Preview – Validate: Struggling Singles in Your Area

Validate: Struggling Singles in Your Area is an upcoming romantic visual novel from Veritable Joy that just got a new playable demo. The slice shown lets you play through a small segment of a route as one of three characters: Malik, Isabelle or Inaya. 

My first run through, I went with the latter, as she’s a chef with a cooking show on the in-game social media network Instaglam. In “Why the Dispute?”, the title of this short,  you end up hanging out with Yolanda, the character with the yellow fish bandana that changes with her emotions. The two of you get high at Yolanda’s apartment and you get some context for who both characters are. Yolanda reads a lot of poetry from Black women authors, and is herself a poet. Inaya isn’t comfortable being called “cute” and isn’t much of one for poetry. 

let's get one thing straight…

it's a bandana, not a hat
it's a bandana, not a hat
it's a bandana, not a hat
it's a bandana, not a hat
it's a bandana, not a hat
it's a bandana, not a hat

and yes it changes with her emotions pic.twitter.com/ZgePmHFBfw

— ValiDate Game (@ValiDateGame) April 14, 2022

Validate actively bucks the trends that have ruled dating sim mechanics for a long time. The game tells you that these characters are meant to be more like real people that you can actually communicate with,rather than events you have to succeed through to date. In-game text also implies that routes are more branching, and that depending on the person, relationships may have the potential to change later on. 

While these are just snippets of what the full game will entail, the Validate demo showcases some very compelling writing. “Why the Dispute?” had me smiling throughout because it seamlessly captures the vibe of hanging out with a new person that’s teetering between friend vibes and something more. The sequence is awkwardly honest, funny, a little sad, and ultimately, sweet in a way that had me back on old friends’ couches, stoned and oversharing. 

Malik and Isabelle’s storylines are more intertwined, which adds to Validate’s assertion that these characters are people, not toys for your enjoyment. Rather than keeping romance options tied to one central character, they can – and do – date each other. These relationships are just as real and messy as the one framed as a more traditional protagonist x love interest route, which gives the game’s world feel richer overall. 

This demo has given a little taste of some excellent writing, and has definitely whet my appetite for more when the full release drops in August on Steam, Itch.io, Switch and Xbox.

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