Blind Men review for PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Switch

Blind Men kind of reminds me of Jisei: The First Case HD. Not because of the content — more on that in a moment, but I?ll say the two games couldn?t be any more different in that respect — but because of the format. Both aren?t just visual novels from Ratalaika Games (which in turn means they?re both easy Platinum trophies), both are short visual novels in which you can see every ending on offer, without even skipping, in less than two hours. They?re more visual novellas, to be honest, and as someone without the patience for the endlessly repetitive dialogue you find in many visual novels, that brevity really appeals to me.

Besides that, within these two hours, Blind Men offers a bunch of fun, quirky stories that you don?t usually find within games like these. The game centres around Keegan, a young man trying to follow in his uncle?s footsteps and become a supervillain feared by all. His plan to become a supervillain gets sidetracked at his first big scheme, when he finds himself surrounded by a couple of hunks, at which point he becomes torn between his ambition and his attraction.

In other words, Blind Men is basically an otome game, only a) with gay characters, and b) it?s not nearly as hung up on the whole romance angle as most other games in the genre. Admittedly, the downplaying of the whole gay angle may be because Blind Men doesn?t want to get pigeonholed as an LGBTQ game, but even if that?s the case, the game is far more compelling than most otome games because it gives the characters room to develop, rather than making them all the bland stereotypes that seem to populate most games of the genre.

The end result is like a weird take on Cold War spy movies, with a jaunty soundtrack, competing global organizations, and lasers. Obviously, given we?re talking about a subgenre within a subgenre, Blind Men isn?t going to be for everyone…but for those to whom it even sort of sounds appealing, it?s well worth your time.

Ratalaika Games provided us with a Blind Men PS4/Vita code for review purposes.