How Replay Boys Corrupts a Boy Band Dating Sim with Darkness

There are emergency vehicles outside the arena. Your friend’s text messages are beginning to sound strange. A writhing darkness fills your vision, and your work day starts again.

In Replay Boys you play as Hannah, a video editor for a small record label. When everyone calls in sick, the task of wrangling all four members of the Replay Boys is thrust upon you. You’ll have to ferry them to the concert, get them ready for soundcheck, and deal with their meltdowns. Replay Boys contains all the lighthearted elements that you would expect from a visual novel about managing a dysfunctional modern-day boy band, but there is something sinister lurking under its straightforward premise.

The game’s darker elements, like the title hints at, can only be uncovered by replaying the same day several times. You’ll come face to face with a ghost, fight brainwashed fans and a dangerous cult, and deal with an array of more conventional crimes like kidnapping and firearms offences. The turning point comes when, for unknown reasons, the day begins to repeat.

I asked the game’s writer, Bell, how this came about. “I think it was a natural evolution as I wrote the story”, she says. “I really like games that make you question if your senses are reliable. I also think visual novels can be uniquely eerie since so much of the story’s visualizations are happening in your own head. It’s a creepiness that thrives on the power of your imagination.”

The crossover of visual novel and horror in Replay Boys is inspired by how both of the genres use repetition. In a classic visual novel, there are large portions of the story that remain static in every route, which have to be replayed in order to get to a point where the story branches. The replayability is twisted into a time loop that is actually part of the story. In a different manner, horror games and films often repeatedly demonstrate something as “safe”, only to later betray that sense of security by twisting it into something terrifying.

The first day in Replay Boys plays to the expectations of the visual novel genre, until it comes to an abrupt end. When the day restarts, at first it seems nothing has changed, but the pace of those previously-lived moments picks up, and creepy elements start to bleed through. You may hear odd noises on the phone, or gain the ability to explore a dark room that you didn’t have access to before. As you rack up more time loops, the original story structure distorts more dramatically, turning the familiar baseline into something eerie, surreal and fantastical.

While the standout feature of Replay Boys surrounds the subversion of expectations, Bell still wrote the game to be a proper otome dating sim. “I wanted each of the band members to feel lively and real, and able to develop a unique relationship with the main character. At the end of the game, the reward for the player should be the feeling that they very deservedly won this character’s trust.”

Spend a romantic and spooky Valentine’s Day with a quirky boy band. Replay Boys releases today, February 14, on Xbox One, Series X|S, and the Xbox app on PC.

REPLAY BOYS

Split Narrative Inc.

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$9.99

REPLAY BOYS is a visual novel with multiple endings including both romantic and platonic routes. It features wild characters, vivid CGs capturing moments of romance and chaos, and an exciting pace. Your decisions guide the outcome, choose carefully!
You play as Hannah, video editor for up-and-coming boy band The Replay Boys. When their manager calls in sick right before The Replay Boys’ first big concert, Hannah is the only one who can fill in and save the day. Help the band through their arguments and uncover their fears and anxieties, while dealing with crazy fans, a cult, and time loops!