It’s rare for a dating simulator to have players revel in their sexcapades while dishing out harsh truths about the consequences of their actions, but this odd visual novel, created by an all-black development team, is constructed differently.
ValiDate: Struggling singles in your area by Veritable Joy Studios is a visual novel in which you play as 13 queer POC creatives living in the fictional borough of Jercy City. Much like in real life, each character must balance years of emotional distress against ending the dry spell of their sex life by throwing a whole new human being into the mix. The result is a multi-ending lovemaking that has all the lows of a trashy reality TV show and the highs of an HBO original show.
While dating is literally in the name of the game, rather than being spicy without substance, Confirm goes the extra mile to create a compelling story for each character that isn’t afraid to call them out for their bullshit.
I started out playing Inaya, the Pakistani Instaglam foodie, and the Ghanaian Soundcloud rapper, Malik. While I was excited to play as these two because of the non-binary and black representation they offered me, my first impression wasn’t great. Essentially, they were each the definitive online influencer and a hotp
Usually playing as an asshole in a dating sim is a change, but Confirm manages to come out on the other end because it prioritizes its characters as flawed people with complex lives outside of dating. instead of walking”full of Tyler Perry” by being knocked out by a tall, dark, and handsome (or fair-skinned) person and solving all their problems, Confirm prioritizes creating compelling storylines that establish characters as people rather than sexual conquests.
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Despite Inaya’s massive following on social media and Malik’s reportedly unmatched “cock play” when left to their own devices, they’re insecure people who just want to be okay. Although Inaya makes it seem like they don’t care what internet trolls say about them, in reality they read every comment and it greatly impacts their insecurities about their body image. In public, Malik flirts dangerously close by passing himself off manosphere-type motherfucker subscribing to the absurd pro-black sentiments by Dr. Omar Johnson. But privately he suffers in silence with a nagging animosity towards his parents for assimilation in America by adopting a white surname. Nuanced writing is worked out to each of them in equal measure Confirm
As I played, I drew comparison to the character’s brutally honest inner monologue Disco Elysium‘s thought cabinet. Real-time status checks don’t matter Confirmbut his astute breakdown of characters’ insecurities coupled with the game’s binary choices convey the same spirit of Disco Elysium‘s all-or-nothing approach to shaping your character. ConfirmThe choices of are more about massaging or challenging a character’s ego.
The characters you date appear in another character’s route, allowing their personalities to unfold as the game progresses. A repeat date that nailed this perfectly for me was Malik and Inaya’s date with poetry slam host Yolanda. While I initially thought Malik and Yolanda would have terrible chemistry due to a painfully awkward date, I was surprised to discover Yolanda transformed into a confident character who expressed her intentions with Malik.
This surprise came in part from Yolanda’s very real code-switching when speaking to Malik. Instead of tiptoeing around red flags and platitudes, Yolanda put Malik in his place for his basic dislike of white people and his trash mixtape by telling him how it is, “Nigga, this shit is awful.” Yolanda’s code-switching Not only did this speak to the developer’s understanding of how language changes between POC, it was refreshing to me as a player that my complaints about the character I controlled were spectacularly aired. Typically, love games aren’t very keen on giving dateable characters opinions beyond “let’s date” and “let’s just be friends,” so it was refreshing to see Confirm
Confirm‘s Its greatest strength lies in how fearless it is to have tough conversations about whether your choices are what’s best for the characters right now or in the long run. Each character, regardless of how well their dates go, finds themselves at an impasse where their ideologies and self-image clash with Jercy City’s eligible singles.
While the game doesn’t shy away from allowing you to “have something fuk“After successfully choosing the right answers on dates, meeting characters doesn’t always lead to a fairytale ending. Instead of this, Confirm rewards players by taking an active role in acknowledging their problems and the role they play in continuing them, and realizing that physical pleasure will not solve that.
As the first game from Veritable Joy Studios, Confirm Not only does it successfully fulfill the development team’s goal of bringing racially diverse stories to gaming, it also made me excited for more games to follow suit.
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