We are back on track today for one more entry into our beloved series, welcome to Sade: A My Time with Dee Dee story! We’ve covered every one of them so far and we are into this for the biggest and most ambitious project so far.
If you are a long-time follower of the site, you know I am the certified specialist to talk about these visual novels. This one has a twist on the premise compared to those before it. It focuses on the point of view of Marques de Sadê, a famous french libertarian writer who is known for vile and repulsive writing with the intention of making a commentary on society as a whole. It’s definitely the heaviest entry on the series so far.
Storytelling by Sadê
Our hero… Actually, let’s call him the protagonist of Sade: A My Time with Dee Dee. His name is Gideon. He’s the mayor’s child and someone who is inspired to follow in his footsteps and eventually overthrow him to build the city in his own image.
Gideon isn’t a good person. The evidence is scattered throughout the whole game such as comments about how small businesses are stopping the city from growing with conglomerates and also how everyone is shitty if they don’t work towards a profit so that he can abuse that profit when he gets into a position of power.
The only thing holding Gideon back is the love of his life Dee Dee, a flirty girl who Gideon used to study with back in high school. They were really close along with their group of friends consisting of Aisha, Amelia, Nettie, and Lorin. They all spent their young adulthood together but never had time after to hang out. This continued until one lucky week where they all happened to be free. What is to come of friends coming back to bond after so long? Your answer probably didn’t involve a window broken on the first day and a sappy romance being turned into a thriller story. Multiple events happen over the nights and it’s up to you to try and bring everyone safely through to the next week. If you can do it or not is all up to you.
Overall, it’s a refreshing take to see what we could consider as a bad guy being the protagonist to a romance. Gideon is aware that he is not a good person and he has no qualms about that. He fully intends on getting a piece of every girl in the group before settling with Dee Dee, even her adopted sister. The events pan out with all the hints for a personal evolution, but he is focused and determined to ascend to politics and shape the city as he sees fit despite the love of his life having opposite desires for the town.
The writing has also improved with each game. A healthy dose of mystery sprinkled within had me hooked to see every detail and all nine endings. As a warning, some of these endings can be quite shocking. If you are not on board with the theme of repulsive human behavior and imagery to build up a thriller, be aware that the Dee Dee series jumps from genre to genre so this game is outside the norm.
The whole “Teach me professor!”, as always, is my favorite part of the entire game. It takes you outside of the story and explains how a Sadê plot is supposed to go and how is it is brutal and honest to purposely make you disgusted. That’s the entire idea of the story: to make metacommentary on society while also showing its darkest side in plain sight, hoping for you to be turned off by it
Girls and Games
Getting to the gameplay itself now, this entry in the Dee Dee series is another showcase of the evolution this series has undergone. There’s a multitude of choices sprinkled through the game. One of the most noticeable choices being on day 2 where you can choose any of the girls to hang out with. This is a great opportunity to learn more about each of the girls before heading back towards the main path and ending.
Amelia is a sport-focused cute (and the best) girl who is quite shy with Gideon. Despite her shyness, she has various moments over the game that show her interest in him.
Lorin is an adventurous lady who loves teasing. She’s quite the exhibitionist, exemplified by her underwear being constantly shown, and isn’t afraid to use it to her advantage. At one point she even uses it to convince a cashier to sell drinks to them, despite forgetting their ID.
Aisha is our necessary “antagonist”. She feels Gideon is up to no good and constantly tries to defend the girls from any of his advances, like trying to stop him from convincing everyone to play strip poker. She seems like a bit of a hassle but we can attribute it to the game being from Gideon’s point of view. With that, we see her bad sides more than the good ones, like her trustworthiness to her friends.
Nettie looks like she would be the innocent younger sister, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. She loves to joke around with Dee Dee, be it stealing her “boyfriend” or trying to get everyone on board to get naked; that happens more than once. She also has an artistic side, which greatly confuses Gideon as he is quite at odds with anything that isn’t money and politics
And last but certainly not least, we’ve got our main girl who has her name splattered in the title, Dee Dee. This flirty model has been in every game of the series so far and her character slowly gets developed over time.
This time Dee Dee is pushing more for something with Gideon and also has her own decisions and idea of the future that is opposed to Gideon’s vision. It’s refreshing. If Dee Dee was a blank slate, the game wouldn’t be half as fun. She has tangible desires and dreams that she wants to follow, despite her love for Gideon and carnal tendencies towards him.
Nettie’s Specialty: Arts and Crafts
The art design in Sade: A My Time with Dee Dee is as good as the series always is. In addition, there are significantly more CGs than previous games.
One minor complaint I do have is the stationary progress of the UI layout in these games, as the same one has been used for all games so far. That isn’t a problem by itself, but as the series is constantly growing in scale, I wish the design outside of the core elements would be brought to speed as well.
The audio comes across well with some well-chosen tracks. The creepy music really helped to set the scene in particular.
Verdict
Sade: A My Time with Dee Dee is a great game in my eyes. This is in large because it’s not a nice experience. The protagonist is an A-grade douche, the themes can get gory at times, and there don’t seem to be any good endings. And I’m completely okay with that.
I appreciate the dedication to the Sade style, even if it might bring fewer people on board than making some moments lighter. It’s an experience I would recommend, but if it doesn’t float your boat in any way, you can always wait for the next entry in the series. That’s what always brings me back to Dee Dee, you never know what’s in store for the next one.
SADE A MY TIME WITH DEE DEE IS RECOMMENDED
Purchase Link: Itch.io
Enjoyed this visual novel review? Why not check out the first games in the Dee Dee series?
Many thanks go to Digitally Downloaded for a PC review code for this title.
Nick has been gaming for quite a while, a decade now! His first console was the DS but the first one played extensively was the Nintendo 64. He loves a huge variety of games, favourite genres include RPG, platforming, metroidvanias and visual novels. No longer a member of the NookGaming team, but still here in spirit. Follow him on @NickMendz.
