Green Oranges

I was already hooked on the story from the previous chapter, excitedly clicking on the next one to see the end of that story before moving onto the next book.

And there it was; that one dialogue that made me turn off the auto-playing feature in Reverse: 1999.

“Don’t forget me… Don’t forget my heartbeat on the right,” she said.

While I may not be an avid gamer, I like watching walkthroughs on YouTube. There were games that did feature diverse queer characters, but none ever made me feel this way before. Perhaps it was because I was genuinely invested in Reverse: 1999’s storyline, perhaps it was the voice actors that delivered such a fantastic performance. Perhaps it was because Vertin, the main character herself, was hinted to have some… complicated feelings for Schneider, the one who had uttered those words.

Perhaps that’s why this scene felt so angsty, because Vertin is me, and Schneider had said that to me. Schneider was bidding farewell, and I would no longer see her again.

To me, developer Bluepoch did a great job at balancing itself to leave enough for players to understand the characters’ feelings with each other without being subject to censorship in China, as it’s been the case of recent media such as Arcane. Despite it being a short subplot, it made me feel seen. It made me realise just how there are only a small portion of queer characters with an intricating storyline like this one.

It inspired me to write again, in hopes that I will be able to deliver the same impact to others the way that story did to me.