Week of Love: Stay! Stay! Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! (PC)

As one might expect of a game called Stay! Stay! Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and one that features an anime girl in military uniform up front and center, Stay! Stay! DPRK (which will be the shortened form used from hereon in) is a game based entirely around poking fun at one of the strangest dictatorships in the world today, the game made even more absurd by the fact it’s positioned as a dating sim. Still, despite being clearly designed as a joke, the game did put a surprising amount of effort into other aspects, meaning that it doesn’t wear out its welcome once you feel you’ve had enough of its silly concept.

Make no mistake though, Stay! Stay! DPRK is definitely going in hard on its ridiculous setup. The game begins with an American soldier taking a flight to North Korea where he at first believes he’s not only heading for South Korea, but that he’s about to meet two male penpals who he’ll be staying with. He quickly learns how wrong he is when not only do Jeong and Eunji turn out to be young ladies, but they’re actually members of the DPRK military, but despite his error, the protagonist you get to name is taken in and lives with these ladies for around a week, Jeong and Eunji actually in charge of making North Korea look as good as possible to their guest. However, it quickly becomes apparent that these two sisters have more than a professional interest in the player, but how the story goes will depend on which romantic interest you pursue.

We’ve essentially only got three characters of note here, with one of them being the protagonist themselves, but while visual novels and video games in general are often pretty content to make flat characterless protagonists so that the player can see themselves as the character, the main character of Stay! Stay! DPRK actually has a bit of a history to him and some mannerisms that make him more interesting than a blank slate. His military history tends to come up quite often during play, the protagonist interjecting with his own stories of times he remembers from training or service out in Afghanistan. Since he’s visiting a military state, he actually has a few things to say about the way things are run and makes comparisons and jokes, including many uses of military terminology or phrases that baffle the Korean tour guides he’s living with. The game really enjoys playing around with the girls misinterpreting what the protagonist’s idioms mean, so not only does have a bit more of a presence than the usual visual novel main character, but he even contributes to some of the game’s humor, even expressing himself freely at times instead of having the player always pick his actions or responses.

The two love interests presented are a bit more of a mixed bag. While our protagonist broke away from standard design a bit, Eunji almost plays way too hard into a caricature of the “tsundere” archetype, where she’s unable to express her romantic interest properly and thus openly denies her feelings and is overly confrontational. It can be funny to see her get flustered or get in a good argument with her sister or the protagonist, but there’s also just as much boilerplate “it’s not like I like you or anything” lines to be found along the way. Her romantic route at least gives her more moments to genuinely express herself and talk about other subjects, making for a bit more of fun teasing than the constant cliche aggression. Jeong is a bit harder to classify. She’s the kinder of the two girls and calmer, but she enjoys pushing people’s buttons with blunt statements. She’s not shy, in fact she’s often very direct, but she’s the friendlier of the two and more mature. Romance in general in Stay! Stay! DPRK is simply handled by picking to spend more time with one girl than the other on your trips to North Korean tourist spots, so Jeong emerges with perhaps the more interesting path since her personality isn’t so clear cut and predictable.

One thing both girls have in common though is they both completely buy into the propaganda their government puts forth. While Stay! Stay! DPRK will play it’s dating sim moments pretty straight in that they are working to establish their characters and the growing connections between them and the protagonist, it’s peppered with plenty of jabs at the unusual situation in North Korea. Expect many cracks at the enforced devotion to a leader who fancies himself much more capable than he is, at the mundane realities of life compared to the boisterous claims of the government, and the dated technology the country has for being so isolationist. Even the game’s save menu uses language that pokes fun at the strict military control over perception and behavior in the nation. The game can certainly lay things on thick with these at times, the absolute devotion and sense of superiority the nation feels cropping up whenever it can find a conversational hook to snag onto, but the game seems pretty aware how hard it is leaning into this joke formula. Besides making some of the more common jokes into running ones to better justify their presence, it also tries to mix up the substance of the individual jokes so that it can keep things from becoming stale. Perhaps the more interesting aspect of Stay! Stay! DPRK though is that it doesn’t shy away from the realities of living under such a deluded tyrant. Humor and romance are the main themes, but on almost every date, the efforts of your guides and others that are intended to make North Korea look good end up with everyone facing truths that are impossible to ignore. The grim situations caused by the totalitarian regime do feature here and are treated as such, things like food scarcity, abuse of power, political brainwashing, and more entering the plot but still not completely shifting the entire tone of the visual novel away from its parodic nature. If anything, it’s a sign of good satire to mix in your silly jokes with pointing out some legitimate problems, and breaking through the veil of the propaganda machine is actually part of your growing relationships with two girls who have tried their best to believe what they knew was wrong for so long.

