If you’re like me, Valentine’s Day is that yearly reminder that I am painfully single. All my friends are off with their significant others on their cheesy dates, gifting expensive candy arrangements, and making sappy social media posts that make me want to roll my eyes so far into the back of my head I can see the synapses disintegrating from the cringe. It’s enough to make me nauseous. Alas, I suppose that just makes me the Scrooge of Romance Season.
In any case, Valentine’s Day means my usual crew that I play games with on the weekends aren’t around, and I’m flying solo. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good single player game and most of my gaming time is spent in those worlds, but my weekends tend to be the prime time for adventures and chaos with our motley crew, so it’s always a bit of a bummer when that doesn’t happen. I’m sure I’m not alone in this feeling.
But, fear not! Your Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Professor is here with a list of some of the games I’ve been playing recently that might be just the right pick for your solo adventuring this weekend. It’s a little blend of everything, from cozy environmental puzzles, to crippling existential crises, to sexy vampire dating sim vibes (I know, I was surprised too). So sit back and take some notes, because Single’s Awareness Day just got a little bit more fun for you and me.
Herdling
With vibes that remind me a little bit of Journey, Okomotive’s wholesome little strategy game Herdling provides a calming, cozy, and lightly challenging experience. You take on the role of a young boy who discovers a herd of seemingly magical horned creatures that look and feel like big fluffy cows mixed with goats.Your job is to herd them to the peak of a far off mountain, hence the name.
Personally, anytime I’ve seen a game with a “herd” mechanic I cringe. They always seem to be confusing or difficult to master in terms of their mechanics. But the game doesn’t feel complicated or bloated. Your charges seem to want to get to their destination as much as you do, and they are just as helpful along the way. It felt more like I was building a relationship with these creatures as we journeyed along, and that felt good. Herdling allowed me to “check out” from the more stressful aspects of life recently, which is always a welcome thing. This one is worth looking into if you want something calm, wholesome, and cute.
Slay the Princess
A friend of mine has been urging me to play this game for the past two years, and I finally relented. To be honest, I’m not sure how I personally feel about it yet. It feels like some sort of weird fever dream that I haven’t fully processed.
You are a nameless hero in the woods being led by an unreliable narrator, and you are tasked to go to a cabin, enter the basement, and slay the princess within, or else she will destroy the world. You know nothing else than this. And it’s better that way.
While the game certainly contains some disturbing imagery and graphic depictions of blood and gore, that is not the central feature. Something unsettling lingers in the game’s undertones, and it feels like you’re constantly on the cusp of figuring out what it is, only to be put back to square one even more confused than when you started. When you finish, your brain will feel like potatoes, and you may find yourself in an existential crisis. But is that really any worse than a cringe date at an expensive restaurant on Valentine’s Day?
Fireside Feelings
If existential dread isn’t your thing, maybe a digital warm hug from a stranger will do the trick. Announced during last year’s Wholesome Direct showcase, Fireside Feelings from Team Empreintes is less of a game and more of a meditative experience with a stranger separated by time. The objective is simple: the game’s MC, a campfire named Spark, guides a conversation between you and another player. Except the other player you’re conversing with is a stranger who played long before you did. Spark asks you a question, and you type your answer. Once you answer, the other player’s responses, taken from their own playthrough however long ago, are shared. It’s an intimate, wholesome conversation between two strangers who will never meet, but allow themselves a brief moment to be vulnerable into the gaming ether.
My experience in the game felt warm, like somewhere, a stranger reached a hand out in friendship, and I am getting the chance to quietly reach back. This one is definitely worth picking up if you’re looking for something quiet, thoughtful, and wholesome.
MyVoiceZoo
Have you ever wanted to own your own zoo? Have you ever thought about what animals you would have, what you would name them, and what they would sound like? This game is not that. It’s something so much worse, and so much funnier.
There really is no objective to this game, but for three bucks on Steam, it is a low cost investment for a couple hours of laughs. You adopt a myriad of animals for your fictional zoo, and not only name all of your animals, but provide the sound that they make. There is an in-game recording button for you to record 3 seconds of audio for each animal you adopt. Then, as you walk around your zoo, the animal cries out whatever cursed audio you gave them as you walk past. My friend ended up with a goat that burped and a flamingo that sounded strangely like Gilbert Gottfried, and those were the most normal animals in her zoo. I can’t recommend this bucket of chaos enough.
First Bite
Let me start this off by saying that I hate vampire romance novels and I think Twilight ruined our society in the mid 2010s. With that out of the way, First Bite by First Bite Games is a hilarious and explicit visual novel where you have to not only survive an encounter with three incredibly sexy and murderous vampires, but convince them to turn you into one yourself. It actually requires you to play close attention to the three vampires, Ilyas, Valeria, and Laurel, their interests, and their dislikes. You need to play your dialogue just right to save your skin, but even getting torn apart for saying the wrong thing has a strangely kinky edge to it. I know, I felt weird even saying it.
If you’re hanging by yourself anyway this Valentine’s Day, trying to seduce a centuries-old non-binary vampire with a BDSM kink and a voice like velvet might just be the way to go. I certainly don’t regret it. And with so much replay value, you can try it as many times as you want and see how successful you are at seducing the entire trio. That’s a weekend well spent in my book.
Valentine’s Day can bring up a lot of feelings for single people, both positive and negative. But just because you may not be squadding up with a significant other this weekend, that doesn’t mean you can’t find joy on your own! So whether you’re looking for some laughs, some existentialism, or a splash of undead romance, enjoy yourself!
