analogue: a hate story is a weird, lonely sort of space tragedy. the player controls someone sent to preserve the logs of an abandoned space station. the lure of the story is in its mysterious future feudal setting and the central tragic figure of the pale bride, a girl woken up from cryostasis and confronted with a very different world than the one she fell asleep in. a version of this pale bride exists as an AI on the ship, who greets the character upon connecting to the station, and later on another AI begins to talk as well. the two of them don't like each other much, and it's interesting trying to get glimpses of the story through the facts that were recorded and the opinions of the two AIs. also, the reactor meltdown is a phenomenal fake-terminal sequence.

i'm a bit confused by all the hate this game is getting regarding the quality of its feminist beliefs--the patriarchal dystopia that Love portrays is at the center of this story, but i think it's much more of a character study than an allegory. like, *Mute has internalized misogynist beliefs--I don't feel like having her say some crazy shit like "I can't even commit suicide like a good widow would" reflects badly on the ideology of the game, though it speaks loads about her character. at the same time, i'm no feminist theorist, and i'd be happy to learn a bit more about what other people don't like about it.

ps: I think there's a lot in this game I missed after reading just a little bit... harem ending?? mute as a man?? I also didn't get a chance to talk to Hyun-ae again after switching to Mute..... yeah I didn't even consider taking either of them with me... I have sympathy for them but I never thought it was even an option, and I don't feel like I really support either of them. interesting... I wonder how many people felt the way I did