A story that is at odds with itself. The game is truly at its best when its analyzing the malaise of the time period that the story takes place in. Sumina is a wonderful city with rich history but the rapid industrialization post WWII has left it polluted, both in a physical and metaphysical sense. There's a moment where two main characters stand on a bridge discussing the nature of the Sumina river. The Sumina River in this case is treated as the gateway between life and the afterlife, though it has been polluted through decades of industrialization. The city is littered with poverty. One of the main locations is a high school of impoverished students who have no consistency in teachers since they can only hire people on a temporary basis. Students with no prospects become ruffians, and are treated as unteachable animals that exist simply to be isolated from society. Members of the community try to treat them with care such as the policeman Hajime who treats his job much more like a social worker than an ACAB. The tapestry here is vivid.

Often the biggest sign towards this pollution is the powerlessness of women in this society, from Sumeo not given the option to pay the ransom for her child or Michyo forced into awful circumstances stemming purely from the death of her father. Women cannot not choose their circumstances and are only finally given some amount of power once given the powers of the curse echos. @Cadensia did a wonderful job adding a historical context to the story itself and how it fits into the sociocultural frameworks of gender, socioeconomics, etc. It's much better than what I could put together discussing the gender elements at play here so go give it a read!

The problem here is while the atmosphere of Sumina and certain plotlines are impeccable the story ultimately falls flat in terms of both theming and the mystery. Did you know that the only way you can learn the motivations of the true villain is through a File in the menu? Those motivations in themselves are also pretty whack. The story is best when looked through the lense of Sumue, a woman who is both trying to gain power that she's lost in society as well stubborn in her desire to ressurect her child. Often depicted as obsessed and morally questionable, she ultimately gets that ethos dissected into three different endings for her, all of which feel complete and conclusive. On the other hand, the villain? Abjectly evil. Decidedly feminine. Depicted with an obsession on pride which while being a fine villanous crutch is ironic when at one moment in the end a main male character does a "noble sacrifice" of sorts based entirely in his pride. While the themes identify gender and the power that men have in society as a root of so many issues, it in itself does not treat the male and female characters equally in its final moments.
As soon as the story tosses away the morally complex main characters to focus on the morally one sided villanous opposition it falls flat on its face. The mystery becomes unengaging, the plot threads begin to unravel, and ultimately the themes of the story lack consistency. Sumue cannot exist in the same story as Ashino, unless the thought process is that motherhood justified her pride or added some extra layer that makes it more morally complex than Ashinos desire to stay beautiful.

Ultimately the story leaves me frustrated. It is beautiful in so many small moments. It frames its historical context so well and the themes are so rich at first, but its fixation on morality is its downfall. The story does not treat its characters equally, which is unfortunate since all the problems in Sumina stem from its inequity.