this isnt a full review, just kind of....a talk in ddlc, the visual novel style and atmosphere that lends itself to a traditional dating sim weebgame transferring to metapsychological horror with bits of other hot button issues like stalking, self harm, suicide, abuse, and gore. this entire narrative suprised me with its direction. let me make one thing clear, i wasnt oblivious to this type of writing, there are various warnings both on the store page as well as the game start about traumatic items. i was expecting some sort of obvious toneshift. and the writing nailed that, but it did it in a way that sort of felt refreshingly original. as if it knew how fucked it was going to get and just wanted to play the "nothings wrong here, absolutely nothing" card when its obvious there is, and that card is also a staple of meta horror. the writing of course is filled with other types of cliches that exhibit pretty obvious foreshadowing, but when you get to the event foreshadowed, it hits really really hard. so even though you saw it coming, it still punches you in the fucking face. and like i said, i didnt go in blind, but i hopped in a call with my friend, he told me to keep the file browser open, and after he had me all sorted out, he left with the words "monika is best girl" after he left i played the rest of the game, the second half of the first playthrough, alone. nobody was there to joke about the characters with me. i browsed the secret pop up documents and pictures, messed with files, all alone. and it kinda messed me up. i actually refuse to play the game anymore for the reasons of plot. the writing was good enough to convince me, a cynical fuck who does nothing but play games, to not touch it anymore. i shant let best girl suffer