izigame.me

This is a seriously superb game. To follow the popular line of comparison it is certainly similar to Danganronpa, but with so much fat trimmed off, replaced with far more compelling intrigue and enough heart to make me actually care about every character. It absolutely deserves the praises it gets in these reviews.
As for why this review is negative: best way I can sum up my issue is like watching someone set up a meticulous house of cards, only for someone else to come over and swing an arm through it.
Spoiler-Free Details
I was completely rapt and increasingly invested in this game all the way up until the end of Act 2 (out of 3, by the looks of it). I binged those two Acts in one sitting, I couldn't tear myself away, and each emotional moment was hitting me harder. After my final decision in Act 2 the Act's conclusion began playing out and for the first time in a long time of playing games I was tearing up.
Then a character reacted a certain way to one of my decisions, and I thought 'oh, okay, I didn't expect their reaction to be like that...'. It was a bit jarring with its intensity and one-dimensional subtext, but I was able to overlook it as it made sense for the character.
But then the rest of the conclusion played out and it was just completely brutal, rushed, and such a tonal shift that I felt my emotional investment turning into confusion. It was when this bled into the start of Act 3 that I decided to go back and try the other decision instead.
Not only did the character's response make even less sense - and was diametrically opposed to their behaviour in the other route - but through some deus ex machina this decision also unpredictably solved one of the core and unrelated issues overarching the entire story. It was also just generally bizarrely saccharine. Victory music and smiles and cheers, despite a tragedy having unfolded nonetheless. To top it all off, it added a huge plot reveal in the very final moment, also unrelated to anything that had happened - a little reward for picking the 'correct' decision.
Spoiler-Inclusive Details
Massive spoilers for Act 2 so avoid if you haven't yet played: To me, the end of Act 2 was a horrible decision to make either way. I opted to save Sou, but I certainly don't think it was clear-cut or even that this was the better choice. But my decision was not, as the game put it, "choosing logic over feelings". I chose Sou for a couple of reasons, one being that I felt the trial was the start of a turning point in his path to redemption.
Considering him as someone worth saving had nothing to do with his usefulness, it was that I felt he was discovering what it meant to trust, to be authentically himself, and to be selfless. Since reading some discussion threads after completing Act 2 I saw a recurring vindictive argument for killing him, that he was cruel and deserved to die for his behaviour and attitude, but I feel like that misses the point of his arc. To survive he didn't just need to take on a fake name, he needed to completely shirk his identity as Shin; at the time that I voted, I felt I had realised that the only time we had seen a glimpse of his true self was when he hoped to save Kanna. He had his own demons, the 'Sou' shadow that took over him, just like Sara with Joe.
With him on the verge of being reborn and Kanna having made peace - not only with her situation, but with her care for her teammates and her missing her sister - it felt like losing Kanna would have been his penance, not in a vindictive sense but in shouldering the consequences of his actions and deceit. Yet what I saw instead was just white-hot fury, with no remorse for his manipulation of her that contributed to her death. Funny that when Kanna is saved, he's instead just salty that he was executed despite his usefulness, and he literally doesn't even spare a thought for Kanna in his final moments.
And to briefly cover the aftereffects: Everyone is completely depressed (whereas nobody even mourns Sou if he's executed - also nobody mourns Nao either, why did they only care about Kanna?). Sara is ruthlessly tormented by her demons (so was I only meant to kill Sou to get something out of it, i.e. his Joe AI?). Sou gets a borderline supervillain moment with his plans to kill everyone left.
This whole thing was handled so, so much worse than the loss of either Alice or Reka. Yet it also made me wonder -- I lost Alice because I succeeded at the game. But if I had lost Reka, would I have seen the same thing? Punishment and misery for choosing one life arbitrarily over another in forced circumstances?
Speaking honestly, I think saving Kanna was the truly morally right thing to do. But I mainly wanted to show why it was such a close decision for me, and why the "good ending bad ending" split - which was heinously diametrically opposed to the point of suspension of disbelief - completely ruined my experience up until that point.
The Verdict
It's one thing for a game to fumble an ending, these things happen and it can be overlooked as a mistake in the context of the rest of your experience in some cases. But not only did both these endings feel completely bizarre, when compared to each other it's an almost insulting level of preaching in which the creator seems intent on punishing players for a hard decision in what had remained a fascinatingly morally grey experience until that point.
There was no nuance to the results of my decision, no layers of response from the characters who had just gone through so much hardship and soul-searching. It was just the whole game saying it was a terrible decision and speaking for me - not just the character I wronged, but the music, the visuals, the content, other plot points, and even the other cast and inner voice of the main character, all condemning a motivation I hadn't even thought of. A 'bad ending', but not a Retry, just a taunt from the game saying 'you can keep playing, but we think you chose wrong and so from here on we don't care about the story, just about making you miserable'.
This game is a truly incredible achievement in so many aspects, but it hinges on involving the player - keeping them engrossed in the narrative, and emotionally invested. For me, the end of Act 2 and comparing the routes ruined this so much, at such a vital point, that it's left me with nothing but a sour taste and a 180 from how I felt beforehand.
I'll probably complete Act 3 eventually, and maybe even revisit my review, but for now it's hard to rebuild or gush about an awesome house of cards when it's been knocked onto the floor.