It’s been ages since the last time I’ve played any form of narrative sim. Not that I dislike the genre, but I am admittedly extremely fussy about them. They need to really strike a chord with me right away, and I’m happy to report that Wax Heads does exactly that.
Initially what caught my eye is the art style which is heavily inspired by Bryan Lee O’Malley, the artistic genius responsible for Scott Pilgrim Vs The World — as well as the recent Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Over and a few other graphic novels. We’re introduced to a band, Becoming Violet, before just as abruptly being told about the band’s demise. Our experience starts on day one of us working at Repeater Records, under our new boss Morgan.
When we start, we’re first asked to pick a difficulty. We can pick ‘The Customer is Always Right’ – which essentially means we can’t fail and customers will allow us to keep trying until we get the right answer to their pressing needs — and ‘No Refunds’, which is the game’s default mode and lets us live with our choices. I highly recommend playing in the latter difficulty for the full experience, but don’t let me stop you.
What exactly do we do then in Wax Heads, other than lose ourselves in a beautifully drawn and animated world and vibing to the amazingly extensive soundtrack? Well, our job here at Repeater Records is pretty simple. People come in off the street not always knowing what they want, and it’s our job to listen to their requests and fit them with just the right album. This allows Wax Heads to put its best foot forward right out of the gate; the level of creativity on display is genuinely very impressive. We see some absolutely crazy band names and even weirder art.
When it comes to setting people up with the right album, you’ll accomplish this by listening to each customer while they talk to you for a little bit, explaining what it is they’re looking for, and then disappearing into the store and examining each record. For example, one young man came into the store looking for something that’d ‘make your ears bleed. Something unique’. After digging for a few minutes, I found a band that used that exact description on the blurb of their album, so I recommended that. The young man left happy and his wallet lighter, which is even better for us. It may sound silly, but we can also customise each receipt with little emoji to really personalise and close out the sales. I don’t know if it contributes anything, but the personal flair works.
Every day brought new challenges and new people to meet, including your new co-workers. Every conversation they have always feels so natural. Some visual novels can fall into a trap of having characters talk at you rather than to you, but Wax Heads walks that line brilliantly and makes me come away from every interaction with an emotion. Kudos to the writers. You really knocked it out of the ballpark!
Wax Heads has reignited a love for more narrative driven games in me, and the art style compliments it perfectly. Definitely give this one a try — and as a personal thing, can we mainstream vinyl again? You get much better audio quality on vinyl!
Wax Heads is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch consoles.