This isn’t me calling Stay! Stay! DPRK a work of genius or anything, but it does make it more interesting than just a silly concept for a visual novel. Most of the visual novel mechanics here are pretty standard. The player clicks through text boxes to read a story with static images appearing to represent characters or places, some images clearly meant to titillate while others establish at least a vague idea of the locations you’re visiting and the characters’ actions. You make a few choices along the way to determine which story route you take to reach pretty similar conclusions, the game keeping its focus on telling a tale rather than really involving the player. The game even has an intelligent skip option to make replaying it for other results easier, allowing you to fast forward through dialogue you’ve read on previous plays until you find new content based on different choices. However, despite the fact the tour of North Korea you’re getting is mostly in service of telling jokes and connecting with Jeong or Eunji, this game packs in one last interesting feature, and that’s some legitimate history and facts about a nation that would be very hard to see personally. Each date takes you to real locations in North Korea and gives you information on its history or importance, and surprisingly enough, much of the information appears to be legitimate, albeit slightly filtered through propaganda of course. Not only will you visit places like the world’s largest sports stadium, an art museum, and even a theme park, but these are based on real world locations with art reproducing them pretty accurately, some even having direct photo counterparts available online. These places even serve their role as dating locations pretty well, even some of the odder choices like the captured U.S. Navy spy ship the USS Pueblo able to fill their role as a place to get to know a girl better in while still finding both humor and harsh realities in the situation.

THE VERDICT: Stay! Stay! Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! is definitely a joke at the absurd nature of North Korea’s expense, but it’s a joke that a lot of effort went into. The game spends plenty of time lampooning the inexplicable and boisterous propaganda of the struggling nation, but it also acknowledges the unfortunate realities of such a nation. The two romances on option aren’t exceptional, but they do have two mostly likeable characters to add a human element to a game that otherwise tells jokes while still managing to present some legitimately interesting tours of real world locations that most people wouldn’t be able to access. While the Glorious Leader and Best Korea jokes can be a bit too common, Stay! Stay! DPRK manages to mix things together to make for a fun little read if you let yourself enjoy the jokes.

And so, I give Stay! Stay! Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! for PC…

A GOOD rating. Stay! Stay! DPRK’s parody is a pretty enjoyable read even if it does rely a little too much on the same joke templates at time. The different focuses of the story are probably the main way the game avoids being a joke that overstays its welcome. The core focus is definitely on the humor, but having some moments focusing on not just the two girls you can date but even the main character a little makes it more than just a prolonged bit, the moments where it acknowledges legitimate problems with North Korea keeps it from being totally tasteless, and the tours of real locations even leaves you walking away with some actual information about this secluded country. Perhaps on their own, any one segment of this game would probably feel undercooked, but together in one pot they give the experience a few different elements to focus on or enjoy. If the basic idea of the parody doesn’t sell you though, it may be hard to get invested in the rest since it is the most prevalent feature, but there was clearly an effort to make this more than just an extended roast of North Korea.

Stay! Stay! DPRK’s quality definitely comes as a surprise. There are plenty of games with unusual premises that are almost just funny for existing, but the game’s substance often can’t continue to carry the joke after. Satire, education, and light romance make for an unexpected but fun combination in this strangely conceived visual novel.