This game screams "Bad Kickstarter Game" at every turn, where certain elements of it have flashy overproduction (the animations are pretty solid) which is very useful for enticing ignorant buyers in demo reels/videos. The fact that the main story basically gets axed completely within the first hour of starting (in a 20 hour game) certainly clinches that for me, because a lot of bad crowdfunded/early access games pull that scam. And the real sad thing about that is there is clear evidence that there was some real ambition when the project initially began, but something essential fell apart midway (almost certainly the direction in this case) leaving everyone left working on it creatively adrift and only fulfilling their contractual obligations of delivering a technically functional product. That's probably why the dating-sim aspect is so hilariously rushed, the looping is a gaping head-wound with a band-aid (marked "fast forward) and why people just drop whatever they're doing to bare their soul to you in the middle of the work week. Or why there isn't anything more than a rudimentary Do:While Timer for finding "hidden" blessings. Or the bait-and-switch combat supporting exactly one palette-swapped critter and a bunch of bosses. All 'technically functional', with a lot of up-front content/assets, but completely misused. Well at least I can take some comfort in knowing my gut-busting laughter at Digimon: Survive's awful, awful writing wasn't the worst JRPG from 2023 I could have experienced. ...Also, Japan. Cousins are not concubines. It is still incest. Get help and stop doing this. PLEASE.
It happens so often in JRPGs and japanese media that I'm honestly just desensitized to seeing cousins in it, but goddamn, this game really was trying its hardest to creep anyone out, it goes for the goddamn grand slam of Cousin, Teacher, GRANDMOTHER and ELEMENTARY SCHOOLER, I honestly can't quite decide which one of those two is more disturbing, but I'd be shocked about seeing either in a game, nevermind BOTH. I wouldn't be surprised if in early drafts the cousin was actually his sister.
Although your bideo is highly enjoyable I just read the title at the 25 minute mark and how you could see any similarity to resident evil is beyond me. I even rewinded and watched the intro and then I went: oh, that's why he was talking about resident evil.
This is the best part of the whole game besides the story. Like I never thought a game would organically let a playthrough choose what ending you get. It's not a binary choice but a culmination of actions.
People should be fine and content with not being able to play the games forever. They should focus on what's infront and not what's behind them. Always move forward!
On the topic of Takeru/Kiriu/Kurou(Crow?): FWIW -- I've noticed Japanese games use Kana for Ainu/Ryukyu names most of the time. Could be the islanders were supposed to be vaguely Ryukyuan/indigenous and therefor get the 'exotic' katakana treatment.
I was thinking "man this guys Japanese pronunciation is an odd mix of quite good in some ways and quite weird in others" and then I heard him pronounce "mythos" in english and I think maybe he just talks words funny.
This is now the third video of yours that the algorithm put into my timeline that I enjoyed, guess i might as well subscribe at this point xD Also, fwiw, I'd call these kind of videos "experience report" or something like that, as it's basically you telling people of your experience of playing the game without going beat for beat like in a Let's Play?
Small factoid about Germs - Its subtitle, "Nerawareta Machi" or 'The Marked Town', also happens to be the title of a very famous and highly-regarded episode of the 1967 television series 'Ultra Seven' (a part of the larger Ultraman franchise). Ultraman is incredibly popular in Japan and references to it abound in media, so I think there's a very good chance this is a deliberate homage on the part of Germs' developers. The fact the episode in question is about a small town beset by strange occurrences caused by an alien presence adds more fuel to that theory. And having explained all this, I find I now want to watch an Ultraman series directed by David Lynch.
The intentional low frame-rate animation on the character models to make it it look like drawn animation combined with the game's actual frame rate chugging but at a different rate is giving me like, temporal motion sickness.
Pardon me for being a colossal weeb in knowing this, but Dr. Schnider's voice is pretty unmistakable - I'm almost positive that's the late Daisuke Gori, the actor whose roles included Heihachi Mijima, Mr. Satan and Dozle Zabi. This game must've had a pretty decent voice acting budget to include such a big name in their cast. EDIT: Yup, that's him. Thanks for including the cast roll as part of the video so I could confirm that, Punchy!
I randomly stumbled across this video and i found this really interesting, and i like the bits of perspective you bring, talking about playing this as a non-native reader and even talking about the language and reading complexity for the interest of other learners. Really cool stuff, definitely subbed!
