinterest to active hostility. Unlike most VNs, they are
not tripping over themselves for Kayla. They aren't looking for anything more than a supportive friend. Some don't even want that!
Lana - The childhood best friend. Kayla is excited about their reunion, but her hopes are shattered bluntly and immediately. Lana has changed. She looks, talks, and acts differently. Cruel, belligerent. We learn that things haven't been going right for her for a long time, and she has been making ever more desperate decisions with disastrous consequences. It's a very dark path full of abuse, both mental and physical.
Zoe - Cousin to Jade, comes from a rich and influential family. Uniquely among LIs, she is an out-and-proud lesbian. Zoe is blunt, powerful, and does not suffer fools. Not the loving type at all. She has no interest in a girlfriend. Yet as a contrast to all that, Zoe is deeply loyal and protective of the ones she cares about. She also has loudly progressive politics in a family full of old money conservatives.
Jade - The other half of the rich bitches. Cousin to Zoe, and heiress to the family fortune. Outwardly, she is everything Zoe is not. Kind, unfailingly polite, well put together. Also a businesswoman, but more traditional. Assumed to be straight, which she
never contradicts! Jade offers Kayla a job, which Kayla can't afford to reject, despite her misgivings about an employee/employer relationship. This is a weird path. It's mostly about Kayla hating herself, putting Jade on a pedestal. Kayla muses to herself a lot about how Jade is so impossibly pretty, rich, successful and aloof while she is a broke hillbilly with callused hands. I liked this path a lot because it develops into a genuine, vulnerable friendship that they both clearly need. Sure, Kayla lusts after Jade, but knows her to be straight and keeps her fantasies to herself. Then, something big happens and they go through a traumatic experience together. Which is where the path loses the plot.
Rika - Bubbly Japanese girl with journalistic ambitions. She is the only one who is sweet and cheerful from the onset. She notices Kayla is a fish out of water, and wants to help her. We learn that something horrible has happened to her the previous year with Jade and Zoe. Lawyers were involved, leaving Rika traumatized. As her friendship with Kayla develops, she confesses that her sunny nature is a mask. She has a long history of being mistreated. First by a series of boys she liked, who just wanted to fuck an Asian girl, and dumped Rika once they got theirs. Then the events with Jade and Zoe - which she isn't willing to talk about - and she is left an insecure mess with abandonment issues. She is desperate for Kayla's friendship and can be quite irritating about it. That makes for a challenging path.
And that's about it. Does that sound like something you'd like to play?
I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I'm a theatre nerd. I like Ibsen (where the most important stuff always happens before the story) and Chekhov (where there are no real endings, especially happy ones). In some small way, Volleyball Heaven reminded me of both. On the off chance some of you are also theatre people, I'd love to know if you see the same resemblance.
