Sunday, July 13, 2025
Let The Tears Flow
How
a person deals with the inevitable tragedies of life reveals a lot
about them. All things will pass and there is a certain catharsis in
having characters face this reality. Such is the driving force behind
the Utsuge or ‘depressing game’. This is a genre which makes it
clear from the moment it starts that there is no hope of a happy
resolution and continues to hammer it home until the credits.
Confronting the inevitable is a core part of the theming and power of
its narrative with death being a common element in many of these
games. Being the one who will be left behind once this tragedy has
passed makes for a compelling struggle for the genre’s characters
as they try to find meaning within their suffering. The emotions
experienced in the face of this suffering are not explored by many
stories due to their depressing nature and so present an interesting
side to our humanity. Let’s cry a river and find out why Utsuge is
such an engaging genre.
Facing The Inevitable
Not
every problem has a solution and not every story has a hero who will
save the day. Sometimes the worst will come to pass and there is
nothing we can do about it. A game about such events might seem like
it would only be depressing but there is a lot of nuance in how a
narrative and characters can deal with the inevitable ending awaiting
them. This is the kind of genre which makes it very clear how things
are going to end from the moment they start. There is no attempt to
cushion the blow so it can get that initial pain out of the way and
allow the long march towards the finale be done under the spectre of
certainty. It is not just the player who knows how things will end,
the characters often have a good idea about it as well and their
reactions to this information form the majority of the conflicts of
these games. By looking at how theses characters react to their
circumstances, the player is forced to consider if they would react
the same in this situation and what being human means in the face of
disaster. The efforts to come to terms with the sadness they know
awaits can lead the characters to do extreme things in order to run
away from the inevitable and yet they cannot run from the knowledge
so as the time approaches they have no choice but to look it in the
eyes. A tragedy is by its nature unfair on its victims and it is also
what makes it so compelling to watch.
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| Sorry I'm too busy crying |
Narcissu is a particularly
famous example of this exploration of the inevitable. From the moment
it starts the terminal illnesses of its two main characters are made
unavoidably clear and so too is what sort of ending the player can
expect from it. This is game primarily interested in how its cast
deal with their imminent demise and their choice is to reject the
options offered to them by society and they decide to run away together. A
desire to wrestles some control over their lives in the face of
something which has completely taken that away drives much of the
emotional core behind their words and actions. This is not a fast
paced experience with lots of dramatic moments but rather a slow
plodding introspection as the unavoidable creeps up over the horizon.
It asks the player to consider on what meaning and value their rejection
has and through it the player's own mortality. While this does result
in an experience characterised by tears rather than smiles, it does
create a powerful impression despite the short length of the title
and leaves the player to ponder if long after the credits roll.
Beyond Tragedy
Another
side to Utsuge is the characters who are deeply affected by the
disaster but must continue onwards after it has passed. They are
often left scared and it is their struggle to deal with this pain
where it gains its narrative power. Exploring the aftermath of
tragedy is not unique to this genre as many a story has a tragic
backstory, but what makes it a memorable feature here is way the
characters do not simply overcome it like in other genres. Instead
the damage of those events is never truly goes away with the cast
having to adapt to their scars rather than wiping them away. This
results in a similarly introspective tone to the facing of the
inevitable style of Utsuge but shifted towards the past where the
tragedy took place. It has a bit more room to be dramatic since it
does not quite have the same known outcome and so gains the ability
to hold the player in suspense about if the characters are going to
overcome the adversity from within them. As such they are not quite
as constantly bleak as is often expected of the genre with it
treading a fine middle point between hope and despair where it
appears as if it could fall into either extreme at a moments notice.
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| Trauma can create all kinds of different responses |
An interesting example of this genre trait is Psychedelica of the
Black Butterfly where its cast as at once the victims of the
inevitable tragedy and the ones who have to move passed it. The game
achieves this balance by giving the cast varying degrees of memory
loss so their victim status is obscured from them and the player. It
is the slow unveiling of the extent of their scars which forms the primary
emotional conflict as the group try to unravel the mystery of space
they are trapped within. These breadcrumbs of pain force a reflection
on their initial personalities and show how they each deal with the
realities of what has happened to them. Such is the course of the
eventual discovery of the casts’ various traumas that bought them
to this pace and must be faced for them to leave. It is a kind of
external representation of their introspective journey so as to add a
dramatic threat to proceedings. While all the characters broadly
receive happy endings, their struggles are tinged with a
bittersweetness where what has been lost will never truly be
replaced.
Another Side To Humanity
Perhaps
the largest factor differentiating Utsuge from something which merely
uses its heightened emotions for dramatic effect, like nakige, is the
way it leverages them as a method of exploring what it means to be
human. It is inevitable that we will all experience some kind of
disaster or loss in our lives since nothing is immune to the march
of time. Processing the emotions these situations produce can be
difficult and so there is a certain catharsis to having fictional
characters deal with similar experiences. Struggling with this
predetermined outcome provides its own inbuilt drama and it can slowly
stew in a way which gets into your head. Not all human emotion is
positive and the darker thoughts inside our head are often avoided
by other genres because they are seen as undesirable and yet they are
undoubtable part of being human. Despite the depressing tone that results in focusing on them, Utsuge presents these feelings and asks
what they tell us about the human experience and what value exploring
them has in understanding oneself. While the ending for its
characters may not be happy it still has a respect for their
struggles and as such acknowledges the player’s own in a way where
it becomes an exercise in self-reflection.
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| I'm sure everything will be completely fine... |
There are many Utsuge
which could demonstrate this tendency, but let’s look at Bokuten –
Why I Became an Angel since it provides a clear example of this
practice as a core pillar of its experience. This is due to the way
it flows from character to character exploring their struggles and
finding the meaning which drives them to continue onwards even in the
face of disaster. It is also reflected in the protagonist’s journey
to discover the true meaning of happiness as they deal with their
depression where his interactions with the angels and other
characters informs his ultimate understanding of the value of their
struggles. While the results of these actions is mixed in their
success, the game is more interesting in recognising the process
rather than the outcome and points to this as the place meaning
resides even if the ending is not always happy.
Conclusion
Many
genres want to get the player to cry but few can do it with the impact
and resonance offered by Utsuge. It forces its cast to face an
inevitable ending and makes it clear to the player exact how tragic it is going to be in order to build a sense of doom. Much of the
genre’s thematic and tonal impact comes from how the characters
deal with this looming disaster and the value of their struggles
despite their often futile nature. Then there are those who are left
behind after the tragedy has passed and their struggles to deal with
the trauma of what happened which aims to resonate with the player’s
own experiences of loss and suffering. Overall, there is no genre
quite as capable of being depressing yet thoughtful as Utsuge and for
those seeking to address the tragedies of life this is a perfect fit.
