Fairy tales and Drew Barrymore films taught me {that a} lady with butterflies in her abdomen is likely to be simply inconvenienced by some bizarre man (both a literal beast or an everyman who acts like one), however the fluttering is a product of purity, clear like a raindrop. With out a sword or a big-shot profession at her disposal, a lady can solely develop into noble by way of how powerfully her coronary heart beats. This story began to bore me till I noticed it was recycled practically all over the place, aside from within the horror style.
Horror—together with horror video video games—perverts the lovesick lady cliche so as to create one other, during which a lady in love is definitely the Grim Reaper. Yandere Simulator and Doki Doki Literature Membership move across the suffocating love established by centuries of Wuthering Heights melodrama and worldwide erotic thrillers, and indie horror journey MiSide is the newest to take it on. I performed the 35-minute demo for MiSide (Home windows customers can obtain it free on developer Aihasto’s itch.io web page, and others can watch Alpha Beta Gamer’s full walkthrough on YouTube), and was impressed by the sport’s graphic design, however really feel its story is likely to be one other spherical of uninspired tropes.
Due to that, the horror components offered within the demo hardly ever land, although they’re initially offered creatively.
I begin the sport with a free concept of what it’s about—I’m a man who, “for mystical causes,” Aihasto’s description says, will get absorbed right into a cell sport—so I’m not shocked after I’m instantly given point-and-click duties. Mita, the blue-haired, diamond-eyed protagonist of the cell sport I play, requests I put her soiled garments away, prepare dinner her hen soup, and earn cash by way of mini-games over a collection of fast-track days.
The purpose-and-click intro is a bit clunky, like when it cuts to a “Day 5” title card earlier than I get the prospect to make any soup, however its design and artwork type is lipstick-smooth and cohesive. I respect the eye to element, like Mita’s satisfaction meter within the top-left nook, and her humorous imploring to “Keep in mind! You possibly can play [mini-games] to get cash.” It makes me really feel like I’m about to play a figuring out parody of the stalker lady trope, a Deadly Attraction spurred by G-Gas, however then it begins falling aside.
Mita tells me to place my cellphone down, and after I do, I’ve seemingly been transported into her sport, discovering myself inside a 3D, explorable model of the home depicted within the 2D introduction. I stroll by way of it in first-person to watch extra amusing particulars—a e book on the shelf titled “Find out how to Tease Him,” a small doll with crimson eyes that comply with me round Mita’s peach-pink room—that, once more, show nice inventive sensibility. I just like the soundtrack, too; it’s a sorrowful new-age synth loop that detunes each time one thing additional scary occurs, like when the electrical energy out of the blue provides out.
It’s additionally round this level that the sport’s logic begins breaking down. After Mita seems within the anime-style flesh, dialogue prompts to be taught extra about how I entered her sport and why solely make me extra confused. Asking outright about what occurred triggers a black display whereas Mita presumably explains, and when the sport cuts again to her she declares “And right here you might be!” like I’ve any concept of what she stated. Different dialogue that ought to give me goosebumps finally ends up being equally irritating, like after I ask her why she requested I hand her a pair of scissors throughout dinner.
“I may open the sauce with a knife, after all,” Mita says, “However I wished to have all the pieces prepared in your return, so you’ll be able to’t see the lengthy preparations. I like making surprises! Yeeep.” Properly, nobody promised me she can be essentially the most coherent digital girlfriend.
The demo ends shortly after this. Whereas we’re enjoying a card sport, my protagonist hears a thumping sound coming from Mita’s closet. Mita stops him from prying it open, citing her personal underwear stash, then addresses his anxiousness with one thing that makes me unhappy: “This world…it’s simply these 4 rooms. Wouldn’t that be sufficient for you? Will you simply attempt to stick with me?”
When it’s time for me to answer, “keep” is, confoundingly, a locked dialogue choice. The sport appears to withstand considering too laborious concerning the implications of its personal story—how lonely a lady should develop into if she’s caught inside a cellphone, at all times needing extra however by no means in a position to get it on her personal phrases—and as a substitute hopes that gamers assume a faithful lady is horrifying sufficient by herself.
Even nonetheless, MiSide doesn’t brush its remoted lady with both Single White Feminine’s pity or Heathers’ acid empathy in its demo. It doesn’t take into account its male protagonist as greater than a naive anime boy who desires to get the fuck out, both. It solely begins to retell a narrative from inside fairly, however skinny, binding.
I really feel like I’ve heard that story sufficient instances earlier than bedtime. Ideally, the remainder of the sport will give me one thing new.
