Ah, have I reached the lowest point of my life that I'd willingly play a waifu simulator, I mean she looks like a cutie here. Aww. What about it is so enticing everyone? Well, dare I say, this game has some misleading marketing going on, and it worked because I wasn't ready for what came next.
To put it this way, Miside has an alluring premise; in the span of a few small minutes, you're sucked into her virtual world without realizing it, where she takes you for the ride of your life. And most certainly not in a good way. I like that it's made by two Russian developers that also poke fun at people playing games like wherever they can while being a little meta.
Pretty funny how Yandere Simulator just hasn't been finished to this day, there's no point talking about it now since it'll be overshadowed by this. There's a lot to be said about Miside, a uniquely written story with quality time while experiencing the waifu downward spiral.
Be this guy, coding for hours on a boring job while sitting on his computer at home, can't get his room cleaned up, his life sorted out, disconnected from his family, including his sister. Until a message from your phone suggests downloading this new app called M.K.
In this game, Mita announces herself as this cute virtual sprite who needs you to do chores for her, help her out when it needs something doing, you know every familiar tasks given by every one of those life simulators. But she makes a number of suspicious requests, despite the protagonist continuing to play for over a month. Till she does the unthinkable.
You're now teleported to her world, in complete 3D. The console requests a number of objects to be placed on the scanner, before initiating the scan, it needs batteries. Ok, creating fetch quests is one thing, but in a small apartment space? Come on now.
That's not the end of it, the rooms get darker, like it was switched to nighttime. The windows no longer glistened, I'm seeing strange texts on the bathroom tiles, and they change up. Yeah, this was an obvious cue to start questioning things. I just don't get why my guy hasn't gotten the red alarm yet, that something really is offputting.
I also saw the bookshelf, with some interesting titles like It's a Trap, Run, and wait did I see Goodnight Punpun? The Mita on the pictures don't even match, she has shorter hair and seemingly different personality. I also saw butterflies leading me to her fridge, with the most eerie sound effect. From here, the creepy ambiance, feeling of deception, and uncomfortable feelings started to set in. Until I did the deed, and Mita's world seemed sensible.
Right after teleporting, the game gives you options to look around, ask questions, make key observations. Heck, at least there was a sense of choice while going along with her "happy to see me" act. Even when we played games, there are times I felt like she was just cheating.
Ok, I know that the psychological horror tag is on the Steam page, but I was an hour in, and seeing reality unfolding was very messed up. It was only when we played a cards game that knock came from her drawer, my character's curiosity got probably the worst of him before seeing the true face of evil. As well as the taste of the nightmare inside.
And what do you know, I got out of the nightmare, and downstairs basement hidden under that haunted apartment. The Mita for the latest version got locked up, and world stolen by this psychopath Mita. Her avatar on the phone was also fake. Everything had a false sense of security. For more added context, I need to find cartridges for both Mitas and the players.
I didn't know crouching and running was a thing either. But after sneaking out, I've realized the developers can get very creative by changing their game design depending situationally. It is a video game, after all, maybe just a tad bit too scary for my well-being.
Real Mita gets her key, and I get a ring that takes me to the Mitaverse, taking me to surprisingly weird and confusing spaces. You have freedom to follow through tasks, but also sort of look around, and ponder things to unravel its layers. While dealing with multiple oddities.
Many of the things here are open to interpretations, and it's so subversive and well-laid out, messes with your head multiple times. Also, those cartridges I mentioned, turned out they are real life players turned into discs that the evil Mita had been collecting. She also, ah, learned engineering from one of them. Explains the teleporting machine pretty well.
Not all is bad, some of the Mitas here are actually fun. Cappie and cool Mita finally meet (again), and the former is such a goofball, I really wanted to stick around longer. Even with the extra few minutes I could choose to have with her, it was the best respite considering what was to come. Cool Mita was sending me off to the unknown, not knowing if her plans will foil or not.
Remember that P.T. demo, Konami delisted? Yeah, that was next thing. Loop, after door loop, finally came across young Mita. Of course, every Mita who dies reboots back to new. But, this poor one really had it the worst. Lore, and story here expands so much, all in the span of few hours.
Btw, I forgot to mention before meeting Cool Mita after her escape, I was playing that arcade racing game you see above. I wasn't supposed to, but I did anyway. Miside is one of those bizarre games I've enjoyed this year, despite it telling me how the genre exploits digital girls.
Yeah, the jumpscares will really increase the stress level. But this trippy experience deconstructs so much from its own self-contained story. It has a few technical issues, and the game content isn't finished either. The developers have stated they'll add more extra stuff as time will go by. It is pretty affordable, unraveling it with multiple endings is what NG+ is for.
And hey, if you like deprecating humor, they make fun of shader compilations and ray tracing environments in loading screens. Trust me, the humor is also what makes it all work.
