After a while I guess… Resha is hooked up playing this game and managed to finish it before its killing my mentality how good this game is xD
Borrowing the synopsis,
“One rainy night in November, a woman’s body is found at an abandoned theme park, mounted on a merry-go-round horse. She had been stabbed repeatedly, and her left eye was gouged out.
Kaname Date of the Metropolitan Police Department arrives on the scene. He recognizes the woman. Suddenly, he hears a noise from inside the merry-go-round.
He breaks into the merry-go-round’s central column to find a young girl. And in her hands, she grips a bloody ice pick…”
My settings is simple, japanese dub, english subtitles even though the english translation is terrible, like it doesnt match what the japanese dub says. That aside, the director of this game is from the Zero Escape Trilogy which is also one of my all-time favorite game to play. Notable ones is I love how Shingaki Tarusuke plays his character, its like its alive and the sex jokes that is humoring the serious atmosphere, I never feel bored.
This game is also includes many trivia from other games, LGBT content, violence, gore genre so the softhearted ones can avoid this.
The game is basically investigation of a murder, a serial killing and as this is a game from Uchikoshi-san, its bound to have multiple endings and routes. yes, multiple endings The setting is divided into 2 system aka the normal question and answer investigation while the other is “somnium” in which a psyncer enters the brain of the subject and find the ways to make them “spit out the truth”. This somnium investigation consisted of only 1 thing, the mental lock locks. The first few somniums is only 1-3 mental locks, but as it goes further, a few of the last routes, it increases to max of 5 locks in 360 seconds. Yes, seconds and its moving everytime the AI (Aiba) moves, even a single one step.
The story has one true ending aka the happy ending; but the game setting for 5 endings to reach the real ending. Individual endings such as Ota, Iris & Mizuki route. These individual endings are necessary and must be unlock first. No worries, the other 2 endings aka annihilation and happy end will be set to as last 2 to be unlock. These 2 endings cannot be unlock if individual endings arent done.
Characters; Kaname Date or his real name Yagyu Hayato is a detective for MPD who turns into an assassin due to system of the police. After the Cyclops Serial Killing six years ago, Hayato lose his memories together with his left eye and taken in by the boss of ABIS, a new department in the police; while serving the government again, he was given a new name, Kaname Date and an AI gadget, which acts as his navigator and resides as his left eye. This AI is namely Aiba and making this game interesting all throughout till the end.
The heroine, an internet idol by the name A-Set though her real name is Sagan Iris (for a while I thought the heroine might be someone else and yes before its release, the heroine is Iris’s mother). She has 2 best friends by the name Mizuki & Ota.
Mizuki is foster daughter of Kaname Date, the daughter of Okiura Renju and Nadami Shoko who are Date’s friends. Why Mizuki is adopted? Renju and Shoko shows the signs of child neglection so Date volunteered to take in Mizuki which in prior to the divorce of Renju & Shoko.
Ota is hacker, and as well as a NEET whose brain is consisted of fictional polar bear and too much imagination of heroes x’D His parents; his father died due to overworking and his mother, Mayumi, suffers from dementia. They run a now closed restaurant near the district where Shoko’s body was found.
Other characters is the boss of ABIS, Pewter; the psync machine researcher who is in fact Renju’s new lover after his divorce, MAMA from MARBLE cafe who serves as information relay, Moma from kumakura yakuza gang who is also an important savior throughout the game, Hitomi; Iris’s mother, who also plays an important role as raising Iris and saving Date from his assassin work and finally Sejima So and his son, Saito (who is actually the main antagonist of the game)
The story begins with a discovery of a body, tied on a horse and left eye gauged out, on a merry go round horse in the restricted zone area. Two officers from ABIS, boss and Date arrived to the scene, and he recognized the victim. He scanned through the area, using AI’s xray vision and found Mizuki in the column, holding a bloody ice pick. This is the “case investigation” part, and interrogation starts with Ota and Iris then finally leads back to Mizuki, who is now suffering from aphonia, a situation where a person cannot speak due to trauma.
