Spooktober 2023, Entry #2
The retro RPG Maker graphics, stylized art direction, the surreal yet playful aesthetic, the cerebral jumpscares: this made for a genuinely frightening experience. And that was all before the true ending.
I got the normal ending, had my fun, rated it a 3/5, and nearly sat this down without batting an eye, completely oblivious to what I was missing. The true ending recontextualizes the entire game so dramatically it had might as well not exist without it. It's a fantastic example of lateral storytelling and how to make a tragedy deeply personal. Fuck all that scary monsters, blood-and-gore, watching-people-die Michael Myers nonsense; J-horror really does hit different.
And it's wrapped up neatly in a 3-hour package. In a quagmire of 70-100 hour JRPG epics, I desperately need these single-sitting pick-me-ups, even as they drown me in their despair. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
The retro RPG Maker graphics, stylized art direction, the surreal yet playful aesthetic, the cerebral jumpscares: this made for a genuinely frightening experience. And that was all before the true ending.
I got the normal ending, had my fun, rated it a 3/5, and nearly sat this down without batting an eye, completely oblivious to what I was missing. The true ending recontextualizes the entire game so dramatically it had might as well not exist without it. It's a fantastic example of lateral storytelling and how to make a tragedy deeply personal. Fuck all that scary monsters, blood-and-gore, watching-people-die Michael Myers nonsense; J-horror really does hit different.
And it's wrapped up neatly in a 3-hour package. In a quagmire of 70-100 hour JRPG epics, I desperately need these single-sitting pick-me-ups, even as they drown me in their despair. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.