While I like the monster design and some of the set pieces, the story has a difficult time finding an appropriate tone and the graffiti art aesthetic can run somewhat corny in how it chases a kind of aesthetically authentic depiction but ends up with the word “SWAG” in all caps during the games denouement. More concerning is the way it scraps P.T. for parts and borrows the recursive, iterative level design and twitchy monster movement while putting it in a far more conventional narrative structure. The lack of subtlety here—only in part due to its necessary attempt at tact when handling themes of suicide and abuse—undercuts moments of interesting subtlety in the mid-game and in some of the environmental storytelling. I hate to see a story whittle itself down to its most obvious point, especially when that attempt at sharpening always comes off as a blunting of a work’s appeals.

On a more personal note, this is maybe the first horror game I’ve played through by myself. I’ve spent years watching let’s plays of games and have been interested in them aesthetically, but I’ve had such a difficult time playing them myself and even needed to avoid headphone and turn down the sound effects for this one. I’ve had a difficult time realizing that I may need to adjust gameplay settings to fit me, that my natural state isn’t always the same as that of the game’s interpellated or hailed default player.

This has been strange for me as a fan of horror movies, which I watch regularly and happily and have even studied academically. The interactive qualities in horror games just activate my uncomfortably sensitive startle response and give me the same somatic anxiety that going through a haunted house does. That being said, this was pleasantly surprising in just helping me get my feet wet with this genre of gaming. Even though I have qualms with this one, there’s a certain warmth I feel toward it because of this personal background with horror games. Hoping to keep playing them more and more, especially now that I’ve put down my usual Overwatch for a bit.

Off of dating apps for a bit so I played this.

Anyway, I'm going to rank the dads:

Hugo
Robert
Mat
Craig
Brian
Damien
Joseph

Decided to play this after watching Tim Rogers' video on Tokimeki Memorial and wanting to test my own sense for the appeal of a dating sim. This one is weighed down by a mechanical simplicity, gratingly millennial sensibility, and a tenderqueer homonormative ideology that pooh-poohs hookup culture a bit too moralistically to feel authentic. Mostly cute and doesn't overstay its welcome, but it's rather sleight. I managed to play through all good endings and the two major hidden endings (one more interesting than the other, as the more sinister elements of a certain ending and their foreshadowing in additional lines of dialogue make it clear that, perhaps in a bit of inspiration from Doki Doki Literature Club, the crew got carried away by the idea of a dating sim's novelty in an increasingly streamable marketplace, giving a certain amount of credence to those who found the idea of the project a bit patronizing or pejoratively novel upon its announcement) and didn't feel like going back for the in-date shock endings. First game completed over spring break! Hopefully I finish at least one more; I'm thinking Kingdom Hearts.