I thought I knew what to expect from Village in the Shade after attending NIS America’s pre-launch preview event in September. The villagers would be quirky but likeable, and things would probably get at least a little twisted, though nothing too terrible. Nippon Ichi Software’s non-Disgaea games get pretty dark, as do the Labyrinth games and Yomawari. But they’re dark on a small-scale, personal level, and rarely do they have something poignant to say. Village in the Shade tossed all my expectations out the window within the first few hours and, since then, has quickly rocketed up my list of the year’s best games.
Village in the Shade starts with a child frolicking in the fields, running through dappled woods, skipping over rivers, and doing normal kid stuff. Then they fall down a hole and die, or so you’d think from the amount of blood on-screen, except they climb out and start walking again like nothing happened. Something did happen, though. The local carpenter and a hunter find the child, who happens to bear a striking resemblance to a kid who vanished years ago. Not that the idea brought anyone joy. They seem worried, actually, but Rin, the de facto mayor of Kagatsu Village, decides the child may be of use.
Rin initially seems like a Tom Nook caricature. She’s fixated on profit and productivity, stuffs you in a ratty little hovel, charges you for it, and decides your value based on how much you do for the community. There’s a bit of subtle commentary from her about min-maxing supposedly relaxing games to get the most out of them, and I thought this poke at established cozy staples would be the extent of Rin’s personality. But NIS had something much more interesting in mind, which became evident the next in-game day when Rin threw a baby goat down the village well as an offering. One life out of the village in exchange for another life in. Balance must be maintained.
It likely comes as no surprise to hear this following a sentence that includes the words “threw a baby goat down the well,” but Kagatsu Village is a weird place. A good quarter of the people who live there agree with that assessment. Even so, they don’t seem to have much of a choice but to stay and deal with it. Their families lived at the foot of this mountain for generations. Leaving would be tantamount to betrayal of everyone past and present, and who knows what might happen then?
Rin and Kagatsu Village under her rule are the epitome of toxic communalism. She’s sincere in her dogged determination to put the village first — frighteningly so at times — but either overlooks or just plain doesn’t understand the harm of ignoring the individual. Part of Kagatsu’s code is that every favor must be met with appropriate compensation, which is great for people with mercenary dispositions. It’s less great if you just want to help a friend out with no strings attached. You’re also not supposed to pry into anyone’s affairs or share their secrets, no matter how upset they are or whether they’re gathering poison as part of a murder plot. As long as the collective is intact and moving forward, every sacrifice is permissible. And mandatory.
The most common sacrifice is a monthly fee, like a tax, though to Rin’s intense frustration, people tend to get around it. Some perform a service. Others give food or necessary items. Those with nothing to give, or who flat-out refuse to give anything, are taken to the local clinic where the doctor draws a rather alarming amount of blood. Blood figures quite prominently in Village in the Shade. There’s the monthly offering, of course, along with a spate of serial killings 10 years in the past — around the time you disappeared from the village, in what’s surely a totally normal coincidence. On some nights, one of the bridges leading to the center of town is covered in blood.
Read Full Article At Source
