Holy fuck this game is fucking awful outside of its ending. I have never seen characters and writing as stupid as this game. I don't even know why i am giving it 3 stars but the good stuff in here almost make up for how miserable everything else is

People cry blockuza 3 but claim this is the best game in the series, lol.

I sure love all the padded busy work to justify the $50 price tag which devolves into kiryu being an mmo errand boy getting people their specific toe nail clipper from the other side of town or give them a magic condom or some shit.

The game has some great moments SPOILERS AHEAD:
-orphanage helper substory
-the arena
-the line about ryuji goda after the fight in chapter 2
-the video on the ipad
-the final boss fight
But these moments being good doesn't magically negate all the other bad shit in this game

im so sad bc a friend recommended me this and it started off so good but alas...
to start with:

pros
+ art style that fits a lot with the theme, its not particularly "pretty" to look at but it does the job
+ character designs both fit the time period (early 2000s) AND the setting (u'll understand when u see it)
+ if you ignore the stuff ill talk in the spoilers section the first 10-15 hours and some additional info you get at the end are just. really good writing
+ worldbuilding that makes sense and makes you go "OHH.. THAT'S WHAT IT WAS" in a good way
+ lots of anti-frustration mechanics such as the game telling you where you fucked up and what you should have done, and which keys are for which choices
+ rly good ost!!!
+ i just like mafia/werewolf
? there's no real gore, everything is drawn with a red silhouette instead.

general thoughts are:
SPOILER TERRITORY!!!




HOOOAHHH!!










complaints about haruaki and rikako:
i think the first loop where you dont participate in the feast and the second loop where you DO participate and play as the snake are flawlessly written, aside from chiemi's behavior in wit (which is explained later) is written in a really cringeworthy way, i think that just fits her personality. characters react differently to familiar people and events depending on their role during the feast which keeps the story fresh during each loop and you learn more about them. my problem with the wolf route which also has characters behaving differently than usual is mostly with haruaki's behavior with haru. chiemi and rikako are his love interests during the first loops which i have no problem with, but haruaki is (self reclaimed) 24 years old and haru is a 15 year old. haruaki is just really creepy about her, saying that she is "becoming his type" and that he has "fallen for her" and "would like a relationship with her had she not been a wolf". although haruaki himself is an unreliable narrator, lying about pretty much everything ever, no one in the game questions the age gap when haruaki says he had fallen for her (although this can be explained with the fact that yasumizu is a hypertraditionalist religious village, and as i am currently living in a country filled with and basically ruled by these villages i can see that being ok with them, however the journalists are educated people from the city, they should never be okay with a 24 yr old saying he has fallen for a 15 yr old.

i also hate that rikako is also a pedophile and a rapist, at least she gets called out, not because shes a rapist or a pedophile but because she is trying to resurrect an ancient evil god and destroy japan. i mean ok priorities. i know japan isnt the best with these topics (rape and pedophilia) so thats all i will say.

i didnt like the ending. i hate the whole "dreamer" thing, i hate that fucking sheep so much just ruining the immersion completely and destroying the setting the game had established, and i hate the game trying to justify EVERYTHING about yasumizu with "facts and logic", such as miguruma and higuchi controlling yasumizu and making them think ookami-sama DOES exist, and while learning about these with nosato was fun and made me go "ohhhhhhh", i just hate that how haruaki had an answer for everything. the corruption? its miguruma destroying the bodies with machines. the marks? they put sleeping gas in their room. the locks opening themselves? miguruma must have put motion activated locks on the doors. just bulldoze the whole village at this point whats the fucking point the cops wont come anyway

anyway it was ok the ost was really good. as for who i think is autistic (because i have to pick an autist from everything i play) i think its both kiyo and mocchi, i think autism just runs in the nosato family. also i love haru / the badger god combo theyre so fucking funny