It has updated graphic, but it's still a dating sim from 1998. It came out at a time when visual novel was transitioning away from adventure game and stripping down the gameplay elements. You can see the visage of an old school dating sim in White Album when you have to choose where to go each day, but the outcome of the story is purely choice-based, you don't need to raise your charm point or study point like in Tokimemo.

Each character in this game is vulnerable and lonely, and they seek warmth from the protagonist one way or another. Some just want companionship, some want love, and some prefer something purely carnal. This is all standard dating sim stuff, but the late 90s Japan setting really adds to the atmosphere. The game captures an anxiety that permeated in the air, and imbues it into each character and makes them feel like real people living in that era, not just objects to obtain in a videogame.

Obviously borrowed a lot of design from the Uncharted series, but this reboot gave something in return: the limited open area and RPG system added a new layer of exploration and survival element to the formula, which was later seen in The Lost Legacy and TLOU2. The emphasis is on "limited". It didn't try to be an open world collecthon with a thousand icons on the map, nor did it go full RPG with its crafting and leveling up. Such self-restraint is often missing in games from newer generation including its own sequels. It also didn't abandon its old trick of linear action sequence, something we see less and less due to criticism of not being "gamey" enough. As is shown here, the right amount of highly scripted sequences spice things up without making the players feel like they are on auto-pilot, especially when they are paired with other parts of the game that allow player freedom.

I couldn't play the game for more than thirty minutes due to severe headache it induced. Near the end of the game, I finally realized I was supposed to repeatedly smash the jump button to jump higher. As you can imagine, my experience with the game was quite miserable. But there's something evocative about preserving the last generation of human on film. I've seen people say how angry this game is, but that's not the impression I got. Sure the graffiti paints a picture of confusion and desperation. But that's not what we are filming. Ours is the last stage of grief. Under the bleeding sky, people seem to be taking the looming doom quite well, either due to numbness or dignity, or maybe the facts that our friends are with us.

Striking and memorable art, although the game takes a bit too much liberty with homages from, even for an indie title. Unique story, though I did not fully grasp. I do wonder if the creators intended for the players to figure out the vast amount of references pulled from different cultures, or they entrusted the task of decoding their game to Youtubers all along. Uneven gameplay. Puzzles are generally interesting. Limited inventory is horror game staple, but the backtrack with key juggling sucks the momentum out of the game. Tying the ending to play style is not good design either. It's only reasonable to avoid combat when ammo is limited, enemies can revive, and most importantly, it's not fun. Why should player be locked out of an ending because of it?

A gem of story telling. It hooks you in at the start with the question "why is he quitting". You go down the memory lane with the protagonist until right before the end when everything comes together, and your curiosity is replaced by an overwhelming sympathy. The protagonist's voice resembles old De Niro in The Irishman, especially the stutter, which leads me to drawing more parallel between the two: lonely old man, shunned by his own child, no purpose or joy in life. The PC port sadly is bit shoddy. I got stuck a few times, had to redo certain sections, and there's one part of the game where I simply had no idea how to complete using mouse and keyboard so I resorted to controller.

Kazoku Keikaku has the making of a great TV show: downtrodden of the society making a living by relying on each other. They call them a family knowing it won't last, but that doesn't stop them from forming trust and bondage. All characters have different background and personalities, and specifically, weaknesses that can only be covered by other members of the family, as well as traumas that can only be healed by the right man, you.

This game touches a part of Japanese society that very few games dare try. Persona 5 and Yakuza series like to present themselves as a gateway to Japan's dark side, but they can't deal with organized crime, drug, prostitution, human trafficking, fraud and the scariest of them all: economic crisis, in the same visceral way (partly due to age rating). Between the gags and lovey-dovey, they game lays bare the tragic pass of each character. It's so plausible, like things you'd heard from local news. It hits you like a truck when you realize there are people out there just like characters in this game, but they are not as lucky as they don't have a family, even a fake one, to fallback to.

The only problem I have with this game is perhaps the limitation of the genre: sexual relation has to be the end goal of each story path even when it feels out of place and far less suitable then a sibling or even parental relation.