Now, after case investigation finishes, some, will enter “somnium phase” and the first somnium phase is just a warm up where Date enters his own somnium but claim not to remember anything. The next somnium is Mizuki’s and this will be the branching of the routes so “not choose wisely” but unlock both choices(YOU HAVE TO OR ELSE YOU CANNOT REACH TRUE HAPPY ENDING). To do this, you can just choose from the flowchart (menu). The second somnium, Mizuki’s, in which the event prior of seeing her mother’s body; the objective is to make Mizuki able to talk or “aphonia” state. In any case, just unlock both. How? In Mizuki’s somnium, there are 2 cages after unlocking 1st mental lock. Choosing the balloon, will end up Mizuki in aphonia state and choosing torn pictures will end with Mizuki able to speak again.
After Mizuki’s somnium, the flowchart will branch into 2 big flowchart; to make things easy, left flowchart consists of 3 endings, and the right one, 2 endings. How to manage the flowcharts? I dunno myself. I end up making more than 5 savings to to unlock some flowchart. Dont overwrite if its not on the same flowchart (previous case investigation route which are labelled with names)
Now, after unlocking Mizuki’s somnium, breaking into 2 flowcharts; left flowchart consists of Ota, Mizuki & annihilation endings while the right flowchart consists of True ending and Iris’s ending. Sounds like we need to go right into right flowchart is it? NOPE. This is not an easy road. Unlock Mizuki & Ota’s route first then go to Iris’s route on the right flowchart. This will trigger the annihilation route and once this is done, true/happy route will unlock itself.
Plotwise? In the individual endings,
Ota’s ending, Sejima So is dead, cut up into pieces, left eye gauge out and put into the vase in his living room in which there are 2 scenarios for this “Date found the vase” or “the maid found the vase”. “Date found the vase” is in Ota’s route, and this will show that Iris is actually taking the knife from Mayumi and hiding it behind her.
In this route, the victims are Shoko, Renju and Sejima So ONLY.
Mizuki’s ending; she’s a real tsundere, and her ending is she confessing her real feelings of Date as her real guardian instead of her real parents. This ends with Mizuki telling Date that she saw Sejima came out from Sunfish Pocket restaurant with someone else.
In this route, the plot reveal that Renju and Hitomi are best friends, which connected to Iwai Manaka, a figure which serves as the trigger of Sejima Saito’s serial killing to begin. Iwai Manaka, the real mother of Iris who was killed in cold blood, stabbed a few times on the back and her right eye gauge out then her body is buried somewhere else. Renju & Hitomi found her body, and preserved her corpse in the Okiura Fishery Warehouse. This will unlock first fragment of annihilation ending
Victims: Shoko, Renju, Sejima So, Ota & Iris
Iris’s ending; this part also branch into 2 in which the part where Date believes her or he doesnt believe her will trigger both annihilation second fragment and true ending. Let’s start with the somnium where her route branch into 2. By now, Mizuki is able to talk after meeting with Hitomi. Iris’s somnium, in her own route is the minecraft environment in which the decision from first mental lock, going to #2 will change the outcome of the final mental lock. Now, why “in Iris’s somnium”? Because Date will sync with Iris’s somnium four times, twice for annihilation route to trigger (branching from Ota & Mizuki), once for true ending and once for her own ending. For her own ending, Date will enters her somnium to save her from the brain cancer that is killing her but she ended up living for a few seconds after the psync and then died. The somnium trigger for annihilation is also further branch into 2 in which this will branch into Ota & Mizuki’s route later on so dont complaint why you are going roundabout from the flowchart. Its set like this, I know. I kinda feel like its a hassle too xD
Iris’s somnium in Ota’s ending is where Date enters her dream, but actually not really hers, where the environment is not the expected minecraft but an abandon factory. Depending on the choices, if choose to hit the TV as 2nd way to break the mental lock, it will go to Ota’s ending, or turn the dial of the TV, will go as Mizuki’s ending.
