"Fairytales are crimes. The unrealistic fantasy that happens in real life is a crime."
That's the first line I can think of when asked to explain what this game has to say as an exposition on crime in relation to human nature, and ultimately, figuring out what it all meant and the answer being so simple despite all the complicated and confusing plots and backgrounds is what has made it stick so much on my mind.
It's obtuse as hell in terms of story and game design, Suda's style has been there since day one no doubt about it, and that includes (to the dismay of some) tedious/baffling gameplay sections that hate the player with a passion and a disregard for coherent storytelling in favor of raw emotion or even explaining what is going on in a way that makes sense. I have like, zero experience engaging with a visual novel seriously and that's probably why it took me a whole year to finish, a genre so unappealing to me and these Suda-isms being presented in such a sluggish and hard to connect with way would've definitely made me drop this during a moment of weakness. But I'm glad i stuck with it until the end! Despite its failings there rly is no better introduction to the KTP series than this.
Took me a while but the more I played the more hooked I was, the more I felt like I understood its themes and characters but that was only the case once i got the full picture, which was hard as hell considering how much you need to go over them and how every character is not even allowed to be completely unlikeable. My interest began small but just kept growing, connecting chapters with their respective new order/joy division songs, learning more about the behind the scenes aspects of the game and Suda's mindset during it, and just falling in love with its style of writing and the unreal style of presenting the intended feeling before you can even begin to rationalize it. The socio-political commentary is still as poignant as it was in 1999 in regards to the corruption of anything this society has been built on and works with, and the way the internet has mixed itself with the despair and hope of trying to find sense through the whole thing and finding something real even against the knowledge that nothing really is and it's working against you, very reminiscent of metal gear solid 2 in that way even if it came after. But it was the ending that really solidified it for me because I've never felt what Kill The Past really meant until everything fell into place here, and once they've been given the agency to decide their outcome, their answers are simple as living with this pain, not giving a shit about the fate entrusted to them and seizing that fucking light before it's out.
It is what it always intended to be: a reflection on crime and human nature that can't be given an answer beyond what we decide to do with it ourselves, and that impression just hasn't left my mind and will probably grow more and more as the series goes along, and ain't that just the best.
That's the first line I can think of when asked to explain what this game has to say as an exposition on crime in relation to human nature, and ultimately, figuring out what it all meant and the answer being so simple despite all the complicated and confusing plots and backgrounds is what has made it stick so much on my mind.
It's obtuse as hell in terms of story and game design, Suda's style has been there since day one no doubt about it, and that includes (to the dismay of some) tedious/baffling gameplay sections that hate the player with a passion and a disregard for coherent storytelling in favor of raw emotion or even explaining what is going on in a way that makes sense. I have like, zero experience engaging with a visual novel seriously and that's probably why it took me a whole year to finish, a genre so unappealing to me and these Suda-isms being presented in such a sluggish and hard to connect with way would've definitely made me drop this during a moment of weakness. But I'm glad i stuck with it until the end! Despite its failings there rly is no better introduction to the KTP series than this.
Took me a while but the more I played the more hooked I was, the more I felt like I understood its themes and characters but that was only the case once i got the full picture, which was hard as hell considering how much you need to go over them and how every character is not even allowed to be completely unlikeable. My interest began small but just kept growing, connecting chapters with their respective new order/joy division songs, learning more about the behind the scenes aspects of the game and Suda's mindset during it, and just falling in love with its style of writing and the unreal style of presenting the intended feeling before you can even begin to rationalize it. The socio-political commentary is still as poignant as it was in 1999 in regards to the corruption of anything this society has been built on and works with, and the way the internet has mixed itself with the despair and hope of trying to find sense through the whole thing and finding something real even against the knowledge that nothing really is and it's working against you, very reminiscent of metal gear solid 2 in that way even if it came after. But it was the ending that really solidified it for me because I've never felt what Kill The Past really meant until everything fell into place here, and once they've been given the agency to decide their outcome, their answers are simple as living with this pain, not giving a shit about the fate entrusted to them and seizing that fucking light before it's out.
It is what it always intended to be: a reflection on crime and human nature that can't be given an answer beyond what we decide to do with it ourselves, and that impression just hasn't left my mind and will probably grow more and more as the series goes along, and ain't that just the best.