A couple of days ago, on June 5th, the Guerrilla Collective did its first showcase of indie games, where they showed off 35 titles. While there were some fantastic-looking titles revealed, such as Beasts of Maravilla Island, Omno, and Trifox. There was one game that stood out for me, though, and not in what I could consider being in a positive way, though it did illicit an audible chuckle when I watched the trailer. That game was the succubus management simulator, My Lovely Wife.
My Lovely Wife is a game about a man who loses his wife in a “tragic accident”. During his grieving process, you discover a letter from your late wife and a researcher from “a neighboring town” offers you the opportunity to resurrect her from the dead. The catch, however, is that in order to restore life to your wife (hey that rhymed), you need to summon up an army of succubi and make them collect the carnal essence from men. Then, when a succubus is all used, you need to kill them to get the job done. If you’re interested, you can watch the trailer below.
When I say I laughed at this one, I really did. There is a very awkward moment in the trailer because at one point, the game suggests a customer wants his buddy to join in on the fun, and the Succubus is understandably hesitant about the arrangement. It was at this moment I thought to myself, “what is this game? This is seriously messed up.” My Lovely Wife is being marketed as a game with dating sim elements but is this really what we consider to be a dating sim? It could just be me, but touting it as a dating management game where the end game is murder seems intense to me.
I mean, yes. It is a video game, and the purpose of this piece is not to slander any one person, player, or developer. However, from my personal point of view, the concept of summoning up demonic women to be prostituted out to men and then subsequently murdered when they are done feels pretty friggin’ dark, with a splash of misogyny thrown into spice things up. The game is supposedly trying to explore the notion of how far one would go for the person they loved, but the means provided seem quite extreme.
My Lovely Wife is also a sequel to the game, My Lovely Daughter, which tasks players with creating and murdering daughters so they could resurrect their real daughter. I believe there is a “good ending” for that game, but I was not able to confirm if there was going to be one for My Lovely Wife. Any information is welcome, and I would love to learn more about the game, especially if it means there are routes where players don’t have to be the worst. Also, I would like to reiterate that this is just my opinion on the matter. I am not trying to suggest that players should skip on “My Lovely Wife.” If this is a game, you are a fan of, please, go for it and support the developers. This is simply a piece expressing how weird I thought the game was and my discomfort for the situation it wanted to put me in.
