I've paged over all of the various games vgperson has translated over the years, making a mental repository of which ones had my interest and I wanted to give a try. Yet, all those times, Re:Kinder always fell squarely in the "not interested bucket" because, well, just look at any screenshot of it. Look at it! On the surface, this game is fucking grody, an amateurish mashup of default RPG maker assets that all clash against each other. Every character looks like they're missing one of their eyes when their sprite is facing to the side. Where the fuck is that Backloggd icon from? Everything at face value would suggest that this is a hastily slopped together thing in the sea of the thousands of other RPG Maker projects made over the past several decades not worth caring about.
And yet, what if I told you that underneath this presentation, somehow, some way, this was not only a good game, but one of the best experiences I've had with a RPG Maker game??? It's kinda crazy.
Re:Kinder stands out on two fronts. First, the number and novelty of gameplay situations it sets out during its short runtime is incredibly strong for the genre. The puzzles are generally well thought out and play with the standard RPG Maker elements of inventory and interactables. There is also some combat, but the leveling and inventory systems are stripped out to make each fight more of a puzzle using a limited set of tools. The apartment towards the end of the game is certainly the highlight, with a clever interaction puzzle and one of the most novel combat encounters I've seen in one of these RPG Maker games pasted back-to-back. The combat encounter has you run around a room collecting items and gaining new skills as you fend off a boss constantly trying to engage in combat with you, until you obtain the tools necessary to ignite the boss for an instant kill. It was a bit on the obtuse side (I consulted vgperson's guide for it, which even she admitted some of the elements of the fight were quite inexplicable), but that didn't take away from how novel it felt.
It's other main appeal is the writing and tone it goes for, with a poignant discussion of the impacts of mental illness. The game takes place in a world where mental illnesses are treated as quack science by society, examining how people deal with not having an outlet for or even recognition of their issues. It's a clear reflection of our own world, and it explores the concept with a pretty hefty depth, again, for its short runtime.
Yet, the main villain Yuuichi throws in a hefty mix of off the wall, often dark humor into the game, sometimes right in the middle of some serious moments. Nothing quite prepares you for the main villain coming out after just having murdered a kid to an intense track with Spanish lyrics, nor a stock photo of a dog suddenly flashing on screen (more than once!) in the middle of a conversation. There's a great sense of humor here, making me laugh at several points from the sheer absurdity of what happened. The soundtrack to the game is diverse and shocking in all its own ways, adding a lot to each scene, even if sometimes that a lot is a "wtf is happening right now". By the end of the game, even the seeming mess that is the graphics feels, somewhat, kinda, almost the intent, feeding into the chaotic vibes of the chaotic world.
The craziest part about all of this? Re:Kinder is not some avante garde title, but instead indicates its a remake of the TWO THOUSAND AND THREE game Kinder. Finding out about this after beating the game made its novelty and strong theming feel even more potent. The framework of this game is over 20 years old! It's older than Yume Nikki! From what I understand--there's no English translation of the original release--the dark comedy aspects of the game were added into the remake, where the original kept a thoroughly dark tone throughout. I believe this addition ultimately made the game more interesting. Still, the rest of the game, how it handles mental illness and even touches on some queer themes, and how it plays on the conventions of the RPG genre is radically ahead of its time. Honestly, it pulls a lot of these things off better than many other RPG Maker games I've played that released a decade+ later.
The longer I sit with this, the more profound it feels to be experiencing this creation of an individual 20 years after it was first released, almost in tandem with when I was born. One of the main reasons I play RPG Maker games is the way the pastiche reveals these experiences revolving around, in most of the cases I've seen thus far, a single person's thoughts and identity. In the best case, stepping out of my world to delve into someone else's mind for a couple hours, seeing everything they have to say. These minds enshrined in code that will be available for time in memoriam, from times I didn't get to experience the way I am able to now. And, idk, Re:Kinder is one of the best enshrinements of this.
And yet, what if I told you that underneath this presentation, somehow, some way, this was not only a good game, but one of the best experiences I've had with a RPG Maker game??? It's kinda crazy.
Re:Kinder stands out on two fronts. First, the number and novelty of gameplay situations it sets out during its short runtime is incredibly strong for the genre. The puzzles are generally well thought out and play with the standard RPG Maker elements of inventory and interactables. There is also some combat, but the leveling and inventory systems are stripped out to make each fight more of a puzzle using a limited set of tools. The apartment towards the end of the game is certainly the highlight, with a clever interaction puzzle and one of the most novel combat encounters I've seen in one of these RPG Maker games pasted back-to-back. The combat encounter has you run around a room collecting items and gaining new skills as you fend off a boss constantly trying to engage in combat with you, until you obtain the tools necessary to ignite the boss for an instant kill. It was a bit on the obtuse side (I consulted vgperson's guide for it, which even she admitted some of the elements of the fight were quite inexplicable), but that didn't take away from how novel it felt.
It's other main appeal is the writing and tone it goes for, with a poignant discussion of the impacts of mental illness. The game takes place in a world where mental illnesses are treated as quack science by society, examining how people deal with not having an outlet for or even recognition of their issues. It's a clear reflection of our own world, and it explores the concept with a pretty hefty depth, again, for its short runtime.
Yet, the main villain Yuuichi throws in a hefty mix of off the wall, often dark humor into the game, sometimes right in the middle of some serious moments. Nothing quite prepares you for the main villain coming out after just having murdered a kid to an intense track with Spanish lyrics, nor a stock photo of a dog suddenly flashing on screen (more than once!) in the middle of a conversation. There's a great sense of humor here, making me laugh at several points from the sheer absurdity of what happened. The soundtrack to the game is diverse and shocking in all its own ways, adding a lot to each scene, even if sometimes that a lot is a "wtf is happening right now". By the end of the game, even the seeming mess that is the graphics feels, somewhat, kinda, almost the intent, feeding into the chaotic vibes of the chaotic world.
The craziest part about all of this? Re:Kinder is not some avante garde title, but instead indicates its a remake of the TWO THOUSAND AND THREE game Kinder. Finding out about this after beating the game made its novelty and strong theming feel even more potent. The framework of this game is over 20 years old! It's older than Yume Nikki! From what I understand--there's no English translation of the original release--the dark comedy aspects of the game were added into the remake, where the original kept a thoroughly dark tone throughout. I believe this addition ultimately made the game more interesting. Still, the rest of the game, how it handles mental illness and even touches on some queer themes, and how it plays on the conventions of the RPG genre is radically ahead of its time. Honestly, it pulls a lot of these things off better than many other RPG Maker games I've played that released a decade+ later.
The longer I sit with this, the more profound it feels to be experiencing this creation of an individual 20 years after it was first released, almost in tandem with when I was born. One of the main reasons I play RPG Maker games is the way the pastiche reveals these experiences revolving around, in most of the cases I've seen thus far, a single person's thoughts and identity. In the best case, stepping out of my world to delve into someone else's mind for a couple hours, seeing everything they have to say. These minds enshrined in code that will be available for time in memoriam, from times I didn't get to experience the way I am able to now. And, idk, Re:Kinder is one of the best enshrinements of this.
lemonous
7 months ago