Have you ever wanted to climb inside someone's brain a bit and wriggle around in there to find who they are, before realizing that you aren't really in their brain, you're just on the outside, the part they can show? No? The world inside is full of so many things you can't even dream of. Maybe you don't want to. Pain is in there, after all. Lots of it. But, sometimes, you'll get just a little peek at that inner world from someone who can't help but show it to the people around them. Something personal, painful, and beloved. This game's kind of like that.
My Expectations
I'm a huge fan of Xrafstar, ever since Ultra Business Tycoon III came out about 15 years ago (it's really been that long?). I had, as a result, extremely high expectations, because I know they can reach them. Their writing is always phenomenal, and always hits me, emotionally, very hard in the kidneys and pancreas. Vich's art is, likewise, always superb. It's bloody and wild, but never gaudy or excessive, always making sure to get the feeling burned into your eyes. It always just looks cool in a way I struggle to describe. I knew that this game would be a game starring Xrafstar's recurring torture subject, Cancer Prize, this time as a girl, navigating a tricky situation involving money, lesbians, and horrific death. I was excited to explore more of the world they've so meticulously crafted. Also, the trailer was really well-made. You can find it here.
Money? For Girls?
Money for Girls: Amortized is a toxic yuri horror visual novel in which you play as Cancer Prize, a student of INNOCENT academy and girl detective. The case? The mystery of how to get 1000 bucks so that her mom isn't put in debtor's prison. Cancer is a character with her own agency in the story, but is also partially customizable, leading to a number of winding paths you can search through to solve her family's debt problem. Along the way you'll encounter a few other women with their own agendas and roles to play. Some paths are more horrific than others, including love, hate, family, abuse, sleuthing, and worst of all, fast food employment. Explore Sororal Quasisland and maybe get Cancer's mom out of debt by any means necessary. Unless...?
Graphics & UI
This game is disgusting and beautiful in equal measure, and it's really hard to explain in words. It's cartoonish, it's clearly not real, but the scenes of being made to root through garbage or explore the scene of a crime are visceral and visually impactful, owing to Vich's master artistry. Rather than the popular adventure game style, almost all text is presented center-screen, like more traditional Japanese visual novels, and I really like the choice as it frees up the general layout in order to do interesting things with the UI. Choices are presented as floating words or buttons, and exploration is typically stylized as torn paper, which is a great stylistic decision as well as serving to make it easy to differentiate when an option participates in a scene or simply transports you there. Every CG I came across was marvelous and horrifying, with bulbous eyes, tendrils, wings, beauty, and death abound. One thing I really like is that many scenes blur the line between CG and spritework through the use of parallax movement of individual assets following the mouse. The outfits, menus, stickers, and backgrounds are all top tier, and really do keep you invested in the story at large.
Gameplay
Unlike many games I cover, this one has gameplay portions that are worth talking about. This game is not a multi-route visual novel that locks you into any one path after choosing it. It's not a kinetic novel, either. This game is best described as a series of events influenced by the aspects you've chosen for your character and the actions you've taken along the way. There are "routes" in that some actions will lead to further ones, but at no point are you locked into doing things in any order. Rather you can enter any scene you currently have unlocked in the order of your choosing, abandon paths you don't like, and try new things out. However, exploration isn't so free and open, as time marches on for our girl detective; she has but 12 weeks before the debt is due, so you'll only see so many events per playthrough. You can get a good ending your first playthrough, but fear not, for every bad end gives you more knowledge, gives progress towards new fashion, and explores more of the world, and the game is short enough that it never feels punishing to try again. You'll do all of this while also managing Cancer's mood and hygiene, either through standard or dubious and painful means. Avoid death the best you can, and you might just see the end of this ordeal a different person.
Music & Sound
On the topic of music, this game is beyond almost anything else in the visual novel genre. Lauren Bousfield, ESPer99, Ada Rook, and Ash Nerve all together with Xrafstar made a truly maddeningly great OST. It's funky, it's lo-fi, it's disturbing and tense in a way I've never heard. Even the safer, more soft tracks for the simpler times are strangely tense, fitting in with the whole vibe of the soundtrack. My personal favorite track is Dreampiss by Ada Rook, however there are so many great tracks by all the composers. You should absolutely check out the full OST even if you decide the game isn't for you. I'll have it linked here, and I'm sure you'll find something there you love.
Sound design is, somehow, even better. This game is revolting, and a large portion of that comes from the sound design. Hovering over menu options, rather than the normal "pop" sound that every game uses these days, is generally a collection of vocal stims, hammering home that this game is a home for us weirdos. Every time I get some money and hear "THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL", my brain instantly hits a dopamine rush. The tearing of paper, squishing of flesh, and more helps sell the written prose to a degree I don't think you could otherwise. There's no proper voice acting for dialogue, but something more akin to the babbling of an animal crossing character, unique to each character, and they often change in the moment based on what's going on. You can tell a lot of care went into focusing on making the game sound good, which is exactly what a visual novel developer should do.
The Freedom to Be Someone Else
Money for Girls is, to me, about the freedom to explore being someone else. You're never you — the customization you have and the choices at your disposal make it very clear that Cancer Prize is her own person with her own ideals and background. However, in giving so many ways to be her, you can use her viewpoint to look at yourself, the world, her world, and others. I personally related a lot with how she relates to her mom, and saw a lot of the people I've known in her relationships with school, other people, and abuse by those in positions of authority. Some aspects of Xrafstar's world mirror our own in uncomfortable ways, but really, I think those things should be uncomfortable to us to begin with, even if we've accepted them as a society. The commentary on lesbian identity and how it handles patriarchal norms in the setting are interesting. The gaps between our reality and Cancer's are not so wide, when you look deeply at it. At some points, I almost wished I were there. Amortized is a triple-pun in this case, regarding the three real aspects of the game: love, death, and money. Isn't that what it's like, here, too?
The Verdict
Money for Girls is incredible, a real killer of a game. It's short, and definitely not sweet, but it has a personality of its own that I don't think any other game out there now has. Xrafstar, Vich, and the entire music team really put their minds together to make something truly meaningful in a landscape of games that just yap at you. I'm sick of being yapped at over nothing. At an extremely affordable $15, I'd recommend this to pretty much anyone, with some caveats that this game has some severe and gruesome self-harm imagery, and some people may not be capable of handling that. I wish more people were in a position to handle those things, and I hope you know that if you're in that place, you can make it to the other side. I believe in you. I'm giving Money for Girls a 9/10. 10/10 if you like weird girls being weird.
