First of all, I want to clarify something:
This game isn't a front for something dark or obscene. There is not an ounce of overt sexuality, and that's for the best. If you're worried about seeing something you'd rather not, don't worry. All the nudity really conveys is kind of blobby, mostly featureless old men.
I'm conflicted about what to say for Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball League, since it is at once a surprising piece of misdirection while also being sometimes uncomfortably honest. You may think at first the game is going to be goofy and absurd, but it takes a very strange premise and twists that into a presentation that is rather heartfelt.
I don't want to spoil everything, yet, so let's pose some basic questions:
Is the art good?
No, but you shouldn't let that deter you. The character, UI, and environment art all have a sort of lofi charm, but the sensibility isn't overly retro. I think the art is very in line with the tone of the game, simple and earnest. I feel like something fundamental would be lost if we were looking at polished and detailed 3D models. It just works, and I don't really care if it was intentional.
Is the volleyball good?
No, but it's smart. I played on a controller and really only a button and an analog stick are used during the volleyball matches. This feels clunky and unpredictable, but here's the thing: You're an old man. It doesn't feel good, but it's perfectly fitting. It felt like unless you were somehow able to read the ball quickly, you had little influence over where the ball went. Thankfully there is a drop shadow (I think it's a drop shadow) so you can more easily figure out where the ball is going. This helps, a bit. Another (good) problem is that there's a pretty heavy CRT-like filter over the screen, muddying the visual action up quite a bit. Serving is relegated to a simple timing power bar-type minigame, but also exposes one of the game's best features. I'll get to that later. Add to all this a ref that can make some shockingly bad calls, and you've got a loose and appropriately frustrating approximation of one-on-one volleyball.
Is the story good?
The story is the best part, but there's actually little going on strictly in terms of plot. Most of the dialog is presented like it would be in a visual novel and there's a surprising number of conversation choices. I don't know for sure if they change the responses and additional choices you get, but regardless they feel expressive. The story is delivered in a few ways: The main character talks to himself while driving to his matches. The main character and his opponents talk occasionally between serves. The main character thinks to himself while preparing to serve the ball. There's one more way, but I'll save that for later. In particular, I really appreciated the little bits of characterization, melancholy, mundanity, and even whimsy offered during the serving minigame. The story has a good amount of characterization overall, but is mainly focused on the player character.
Okay, tired of avoiding SPOILERS:
Your player character, Len is a rather pensive and introspective man...Well, at least that's how he came off to me based on the dialog choices I made. He's also a rather lonely man, but not in a creepy way. In fact, Len's loneliness is the in-fiction reason the game exists. It seems Len's friends have mostly drifted away or died. He doesn't even socialize much with his family. Retired Men's Nude Beach Volleyball League is the game Len Rizzo created to tell his family about himself and his lost friends. This isn't really speculation, as the last chapter begins with his grand-daughter, May, discovering his development computer after he's been moved to a nursing home. This could have been effectively played for laughs or as an earth-shattering revelation, but if you pay enough attention and/or poke around at the desktop that shows after you "exit" the game it becomes pretty clear. There's no real fanfare surrounding the reveal, and despite the shift in perspective the final chapter flows pretty naturally from the end of Len's matches.
One thing that really impressed me was how the game's subject matter, sports, aging, masculinity, and vulnerability were handled. The game isn't trying to get you to laugh at Len or his friends. The game doesn't even seem particularly interested in making you pity them either. Len, and the writers clearly have a lot of empathy for these characters. It's refreshing to see older men treated as humans in a video game. Not superheroes, curmudgeons, or punchlines, just people, flaws and all.
Regarding the game's length, I played about 3 - 4 hours by the time I reached the end. It's not a particularly robust experience, but given the developers' approach, I think it's about the perfect length. My biggest concerns are accessibility related, but I will explain those in the forums. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who's a fan of visual-novel-action hybrids, but the game is very approachable even if you haven't played many games like it or games in general. Probably not a kid's game. Though it isn't crude or particularly heavy, it feels decidedly adult. I'm really happy I found out about this game and I hope you'll give it a shot.
