Alter ego is still one of the biggest surprises I've had with any sort of media ever. I had never heard of it before and came in without any expectations or prior knowledge about it, but by the time I was done with it I got out having seen one of the most interesting stories I've read and meeting one of my absolute favorite characters in fiction.

while it does have gameplay aspects in it, where the game truly shines is in its story and the character study of ES, the thematic complexity created by your interactions with her and how she slowly helps you find your identity being not only a journey for you, but to her and how she subtly changes as the story goes on and discovers more of herself makes it one of a kind story. The necessity of understanding ourselves and finding our place in the world while still abiding by rules and terms, how we are shaped by the people around us and that when we try to see more of others we can see a deeper side withn us, those themes tackled by AE makes it one of the most memorable stories that I've seen. ES' growth is genuinely heartwarming, her yearning for freedom and to truly understand herself and how its tackled within the game's 3 endings is incredible and made her an absolute favorite of mine.

Overall AE offers a very interesting character study in the form of ES and some of my favorite themes in fiction, the nuanced changes throughout the game's progression and the conclusion definitely left an impact on me that it'll be long until I forget

I first found this game because of an ad on YouTube. Weird how the site infamous for shoving crappy mobile game ads down your throat became charitable enough to actually show you an ad that’s honest for once.

It was pretty simple too. It advertised itself as a self discovery clicker game, which is accurate overall. Though that premise brings in many questions though. Let’s go over that gameplay then, shall we?

The game is split into two sections. The one you’ll be in the most time is the clicker section. As you’d expect, it plays like a typical clicker game with you tapping text bubbles to gather EGO and spending EGO to read books (this games equivalent of buying services) to get more EGO over time. It’s very simple, and bases its identity on many books about self reflection and contemplation.

It’s very much the part that’ll make or break the game for you though, since it’s nothing groundbreaking in this department. It’s a typical formula that’ll mainly be enjoyable to those into this genre of games. That being said, I am not a clicker fan and I still didn’t hate this stuff. I didn’t love it, but still.

A lot of it does come down to the excellent music, which calms me down and puts me in a relaxed yet tense state. Like I’m trying to focus, but intrusive thoughts come in to break it. Big shout out to amiko for the music in this game, btw. She did great here!

But the second part of this game is where it truly shines. In this section, you get to speak to the game’s main character. Es. I won’t spoil it for you, but doing these quizzes and discussions with Es becomes much more interesting than you might expect from the simple premise you’re originally given.

There’s things this game does that I think hit me hardest as someone struggling with mental issues a few years back. I only really got over it last year, and I think the lessons this game gived helped me in some way. Hopefully, if you’re in a similar boat, you can at least get a new perspective from this game. Or just enjoy something unlike anything else on the platform.

Gotta appreciate the smaller devs, creating something from the heart in a way you’d never expect.

This is such a bizzare combination of things. A deeply personal clicker where you "read" classic literature with a dementia-like story and personality quizzes? What the fuck even is that. Not gonna lie, though, it did make a hell of an impression on me 2 years ago. It was so great that I started to read every book available there. I've just remembered that this game existed, and I also plan on finishing reading these classics. Philosophy, psychology, and literature are my shit, and this gave me way more than I expected it to.

The story is really good. It makes you feel for Es and makes you want to give her a happy ending. I didn't expect to like her as much as I do. I like the psychology and literature elements that are woven quite well into the story.

One thing I don't like is the gameplay, it's so boring and lame. It really is a grind especially trying to read every book.

Hopefully when the Switch version comes out more people can experience the character Es and not have to deal with tiring gameplay.

I decided to get the rate to max just for fun, but aside from that, this game is OK, and not much else in terms of wanting to kill time.
As far as an Idle game goes, it gives better bursts of dopamine that's constant unlike Cookie Clicker which gradually grinds to a halt. The idea of being able to max out an idling generator for a final strong boost is a pretty good idea and feels very satisfying compared to forever levelling them.
The game looks nice for the most part and has a narrative, but the TLDR without going into it is that I wasn't captivated. Es is a little ranty, the progression up till then is kinda weird and in-your-face in terms of trying to be deep, and things that happen to Es seem to be something entirely unexplored. Like the whole game is just a series of ideas. Using real books and quoting them was an interesting bit but otherwise there's not much that I took away from this game and felt it was rather on-the-nose, especially with the postgame (Es has a habit of talking like the usual trailing-off anime girl). That said, I didn't bother with the IAPs, so I have no clue what's added but I don't feel interested in looking it up. Apparently there's a sequel...? Whatever.
Anyway, if you want some time to kill and some text to read, you could choose something way worse. I got through this in like a week, and I definitely didn't hate it.