#pgr

Games like Arknights, Reverse:1999, Path to Nowhere, and Nikke are perhaps the most obvious examples of this. Higher budget gachas like Honkai Impact 3rd, ZZZ, and PGR style their cutscenes like VNs but with 3D animated character portraits. Fate Grand Order and Heaven Burns Red are both, at least partially, written by two of the most famous VN authors of all time.

What all of these gachas have in common are putting out novel length stories about gay women and men on a near monthly basis. Especially Chinese gachas where queerphobic CCP laws mean writers need to get more creative and subtle about queer subtext.

The primary demographic upon which these games glean their revenue from, the typical dudebro gacha gamer rolling for their waifus, don’t realize they’re playing a VN because they’re often skipping or blitzing through the dialogue. And if i said this is usually a gendered divide then it wouldn’t be far from the truth, especially with a casual look at gacha Youtubers, social media, forums, subreddits, etc.

It’s because of this why arguments about yuri subtext pandering to straight men or the misassumption held by some women/queer/progressive players that those chuds are in a position of good faith is giving them too much credit.

I’m not saying this is an absolute certainty, but "man who rolls for their wife and only watches character build breakdowns" is the classic gacha game demographic. It’s why mihoyo was able to get away with writing kiamei and bronseele for well over a decade - this demographic doesn’t care about reading into things too deeply.

Lately, you can tell it’s always the same demographic because it’s always queer shipping and theorycrafting SPECIFICALLY that gets their jimmies riled up. And it’s these same chuds that complain about "yuri slop tourists" even when it’s yuri fans that have been around from the start or are involved in the art/writing team. I’ve been noticing Umamusume’s been going through this right now and it’s just really visible. The same homophobic and queerphobic arguments being made again and again to quash shipping culture and literary fan analysis.

another rant nobody but me cares about but lorddd i gotta type this out somewhere. also wanna preface this by saying it’s about pgr vergil, but also just vergil in general, and directed at the people i mentioned above.

firstly — no it’s not ‘out of character’ for vergil to show vulnerability or emotion, he is a deeply emotional person. he feels deeply, he sees the world deeply, and he hurts so deeply that his motivation centred around being able to prevent himself from being harmed any more. he just isn’t (wasn’t) good at expressing that without violence pre-dmc5.

punishing grey raven did a really great job of capturing his post-dmc5 maturity, and it’s cohesive with the additional information we got in Visions of V regarding vergil’s inner thoughts. we simple haven’t seen enough of vergil outside of battle to be able to fully grasp how he’d act when he is free of chasing an ultimate goal, and is in a domestic, (mostly) relaxed situation.

it’s the people who’ve played approximately 5 hours total of ONLY dmc5, who then see clips of vergil in pgr that act all disgusted and get offended that vergil is actually capable of emotion and/or affection, who are the problem. they’re why vergil has been memed so much that people genuinely, honest to god(s) believe that he hates dante, he hates nero, and never cared at all. he gave nero his HEART, his book that he sees as an integral part of himself. the symbolism of him stating he wanted to be loved and protected, and then giving his ‘heart’ to be safeguarded by nero is so poetic (pun intended)!!! he literally trusts his son — after being with him while he was V, and fighting him as vergil at the qliphoth — to protect him.

vergil is capable of trusting, he is capable of affection, and he wants to be able to. it is in fact NOT out of character for him to express that (even if he sucks at doing so and is generally horrifically awkward about it. love the guy).

now don’t get me wrong — vergil is not a good person, and i’m not implying he is. he isn’t benevolent or kind or selfless, and he struggles (falls flat) at being empathetic to people he sees as more fortunate than him (such as dante, who he resented for being ‘better off’), but that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of experiencing varying degrees of love. for god’s sake, bury the light literally describes him as having ‘secret love, bloodline yearns.’ vergil is the pinnacle, the definition of emotionally constipated.

he was a total shithead and a real prick in dmc3. he was also a total shithead and a real prick in dmc5 (i mean that affectionately. but don’t get me started on urizen LOL) but he is as childish as dante is. he banters and holds silly grudges and competes with his brother like a teenager with something to prove. he calls dante an idiot for still saying ‘jackpot’ and then turns around and says it himself, because he secretly loves to.

and holy fuck that was a LOT longer than i intended this rant to be and i should be studying for my EngLang exam but oh well!!! shoutout to whoever reads this entire block of drivel.

You are not alone anymore 💙