This dev just loves ruining their endings I enjoyed the game, I just played mad father, loved that too, but something I noticed between the two is that this dev just cannot seem to leave an ending alone, I'll get to that later though and try to focus on the non-spoiler content Overall, I wouldn't really call this a horror game, at times it's more like a morbid comedy, but it does have some disturbing parts, so here's your content warning behind this spoiler, there are also some spoilers for events though, so use your discretion if you want 0 spoilers a character is blackmailed into I guess prostitution by another female character, and said character hides that from her teacher only to be seemingly sexually assaulted by him and then murdered by him, the girl in question is only highschool age There are some differences between the male and female protagonists, particularly their personalities, and I think the ending while sticking to the same general beats, is a little different between the two, don't really get why though, also in "truth", for some reason Yoshino's is kind of toned down for the male protagonist instead of the female, no idea why they'd do that since she's human garbage either way Honestly, I think regardless of your actual gender, the female protagonist option is a better experience, it's a bit funnier, she feels more real, more well-rounded, and just more interesting, the male is just generic protagonist, and he's reluctant to do a couple things which the female protagonist isn't, and honestly he shouldn't be reluctant to do them, but fine, murder bad I guess (even tho one of the people you can murder, is himself a murderer) The sprites are great, the music is great, the puzzles aren't impossible or anything, you can figure them out with enough persistence, or just go ask for hints at Library, I got a couple hints from her and it was pretty helpful for stuff I had forgotten about, so great in that respect, although you're only ever going to get 1 of 2 endings and the story beats are pretty linear the entire time, you can't save everyone, you can't kill everyone, that's fine, it's a choice, not every game has to be a tree of decisions and endings, although it does leave out a level of depth that could be there, I really wanted to save Ayaka but there's no way to, just unfortunate Now I'm gonna mention some references I appreciated, if you don't want any spoilers for things you might see and be pleasantly surprised by, ignore this I was really surprised to see the Yume Nikki scream here, great reference, loved it, and no copyright issues since the original scream seems to have come from an old keyboard, if you wanna put any reference in your game that scream is a pretty perfect one, I love the connection with Mad Father even though the dev also ruined the ending for that game (see my Mad Father review for context), on the whole this game feels very much like a corpse party inspired project which takes itself a bit less seriously, the deaths are often funny, they're something to try and get, to see them all, and I think that was a great decision although the constantly having to quick save can be a bit irritating, especially if you forget, although it doesn't take long to get back to wherever you were If you like slightly morbid comedy, or deadly slapstick, absolutely give this a try Now for my issues with the ending... Spoilers ahead obviously... See, this may be a bit controversial, but I think the rapist, murderer, teacher shouldn't have been given any kind of even vague redemption in "truth", I don't think Yoshino should've either, she's awful, she facilitated and took part in essentially the sexual assault and sexual harassment of Misao, send her to hell, bottom layer, she's not sorry, not even a little bit, at no point is she genuinely apologetic or remorseful, she's only ever sorry once facing some kind of comeuppance for her actions, it's literally "you're not sorry for doing it, you're sorry you got caught" Saving Kudoh, sure, Saotome, sure, I mean honestly I don't even think Kudoh should've been stuck there to begin with, sure he's a bit of a twat at times, but like he's kind of a nobody, he doesn't have much of an impact on the story, he's comic relief to an extent via his death , and honestly, I'm kind of fine with Saotome being stuck there, but also like, if all she did was print out some texts and put them on a board, that's bad, I'm not gonna pretend it's not, but also like, Tohma showed her, Tohma was pretending to care about Misao, Tohma was cheating(?) on Misao, kill Tohma, leave him in hell, he can take Kudoh's place I'm fine with saving Misao's soul I guess, saving her from being vengeful and being unable to move on, but that doesn't mean the others should just get a second shot at life, Kudoh and Saotome, maybe, and Saotome it's kind of a heavier maybe, but Kurata? No, don't save his soul, don't give him any shot at reincarnation (although it's unclear if he even gets one, I interpreted it as him being reborn as a cat), Yoshino? No, let her stay in hell, make a new layer of hell for the both of them, the dude who even took Yoshino's offer and STRAIGHT UP SEXUALLY ASSAULTED MISAO didn't even go to hell, how the hell is Kudoh in hell and he isn't? How is Saotome taking up a space instead of him? But, despite all that I did still really enjoy the game, but for some reason this dev loves to add on to their endings, and in the process, kind of ruins them to an extent, I mean I liked seeing Ayaka sort of come back in a way, that was sweet, but honestly not worth it to me, I did on the whole enjoy this game though, same as Mad Father, it was a great experience (at least as the female protagonist, I did skip through most the male protagonist's stuff, mostly skimming, but bro is not interesting at all), I think despite my issues with the ending this is an easy recommend, absolutely give it a shot, especially if you like RPGmaker classics, and if you like it, maybe give Mad Father a go too
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