One of the most impactful video games i've ever played. Getting to know each character and the never-ending regret running through Russel's mind as i made sure to get every event and get the "best" ending left me in total awe as someone who would otherwise be completely and utterly unredeemable is given humanity and the ability to sympathize towards.
Unfortunately, there is no "good" ending. Russel's story was already over before the game even started, the events in the game prolonging the inevitable. The people he'd killed were already dead, and even in the experiment's success... his life was still done. There's no coming back from such things, and he didn't have a life to come back to either; his parents were dead, and his extended family despised him.
So, despite all of this being obvious throughout the game, I was still deeply affected by the ending. Even knowing everything that had happened, and the impossibility of any amount of redemption for the "deranged maniac", part of me was hoping (and honestly partially dreading) that the game would end on a cheery note: he succeeds in the experiment, is freed and starts a new life.
Unfortunately this is not the case. In either of the three endings, Russel's fate is the same. Whether it be from him not gaining any remorse from his actions, finding the prospect of leaving his ideal "Happy Dream" world too troubling and choosing to stay in the delusion until his mind caved in or accepting what he did and atoning it by taking his life in the name of bringing peace to the souls he'd destroyed, Russel ends up dead; once by his own doing, twice from his failure at the experiment.
In a more idealist game, made perhaps with a less jaded perspective and a perhaps too optimistic angle, the game could've had that "good note" ending. Whether it be that it was somehow a dream, that the experiments could change the fate of those who died and thus bringing them back to life in some weird faux-science plot device that definitely would've ruined the story, or Russel being let off the hook like nothing ever happened.
But this isn't that; this game serves the uncomfortable truth on a silver platter: not everyone can be saved, some crimes are unforgivable, some minds unrepairable, some fates unchangeable. It's a cruel but necessary fact of life that, even if we could take a liking or sympathize with someone who's caused such pain, even if we, as outsiders, could look past that and see someone who (perhaps) deserved better, that doesn't dismiss what they did.
Russel is a character that becomes someone that you grow to care about, root for (that is, if you play the game as to send him on the path of redemption), as the games progresses... but that doesn't matter. Even as much as how we see him, a troubled child who was never given the space to grow a conscience until it was too late, it doesn't erase what he did, and doesn't absolve him of it either. It makes the true ending all the more heartbreaking, because you wish as much as Russel himself does that there were a way to take it all back, so get to know the people he killed and undo all the hurt he caused.
End Roll is a game about grief, guilt, redemption, repentance, tragedy and a cautionary tale of how circumstances can lead to creating a monster out of a caring soul. It shows that even the most cruel of people have a story, their own demons, their own humanity, and that (many times) their cruelty is something they are taught. It's easier to stray from a good path into a dark one that one can think; from one moment to another, your innocence, your sense of morality can be taken from you and in rarer cases, you gain it back after it's too late.
End Roll is the epilogue to a tragedy; you're not participating in the development of a story, simply the aftermath of it. It was all over before you pressed the start button.

10/10

If I kinned Russell, I don't kin him because I did. No I didn't <3
After I finished this game, I was at a bit of a loss on how I should be feeling about it. I heard a lot of people talk about how utterly depressing this game gets, and I just felt somewhat confused by it, I just kept waiting for the shoe to drop and for it to reach the abyss of negativity that I was warned about... but my expectations were never met. There were even people here who compared it to Omori, but in Omori's case the Emotional Pain hit me way harder. I'm not sure if it's because I've consumed a lot of depressing media, or if it's because I didn't fully connect with this game, but the emotional impact just fell a bit flat for me by the end.
I don't mean this to say it's a bad game, in fact, unlike most RPG Maker games, I was very invested in the gameplay aspects of it, fulfilling all the sidequests and guilt events, Gitting Gud at the fights, grinding a lot, even beating the apparently super hard bonus boss on my first try (I'm very proud of that.) But it's just that something about the story didn't really resonate with me.
I'm saying this right after beating all the main game content, I know there's some more external bonus stuff that I'll check out later, but I was left with a feeling of mild unsatisfaction once finishing the game, and I don't think it was in the way the game intended.
The game's already pretty damn long (if you're doing all the sidequests like I did), but the actual story parts just seem very lacking and not quite fleshed out to me. Like, I wanted to know more about these characters, but so much of their dialogue is optional and I had no clue when they'd change. I would've liked there to be more obligatory cutscenes to get to know the characters more, and have the game be more of a slowburn, but I understand that not everyone is fond of the same type of pacing that I am. I don't think the longer days would've served a greater narrative purpose, but it's just something that would've helped me connect with these characters more.
Because aside from Russell and Kantera, I don't have strong feelings on any of the characters, because I just don't... know them much. And even then, I got really attached to Kantera from the get-go because he fits the archetype of characters I often like, and although I did find reasons to like him as the game progressed, I'm not sure I would've cared much for him if he didn't remind me of Joshua Twewy lol.
It's not like I don't understand what people would like about these characters, they all have a lot of potential that I could explore if I thought about them long enough, but the thing is, the game didn't really give me any motivation to invest all that time into them, because they don't amount to anything after the day they're a major character in. So I just found it hard to get attached to them, especially after taking note of the formula the days followed.
I don't really know what else to say. I think the way the game is structured is interesting, and the story itself is, too, but once more. I just don't think it was explored enough. The way the backstory is explained makes sense, as does the limited point of view we get, but in exchange it just furthers my lack of investment in any character that isn't Russell. Maybe that's intended, but I doubt it.
As for the true endings, they both seem... anticlimactic. It just ends so suddenly, it all comes back to my complaints about the pacing. I just wish this game would've been longer! I wish it had longer build-ups and better payoffs, because as it stands, all the time I spent on it just seems to be wasted.
Another thing I saw is that this game is "edgy just for the sake of being edgy" and... I sort of agree? Not to a great extent, but I do see where that's coming from. The "edginess" just seemed very over the top at times, and while I wanted to maintain my suspension of disbelief, sometimes I just looked at the screen thinking "You really want me to believe a 14 year old did all that and got away with it for as long as he did?" It just seemed kind of silly at times, perhaps that's why it fell a bit flat to me. In Omori's case, what happens is horrifying, but it's also all grounded in reality. Even if you try to pick holes into it, it's much more realistic than what End Roll wanted to pull here... And though I'm fairly certain realism wasn't the intented goal, it all just ends up adding up to just being too gratuitous in its violence and horrors for it to really mean anything to me. But, I don't know if I'd hold it too much against it, because it's not like it's completely impossible that a situation like the one depicted here could happen in real life, but I just struggled with taking it as seriously as other people might have. I guess you could say I grew insensitive to it.
Hmm, don't know what else to say. Like I said, I did enjoy playing through this, Kantera's awesome, Me Me Russell Kinnie, I wish Informant got more screentime, also Does anyone else find it weird how hard they were pushing the 20 year old and the 45 year old to get married? No? (End Roll has a lot of weird shit.) Like, yeah, they're both adults, but come on. It just rubbed me the wrong way. Like girl you can do better than go for the grandpa that looks to be way older than 45, he's cosplaying Manfred von Karma for god's sake! That is NOT a GILF!!! She can't hear me, she has airpods on.
Yeah. That's basically it. I wish I liked this game more than I do. And I wish it was more depressing!! I wanted to get my week ruined by this game, maybe I should reread Oyasumi Punpun just to feel something. Just kidding, I won't do that.
I love Kantera by the way. Did I mention that already? He's great.