Qingyu (青羽) Review

Recently I played a game called Qingyu, and its theme turned out to be the rare Dota 2 esports backdrop. At first I figured it was a shitpost, but after actually playing it, I was kind of surprised. First off, the author clearly plays Dota — it’s packed with memes only old-school 刀斯林 would get. Shame the game came out too early; if it were made now there’d be way more material — 组织语言, 闹麻了, 可以啊, 不Ban猛犸, 唯有责任, 要不你来, lowlowlowlowlow, 香槟, the greatest runner-up…

The story has a lot of pre-2018 vibes, but who could’ve guessed that after 2018 CN Dota would get even more abstract, and then run away with it, leaving everyone else in the dust? If that certain Yang-surnamed woman really is meant to be a stand-in for Chalice, then remaking a game like this now would probably require rewriting her character three times over. But honestly, if they actually did that, it’d be an all-time great bit. The game just came out too early — releasing it now would fit way better.

If you have some nostalgia for Dota, just play it when you’re bored and grab the achievements — it’s not expensive. And this is probably the only Dota-themed visual novel out there; not even League of Legends has one, so it’s got commemorative value.

Pros:

• Cheap
• Heavy on 刀斯林 content
• Dialogue is normal — people actually talk like people, no “Japanese-flavored Chinese”
• Easy to 100% achievements

Cons:

• Not enough meme density — if you’re gonna do it, go bigger

• Character art quality is bad

• Voice acting is just okay (who was it that told me one of the heroines is xx_offical’s alt?)

• Plot is cliché; the author clearly ran out of ideas in the second half and wrapped it up hastily