Dual Family

Dual Family takes up its own little niche space among online porn games. It’s a visual novel about a dysfunctional family trying to come back together again. You get to choose between playing as the stoic dad whose wife is about to divorce him, or the hothead teenage son who’s sick of his parent’s shit. There’s not much sex in this game. There’s a lot of talking. And arguing. And thinking. Holy hell, there’s a ton of thinking and wondering and narrating about feelings and shit. This game wants you to care more about the writing and the day-to-day relationships than watching actual sex scenes. If you decide to check this one out, I hope you’re up for a ton of reading. There’s an interesting premise with the two playable characters. I picked the dad first because why the fuck not. As he’s trying (or not trying) to fix things with his wife, he sees that his son is doing his own thing. It’s funny because the son can pretty much take the dad’s place, or at least make an effort to. So there are essentially two stories playing out at once. Whenever the dad notices that the son is in his room, or the wife is busy talking to the son, you can assume that there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes. I like those undertones, since the dad has no reason to suspect that his son is any competition. That subtext made the family dynamic more intriguing. Otherwise it would’ve been the standard crap you’d find in any kind of soap opera. Whichever main character you choose, they’re caught up in the drama with the possible divorce. The dad is tempted by his daughter, his daughter’s friend, and his ex-girlfriend. The temptation from the daughter is usually restricted to dreams. She’ll try to entice him with her body or her words, and he’ll try to resist. Or you can just choose to give in. Whatever you do, he’ll feel bad about it and wonder if he’s some kind of monster for thinking about his daughter this way. It’s not that involved, though, especially if you keep resisting the temptation. All the nude art and fancy lighting leave a lasting impression. I just wasn’t that caught up with the emotions. The game wants you to feel something. I didn’t care enough either way about any of these characters. Sure, they’re normal people caught up with incest fantasies and marital drama. The whole family life thing they have going on is so fucking boring. Then that brings me back to the soap opera mess. Dual Family isn’t a standard soap opera, but it’s still a soap opera. All the little things seem to matter so much. Everything that happens gets blown out of proportion. The game spends forever with two characters talking over coffee for example. Trying to bond about normal shit, and having that father-daughter relationship. Every tiny, realistic thing you can think of about interacting with your own family is probably here. It’s mundane as hell and I couldn’t stand it. Without the whole incest subtext, and the premise with the two playable characters, this would have been just the same old, same old. Nothing special.

Living the Family Life

Aside from the initial arguing between the parents, this family tries to make things work. Whether you play as the dad or the son, you get to see every little detail during this week or so that they spend trying to improve their relationships with each other. Are you thrilled by the thought of watching someone else sit and brood in their room? Do you love the excitement of choosing whether to go watch TV or head to bed early? Well, buckle up, because this game has all of that and more. There’s a ton of talking, too. Talking to the wife about her feelings about the marriage. Talking to the daughter about her upcoming school dance. Talking to the son about how he’s never around. Trying to be a good dad again, and a better husband. Or throwing that away to lust after the daughter, as the father. Or tempting the mom to do the same as the son. Whatever you decide to do, every single event has the main character narrating about every single thought and emotion they have. It’s ridiculous how the writing goes into all this detail. It’s excruciating. And by excruciating, I mean boring and repetitive as fuck. Who gives a shit about how the daughter is this sweet and innocent girl who’s growing up? It was endearing the first couple of times the dad narrated about it. The problem is, he does this every fucking time he interacts with her. This game might as well be a thoughts-and-feelings simulator instead. There’s hardly any porn. I wouldn’t mind that if the story actually went somewhere.

Staying Faithful or Cheating

There’s some vague storyline about the mom giving the dad a week to make up her mind about the divorce. So he’s shacking in the guest room in the meantime. You as the dad, you have the choice to fix your marriage. Picking the right dialog options will go a long way. Over time, the wife will start signaling that she’s willing to work things out with you. But if you pick the wrong choices, obviously, she won’t want to keep putting up with your shit. If you play as the son instead, you can comfort the mom and be there for her. The daughter has a slutty friend who tries to hit on the dad. Hell, she even grabs his crotch in the middle of a family dinner. She’s pretty forward in wanting sex from this guy. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say she helps switch things up. Without her, those tempting dreams I mentioned are the most “exciting” thing about this game. Seriously. Even though this girl is a fucking nutcase, she adds some fire to the desolate wasteland of boredom here. And then there’s the dad’s ex-girlfriend. She also happens to be this slutty girl’s mom. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with this mother-daughter duo. She’ll hit on the dad, too, and you have the option of giving in or turning her down. Whatever you do, there’s some huge drama that blows out with them. Depending on how it plays out, the wife will start to trust the dad more. It depends on your choices, which is kind of nice.

What I Like

Dual Family is a nice-looking game. I like that the characters look normal enough. Sometimes I don’t need the ridiculous proportions, you know? Everything looks grounded, for the most part. It fits with the whole serious, thought-provoking commentary on temptation going on. I didn’t really mind the invasive dreams and the mother-daughter pair constantly trying to get in the dad’s pants. The game is trying to say something about dysfunctional families. It’s really, really trying. It never stops trying. Having the different perspectives on the whole family dynamic, it adds a nice touch. Whenever the son and the mom were together off-screen, I had to wonder what was going on with them. Luckily, I got to answer my questions by playing as him on my second playthrough. It’s cool that you get to choose how these relationships play out. If you want to stay faithful, or if you just want to fuck around, that’s your choice.

What I Hate

Yeah, so, this game is a chore. It was interesting at first with the premise and the subtext. Then it got repetitive. Then it went nowhere. The same thoughts, the same feelings kept coming up again and again and again. The wife is slow to change her mind, if at all. The dad constantly lusts after the daughter whether he admits it or not. The son can be sweet with his mom, sure, but he’s a shithead who mostly cares about himself. There’s no escaping the monotony. I hate being reminded of normal family shit. I don’t want to play it in a video game. I don’t care how much the game wants me to think about temptation. There’s literally nothing else going on in this soap opera of a story. For those of you who hate incest, there’s a way for you to play this game. But it’s so stupid you might as well not even bother. You have the option of making the game think that your family are just your “friends”. So your daughter will call you Pal. She’ll call the mom Bud. Everyone’s friends with each other. But then people will bring up the divorce. Who the fuck divorces their friend? Do yourself a favor and stick with the incest, or don’t bother playing it all. When the game asks you for a six-letter word to describe the situation, just put “family” instead of the default “friends”. Unless you want to laugh at that dumb idea. In that case, be my guest.