ZebraHumor 2020-05-01 13:58:12

I was formulating a meaningful response to this post but then I read "fellas" and I am a woman so I guess this post isn't for me

457131521 2020-05-02 21:16:50

People might say that this is just another cheap DDLC rip-off, but it's really not. You took the idea that Dan Salvato had about meta horror and put your own twist on it. It's just like How to Date a Magical Girl, but shorter and creepier. After playing Doki Doki, I became hyper-aware about any little questionable detail about any game like it. When I saw Ai's name, my paranoia immediately kicked in (I hadn't read the tags or the description yet). I chose Ai's path first, because why not, and it was a fun and anxiety-provoking experience. The ending completely threw a wrench in the cutesy atmosphere/music/sprites/literally everything else. And I loved it. I was going to rate it 4 stars, maybe 4.5. And then I played the other route. And that was the most terrifying experience that I have had playing a game in a long time. And I've played my fair share of horror games recently. What especially got me, however, wasn't the creepy dialogue or chilling art. It was the chase scene after the Act 4-esque game reset. Being suddenly thrown into the same RPG-style minigame that once held a fun little coin collecting experience became a truly frightening encounter. The ambience in that sequence reminded me of Act 3's ambience from Doki Doki. And it wasn't just the suspense that got me, either. It was watching a shadowed figured run towards you at alarming speed. It's actually something that horror movie directors do a lot; they leave it up to the audience's imagination to decide what's going on. By showing us before this that Ai put us in this situation to begin with leads us to assume that it's her chasing us. Being completely out of control, knowing that you're slower than the thing chasing you, draws out a sort of primal fear. Fight or flight, you know? But in this situation, we couldn't do either. We just had to watch as a crazed Ai ran towards us, and rapidly gaining ground. The insanity of the situation that we're presented with, coupled with the fact that it was calm, then messed up, then calm again REALLY gives me the willies. But my favorite part of the game had to be Emily's message at the end of Your Route. It literally made me tear up because of how much I related to the MC. The voice acting was brilliant. And the fact that instead of calling it Emily's Route you called Your Route was great as well. This is also one of the reasons why I love this so much: Unlike in HTDAMG and DDLC, it gives you a happy ending. And in 2020, that's really what we all need, right? So I just gotta say: Good. Fucking. Job.