Iris’s somnium in Mizuki’s ending leads Iris to outcome of Iris cut up into 2, along with Ota (at this point, I dont care anymore about who died)
Victims: Shoko, Renju, Sejima So
Once Iris’s ending route is triggered, annihilation 2nd fragment will open, with opening of Boss, shooting Sejima So on the head. In this route, Boss revealed that she is in fact, not Boss but Sejima Saito. Date enter Boss’s somnium and is shown the “revelation” of the 2nd cyclops serial killing. At this point, everyone close to Date died, apart Date and Mizuki. It is revealed that the 2nd cyclops killing is actually Sejima Saito, all over again.
“Cyclops serial killing” is a serial murders of 4 innocent young women, shoot, stab, hit and their right eye gauged out. The culprit of this killing is 2 people. Sejima Saito and Kumakura Rohan. ‘Yagyu Hayato’ is then arrested and then labelled as #89 in Fuchuu Prison, Tokyo” Why Rohan is not arrested? The incident is a hushed up, and the real culprit are actually on loose. Getting confused? So am I. And I dunno how to explain it straight either.
Let’s save the annihilation explanation short first; Sejima Saito’s consciousness is in Boss, and killed his own father. Now the reason is because he wanted to revenge against Yagyu Hayato or known as Falco in his assassin days and take over his body back…..at this point maybe, just maybe, starts to wonder why Saito doesnt have his body… its because Yagyu Hayato aka Falco and now, Date, inhibits his body. Confusing, yes and I will try to arrange the events to make easy understanding.
Cyclops Serial Killing (6 yrs ago) -> Culprits: Sejima Saito & Kumakura Rohan
———–Real incident what happen———-
Sejima Saito was 12yrs old during his first killing. His victim was Iwai Manaka, Iris’s mother and Kumakura Rohan buried her body, while taking out her right eye. Sejima So, who saw Iwai Manaka killed before his eyes, covered up for his son’s actions. To him, Iwai Manaka is a young woman, who will ruin his reputation as congressman but Iwai Manaka hid the fact about she safely delivered their daughter, Iris. After her death, Renju & Hitomi hid her body in the frozen fishery warehouse, Hitomi raised Iris as her own daughter.
In depth of Sejima Saito, he is the son of Sejima So, and suffering from a brain disorder where his brain is not producing enough oxytocin, a hormone which enables human to feel trust & love. For him to gain pleasure, or appreciation from his distant father, he kills living things, starting from animals. When he heard his father was meeting Iwai Manaka, he knew his father didnt like that girl, and killed her in hope for his father to appreciate his efforts but So is still the way he is, only he cover up for his actions.
12 years later, Rohan called up Saito and plan for the serial killing. The detective assigned for the case was Yagyu Hayato along with Boss, & Pewter. At the time, the psyncer machine is still in development but operational, and there was prototype made which unfortunately stolen, and brought into the abandoned factory in district near the merry go round. Syncing time, as propose is 6 minutes, MAX but in fact it can go beyond 6, only that if beyond 6 minutes, host and psyncer consciousness will switch completely. The same goes for the prototype but there are 2 difference. 1) Both host and psyncer must remove left eye to insert the nanomachine, and 2) sedative will be given to psyncer after operation finishes. The prototype sync machine was stolen by Sejima Saito.
Yagyu Hayato, trying to solve this weird serial killing, as well as coping up with his assassin work, by this time he already met Hitomi & Iris who changed him completely. Kumakura Rohan was not pleased with him to become clean after all the killings so he assigned him to kill Hitomi & Iris. Hayato was against this, and goes with Boss’s plan to switch his consciousness with Kumakura Rohan, and use his body to give command not to harm Hitomi & Iris. After exchanging consciousness, Rohan ran away, using Hayato’s body but was captured by the police, and labelled as #89. Yes, the prisoner by the name #89 is actually Rohan, using Hayato’s body.
