Gayme of the Week: Repurpose
Heaven, hell, and the space in between is what makes up the narrative backbone of game, Repurpose. This is because you start the game dead and stuck in Limbo, which may sound uh, a little morbid considering what the entire world is going through at the moment, but trust me when I say it works without being a complete downer. After all, the game is called Repurpose, y’know?
You start at a gathering, where angel Kalei and devil Ramon explain that 1, you’re dead and 2, you’re currently stuck in the space between heaven and hell. But don’t worry, you won’t have to stay there for long! You have the option to pick between signing up to hang out with the technological illiterate folks up in Heaven, or party with the lean and mean folks in Hell – which is quite literally described as being ‘close as possible to Earth’. Earth kinda sucks right now, so I was definitely hedging my bets with Heaven. Especially because Kalei, the angel you meet, is a real cutie.
It isn’t just Kalei and Ramon you meet, but three other individuals called Mitts, a tech whiz, Rosita, a student and waitress, and DJ Roadkill, an individual who just loves sticking it to the man. Mitts died after an animatronic she was working on came to life and bit her head off. Roadkill died at a protest due to a cop pushing them in front of a car, and Rosita… Well, Rosita killed herself and everyone due to a gas leak. By complete accident. Which is, you know, very traumatic for poor Rosita.
After the ceremony, you’ve got a few days to decide where you want to go. Mitts is all up for heaven because she’s a techie who would gladly love to help improve Heaven’s standards, Rosita is mostly undecided, but Roadkill, wants to hang around in Limbo to improve people’s lives here. It’s obvious that the three of them are stuck on going separate ways, which is a damn shame because this cast is so very likable together. While only the demo is available at the moment, I hope that the developer, Eros, and their team doesn’t completely do away with having the cast interact with one another depending on the route you end up doing. Just listening to the cast crack jokes with one another is enough to make me want to do multiple playthroughs to romance them all.
That’s right, Repurpose is a romantic, visual novel game that’s cast is almost entirely LGBT+ and I don’t mean ‘playersexual’ either. The cast all have defined sexualities and gender, with Kalei being a trans man, Rosita being a lesbian, DJ Roadkill being nonbinary and pansexual, etc. This means that in some instances, your relationships with certain characters will be strictly platonic and/or non-sexual. I personally really like this, as while I do like not having to worry I’m playing the ‘wrong’ sort of character for certain romance routes, the extra effort to be inclusive is something I very much appreciate.
Outside of having a fun, memorable cast, the personal nature of having to choose what sort of world you’d live in, as well as the political differences between each world, makes Repurpose an intriguing game from the get-go. While it’s mostly played for laughs at the beginning, what with Heaven being stuck in the dark ages, and Hell being ‘just like Earth’ but with less rules, Repurpose doesn’t try to sway you to either side. Side character, Faye, a human that has a special ‘permit’ to go between Heaven, Hell, and Limbo, explains it best by basically summing up that a person in Hell doesn’t make you a bad person, nor does being in Heaven make you good. The sum of a person isn’t made up of a few, arbitrary acts. And outside of the moral compass of a person, Heaven and Hell have a waiting list that’s 5 years long, already putting into question what ‘sort’ of person is allowed above or below.
The game is currently on Kickstarter, but by the time of publishing this article, I suspect that it’ll be over. The good news is that the game is 100% funded, meaning that there will be 3 new romance options added, including the loveable Faye, who I have lovingly nicknamed ‘Hot MILF.’
If you’re interested in finding out more about Repurpose, head on over to itch.io and play the game’s demo for yourself.
Interested in more Gaymes? Check out our weekly column, Gayme of the Week, and see what glorious LGBT+ games you should play ASAP.
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