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Butterfly Soup 2 review: a heartfelt return of the gay baseball teensTaking wing
Taking wing
If you’re not familiar with the original, Butterfly Soup is a visual novel about four Asian girls navigating high school in the late 2000s, playing baseball, and falling in love. On replaying it to get ready for this review, it made me cry at least twice and laugh out loud a bunch more. It’s pay what you want with no minimum price, and takes about 2-3 hours. I’m also going to spoil parts of it, so go play it already.
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Our Favourite Scary Moments In PC Gaming
Fans will no doubt be pleased to hear that everything I described above remains true in the sequel. But where the original centred on Diya and Min’s blossoming relationship, Butterfly Soup 2 is a wider exploration of all four teens’ hopes and fears. They were always there, but now they’re the focus. For instance, while the previous game sees comic relief character Akarsha admits she uses jokes to mask her lack of self-esteem, this is the heart of her arc in the sequel.
This shift allows every character to come across as both more and less likeable at different points. To continue the example, while Akarsha explores her struggles, Min, who was primarily argumentative and hot-headed before, gets more focus as a supportive friend. On the other hand, her impulsiveness and lack of care lead to a situation that I won’t spoil, but portrays her as very clearly in the wrong. Then again, with the help of other characters, she’s able to see that and begin to make amends, and the situation shines a spotlight on her own inner world, too.
Also, do not fear: it’s still really gay. Lei is able to get across the feeling of a crush in a way that only the best fanfiction authors can usually achieve, which I mean as my highest possible compliment.
Though it only lasts a couple of hours, the game covers all these topics and more with the light grace of everyday life. It has no problem switching gears between emotional conversations and light-hearted jokes, institutional oppression and one-on-one connection, in the same way that these things really are overlapping at all times.
This was also the case in the original game, but Butterfly Soup 2’s main evolution seems to be the fact that it comes five years after its predecessor. While only a few months have passed in-game, it’s a portrayal of being a teenager that feels much further removed – to its benefit. According to her Tumblr, Lei is currently 28. So am I. My conception of my teenage self is very different from what it was five years ago, and that same shift comes across in the jump between Lei’s original and sequel. Teens can be awful, and things can be awful for them, but they’re usually just trying to make sense of it all and find some joy.
