
None of the characters is “good” or “bad,” but all of them are human, and it’s a joy to follow them through their everyday lives. More than anything, League of Enthusiastic Losers is a game about being in your late twenties and gradually finding your place in the world. When I compare this to the writer plot in the game Coffee Talk, in which Freya takes five days to write a novel that’s immediately accepted by a publisher with no agent necessary, I appreciate this game’s honesty about the fact that no one is immaculately conceived as a literary genius.Įverything about League of Enthusiastic Losers is honest, and the honest truth about life is that sometimes everything really is going to be okay. In fact, the first press he submits the manuscript to rejects it. Second, everyone around Volodya understands and accepts the fact that it takes time to write a novel, and that it probably won’t be picked up by a publisher right away. I don’t think Volodya has a “disability,” necessarily, but the game does a good job of depicting that sort of human difference. It’s never explained, and no one ever comments on it, but people slow down their own pace when they walk with him. There are two things I love about the character Volodya in particular. The player can control Vitya and Volodya’s movement through linear 2D spaces, make a few dialog choices, and enjoy a few simple flash games like “glue the wings on the toy airplane” and “use the metal detector in the park.” There’s no stress and no point of failure, just two soft but handsome men and their adorable dog navigating a beautiful city depicted in a colorful painterly art style. The men’s landlord is just as much of a sweetheart as they are, and their friends are happy to help support them.

Thankfully there are no antagonists in this game, and everything turns out okay. Their grand plan is to dig up a “buried treasure” in the local public park that ends up consisting of several small tokens of Soviet life. Both men are extremely sweet and gentle, and they keep getting sidetracked as they do things like adopting a stray dog and helping their landlord’s son fix his toy airplane.
#LEAGUE OF ENTHUSIASTIC LOSERS HOW TO#
Unfortunately, while all of their friends from high school are off being successful and moving up in the world during the boom economy, the two of them can barely pay rent.Īs the player, your task is to follow Vitya and Volodya as they try to figure out how to pay their landlord a portion of the rent they owe.

It’s not clear whether the two men are in a romantic relationship but regardless, they’re close friends who love and support one another. You play as Vitya, a handyman, who is often accompanied by his friend and roommate Volodya, a copywriter who’s working on a novel. League of Enthusiastic Losers is a chill and beautiful visual novel set in Moscow in the 1990s.
