Nowhere Girl

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

Nowhere Girl is a Visual Novel released in 2018 on PC, then in 2021 ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game puts the player in the role of a young man or woman working a job they don’t like at a tech company while pining for Holly, a coworker who only sees you as a friend. One day, while lamenting about your frustrations to a burly-looking but amenable biker at a bar, you find yourself having a strange encounter that leads to you waking in your own bed the next morning next to Pseudo, a ghost who has somehow become chained to your leg and told the only way for you both to be freed from each other is for you to fall in love with her.

The premise seems like a setup for some sort of kinky wish-fulfillment fantasy thing, but that’s not where the story wants to go. Neither your character nor Pseudo are happy with this situation, with her ethereal state making her subject to your choices, and with you stuck with a constant companion no one else can see and a promise that the moment you care for her, she’ll be pulled away from you, possibly forever. And the game is at its best when exploring the ethical and emotional implications of this situation, and how it naturally pushes Pseudo to manipulate you so she can be freed (since she’s not required to love you back), and naturally pushes your character to avoid growing close to her.

Unfortunately, there are problems as well. I never quite felt the chemistry between these two characters that you’d look for in a story with love as its central premise. Likewise, this story seems to set up some powerful topics that it ultimately doesn’t fully pay off, like how you shouldn’t pin your hopes on a relationship with someone who doesn’t feel the same way about you, or about the importance of self-love. Perhaps these topics are better addressed in alternate story paths I didn’t see in the game’s branching story, but what I did see felt unsatisfying.

Then there’s the stuff the game does include that seems… a bit much. Without spoiling things, I’ll say that the ending I saw took a hard right into metaphysical stuff with what seemed to be all sorts of references it had no interest in explaining, and that didn’t really fit the tone or focus in the rest of the story.

To its credit, I think the game’s cartoony 2D character designs are wonderful, and do a wonderful job investing this game’s characters with some wonderful personality, with these characters usually backed by what appears to be real-life photos blurred by a Photoshop filter. However, while I think the visuals work well, I think the music leaves a lot to be desired, with some discordant music that often made me want to mute the game.

Overall, I liked Nowhere Girl, but I definitely didn’t love it. There’s a mix of good and bad here, with some interesting story elements, but a lot of missed opportunities and questionable choices, with good visuals but not-so-great sound. On balance, I think fans of the genre still might enjoy this, but I also think there are better options in the genre for players looking for a good romance, or for players looking for an interesting metaphysical story. This one doesn’t really succeed brilliantly at either.

tl;dr – Nowhere Girl is a Visual Novel about an office worker who dislikes their job and pines for a coworker, only to find themselves mysteriously chained to a ghost girl. There are some interesting topics and themes here, but also a lot of missed opportunities, and I just didn’t feel the romantic chemistry this game was aiming for. It’s not a bad entry in the genre, but I don’t think it succeeds very well at anything it’s trying.

Grade: C+

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