This review contains spoilers
TW// Rpe, sxual assult, ftish content
This game actually took me months to finish through the sheer reason of "I'm not interested in this right now lmao" but I finally got through it and even got every achievement from it! Honestly wasn't that big of an ask since it was so short, so even a dumbass like me was able to finish it within 4 hours.
I'm gonna be honest, though. I am not a fan of the trial-and-error bs that the classic RPG Maker horror games pull. It's the reason I dropped Aria's Story so quickly that I didn't even want to review it. It doesn't reward the player for thinking intuitively a lot of the time; it's just chance and then you remembering NOT to do this thing the next time. I can see the argument, though, that that's the charm and seeing all the death animations turns it into an entertainment factor, a la Shobon no Action (Cat Mario). I'm not of that audience, but the game makes the deaths bearable by offering quicksaves at the press of a button.
As such, most of my experience with the game was okay. The story is really where this game hits its peaks and troughs. I will admit, I did have a bit of an attachment to the story at first with Aki wanting to be Misao's friend. It might seem weird to some people, but to me I've had that urge to be like "YES YES YES I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND PLEASE BE MY FRIEND." And hey, I can always appreciate a good righting the wrongs type of story.
The ending strangely got me. Maybe it's because of my prior attachment to these types of stories but it being uplifting at the end almost made me a bit emotional. The Truth is my favorite part of Misao in that regard.
However, I find some aspects of Misao to be kind of disgusting. This is where the troughs of the story come into play. The Truth, as great as it is, tries to redeem Yoshino and Mr. Kurata and I just...can't understand why. Yoshino goes way too fucking far to just be a mere bully to Misao. Taking lewd photos of her to send to Tohma, painting on her body, and from what I can gather, letting one of the boys "have his way" with her. Girl, that's not stealing lunch money, that's fucking RAPE. You're lucky the most Misao ever did was get someone to chainsaw your body open and proceed to kick you over and over with her multiple spirits.
Now, with Mr. Kurata, I appreciate they gave him some depth by giving him a backstory of him being bullied because of his face and that him changing it never really solved his problem but instead gave him severe Imposter's Syndrome. That aspect of him being frustrated with people not truly accepting him I like. What I CANNOT forgive is his Yoshikage Kira complex. Lord almighty man, the students being scared of you isn't them not accepting you; you're a fucking pedophile that chops people's arms up. I know that approaching pedophilia and perversion should be handled with care and tact. That game doesn't DO that. It would be preferable if the game went in the opposite direction of just treating Mr. Kurata as a fully irredeemable villain. But instead Aki embraces the mf knowing full well the hand fetish is still a problem.
God, I don't know why I've started to become so unforgiving towards these sort of things. Normally I wouldn't be this upset especially with the rest of the game being alright. I think Higurashi When They Cry: Rei must have done something to my patience because I can no longer tolerate the inherent perversion that characters have and the slap on the wrist they get for it. Besides, there are probably other games within this subgenre that execute this story and gameplay without the flaws. The more I think about this game, the more I can't recommend it to anyone despite how otherwise harmless it is. All the other characters I like, too! Saotome ended up being my favorite after the Truth. Just aaaaagh why man why.
This game actually took me months to finish through the sheer reason of "I'm not interested in this right now lmao" but I finally got through it and even got every achievement from it! Honestly wasn't that big of an ask since it was so short, so even a dumbass like me was able to finish it within 4 hours.
I'm gonna be honest, though. I am not a fan of the trial-and-error bs that the classic RPG Maker horror games pull. It's the reason I dropped Aria's Story so quickly that I didn't even want to review it. It doesn't reward the player for thinking intuitively a lot of the time; it's just chance and then you remembering NOT to do this thing the next time. I can see the argument, though, that that's the charm and seeing all the death animations turns it into an entertainment factor, a la Shobon no Action (Cat Mario). I'm not of that audience, but the game makes the deaths bearable by offering quicksaves at the press of a button.
