"Room No. 9" is a fucked up yaoi visual novel made by Parade, available on Steam unless you live in one of the several countries that have banned it because it's too fucked up. It's also one of my favorite games ever.
The premise is two college dudes get locked in a room and are forced to play the world's worst game of "Would You Rather?", made to complete either sexual or violent tasks against each other. They're essentially asked "which is worse: a physical wound, or a psychological one?", which is compelling, but as much as I love "you can only leave this room if you do X" tropes that's not even why I like it.
What made me buy it was hearing that, the protagonists will say unique voice lines in the save menu depending on what is happening when you pause. You save during a gore scene or sex scene & the character involved will say, "what? You want to stop HERE? Why would you do this to me?!" That's fascinating. There are so many cool details put into this game.
It is SO polished, I'm astounded by the quality. From a gamedev perspective, it's my visual novel holy grail. Not only is there great art, voice acting, and etc, but also you can save individual voice lines you enjoy in a built-in audio gallery? There are several randomized voice clips that play when you start up the game? The menu UI is so thorough and customizable that I'm in love with it?
Even outside of the sensitive content matter, the game isn't for everyone: because the characters are trapped in a room the entire game, the days can feel repetitive or boring for people who don't enjoy clearcut structure. Personally I love structure & repetition, but if that isn't a trait we share it might not be as enjoyable. The writing quality can also be....corny, but making fun of it is one of my joys.
