Keep going for Thursday
Wednesday is a free role-playing video game wherein you need to stay afloat for a week in your life. Developed by sammy, this is a text-based visual novel and slice-of-life interactive fiction that deals with severe emotional stress about mental health and the struggles of being a part of the LGBTQIA community.
Appearance-wise, Wednesday is similar to VNs like Scout: An Apocalypse Story and CLOSED HANDS—although there is at least some art to be found. The game is entirely driven by narration and dialogue as you choose what to do at certain points in the story.
One step at a time
In Wednesday, you play as a nameless transgender character who works at a school’s cafeteria and keeps trying to juggle their work and home life and the hobbies that keep them sane. To your character, the date keeps changing as you finish a day but they still think that it’s Wednesday—hinting that they feel like they’re drowning from all the stress. Even some parts repeat with the images, despite the changed narration.
To progress through the game, simply click on the colored text below. Usually, it’s just one action or many more. Some of the colored text is in the narration and clicking on them will explain the term and even give you legitimate links to websites if they’re about health. While there seem to be numerous divergence points, there’s no option to save.
The goal in the game is to simply keep progressing using the choices—whether they unlock painful scenes for your character or not. This game is actually pretty short, with only around 12,000 words to parse through to get to the ending. In terms of soundtrack, only a brutal-sounding harsh noise filler is played to represent how the protagonist is feeling all the time.
May hit close to home
Overall, Wednesday is a great LGBTQIA visual novel for fans of mature plotlines. While it’s pretty short and there’s no actual need to backtrack through your choices, the gameplay is easy enough for any type of player to follow through. This is the type of game that you should let yourself be immersed in. It’s also thoughtful of the game to provide helpful websites for mental health and LGBTQIA issues.