As such, most of my experience with the game was okay. The story is really where this game hits its peaks and troughs. I will admit, I did have a bit of an attachment to the story at first with Aki wanting to be Misao's friend. It might seem weird to some people, but to me I've had that urge to be like "YES YES YES I WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND PLEASE BE MY FRIEND." And hey, I can always appreciate a good righting the wrongs type of story.
The ending strangely got me. Maybe it's because of my prior attachment to these types of stories but it being uplifting at the end almost made me a bit emotional. The Truth is my favorite part of Misao in that regard.
However, I find some aspects of Misao to be kind of disgusting. This is where the troughs of the story come into play. The Truth, as great as it is, tries to redeem Yoshino and Mr. Kurata and I just...can't understand why. Yoshino goes way too fucking far to just be a mere bully to Misao. Taking lewd photos of her to send to Tohma, painting on her body, and from what I can gather, letting one of the boys "have his way" with her. Girl, that's not stealing lunch money, that's fucking RAPE. You're lucky the most Misao ever did was get someone to chainsaw your body open and proceed to kick you over and over with her multiple spirits.
Now, with Mr. Kurata, I appreciate they gave him some depth by giving him a backstory of him being bullied because of his face and that him changing it never really solved his problem but instead gave him severe Imposter's Syndrome. That aspect of him being frustrated with people not truly accepting him I like. What I CANNOT forgive is his Yoshikage Kira complex. Lord almighty man, the students being scared of you isn't them not accepting you; you're a fucking pedophile that chops people's arms up. I know that approaching pedophilia and perversion should be handled with care and tact. That game doesn't DO that. It would be preferable if the game went in the opposite direction of just treating Mr. Kurata as a fully irredeemable villain. But instead Aki embraces the mf knowing full well the hand fetish is still a problem.
God, I don't know why I've started to become so unforgiving towards these sort of things. Normally I wouldn't be this upset especially with the rest of the game being alright. I think Higurashi When They Cry: Rei must have done something to my patience because I can no longer tolerate the inherent perversion that characters have and the slap on the wrist they get for it. Besides, there are probably other games within this subgenre that execute this story and gameplay without the flaws. The more I think about this game, the more I can't recommend it to anyone despite how otherwise harmless it is. All the other characters I like, too! Saotome ended up being my favorite after the Truth. Just aaaaagh why man why.
i think every video gamer should play at least one freeware creepy japanse rpgmaker game in their life
From the creators of Mad Father, a class of students find themselves trapped in a spirit infested version of their school as former classmate named Misao reveals that she's a ghost and launches her revenge campaign against all who bullied her.
This one's weird. While Mad Father wasn't exactly the pinnacle of realism either, this one leans deep into slasher camp. There's almost three dozen unique kinds of deaths you can encounter, all of them darkly hilarious and cheap. Examine a piece of paper between some bookshelves? Get smashed like a pancake. Stand too close to the window? It'll shatter and kill you too. Examine a painting? It eats you. The quicksave feature helps encourage the player to actively die, just to see the results.
Its the story itself where things get complicated for me. Misao's bullying is truly horrific and crosses the line to borderline exploitative pretty quickly. The game does offer her a lot of sympathy, but there's a lot of things I don't know if I needed to see? But then again, that's what the horror genre tends to gravitate towards pretty quick.
There's other little things that add up to a really bizarre but fascinating game. Characters from Mad Father act as your hint/save system. And while I didn't play the game again as the male protag, I've been watching clips that reveal there's a LOT of surprising differences between your two protag options. Fem!Aki is more brutal and willing to kill others for the sake of survival, even laughing off the death of a class bully. M!Aki is kinder and less willing to hurt others, which spirals the whole ending into an entirely different climax. The whole experience was just fascinating but bizarrely charming. Trashy horror at its most polished.
This one's weird. While Mad Father wasn't exactly the pinnacle of realism either, this one leans deep into slasher camp. There's almost three dozen unique kinds of deaths you can encounter, all of them darkly hilarious and cheap. Examine a piece of paper between some bookshelves? Get smashed like a pancake. Stand too close to the window? It'll shatter and kill you too. Examine a painting? It eats you. The quicksave feature helps encourage the player to actively die, just to see the results.
