Go For A Punch! Saki Sanobashi

I recommend this game, with hesitance.

First, the game is amazing. It truly crawled under my skin in ways horror games often do not, but maybe that is because of my history with... the subject matter. That's all I'll say there. The art was unsettling and beautiful, and the story didn't sugarcoat anything. It's a little 'too' real in some places, especially near the end where you have to type out your last words. Overall, amazing game with only one bug, where one line was in Spanish instead of English.

The reason I'm hesitant, plus, a warning: This game does have trigger warnings, but I feel it goes a little too hard where it gives detailed instructions on where to best... bl**d out. There is SH imagery, as expected. Where you have to type out your last words, if you take it seriously, can have an effect on your mental health, especially just having to even think about something like that (plus a warning: whatever you type goes onto a public Twitter page and I hate it because they don't tell you in the game. Some people may take it a little too seriously and give personal info not knowing). This game lacks any kind of section where someone could find resources if they're genuinely having S thoughts. I feel in a game like this, it's important to make sure you have a page of resources, or a message at the end or beginning encouraging anyone to get help, or to not take anything in the game to heart if they're suffering. If it is there and I didn't see it, it's well hidden.

Honestly, I'm a little concerned this could get taken down. I'll still recommend it as it's amazing, and it has the intended effect, but this game needs more of a caring touch for people it might actually encourage to make certain permanent decisions. (I say this as an author of books about similar subject matter. You can go hard and get disturbing, but please remember there are people who could be encouraged by what you make).

Since I entered the world of Lost Media, the case of Saki Sanobashi has perhaps been one of my greatest interests. The idea of ​​an almost cursed anime taken from the deep web with a 4chan comment as the only evidence of its existence fascinated me quite a bit. And when I found out that there was a recreation of this legend in the style of a visual novel, I was interested and bought it right then and there. I didn't come with the highest expectations in the world for this, but to be honest... I was really disappointed, and even a little disgusted. but let's go in parts:

The gameplay is simple but at the same time somewhat strange, in the sense that in terms of exploration you have to explore all the parts of the bathroom where the girls are trapped until eventually returning to the center again and again, it doesn't vary much except in the ending where you limit yourself to smash a button for a certain amount of time.

The story however is the worst aspect of this game by far. SPOILERS FROM NOW ON:

The plot is more or less similar to the original 4chan story, a group of high school girls wake up trapped in a bathroom from which they cannot escape, and eventually fall into madness killing each other in different ways. The difference here is that there are about four girls, including the protagonist, Saki, who together have the idea of ​​committing anti-living towards themselves in a bathroom-shaped room far from civilization. Something that I do admit I liked is that the girls have something that differentiates them from each other in their appearance and personality, something that was not clear in the original story, also i would like to say that the art style, while not amazing, its quite decent and clearly made by someone with talent and experience in art, but beyond that there really is nothing good to highlight.

The development of the plot seems to not be able to decide whether it wants to stick to adapting the original story and that's it, or to create something new and different by taking some pieces from the 4chan post, and ends up failing to be either of the two things. There are details like what seems to be the story of one of the protagonists and why she wants to commit suicide, and even MAYBE the possibility that there is something supernatural involved, but these things end up not being explained or clarified at all, literally. As quickly as these possibilities appear, they simply disappear.

There is also the "plot twist" of Saki, the protagonist, being the one behind everything, filming the girls' suicides in the style of a Snuff movie, but also getting trapped inside that bathroom at the end. Not only does it not fit well with what is shown in the story, with Saki trying to get out of that bathroom of her own will even though it would mean ruining her plan, but it comes completely out of nowhere and without any clues at all. Also, it doesn't end up affecting the plot in a significant way anyway, nor does it give it a twist that changes the perspective of everything that happened in the game.

However, what really bothered me about the game and the reason I decided to refund it, is because of the way it handles its themes of suicide and self-harm. I know I'm going to sound a little cheesy with this, but I usually can't find value in a story if it doesn't have at least some message or something to say, no matter how small. In this game there are people killing each other in graphic and somewhat grotesque ways without really any deep reason behind it, we don't know why they do it, who they are, where they come from, and it ends up being pure shock factor without substance.

And they may say that the legend of Saki Sanobashi was also mere shock value, but the fun in that story is the search in question, the search of trying to find a lost media anime located on the deep web itself, these are the perfect ingredients for an interesting Creepypasta. but in this game the factors of search, lost media or the deep web do not apply, therefore the TRUE essence of Saki Sanobashi is completely lost.

But you know what really, directly pisses me off? I don't want to assume anything bad against the developers of this game or call them bad people, but this visual novel seems to be pro-suicide to some extent, even if it doesn't try to be. There is a moment in the game where you have to write what you would put IN YOUR SUICIDE NOTE, and a scene where Saki tells one of the protagonists in extreme detail THE BEST WAY AND PLACE ON THE BODY WHERE TO CUT YOURSELF WITHOUT FEELING PAIN, The fact that these scenes are in the game is directly inexcusable, no matter what the intention was, and the fact that throughout the game there is NO mention of help against suicidal ideation or at least some ray of hope In all the desperation is something i feel is genuinely irresponsible from the developers. I'm not trying to say that this game could endanger anyone, but it is downright disgusting and unacceptable to include these sorts of things in it, ESPECIALLY the part where it details "the best way to commit suicide."

For all these reasons I finally decided to refund this game. I genuinely felt dirty having this in my Steam library, and I really can't recommend it to anyone at all, much less at the price it is at and the miniscule length of it, even by the standards of the average visual novel.

And to the devs, I really don't have any negative feelings towards you and I don't want to assume anything bad, I think you have the potential to make a quality product at some point despite this setback, clearly in terms of art direction you have talent and if you guys learn from this mistake then chance are you will go far, and i really hope to be there to see that happen.

But in the meantime, for those who are interested in this game, I warn you: avoid it as much as possible. Period.

Now I'm really clueless about the purpose of the plot aside from, well, helping homies to accomplish their final wish, however the experience was memorable regardless!
While the story turned out to be more superficial in some aspects than I'd hoped (especially regarding Saki and the protagonist's role), it was entertaining to follow and I found the themes to be impressively depicted. The heavy atmosphere manages to convey the fusion of despair and acceptance very well, supported by the chilling yet serene music, as well as the striking art! The point & click elements are a nice addition, allowing some exploration. Overall it's a highly intriguing VN, which partially suffers from limiting its execution within the brief timeframe.