Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain
Usually, I'd say "third time's the charm," but it's impossible to say that when the previous two times were charming experiences by Fiction Factory Games. Regardless, Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain is the third and latest entry from the Fiction Factory Games catalog, a development studio keen on creating wacky yet insightful and introspective stories. As a fan of their first two projects, I was given this copy to review courtesy of the writer himself, so a huge special thanks to Stefan Gagne for letting me take a look inside your creative mind once again!
Last year I played Arcade Spirits, a charming visual novel by Fiction Factory Games that combined romance, drama, action, and a love for video games old and new. I praised it as "the best visual novel I've played" at the time and in that context of time, I stand by my original sentiment. It was rare to find a game that encaptured many things I enjoyed about gaming in a way that was accessible to newcomers and fans of visual novels alike.
A few months ago, courtesy of PQube, I was able to cover the sequel, Arcade Spirits The New Challengers. The highly placed bar that was set from the first game was almost matched with its sequel although one of my main complaints was how similar it was to the original game. The progression system, which included hanging out with members of your not-eSports eSports team and potentially courting them, was almost identical to the first game. Players could create a character to their liking, much like the first game, but they could also create a rival with branching storylines depending on what actions were taken.
Penny Larceny is cut from a different cloth from both Arcade Spirits as this one felt personal. A contrast to previous projects, Penny Larceny features no voice acting, aside from cute cat onomatopoeia. The game is also seemingly short in comparison compared to the other two with a direct plot. More on why I said "seemingly short" later. For now, I wasn't sure what to expect aside from Penny Larceny herself being a villain. In essence, this is one of those games where you play as a "villain" who only does villainous things out of survivability.
While the player can change the gender, pronouns, skin tone, and various aliases that Larceny goes under, the player cannot change their name as it's relevant to the plot. Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain features the titular character who lives in a hideout, forced to take on various crime gigs via the "Crimr" app. With her trusty talking cat companion, Gibson, she has a chance encounter with the app by stealing access to it. After all, if you're going to make it into the criminal world, you have to do criminal things right?
Penny can take up to three heists by three different handlers. The first is from the Overmistress, the leader of a promiscuous blood cult that wants to put a chokehold on the entertainment industry. Next is Dr. Mayhem, a "mad doctor" who just happens to be a handler in order to fund his research in medical advancement. Not necessarily villainous, but the methods to attain such research are. Lastly, there's HATE 4000, a sentient computer machine from the 60s who has Vietnam War PTSD. That, alongside abandonment from "its father," subjected it to "hate" everyone.
The player can decide to focus on one handler for all three heists, favor one over the other while having a passing interest in the remaining two, or divvy the time spent between all three. In my first playthrough, I went with the latter as I focused on romance in the previous games. I wanted to know what it was like to be "goal-oriented" instead of falling head over heels for whoever I have a liking to (QueenBee, Zapper, etc).
Each heist is split into two parts, "casing the joint," where players gather intel about the location, and pull off the heist itself. Depending on the player's choices and their decisions during the casing process, the player can earn anywhere from a "five star" to a "zero star" rating based on how clean or chaotic the job was. The game has an anti-frustration mechanic similar to The New Challengers and the "Fist of Discomfort 2" minigame. The plot will still advance no matter the performance of the player.
Each heist involves a specific theme that relates to current events and while it's impossible to do all heists in a single playthrough, these were some of the heists I enjoyed the most. The first one was a bank heist where the player needed to steal an important document. However, caught in the mix is a rookie robber who holds up a bank. It's then revealed that the robber is a transperson who is trying to take enough money to ensure their survival as they are on the run from their abusive parents.
Penny Larceny doesn't shy away from the "deus ex machina" treatment that I'm used to in otome-style visual novels. For every dire situation, there's always a positive solution. This is not always the case, as is hinted in the game's dialogue, but this is where you, the player, come in. The player is included in the game as a part of the trio, specifically as the voice that's inside Penny's head. Unlike Arcade Spirits, in which Iris plays the role of a "narrator," Penny Larceny's narration is all internal monologues in which Penny will occasionally come to the player for help.
In-universe, they come to terms with this as the voice that lives inside of their head which existed as a trauma response for an important plot point in Penny's childhood. Penny Larceny isn't afraid to get its hands dirty and themes like mental awareness, finding purpose, dealing with identity, and the concept of surviving vs. living all come forward. While doing petty crimes is a bit extreme, it's a representation of the gig economy in today's world. It's a jungle, a dog-eat-dog world where you have to get your hands dirty in order to live.
Without spoiling the major plot point, however, the ending served as the complete opposite of The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood. In that game, you played as a witch who is discovered to have way more to deal with the world that shapes around her than she initially thought. In Penny Larceny, Penny is but a single cog in the greater wheel of life. To fully grasp the story, multiple playthroughs are required, which is a first from Fiction Factory Games. Usually, subsequent playthroughs are meant to show the player other options that are available. Penny Larceny plays more like a traditional visual novel where the player will have to work for a good ending.
Ultimately, the length of Penny larceny depends on its subsequent playthroughs as a single playthrough is the shortest of the trilogy. Despite this, I'd say it's for the best as it gets its antagonists across, as well as Penny's main dilemma in trying to survive in a world that wants them to rot. It becomes a question of whether "sticking it to the man" is worth it if it means many workers wound up displaced for showing how scandalous a certain big-named corporation is. It may appear altruistic, but at the end of the day, it's part of a bigger plan.
Of the three games, it's difficult for me to say which I enjoyed the most as it's like picking a favorite child. Arcade Spirits, New Challengers, and now Penny Larceny are all different stories with different messages and themes for each central character. While I wasn't initially a fan of the "ending," the true ending was what pieced everything together. Everything happened within the reasonable context of a world where the supernatural exists. A talking cat exists. That's enough to clue into the player that not everything is as it seems.
Overall, Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain is yet another gem written by Stefan Gagne and helped brought to life by the rest of the Fiction Factory team. There are a lot of stellar games that were released over the Summer and August was no different, so I highly recommend this undiscovered gem. It was an afternoon session that made me look back at personal occurrences in my life, such as the loss of my mother and dealing with imposter syndrome, which made me resonate with this game the most. Definitely be sure to check this one out!
Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain is available on Steam.