Its the story itself where things get complicated for me. Misao's bullying is truly horrific and crosses the line to borderline exploitative pretty quickly. The game does offer her a lot of sympathy, but there's a lot of things I don't know if I needed to see? But then again, that's what the horror genre tends to gravitate towards pretty quick.
There's other little things that add up to a really bizarre but fascinating game. Characters from Mad Father act as your hint/save system. And while I didn't play the game again as the male protag, I've been watching clips that reveal there's a LOT of surprising differences between your two protag options. Fem!Aki is more brutal and willing to kill others for the sake of survival, even laughing off the death of a class bully. M!Aki is kinder and less willing to hurt others, which spirals the whole ending into an entirely different climax. The whole experience was just fascinating but bizarrely charming. Trashy horror at its most polished.
Still just as fun and interesting as I remember, and very short, too.
Some of the Truth scenes got a bit weird, though. I just find it a bit difficult sympathizing with some of these characters and what they did.
Some of the Truth scenes got a bit weird, though. I just find it a bit difficult sympathizing with some of these characters and what they did.
Midsao
This review contains spoilers
I loved this game when i was younger, but replaying it years later.. this game seriously tries to make you sympathize with the rapist pedo serial killer teacher just because he got bullied twice as a kid.
Misao was completely justified and did nothing wrong.
Misao was completely justified and did nothing wrong.
História muito boa, puzzles ótimos envolvendo criaturas de terror e o cenário. Um dos RPGMAKERS obrigatórios.
i hope the people that made this die a horrible death
A normal school day goes awry as the spirit of a dead classmate enacts her revenge on those who wronged her, while also wishing for your help to save her. One of the first rooms you stumble into has a vase of roses with a key within it. You try to grab it, prick yourself on the thorns, and die. A little while later you wander onto the roof, walk towards the edge, get pulled off the side by a ghost, and die again. Perhaps you pick up a book in the library then the bookshelf crushes you, and--surprise surprise--yet another death!
It took me until finding the list chronicling every single unique death you've occurred in the game for it all to click in. Misao may put on the guise of a typical RPG Maker adventure horror game at first, but this one is FUNNY AS HELL. While yes, you are wandering around solving fairly solid puzzles and collecting items--this is by the same developer of Mad Father and has a similar quality in that regard--the main perverse incentive is finding out how you'll get brutally murdered at every step. It's the most effective set-up/punchline repeated to great effect: you perform an action you probably shouldn't be doing and then you find out what the punishment is. Several deaths had me giggling by the intentional absurdity of them.
While I've played several incredibly brief RPG Maker games during this journey, this is the one that particularly stands out for one that gave me the greatest sense of "oh, it's almost over already?" when I realized I already acquired most of the key items required to complete the game. Not to say the game feels incomplete, but I feel the game would've benefited from having just a biiiit more area to explore. Its basement suggests the idea of there being something more to the game, akin to Mad Father's slow treck downward through each floor, but that was ultimately an area that took less than 5 minutes to go through. Again though, what's provided was a greatly enjoyable time, and the fact I wished for more of it is a testament to its gameplay quality more than anything.
The biggest issue with the game comes down to its story feeling... messy. I came out of the main story more or less understanding the character dynamics, which were nothing special but ultimately workable. Then the "Truth" epilogue was unlocked, a 20 or so minute anthology backfilling the character relations more. The information expounded there not only felt wholly unnecessary but left me more confused on what the relationships between some of the characters were. In particular, Misao and the player character felt like they kinda changed on a whim... which is the two characters that are the most important for that not to happen to!
