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bobabearstuff · 4 months

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PasswordVN: more stuff I liked

Recently I published a written review for the visual novel Password, and despite some issues I had with the game's writing and design I gave it an overall strong recommendation for anybody with a keen interest in niche furry games. It was charming, had a memorable cast and was loaded with mystery and character drama, with its story primarily exploring themes of grief and trauma, set against a pseudo-science horror backdrop. Today I'm going to be talking about things that I wasn't able to fit in to my original review, either because I simply forgot or there was no way to talk about them without heavy spoilers. This isn't going to be nearly as formal or organized: just a rough stream of consciousness list of things I liked. To re-iterate there will be heavy spoilers concerning things like late-game reveals, CGs and the ultimate outcome of the story. If you've yet to complete Password or intend on playing it for yourself then you might want to stop reading now. Now without further ado, here's some more stuff I liked about Password, along with a few things that I didn't.

Dave: Dave is probably my favorite character in the game with Benson coming in at a close second (please marry me). His arc is the strongest and it's pretty clear that Grizz knew what his audience would connect with the most. Initially he's mostly shut-off and disinterested, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot to his character, but this is purposeful. As the story progresses we get glimpses of Dave's internal struggles with loss and depression and come to understand why he's the way he is. Dave spends most of the second act folding under the pressure of having to save his companions while managing his own grief, and at a few points it becomes almost too much for him to bear. Things come to a head after a brush with death sends him in to a panic attack; following this he's forced in to a corner by his friends and with Tyson's aid is able to revisit the day his father died. During the flashback we get a great sense of Dave's personality prior to the incident and how withdrawn he's become by comparison. David bids his son a knowing final farewell and we're then treated to a sequence of CGs that are so effective at communicating the story that the dialog and narration become mostly obsolete. Cut back to the present and the dam breaks-Dave finally allows himself the room to grieve and comes to realize that with his friends to support him, the future could be a whole lot brighter. As the story progresses in to its later parts more and more of Dave's old self starts to bleed through, and by the end it's apparent that he's back to his former self: a nervous crybaby that's a bit daft and leans on his friends for support, but one that's compassionate, selfless to a fault and infectiously excitable. …….he is also very cute.

Dean: He is also very cute.

Thanatos: Thanatos is an absolute little bastard goblin man and I love him for no reason other than his snide personality and I can't fully articulate why, even taking in to account his absolutely integral role in the story. To be frank his sprites really help sell him for me (yes, even that one) and it just goes to show how much more of an impact a character can have from visuals alone.

Orlando smooch: This CG…is really cute. I especially like its associated scene in-game because it has one of my favorite exchanges ("But you're my gay problem"). He's best girl, don't @ me.

The mobsters: These two are great and manage to strike a nice balance between affable and utterly deplorable. Jack is the most compelling of the three and his single-minded psychosis makes him a great foil to Dave and the cast. I also enjoy the narrative's approach to Memphis as the big bad: he doesn't appear until very late in the game and even then, only on specific paths so the game compensates for that lack of presence by playing up his strength and influence. He's blunt and inelegant, and is generally thought of as not terribly smart either. On the other hand he's ridiculously physically strong to the point that a direct assault no matter how well organized is bound to have a few casualties. In addition he also has the position and power to make the law look the other way on a whim. It's a great example of how even a fool can be a force to be reckoned with. He's an almost insurmountable obstacle and the perfect test of Dave's "nobody gets left behind" motto, and it also helps reinforce just how tethered Orlando is to the family business-you can't help but feel bad for him.

My only real complaint lies with Dom, who seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of development. He's primarily there to be the muscle and stop Jack from going bonkers, and while I want him to fold me like a pretzel he's just not nearly as interesting as the other two -he doesn't really contribute a ton to the overall plot and feels mostly extraneous. The game could function well enough without him but he's hot so he can stay.

This CG: is the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen in my entire life and I want Benson to have my babies.

