My Divorce Story

Genre: Misc.

Players: 1

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Review:

My Divorce Story, released in 2022 on PC and Nintendo Switch, is a difficult game to categorize. It has some Visual Novel elements, some Simulation elements, and some Arcade elements, but it’s overall a fairly unique experience. The overall point of this game is that players take the role of a suspicious husband or wife who has been told that their spouse is cheating on them by an anonymous text. Players must then try to collect evidence of these indiscretions to present a legal case while reminiscing about the relationship.

This game uses simple 2D visuals with characters that are simple cartoony abstract characters with simple backgrounds, backed by quiet dramatic music that highlights the tragic nature of the relationship falling apart. This would be great for creating a mood for this game if the characters weren’t so simple and ugly-looking and if the game’s dialogue wasn’t so clunky and poorly-localized (the game is apparently set in South Korea, and I can only guess that this must be the game’s original language).

The gameplay follows your character as they automatically move left to right on a home-work-homme loop, with players able to pause the game when they choose to inspect the environment. Some items being inspected fill in back-story, while some provide evidence you’re trying to collect, though the latter of these often starts a “fight” with your spouse where you’re given multiple choices, the selection of which determines whether you keep the evidence and whether your spouse’s heart rating goes down. If the heart rating goes down too much, the game automatically ends with whatever evidence you’ve uncovered leading to one of various endings.

As you progress, you’ll also be earning in-game money at your in-game job, and given the opportunity to spend that money on technology that can catch your spouse’s infidelity, potions that can be used to sabotage your spouse or regain hearts, or hire a lawyer to get hints.

Occasionally, gathering evidence will require you to play a minigame. One such minigame requires you to hold your controller still for a few seconds, with the Nintendo Switch’s motion control detecting movement. Another one gives you only a few seconds to repeat a random sequence of numbers on a randomized numerical pad. I found the former far too easy, to the point where I wondered if there was more to it. And the latter was far too difficult, as the game doesn’t give you nearly enough time to absorb the information you need and move the on-screen cursor around.

Unfortunately, I overall found this game unsatisfying on multiple levels. In terms of gameplay, the auto-scrolling seems like an odd and unnecessary mechanic, the on-screen cursor is clunky (and the game doesn’t support touchscreen use, even though it seems ideally-suited for it), the “fights” don’t make it clear what answers lead to what outcomes, and overall the gameplay feels like a repetitive slog.

In addition, My Divorce Story just seems thematically ugly in a way that’s not engrossing or compelling. Both halves of the married couple seem unlikeable – the main character seems passive-aggressive, refuses to hold firm on what they want and then whines about it later, and is obsessively snooping after their spouse. And the spouse is easily-irritable, extremely irresponsible with money, and selfish. Neither one of these people seems happy in this relationship, even if they once were, so I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t get a divorce long ago. The answer seems to be that the main character is stuck in the past and refusing to accept it’s long gone, and the spouse wants to keep sapping the main character’s money.

The result is a game that’s gross, depressing, and just not fun to play. I give My Divorce Story credit for originality, but originality can only go so far when I just don’t see anything compelling about this game that makes me want to keep playing it – not gameplay, story, characters, nothing. Unless you enjoy originality for originality’s sake, skip this one.

tl;dr – My Divorce Story is an odd and unique game where players take the role of a married person whose spouse is having an affair, and must collect evidence of their indiscretions while reminiscing about their relationship’s history. It’s hard to find anything compelling about this game beyond its unique premise and gameplay, as its characters are unlikeable, its story is both depressing and not engrossing, and its gameplay is at turns tedious, repetitive and frustrating. I just can’t see many people enjoying this game.

Grade: C-

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