There was one spoilery scene there that, while optional, left me completely confused at what this game was really supposed to be about, and not in a good way. You can read this incredibly succinct review that sums it up beautifully (again, spoilers): https://www.backloggd.com/u/thespanglemaker/review/906231/
Despite all that, Misao is a funny and competent adventure game worth the two hours and change it takes to finish. Just maybe skip the Truth section! It's totally fine if you do, you're not missing anything! Also choose to play as the female protagonist because they did the Persona 3 Portable thing of making her a bit more unhinged than the male protagonist, and why wouldn't you want that in a comedy game?
It took me until finding the list chronicling every single unique death you've occurred in the game for it all to click in. Misao may put on the guise of a typical RPG Maker adventure horror game at first, but this one is FUNNY AS HELL. While yes, you are wandering around solving fairly solid puzzles and collecting items--this is by the same developer of Mad Father and has a similar quality in that regard--the main perverse incentive is finding out how you'll get brutally murdered at every step. It's the most effective set-up/punchline repeated to great effect: you perform an action you probably shouldn't be doing and then you find out what the punishment is. Several deaths had me giggling by the intentional absurdity of them.
While I've played several incredibly brief RPG Maker games during this journey, this is the one that particularly stands out for one that gave me the greatest sense of "oh, it's almost over already?" when I realized I already acquired most of the key items required to complete the game. Not to say the game feels incomplete, but I feel the game would've benefited from having just a biiiit more area to explore. Its basement suggests the idea of there being something more to the game, akin to Mad Father's slow treck downward through each floor, but that was ultimately an area that took less than 5 minutes to go through. Again though, what's provided was a greatly enjoyable time, and the fact I wished for more of it is a testament to its gameplay quality more than anything.
The biggest issue with the game comes down to its story feeling... messy. I came out of the main story more or less understanding the character dynamics, which were nothing special but ultimately workable. Then the "Truth" epilogue was unlocked, a 20 or so minute anthology backfilling the character relations more. The information expounded there not only felt wholly unnecessary but left me more confused on what the relationships between some of the characters were. In particular, Misao and the player character felt like they kinda changed on a whim... which is the two characters that are the most important for that not to happen to!
There was one spoilery scene there that, while optional, left me completely confused at what this game was really supposed to be about, and not in a good way. You can read this incredibly succinct review that sums it up beautifully (again, spoilers): https://www.backloggd.com/u/thespanglemaker/review/906231/
Despite all that, Misao is a funny and competent adventure game worth the two hours and change it takes to finish. Just maybe skip the Truth section! It's totally fine if you do, you're not missing anything! Also choose to play as the female protagonist because they did the Persona 3 Portable thing of making her a bit more unhinged than the male protagonist, and why wouldn't you want that in a comedy game?
REALLY juvenile but THAT'S OKAY. it's trying its best
the game itself is okay, but some people may find it too distressing (and no, not because it's a horror game).
I wish Sen kept making these types of games.
eh it was fun, i really like rpg maker horror games
This game is pretty funny, death scenes were fucking hilarious. It wasn't scary at all though. Story was decent, got me intrigued to finish the game (and get all the achievements) in one go. Overall I had a fun time playing this.
Made by the same developer of mad father, misao is another classic in the rpg horror maker that you should need to play.
