i don't know why they didn't put a difficulty option until the sequel games but thank god for that, honestly.

has some more interesting operations such as brain surgery (well... more like brain aneurysms and not really cutting into the brain but still) and doing surgery in the dark. we even get the irrelevant mission but it's not bomb diffusing this time, thank god. it's just breaking locks and it's not as complicated as the bomb was. the only struggle i had was with the last stage. the grievances i have for this series are more plot related. it makes no sense for there to be a time skip and have the 17 year old stay 17 even though she should be in college. we also get a promising male character, only for him to be pushed to the sidelines until it's revealed that the HOA (its a coincidental abbreviation i swear its hands of asclepius) and acropolis pharmaceuticals are actually EVIL organizations. not a shocker, because it was foreshadowed in the opening and they've already acted suspicious to begin with.

even though delphi comes back, it mainly focuses on those two organizations. i wish delphi was slightly more threatening in this game compared to the organizations though, especially since the villain guy who is an ancestor of our last delphi leader, managed to make clones of his own henchmen. surely he could've made something more threatening if the story writers allowed him to.

at least the neo guilt was pretty interesting, both design and concept wise.

while i could understand the flubs for the surgery in the car, they randomly decide that there's not much supplies because of caduceus losing team members and the stockers 'forgetting' to get supplies. which probably shouldn't happen in a place where life-saving surgeries happen... at least nobody died?

there is also a romantic subplot between derek and angie which gets awkward. derek, who seemed to barely have any interest in women suddenly gets flustered over any new woman that shows up. then angie yells at him and drama between them ensues. their co-workers try to bring them together too and it makes me think about how this probably wouldn't be allowed in real life. workplaces say co-workers shouldn't date (they do anyways) but i feel like a doctor dating his own nurse may have some pretty dangerous consequences. though they seem like a pretty decent couple near the end but that's only because angie finally sees him as a human being and not a verbal punching bag. but hey, at least it's better than the options he seemed to have which was: a woman part of a shady organization, a girl who is many years younger than him, and his mentor/parent co-worker from the first game that's like 10+ years older than him.

the funny thing is that despite the romantic subplot being so pushed, there's only implications that they're together with co-worker gossip, angie saying 'the girl by your side', and the narrator calling angie a 'loved one'. i don't expect them to make out with each other, but i'm shocked they didn't call each other boyfriend or girlfriend, or (partner at least) so it's more formal.

lastly while the art is more polished and reminiscent of persona, i miss the old art style so much and i loved angie's look from the first game a lot better than this one (and second opinion to be honest).

a clockup visual novel that i actually think is sort of good? what a plot twist!
ironically enough, it's considered worse than euphoria but maggot baits was a lot more tolerable to me. i saw a review for a clockup visual novel where someone said they could tolerate maggot baits better since the witches aren't human and i think that's part of why it's easier to handle. especially since i've played several black cyc visual novels that already dwell in similar subject matters (sadistic blood, gore screaming show). despite none of this being new to me, i still thought wouldn't be able to tolerate it in maggot baits.
however, turning the filter off the imagery of the gore itself isn't ~horrible~ per say. a lot of the 'horrifying' bits seem to be in the writing itself. the writing really goes all out, they will talk about that shit in DETAIL. you'll think that tiny little visual imagery of an open wound on screen isn't bad, but in the writing they'll
say shit like 'you can see their rib cage and organs' and so on.

the writing is generally pretty descript and has a good eye for detail (... outside the shock horror). i feel like it flows rather nicely, the beginning of the visual novel instantly had me hooked on the story. it only got more interesting as time went on, we learn that there doesn't seem to be such thing as a perfectly good human being in this city. even the main character himself isn't quite good either, despite his desire to save all the witches. he really likes to fight and battle (and i mean REALLY likes it. the story doesn't seem to hesitate to emphasize how much he gets off on it). everyone is selfish in their own way and the story calls even calls them 'maggots'. i was also shocked to see just how this story seemed to showcase just how scary being a woman is, especially in this universe and in this city where men are more than eager to release their sadistic desires on them as much as they can. despite the witches being mostly immortal and quite strong, they are still terrified by humans. especially if the humans can decapitate them, which seems to the only true way to kill witches.

another thing that witches seem to be terrified about is in the title are these strange creatures called maggots. yes, we're getting more references to maggots in the story, yay!
except these maggots seem to be a weird amalgamation between human and monster. they're primarily there to defile witches. their dna is also used to inject into people so they can grow some unusual body parts. but honestly, those monsters are mostly there for some certain scenes. i would say the maggot creatures end up becoming more relevant by the end of the game.

this visual novel has an interesting amount of research and references put into it, ranging from christianity and its relics, ancient execution methods, and the east timorese crisis to quotes from various novels. it's something i really didn't expect in a clockup work either. it's the kind of writing i'd expect in a nitro +/chiral visual novel more than a clockup one, but to emphasize, i've only read two other clockup visual novels. it could be possible that this is mentioned in others, but i just haven't read them yet.

though of course, this doesn't mean it's without any issues. the same issue that shows up in the clockup games i've played are in this game. while for the most part,
the adult scenes seem to be there to showcase just how disgusting and morally corrupt humanity is, clockup puts in way too many of these scenes at once and it kills the meaning of the entire thing. the bad end was notorious for this. after the very beginning, all these scenes just seem like your typical dark eroge/h manga moments and not something to actually be horrified about. i ended up skipping a lot of these scenes (obviously skimming for relevant plot info but usually there isn't any. it typically just focuses on their suffering). but again, this IS clockup. they're pretty well known for making grotesque h-content so it wouldn't be shocking if this was the true intentions of making this game. though i do appreciate the writers making this a well-written story so it didn't make me think that at times.

funny enough, i didn't feel too traumatized or grossed out by the scenes in maggot baits, especially compared to how i felt towards euphoria's. though once again, i did skip plenty of the h scenes later on in the game if they didn't seem plot relevant enough and had content that's a hard NO for me because the shock horror began to get obnoxious. and again, like i mentioned earlier, the witches are seen as immortal beings and the setting has fantasy elements. so it doesn't traumatize me too much compared to something like euphoria where the setting is basically real life (except for the sci-fi elements but you know).

so would i recommend this? yes and no. if you love the gritty 'the world is shit' environment commonly featured in visual novels and love stories that will emphasize how shitty the world is in writing, then yes. but if you cannot handle gore and extremely grotesque things? probably not. i'd only recommend it if you're used to gorey, gross visual novels like euphoria, gore screaming show, and subarashiki hibi, to be more specific. if you liked dead end aegis, you'll also like this game due to the striking similarities which i will partially go into for a bit.

SMALL (BUT COULD BE CONSIDERED MAJOR) SPOILERS FOR THE NORMAL AND TRUE END

i gotta say that i was not expecting this game to pull a literal madoka magica and this is the second visual novel that has similarities to that anime! the first one i read with similarities to madoka magica was dead end aegis. it seems like gen urobuchi's inspiration really runs deep with visual novel writers and it makes sense because that dude also writes them LOL

i've already heard beforehand from youtube videos and reviews that maggot baits will be an amazing, emotional piece and i partially do agree with that. despite the glaring issues, the true ending was beautifully crafted. if you're strong enough to brace yourself through the grotesqueness of it all, i think you'll be getting bountiful rewards in the end.

oh, and the opening is pretty incredible. it fits really well (despite coming off as 'edgy' to some) and it's definitely one of my favorite openings in a visual novel, but it's kinda funny that an american band was like 'yeah we'll put our song in a game like this :)' i will say that this is also my type of music too, so maybe i'm a little bit biased LOL