look. i was a child when i played this. i didn’t know anything about the world. the fact that adults are playing this game and rating it so high is ridiculous.

there are homophobic and sexist stereotypes everywhere, an abhorrent misrepresentation of psychosis (futaba), a weird pedophilic relationship you can pursue with one of the teachers (kawakami), and one of the main characters that is supposed to be avid about reforming society expresses interest in becoming a cop when she becomes an adult (makoto). basically, the writers have no idea what point they’re trying to get across.

this game wants to believe it does, but it barely challenges the status quo. it’s all the most surface level authority questioning bullshit that spoke to me when i was a lost 15 year old. and it’s all about spectacle, that is the selling point of this game. no deep commentary, just go out and bring justice to the world. you can fill in the blanks yourself. well, save the first arc with a blatant pedophile as the villain. that’s the only time the writers had the balls to portray one of the antagonists correctly.

i will say the spectacle is great at masking the problems with this game though (i.e. the incredible acid jazz soundtrack, great voice acting, ambitious ui design, and colorful characters) and is probably a large reason why most people, including myself, don’t give it an extremely low rating. it does not change the fact that this was clearly written by old people for an immature audience.

this game has just soured immensely for me over the years as i have grown and experienced indescribable amounts of the oppression and injustice that this video game so desperately thinks it has a good grasp of. i recommend if you are a fan of vibrant aesthetics, jrpgs, 100 hr long campaigns, or are not too bothered about insightful social commentary. otherwise, don’t bother.