as the little sister of mad father this isn't as interesting an experience as that one but as one of the classic rpg maker it sure is a cool way to get into the meat of the genre
while I have never played this game myself I literally remembered every single scene from seeing it on YouTube which I thought wouldn't happen since I completely forgot about this game for 10 years of my life but whatever
you know the deal already 1) high school setting 2) bullied girl ghost petty revenge 3) horror inter dimensional shit and you have the recipe for the one and only . corpse party gasp sfx sorry umh I meant to say misao yeah misao haha whatever
first of all the story premise is dumb but not really uninteresting there are some cool story beats here and there and these developers just love to put flashbacks fucking everywhere you will see what misao went through and why her ghost is trying to get you into the super mario galaxy horror dimension
so yeah the story is like this girl has unresolved issues with characters and so she decides to kill everyone and your only mission is to exercise the shit out of her
good setting but characters fall flat in this one maybe they're not as comically bad as ao oni ones but they're bland as shit and even when they're getting their heads chopped off one by one you're like umh ok
plus the protagonist is also a receptacle of either lesbian undertext with misao or straight anime cliche so yeah nothing too weird but choosing between the guy or the girl changes some things up like the girl being absolutely fucking feral and just killing everything in front of her thats fucking funny
that being said the main gameplay is always the same rpg maker stuff you go around get items solve puzzles do shit my only issue is that since the fucking school is like 5 stories tall if you don't know what you're doing youre gonna go up and down the pole like 30 damn times just for you to find a hidden key in a drawer what the fuck
and another main gimmick is like just going around and seeing how many death scenes are there there's a TON of death scenes here and funnily enough after some time of backtracking and shit I would forget the death cue and just die again this is insane but yeah whatever there's a fast save option so youre gonna be fine
umh do yeah nothing that groundbreaking but it is good and the final segment of the game can either be interesting to you or fucking bullshit mainly because why would you give a sexual predator and pedophile a redemption arc is beyond me but alright do your thing romanticise the shit out of this go on you killing stalking type of reader (i read killing stalking to the end im guilty too)
so whatever if you want to play 1 rpgmaker in your life look at this game as a contender of absolutely fucking not
while I have never played this game myself I literally remembered every single scene from seeing it on YouTube which I thought wouldn't happen since I completely forgot about this game for 10 years of my life but whatever
you know the deal already 1) high school setting 2) bullied girl ghost petty revenge 3) horror inter dimensional shit and you have the recipe for the one and only . corpse party gasp sfx sorry umh I meant to say misao yeah misao haha whatever
first of all the story premise is dumb but not really uninteresting there are some cool story beats here and there and these developers just love to put flashbacks fucking everywhere you will see what misao went through and why her ghost is trying to get you into the super mario galaxy horror dimension
so yeah the story is like this girl has unresolved issues with characters and so she decides to kill everyone and your only mission is to exercise the shit out of her
good setting but characters fall flat in this one maybe they're not as comically bad as ao oni ones but they're bland as shit and even when they're getting their heads chopped off one by one you're like umh ok
plus the protagonist is also a receptacle of either lesbian undertext with misao or straight anime cliche so yeah nothing too weird but choosing between the guy or the girl changes some things up like the girl being absolutely fucking feral and just killing everything in front of her thats fucking funny
that being said the main gameplay is always the same rpg maker stuff you go around get items solve puzzles do shit my only issue is that since the fucking school is like 5 stories tall if you don't know what you're doing youre gonna go up and down the pole like 30 damn times just for you to find a hidden key in a drawer what the fuck
and another main gimmick is like just going around and seeing how many death scenes are there there's a TON of death scenes here and funnily enough after some time of backtracking and shit I would forget the death cue and just die again this is insane but yeah whatever there's a fast save option so youre gonna be fine
umh do yeah nothing that groundbreaking but it is good and the final segment of the game can either be interesting to you or fucking bullshit mainly because why would you give a sexual predator and pedophile a redemption arc is beyond me but alright do your thing romanticise the shit out of this go on you killing stalking type of reader (i read killing stalking to the end im guilty too)
so whatever if you want to play 1 rpgmaker in your life look at this game as a contender of absolutely fucking not
misao soup
The game is good, death is everywhere, you can die reading paper, The Story of the game is pretty heavy with sensitive subject but it's good
Man, female Aki is so ruthless!
This review contains spoilers
why the FUCK would i save that pedophilic murdering ass teacher. FUCK that guy
This review contains spoilers
This game isn't good. By most definitions of the word good. It's not scary, most of the myriad deaths seem purposefully slapstick and stupid (my personal favorite being one in which you walk past a phone and it starts to ring which scares you SO BADLY that you hit the wall so hard you die), the handling of issues such as bullying and CSA, while done with empathy for the victims, is poor at best and exploitative at worst, it tries to make you sympathize with a pedophilic rapist serial murdering teacher.
So why do I like it?