When Rohan was imprisoned, Hayato went to see Saito to extract the truth of the Cyclops Killings but was found out by Saito. He knew it was Hayato inside Rohan’s body so he synced with Rohan’s body, exchange their consciousness but unfortunately, both of them lose their memories. Hayato, who is now in Saito’s body wander around the MARBLE cafe area, Boss found him, and decided to take things her way, to amend what is happening. Sejima So is to pretend that Saito is on vacation, though in fact he was taken in by ABIS as Kaname Date. Aiba, the AI was created to regulate the hormones for the body, to keep Date from going insane. Thus ending the first cyclops killing.
Fast forward to 6 years later, Saito remembered who he is, and exchanged his consciousness with Nadami Shoko, knowing she is connected to Okiura Renju, and the fact that both of them are Date’s best friend in the last 5 years. Shoko, traumatized waking up in a man’s body, committed suicide by jumping off a building. This Shoko (Saito) met #89 and knowing that he is Rohan, carefully stage their plans.
Using Shoko’s body, he met up with Renju and kidnapped him. He switched with Renju and now Shoko’s body with sedative, and Renju inside it, Saito using Renju’s body, stabbed Shoko many times and the result of the prototype machine leaving the left eye gauge out. He carries Shoko’s body to the abandoned park, using Renju’s phone and message Mizuki to come to help him. Unfortunately Mizuki came with her friend, Ota and that complicates things. Trying to transfer himself into another person, Saito was trapped in Renju’s body for a few hours, and also involved in truck incident leaving the body’s in heavy injuries. He managed to kidnapped Iris and switch their consciousness. That is when Date accidentally synced with “fake Iris” and dived into Saito’s memories of original Cyclops killings. After using Iris’s body, he transfer his consciousness to his own father, Sejima So, and killed both Iris and Ota (though Ota was the unnecessary killing). When he thinks he already done with using his father’s body, he kidnapped Boss of ABIS, switch their consciousness, and killed Sejima So, who is occupied by Boss. This is the annihilation end in which he confess all this infront of Date, and persuading him to give him his body back. Both choices will trigger the true ending. He gave the body, or not give in, will end up “annihilation route: END” so move on to True Ending.
TRUE ENDING aka the other branch after “not believing Iris” fragments, will unlock after annihilation fragment is achieved. In this fragment, Date’s consciousness from annihilation end SHIFTED (a trivia from zero escape) to a world where everybody is saved apart Shoko, and Renju. In this route, Renju aka Saito, from the heavy injuries, run away with #89 and switched their consciousness. At this point, the person who help #89 escaped from prison is Pewter, who by then reveals he is Renju’s lover and obeyed Renju’s orders, not knowing that he is actually Saito. After switching consciousness with Rohan, Rohan resides in Renju’s body, and died of natural causes. Now inhibiting Hayato’s original body, he made a trade with Date. He kidnapped both Hitomi & Iris, knowing they are his weaknesses. Aiba, knowing what is Saito’s plan, secretly contact Ota, Mizuki and Moma to come to the abandoned factory, explained bits and pieces and to support the now switch consciousness of Date to his original body. They came in time, and Saito is already at gun point on shooting Hitomi. Aiba requested Date to command the self destruct mechanism, though reluctantly, do it and the destruction caused Saito’s head to explode.
After this incident, Hayato assumes his new identity, as Kaname Date, working under ABIS, taking in Mizuki and trying to reconcile the lost 6 years with Hitomi & Iris. It ends with Aiba restored as his left eye, and them, the surviving characters along with Date, dancing x’D (that was unnecessary though)
P/S: There is sex jokes, funny moments between Date and the characters. Watch here –> https://vimeo.com/365700365
I’d say, play this game, and dived into world of mysteries x’D
Resha Review It 