I've had the honour (and I insist on the word honour) of beta-testing Chattercap's new game, The Perfect Woman. And this has quickly become my favourite game from the creator. Without spoiling, I have to say this is one of the most unique horror experience I've had in seven years. Of course, during these seven years, I have played a lot of wonderfully crafted horror VNs, which manage to use horrific elements to convey deep themes and reflections about the characters involved in the story. But there is something disturbingly unique and special about the way the horror is presented in The Perfect Woman that really spoke to me. I'll detail more below, in a spoilers section, but for now, just these words: you should take the trigger warnings seriously.
Graphically, the game is absolutely immaculate. This is the first game from the creator without Live 2D-like animations, and I have to say that getting rid of them was the best choice. A bold one, considering these animations made the creator's games quite unique; but Chattercap being Chattercap, she didn't get rid of them for no reason. This game uses a plethora of perfectly-executed visual effects, plays around with its own colour schemes, and I won't give details to let the players discover the full scope of the work that's been made. And despite Chattecap's games being extremely polished, this one, in that regard, does surprisingly feel above the others. The GUI too was gorgeous and very well-implemented. It was also used in a very clever way to convey the narrative, but play the game. ;)
I also have to salute the voice acting: it was absolutely stellar, conveyed the different characters or impressions brillantly. The voice actors all did, without a single exception, an amazing job, and that's an understatement. In particular, the way the narration was handled (having three different voices) helped creating an impression of chorus, like we have in Greek tragedies.
Regarding the themes, the story is at the same time metaphorical and quite literal. I'll detail my thoughts more below, but I think the execution was flawless. The story narrates the attempts of a so-called Doctor to create the perfect woman. But what is a perfect woman? That is the question the game asks to explore the societal expectations put on women, and the ways women manage to navigate a patriarchal society.
That is it for the spoiler-free section. Go play the game if you can handle it, it will be time well-spent! For now, I will detail my thoughts more, but won't be shy on spoilers. Ready? Steady? Go!
************** SPOILERS **************
Now, it's going to be all over the place. First of all, I was wondering how the game was going to tackle Yumeko facing the Doctor's insane expectations. I was wondering if the game would narrate Yumeko managing to overcome the doctor thanks to the power of her convictions and finding a way to break the circle, or if the game would be less idealistic than that. The game had the brilliant idea to opt for the more realist solution. Even slightly contradicting the doctor results in him rebooting Yumeko and deleting the answer we picked. This made sense in the narrative: the Doctor wants to create the perfect woman, which can only happen after he deleted all the contradictions and all the things that go against his wishes.
So, let's suppose that we choose to rebel and refuse to oblige to the doctor's whims. First of all, we can see his goal: deny Yumeko any autonomy or personal thought. Something that struck me when I played was the make-up discussion. The doctor complains about women having the right to wear make-up to trick men into believing they're beautiful, whereas men have to wear their real face. The game offers you three options: 1) you can agree 2) you can say social expectations set by men are the reasons women have to wear make-up, but you agree with him on the fact this shouldn't be an expectation so that women gain time 3) you disagree with him by stating make-up can be self-expression. Obviously, he reboots you if you pick answer 3. But what about answer 2, in which you overall agree with him but nuance his point? Heck! he reboots you anyway! Why? Because he doesn't want Yumeko to be a person with her own views or opinions: he wants someone to glorify him, someone too impressed by him to even question him. After all, he's brilliant: why would you question someone brilliant?
Progressively, if you do so, the colours become darker, and the game becomes more horrific: every reboot is literal torture for Yumeko, and the imagery that accompanies her thoughts and her feelings is more and more disturbing. This slow descent into horror reminded me of the second act of Doki Doki Literature Club, which I found to be the best executed in the whole game. Obviously, the two experiences are very different, but seeing something we already know being corrupted on a meta-level (since there is narrative equivalent to restarting the game: the doctor rebooting Yumeko) was a similarity that I truly enjoyed in The Perfect Woman. The execution truly was stellar.
Then comes the climax of this route: Yumeko is nothing but the shadow of herself, barely having any expression if tears, forced to answer things that would please the doctor. What does happen then? What?
Everything becomes cuter than it has ever been. Everything is pink. Yumeko has a big smile on her face, with sparkling eyes. She says yes to everything the doctor says with enthusiasm. And yet, yet, yet, she has marks on her neck. This is a small detail but this was truly horrifying, and certainly one of the best horror experiences on my life. This single detail has haunted me. It is an amazingly clever way to encapsulate the whole game's theme: a woman who tries to rebel is a woman that gets violated, because society is violent towards those who try to change it. Yumeko has tried, but she lost.
The game, therefore, refuses the idealistic answer, although it is quite naïve: when overpowered by a man (as it is Yumeko's case), "girl power" is not enough, because you will be oppressed. You don't have much of a choice: you have to know how to survive first and then act when you're in position of doing so.
This is how the other endings are obtained: Yumeko tricks the doctor by only answering what he wants to hear. He is pleased and believes she is the perfect woman. Therefore, he puts her in an android. And now she got what she wanted: now she is real. What will she do?
Well, two possibilities: accept a life with the doctor and become his wife, or rebel. I'll talk about the latter first.
Rebelling, in a very chattercore twist, means killing the doctor. This fortunately is quite easy for Yumeko who is much stronger physically, considering she is an android with an exoskeleton. The game manages to tackle here another issue regarding the inequalities between men and women: most of the time, women can't fight the men who oppress and attack her, because those men are physically stronger. There is a risk of being attacked, assaulted, killed even, and perhaps, to even face worse things before death. It reminds me of what my sister told me when I asked her her opinion on the infamous bear or man debate: "At least the bear would just kill me." So Yumeko has the chance to overcome her abuser (since he literally tortured her as an AI) thanks to her physical strength.
The last ending was my favourite of the three. Yumeko tries to be the best wife for the doctor, but she doesn't have the aspirations he expects her to have. And even when she cries, and he asks her why, her only solution is to lie: she pretends she cries, because she feels lucky to have a husband like him. This was a very sad and tragic ending in my opinion, but that's what made it so good: Yumeko can't go anywhere, she doesn't know anything about the world. And once again, the game offers commentary on how some predatory men look for women who don't know their rights or the support they can get to abuse them. To lock them up in what they consider to be a guilded cage, but which is actually a coffin. Once again, a very important issue that the game tackles beautifully.
Finally, I really appreciated the appearance of the android: red lips, ebony hair, white skin in a white dress... She was literally Snow-White, an ideal representation of beauty in women. And yet, a woman so purely beautiful that her heart was pure too: and only her Prince Charming could save her from the jealousy of an older, not so pure women. This was a perfect representation of beauty standards, but also of the expectations of the doctor: he wants his partner to be ideally feminine: he wants her to be the type of woman who would be saved through true love's kiss, just because it would be proof that a man is loved.
Overall, this was a stellar game, and I will call it a masterpiece. Congrats on the game Chatter, it was an amazing experience!!