I think Misao is an excellent B movie horror video game. If you go in not taking it seriously and expecting it to be at least slightly problematic and tactless, you will have a good time. Especially if you play as the female character, who for some reason is an unrepentant murderous maniac. Hunting for the deaths is fun, as they get supremely ridiculous and are everywhere. The puzzles, while simple, are fun enough to solve. And watching the trainwreck of a plotline crash into your psyche forever is both entertaining and cringeworthy.
I'm willing to admit some of this may be nostalgia of my tween and early teen years (which despite the gore and some plotpoints is almost definitely the best age range to fully enjoy this game) when I was obsessed with anything mildly dark. But I do think anyone who loves campy Japanese horror and has a good sense of humor or high tolerance for bullshit will be able to have some fun with it.
So why do I like it?
I think Misao is an excellent B movie horror video game. If you go in not taking it seriously and expecting it to be at least slightly problematic and tactless, you will have a good time. Especially if you play as the female character, who for some reason is an unrepentant murderous maniac. Hunting for the deaths is fun, as they get supremely ridiculous and are everywhere. The puzzles, while simple, are fun enough to solve. And watching the trainwreck of a plotline crash into your psyche forever is both entertaining and cringeworthy.
I'm willing to admit some of this may be nostalgia of my tween and early teen years (which despite the gore and some plotpoints is almost definitely the best age range to fully enjoy this game) when I was obsessed with anything mildly dark. But I do think anyone who loves campy Japanese horror and has a good sense of humor or high tolerance for bullshit will be able to have some fun with it.
I got this game in a bundle with Mad Father and didn't really know what to expect. I personally found it not as great as Mad Father, mostly because i found the puzzles in the game less logical and often had to look for answers online. The story was ok but very simple and the twist wasn't quite as shocking as in Mad Father.
2 Times Finished with female and male protagonists.
✓
this is peak humor
Misao was a charming, fun and sad as I remembered.
This newer version of the game added more deaths, which are always a fun and silly little addition that adds a lighter tone to what is otherwise a deeply upsetting game. I loved the nods to Aya and Alfred's clones (with Miss Library even acknowledging this if you try to name her Aya) and the picture of Aya's mother in her room. Very sweet little details that made me happy as a fan of Mad Father!
The story itself is engaging and makes this a good, short little game to play through. It's easy to feel lost in the school sometimes but for me this only added to the experience. The plot has some heavy themes including sexual assault which I knew beforehand as I played the original version but it might have been good to have a more specific trigger warning at the opening of the game for those going in blind but I also understand how to some people this may inhibit the story.
I loved playing this updated version of a game I used to adore and seeing the updated art and new additions to the story which kept it fresh as someone returning to Misao.
This newer version of the game added more deaths, which are always a fun and silly little addition that adds a lighter tone to what is otherwise a deeply upsetting game. I loved the nods to Aya and Alfred's clones (with Miss Library even acknowledging this if you try to name her Aya) and the picture of Aya's mother in her room. Very sweet little details that made me happy as a fan of Mad Father!
The story itself is engaging and makes this a good, short little game to play through. It's easy to feel lost in the school sometimes but for me this only added to the experience. The plot has some heavy themes including sexual assault which I knew beforehand as I played the original version but it might have been good to have a more specific trigger warning at the opening of the game for those going in blind but I also understand how to some people this may inhibit the story.
I loved playing this updated version of a game I used to adore and seeing the updated art and new additions to the story which kept it fresh as someone returning to Misao.
This game is painfully derivative of other games in the medium. The scares are near non-existent and border on parody. The story is lackluster and a pretty clear copy/paste of Corpse Party. The characters are on screen for minutes before they die, and then game spends the rest of its runtime trying to convince you they deserved it. The epilogue included with the rerelease is incredibly short and just serves to give needless backstory to the twist villain.
história muito triste slk
Why is everyone a terrible person for no reason.
Solid RPGmaker with deaths so over the top it can be hilarious while also carrying some very VERY dark themes