Trapped: The narrative is very careful about making sure all of the bases are covered here. As the story escalates the manor is suddenly cut-off from the outside world; electronics are jammed and the only road down the mountain becomes inaccessible, effectively leaving the cast stranded. Finding an old map to help navigate the woods or taking their chances at scaling the debris are kind of moot options with a trio of violent mobsters patrolling and watching the manor like hawks. The game even punishes you if you try to escape down the mountain too early: Jack shows up and runs poor Dave through before sort of just nonchalantly discarding him over the cliff. Though the manor group has the advantage of numbers this is undercut by none of them being able to fight their way out of a paper bag excluding Benson who's well past his prime. All of this paints a dire picture for the circle of friends and really helps set the tone for the rest of the story, and also once again reinforces how much of a brick wall Memphis is.

This CG: is up there as one of my favorites and it marks a notable jump in quality for the art, with the scene rather creatively lit by the phone on the desk. While Hoss is my least favorite of the bunch this is admittedly a very sweet moment.

Tyson: While I could be snarky here and make some derisive comment about tossing Ty on to the pile of overdone "my wolf" OCs the fact of the matter is his character mostly steers clear of that trope, in spite of ticking off many of its boxes. His character route is a very cathartic one that manages to tickle the "I can fix him" part of my brain-he's the most troubled and flawed of the cast, and his route explores some pretty heavy topics like consent and child abuse that's both physical and sexual in nature. That last part is pretty heavily alluded to early on and having it more definitvely confirmed frames that one moment on day 8 in a new light. Tyson's decision to coerce Dave in to the bedroom is indefensible and the story makes that apparent, but it is one of the best examples of the game's approach to making sure every plot thread has a reason or purpose. Ty is violent and mean-spirited because that's all he's ever known, with the Halloways being the only ones to ever show him any love. In turn that makes his relationship with Dave all the more interesting; the two share a mutual, almost familial understanding of one another to such a degree that even words become dispensible. Tyson is also attracted to Dave, an idea that's mostly new and frightening to him given the history he has with his father, but the thought of losing Dave is even more horrifying-a fact that's made apparent during one of the game's bad paths where he breaks down and tearfully pleads to Dave to lead him away from the manor. It's such a brief moment and yet it's easily one of my favorites in the game, and I'd love to see how it'd look illustrated, but I'm getting off track. Tyson's feelings of attraction for Dave often manifest in the worst ways with him becoming extremely hostile or outright violent towards him for his continued probing and concern-even playful banter about his sexuality by other members of the cast is enough to make him rather aggravated, and his breed as a wolfdog is another sore spot for him, with it serving as an inescapable reminder of a mother who abandoned him.

He eventually manages to muster the courage to confess his love to Dave in a fashion that's both amusing and awkward, fittingly so. This scene had the potential to be plain uncomfortable but writing is smart enough to play up the humour to help it feel more balanced. It's refreshing then to see Tyson acting reflective by the time the A ending rolls around, with him resolving to become a better person thanks to Dave's unwavering and compassionate support. While Dave might have my overall favorite character vote, his chemistry with Ty is unabashedly some of the most engaging in the game.

This CG: is the cutest of all the cute shit and is pretty much contender for favorite in the game. I especially like how brain dead Tyson looks juxtaposed against Dave and his disgustingly adorable smile. He's absolutely beaming here and honestly, good, he's earned it. I'd also like to mention the absurd number of illustrations in Password-even if you're willing to count the Balcony and other such similar CGs with small variations as only one there's still close to 90 of these damn things. Grizz is a trooper.

The interrogation: I'm honestly stunned I didn't at least mention this one in passing in the review proper. The interrogation with Oswin is the most interactive segment of the game and it's all down to your own curiousity and creativity to milk whatever you can out of the pig. He'll answer numerous questions ranging from the manor's layout, its security system, his thoughts on certain characters-the list goes on. On my playthrough of the beta I only managed to squeeze out about a dozen or so answers before pressing on but I know full well there are plenty more hidden away. If you're like me and don't have the patience to really wrack your brain Oz is even kind enough to throw you a few suggestions to help you get the ball rolling. There's even a set of fun joke questions you can sling his way, though many of these are pretty secretive or specific so you likely won't stumble in to too many on your own. While I'm not really a huge fan of this part on a more personal level that simply has to do with the fact that I suck at these things-I'm still impressed by the amount of forethought and detail here and it's for a section that can very easily be skipped over if you simply don't feel like partaking.

This CG: is also very cute. While the balcony illustration and all of its variations are pretty memorable this one in particular stands out as a favorite for the expressions alone. Dave ain't having it this morning.

