Ukraine War Stories is a Ukrainian visual novel by the Kyiv game developer Starni Games. It was first published on Steam in 2022.
The game is set during the early stages of the mass scale Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022. It holds three stories about three different civilians from Ukrainian cities who are caught in the war under Russian occupation:
- Hostomel, with the main character Oleksii "Lyosha" Borysov, a retired aviation engineer.
- Bucha, with the main character Yaroslav "Yarik", a fifteen year old teenager who is caught in Bucha alone with his sister.
- Mariupol, about the surgeon Dima who tries to save as many lives as possible.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Action Survivor: Yarik. Out of all characters, he is the biggest daredevil.
- The Alcoholic: Seems to be just normal in the Russian army. In the Hostomel arc, you can find leftovers from a little party they had in the local pharmacy and find out that they drank sanitizer to fuel their addictions.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Russians are depicted this way. Usually barely adults, clearly aware of the fact that they are not supposed to be in Ukraine…and in full Rape, Pillage, and Burn mode anyway, never showing any remorse.
- Anyone Can Die: Well, those are war stories with a painstakingly cruel enemy…
- Armies Are Evil: The Russian soldiers are consistently shown to be extremely cruel, committing rape and looting without any regret.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Downplayed with Dima. In his case, it is more like “Seeing Too Much Suffering Brings Old Bad Habits Back” (he starts smoking again).
- Break the Cutie: All three arcs, to some extent. The Bucha arc is an EXTREME case of that.
- Cool Plane: Discussed. The Antonov “Mriya” was one in Oleksii’s opinion. He calls it a “treasure” and is very sad when he hears that it was destroyed in a shelling.
- Crisis Point Hospital: The Mariupol arc is about one, and Dima lampshades this on the first day of the war. From then on, there is a steady influx of patients with gory wounds from either combat or bombings, people are pulverized to Ludicrous Gibs in the yard, for any patient successfully operated on, two have to die and then the hospital gets bombed to rubble.
- Damsel in Distress: Vika seems to become this. In fact subverted, since choosing to be annoying to your Russian captors can give her enough spare time to break free on her own.
- Doomed Hometown: All three towns become this. Hostomel and Bucha get better in the end.
- Les Collaborateurs: Oleksandr Hurskyi in the Bucha arc, who is helping the Russians. He gets disposed off when getting too big for his britches.
- Defiant to the End: When threatened with execution, Yarik can choose trying to flee the Russians. It will be the end anyway.
- Face Death with Dignity: Hindu is quite calm in hindsight of succumbing to his injuries, saying that he would just wake up in a new body when he died. Inverted with the civilian woman, who is absolutely desperate in the face of death. You have to choose between the two or can try to save both.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Invoked in the Hostomel arc. One of the Russian soldiers tells Oleksii and his party of civilians about coming from an unhappy household in a poor village in Northern Russia that is sparse on women. Then he begins boasting cheerfully and without any indications of remorse about how he knows that he shouldn’t be in Ukraine, but is having the time of his life.
- Russian soldier: “You can drink all the booze…take whatever you want…fuck local girls.”
- Glorious Mother Russia: Inverted. The Russians show nothing but deepest depravity and are basically only able to fight because of Always Chaotic Evil in effect.
- Happily Married: Oleksii and Lilyana are a long-married, elderly couple that is still very sweet with each other.
- Meaningful Funeral: Can happen at the end of the Bucha arc. Either Vika is found shot after the town’s liberation, or Yarik in a mass grave.
- The Medic:
- Yana in the Bucha arc works as one.
- Several characters of the Mariupol arc. Well justified since it centers around doctors working in a hospital.
- Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Subverted. The Russian soldiers are depicted as violent, cruel rapists who like to boast about their strength and are absolutely convinced of their mission, but are extremely dumb and easy to lie at and impress at the same time.
- Non-Action Guy: Oleksii is one, probably due to his age and a bad leg. He is the slowest of all characters in the game.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Quite a lot of characters are this.
- Hostomel arc: Oleksii and his wife Lilyana usually call each other by their Affectionate Nicknames Lyosha and Lily.
- Bucha arc: Yarik is only a nickname, his official name is Yaroslav.
- Mariupol arc: Danya, only going by that name, is short for Danylo. Also Dima is only going by that name, his official name is presumably Dimitri. One of the wounded soldiers Dima gets as a patient is known under his nickname Hindu, due to his Hinduist faith. Anya could also only be a nickname.
- Peaceful in Death: In one possible ending of the Bucha arc, it is remarked that the dead Vika looks very peaceful in death, maybe having welcomed it.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Discussed by Oleksii and his neighbor David. In their opinion, that shows that literally nothing is holy to the enemy.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Committed in all three arcs by the Russians.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: When Vika is the only survivor of the two teenage siblings of the Bucha arc, she ends up terribly damaged, depressive, and maybe pregnant from one of her rapists. Nevertheless, she still fled her captors on her own, which suggests at least enough leftover sanity to avoid death.
- Say Your Prayers: In a possible ending for the Bucha arc, Yarik realizes that they are going to be massacred since a man behind him is praying.
- Scavenger World: In the chapter “Supply Raid” of the Hostomel arc, Oleksii scavenges through the occupied Hostomel for supplies.
- Screw the War, We're Partying: When you are given a bottle of cognac in the early Hostomel arc, you can choose to share a drink with your party of civilians (will give a mood plus to most characters). The Russians are also implied to have thrown themselves a party in the pharmacy of Hostomel (drinking disinfectant as booze).
- In case Milena loses hope, you can have the option to have a little party between you and her (depending on the items available).
- Suspicious Missed Messages: The Bucha arc portrays unread messages piling up on their mother's phone while the teens are struggling with survival in the midst of the Bucha massacre and can of course not answer because of that.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Oleksii calls himself one at the beginning of the Hostomel arc, although he is a retired aviation engineer.
- Trapped Behind Enemy Lines: All three stories focus on Ukrainians who were trapped by Russian occupiers.
- Tempting Fate: With full-scale war lingering over their heads in the early Hostomel arc, Oleksii plans to drive to the local gas station “on Thursday”. Guess which day of the week the 24th February 2022 was…
- War Is Hell: War breaks loose, your country is invaded by a country you usually got along with quite well. You’re stuck with a group of civilians. They may be friends and family of yours, but Anyone Can Die, you are bound to hide in your basement since civilians discovered outside are usually murdered and the occupiers can come in every moment to loot your house…and as soon as you say anything, they shoot you dead, and that is the lightest fate possible in this type of situation. Sometimes you don’t even have to say anything.
- Wartime Wedding: Implied in the future of Dima and his girlfriend Anya.
