错误之事 Reviews

Sigh.... I really wish I didn't have to explain why I don't recommend this one, but here goes. This is revealed within the first couple minutes, but, spoiler anyway, [spoiler] the MC kidnaps a 16-year-old girl[/spoiler]. And the reason why, revealed in painful philosophic slowness mangled in a horrendous English translation, is a mix between [spoiler]that he's going to die in a year[/spoiler], the sudden urge to do something wrong (thus the name of the game), her appearance, and being angry at his society (Japan) for being workaholics who are supposedly/nominally on the side of "right". Frankly, I do not approve, and his redemption arc, if you can even call it that, is unsatisfying. It doesn't make sense, he doesn't think ANYTHING through, he doesn't garner sympathy, he's un-self-consciously hypocritical in how he talks to the girl, he lies whether he has reason to or not, he blurts out things that make matters worse, and yet still refrains from saying what he should. On top of all that, he smokes, or at least he was going to but couldn't find a cigarette. The girl is almost a breath of fresh air, in that she has a more positive attitude. But then she says things like 'you didn't do anything wrong' to this guy. And she [spoiler]offers sex, though he declines[/spoiler], which only makes for cheap suspense fodder later on. Not good. The writing's aura of chauvinism and idolizing of the youthful high-school-girl ideal don't help. The philosophy oozing into every scene and exchange is too shallow and pointless for being so depressed. When it gets positive, it treats half-hearted reasoning as profound truth, then the characters parrot it back to one another later in lieu of actually learning something new. It will not improve your life. It will not resonate with a depressed person, at least not in a way that's worth recommending. It's not worth reading the VN for. I don't have any complaints about the art; it is fresh and nice, though it's not exactly worth the slog. The music is pretty good; I liked the insert of Gymnopédie. The sound design is interesting, if unrefined in parts. Regardless, it's nowhere near enough to overcome the core problems. There are a few choices to be made. Honestly, given the mess that is the end choices, and the particular choices I made, I'm not sure whether the true ending is achieved through the correct choices, or just by following all the different routes. Knowing what you're choosing is hard in one of them due to the translation (it uses sayings to vaguely describe intent, which barely affect the MC's actions before he just does the same thing regardless of your choice). Suffice to say, the decisions you make have next to zero bearing on the story, and are not a valid reason for playing. The translation is bad. I don't think it's purely machine-done, as I don't think a computer would have inserted so many incorrect pronouns and objects where (I assume) the original language would have left the thing nameless and thus inferred from context. You get a lot of "it" when talking about a person, for example. Names are inconsistently translated, but it's not too bad since the cast is tiny. Plus, the main menu, and the credits and ending tag, are apparently Chinese graphics, and were left untranslated. I used Google Translate on my phone to find settings to switch to English. But also, there are numerous cases where the English text exceeds the length of a text box, so it cuts off part of the dialogue; you can see what was there by looking at the log a couple boxes later, though the text overlaps. Clearly, not enough testing was done on the English version. But to be fair, I don't feel like I missed all that much meaning, I just had to exercise the metaphor part of my brain a bit. Just to clarify, the game's original language is Chinese, whereas the story setting is explicitly named Japan. (Though small bits of voice acting are also in Japanese.) Some people get the two confused, and this is certainly an unusual combination, but I am not saying this haphazardly. Now, about the main theme. Why is he trying to get revenge, and on whom, and what even IS this revenge? He seemed to have gotten along with his former coworkers. He's even managing to live comfortably despite not working at the moment. Sure, it can be a little annoying when people say oblivious "self-righteous" things sometimes, but he didn't even definitely connect that behavior with his desire for revenge, and that's hardly a fathomable reason anyway. Overwork, or company abuse, he mentions in vague terms; okay. That, along with his [spoiler]fatal health problem[/spoiler] is really all there is to it. There is no target for his "revenge" (not counting the girl, who is a mere victim of circumstance from his perspective). This isn't enough to philosophically question the concepts of right and wrong. I get it, a guy in that situation might find it tempting to do wrong, but this game does not present as a character study. This game is a poetic statement on a society's alignment with right and wrong, and its posturing to that effect. And after over-churning the weak metaphors, the game's ultimate conclusion is, 'good is whatever does good for you', which you should do simply because you're alive at the moment. ... No, that's not the right answer. This is not even the right algorithm to find the right answer, not in the context the game establishes. Some platitudes about love would be more meaningful than this. Sure, "righteous", upstanding society leaves a lot to be desired, yes, including the humble-proud society of Japan, okay, but you can point out such hypocrisy much more efficiently and impart lessons more pleasantly without constantly spouting such trite, yet amoral nonsense. I wouldn't mention this if not for the above, but the game also gives a certain impression when such Chinese-style writing and philosophy is given a playground in such Japanese issues. I know, I'm an American, what do I know and all, but I think it'd be similarly strange if I were to write about Chinese problems in an unmistakably English style with the sayings of a cowboy. Like an immigrant coming to complain about the country they choose to move into, this game feels like a personal vendetta dressed in a sage's cosplay. I feel bad saying all this, because honestly, this aspect makes it seem like the message is someone's very personal expression, deeply inspired by their difficulties in a foreign culture. I appreciate that, which is why I wish I didn't have to say that the message is just not good. If it's any consolation, Coffee Studio, the technical aspects of the game were well executed for a game of this price-class. Give it another try, if you please, just be careful with the translation if you go for English.