Benson: I've already briefly mentioned how much I like Benson but in truth, it's not that deep. He's cool, handsome and has this gentlemanly old-world charm. In addition his unyielding loyalty and care of the Hammonds, especially Oz is outright inspiring, and his continued protection of Dave and co. is equally admirable, often being at the expense of his own well-being and health. It's implied that this sort of labour is just a trifle to Benson in spite of his age, owing to his murky history as an assassin, which the game smartly leaves the details of up to your own imagination. We don't really see too much interaction between Oswin and old Benny but we still get a great sense for the bond the two have, with Benson having been less of a servant or guardian and more of a father figure. His death near the end of Path A is pretty heart-breaking and going over it again in preparation for this definitely made me a little misty-eyed. I'd also like to interject something here and say that while I've been critical of Password's prose in the past, there is one area where it excels, and that'd be characters with a prim or proper speech pattern. Any characters like Benson or the Hammonds that exhibit a certain degree of poise or gravitas sound pretty natural and the writing managed to nail them pretty much every time. This next CG is very-Oh god, please don't do this to me.

Dave's death: Without a doubt, this is the story's dramatic peak. We all knew this was coming since the game's content warning screen and it still managed to hit hard. Initially I was worried that the game would lean more in to its horror elements and end poor Dave in a much more violent and gory manner-thankfully Grizz had the sense and taste to not do that. It also has my favorite set of lines in the whole game; up until this point Dave's convinced he's been left for dead and nobody's coming to help. He's let off by Memphis and gang but not before Jack gives him a parting gift in the form of a lethal stab wound-after meandering around the woods in the dark Dave is led out by what appears to be the spirit of his father, and for a brief moment it even seems like he just might get away alive-then reality punches you in the nuts and says "nope"! Dave's final words are to simply express that he's happy that he didn't get left behind, to which a tearful Tyson swears that he never would. This scene is devastating and works so well because the game took its time to develop and flesh out Dave's character-it's evident that a lot of care was put in to this sequence to make sure it would impact so hard. Then there's also the reveal of Roswell as the true master of the vault near the end (called it), making it a real 1-2-Fuck you gut punch. If I was in the business of crying over video games like a sap, then I'd say I did like a small child, but that'd never be the case...

Roswell's smugface: Do I really need to elaborate on this one?

Now here's some stuff that I liked not so much!

The True ending: In my review I said that the game's ultimate conclusion was one of its weaker points, but that's not an entirely accurate statement. This is a perfectly functional and satisfying ending for how it ties up the more general story: everybody lives and Dave finally gets to be happy, and things end on a hopeful note, the implication being that with his other lived experiences having crossed over, Dave is able to help his companions work through their problems. Consequently this means Dave is able to break through Tyson's shell right away and get him to admit his feelings. I could make the argument that this sort of cheapens Tyson's character development, but not enough for it to seriously bother me. Realistically if the game absolutely had to settle on one single romance by the end, Tyson makes the most sense given his history with Dave, and while he isn't my favorite, he's far and away Password's most popular character so I imagine this'll sit well with most people. That bad boy bogan charm is pretty hard to resist. Initially I assumed the game went with this because it was simply trying to cater to fans but that's actually not the case-a little bird told me that it was part of the plan from the start. My problem here is that forcing the player to settle in to a fixed romance at the end undercuts a big part of the appeal for me and I imagine a fair few other people as well-what was the point of having all those romantic options if they were just going to get handwaved away at the end? If Password was a more linear or kinetic affair from the start that only had one set romance, or if the true ending was left vague enough that the reader could reasonably imagine Dave hooking up with any one of his potential suitors at the end then this might have worked. It's definitely a thing that sticks out to me, especially in a game like this that's otherwise pretty well constructed.

Oz ends it all: (Yes, I know that's not what the above illustration is about, bear with me) This is something that only happens on one of the game's offshoot bad paths. Having experienced an overwhelming amount of loss in a short span spurs Oswin to take the only way out he can see. This should be an absolute ball-kick and it almost gets there; the problem here is that the scene is very rushed and happens too quickly. This moment really needed time to breathe; a line or two of dialog where Dave stands shellshocked reflecting on what just happened. It also sort of just gets disregarded after it happens, with it seemingly having very little lasting impact; if you saw somebody end themselves, no matter how detached you are, you would not be this okay-least of all Dave who's already an emotional wreck.

Dave's blackouts: This is an odd one-for the first half of the story many scenes are ended by Dave blacking-out or mysteriously appearing elsewhere with no apparent explanation. At first this happened often enough that I assumed it was deliberate build-up to some sort of shocking revelation about Dave having weird out of body experiences or somesuch, but that doesn't seem to have been the case. This mostly gets dropped in the second-half of the story and seems to have had no real pay-off that I can discern, which in hindsight just makes it seem like an awkward way to end or tie scenes together.

Action: In my review I said that the narrative's weakpoint lied in it prose and no scenes make that more apparent than the showdowns with Memphis that bookend paths A and B. This could have just been a result of me becoming fatigued with the game's writing style by this point but these sequences in particular are very messy and disjointed feeling: they feel less like fluid fights and more like somebody picking their commands and waiting their turn like in an RPG, and they're probably my least favorite aspect of Password overall. Conveying engaging action in a game that primarily relies on text and static assets to tell its story is admittedly a pretty difficult thing to do so I'm willing to give the game the benefit of the doubt here and provide a comparison to illustrate how this sort of thing can be better done.

In Case of Emergency, (which is another great visual novel that I highly recommend) pulled off its climatic fight scene in a much more convincing way. For one there's a brevity and snappiness to the narration and dialog here, which is something that characterises the game at large and happens to tie in well with the pace an action sequence demands. Secondly character sprites also change and get progressively bruised and bloody and by the end of it you really start to get the feeling that everybody's tired and just wants to go home. Finally you're given several prompts in the form of dialog choices over the course of the fight and while they're ultimately just there for flavour and don't impact the battle in any meaningful way that small amount of faux-player interaction helps put you in the thick of it. Honestly I could probably gush all day about ICOE but that'll have to wait for another day. Lastly here are some more personal nitpicks-these things aren't serious faults and are mostly specific to me so take them with a grain of salt or twenty.

Whammy: For the uninformed author Grizz has an OC or fursona by the name of Rami who also happens to be a character that exists in Password's universe. He's mostly only mentioned in passing a few brief times as a part of certain character backstories, and while this is miles away from a self-insert story, having known Grizz in the past definitely made this a bit distracting. Not enough to spoil the story, but enough to briefly draw me out of it before I was able to set it aside.

The medals: These always felt a bit understated-they're more or less shoved in to the background and their importance isn't really emphasized until much later on. Initially when I picked the game up a few years ago I kind of forgot they were a part of the story every time until Dave and co. happened to stumble in to one-there's very little fanfare and they don't get much in the way of visual representation, and the game doesn't keep track of them for you enough, at least not in an easily accessible way. You won't know which ones you have unless you jot down notes or until after the very end of path A at which point the rat'll tell you. A number or set of icons as part of the user interface would have helped-having to rush through the Thanatos scene to check feels a bit clunky. You'll also need to explore most of the game's dead-end paths and run through at least a good chunk of each character's route to collect them all; this is fine for completionists like me who plan on doing everything anyway but a bit of a helping hand for those of us who are less inclined would have been appreciated. A synopsis or timeline that keeps track of which paths you've taken and which you've yet to explore would have been handy, both for refreshing people on where they are in the story and for knocking out missing medals.

Hot chip and lie: This is going to come across as harsh but I need to get it off my chest. I don't care about Hoss. His personal struggles never once resonated with me and I couldn't have been less interested in his weeb antics or his lying superficial pretty-boy arse. If there's one character where "I just don't get it", it's definitely him. Don't take this too seriously-it's based entirely on my own overly-opinionated personal preferences. And with that, I think I'm done. Sorry if I came across as overly critical or petty but keep in mind I'm not here to demean anyone-game development is an incredibly difficult job and I don't mean to downplay the amount of planning and effort that went towards Password. Truth be told I want to see the game succeed and be the best it can be-as silly or dramatic as it might sound Password does hold a special place in my heart and I happened to be exposed to it at just the right point in life. I'll be hoping for its success and wishing Grizz all the best for the future. And of course, thank you for reading.

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