Chaos;Head~
Friday, 19. December 2008
I’ve put off writing this review because it’d ultimately force me to return to the game. No, no, no. Don’t misunderstand, don’t get me wrong. This game is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever made the statement “X game is the best, and no other.” If so, then I apologize, I’m going to break that statement. Overall I don’t have a particular favorite per se. To be frank, I judge on the quality of the story, not superiority or comparison over another. Well, I try not to, at least.
Getting back to it, this game hit me in a fundamental way that I don’t think I’ll be able to convey without describing large portions of my internal makeup, something I’m disinclined to do at this point. Nevertheless, I found this game had a tremendous amount of quality.
However, I’ll let you in on a secret: When I play a particular game (game is subjective, but work with me here, okay?) I have it running on one monitor, and a notepad doc open on the other. As I play, I take notes. What’s going on in-game, and how I’m reacting to what’s happening. I can’t possibly post the notes here, for one alot of personal shit is mixed in with it, as well as tremendous fucking spoilers, (not to mention it’s hugecat huge) but I’ll post excerpts in the hopes that perhaps you and I will maybe come a little closer to understanding Chaos;Head.
Now that I’ve gone through the opening (great music, BTW), This is awesome shit right here. The way things move visually- I hate to use evocative, but it is. It’s dizzying, when things move around, because it’s done first person. Things move and seem like you really are Takumi seeing them. Should I feel bad because some of the figures he has on his shelf are the same figures I have, or wanted to buy?
For me, I was captivated. I’d been hesitant to play the game, both because of the patch (more on that in a bit) but because, well, Nitro+ has a certain … well, noteriety. Not only that, but when people start going on and on and on about something, I tend to hate it out of spite. Boy howdy did people talk about it, and at length. I finally succumbed, however, and tried it out. Regarding the music- It was really great.
A metal stake… CLANG CLANG CLANG oh god not the music. Dude, fucking leave. This isn’t the time to be hanging out and listening to someone play “I’ve been working on the railroad, all the livelong DAY!” Just leave. Go. Get the fuck out of Dodge. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200, just GO. Oh god. I’m done for. BAD END, right? Glad? What? Why is she glad? Awfully happy, too. And bloody. I can’t see anything in her eyes, her face is unreadable. Am I dead? Will I die? Is this one of his delusions? She knows me by name and she knows my school and she’s wearing the uniform.
I’m referring, of course, to this scene. All of the little details that were occuring as the scene played out kept unnerving me. One other thing that set Chaos;head apart from my more recent games. I felt directly involved. It’s hard to connect to a character when there’s future robots, or incomprehensible mgics, or things things like that. The main lead, Takumi, is not an admirable lead. In fact, getting into Taku’s head is like slipping on a glove that had jelly inside. slimy and disgusting. Combining that with the overall disturbing, somewhat nervous, paranoid aspect of the game, when things happen, I was reacting.
Holy- If I have the stake, then it must be real, right? Wait a second. Let’s think this through logically. If there really WAS a gory murder, a New Gen murder, and it was done with those stakes, me having one in my posession implicates me. Disregarding fingerprints and all, if she didn’t leave any prints and I was caught out I’d be fucked, true and proper. If I got rid of it, and the police went looking for evidence, and a helpful garbage man found it and turned it in, then again, because of prints, I’d be implicated.
When I saw the stake for the second time, I had this little brainstorm. Fairly self-evident, right? Immediately after typing this out, Takumi thought the exact same thing. Not a big deal, normally, but when I was in the game, the parallel in our thought processes not so much the content but drawing the lines to the conclusions, the processes behind it, that freaked me out and drew me in that much more.
Thoughts on the womenfolk:
Aoi Sena: Sena was a difficult girl to like. Very tsun, difficult to know or understand. I felt more and cared more for her mother than Sena, but there were some moments when she was delightful.
Kusunoki Yua: It’s hard to put into words exactly what about her I liked or disliked. Every step along the way, from beginning to end, she was there, she evoked a response from me, be it amusement, nervousness, shock, consideration, moe. The way she moved, in my mind, from trusted to untrustworthy band back again really affected me. Her “awakening” seemed separate from her, detached, and I wish I’d been given more clues.
Kishimoto Ayase: Just like Yua, it’s hard to describe just what about FES I liked so much. I dunno. Despite her cool exterior, despite her defenses, I really liked her. No, I think I know why I liked her. Part of it was the singing; I’m a sucker for a sweet voice and hers was crystal clear. Part of it was her restraint, part of it was the sheer enigma of her. When you get to her part, the website of the hospital that is linked on @chan is real, and loli-FES is cute~
Orihara Kozue: I just didn’t like Kozu-pii that much. I mean, out of all of them I’d encountered, I’d trusted her more than Sena, Yua, Ayase, and Rimi, but I couldn’t like her. Part of it was her external personality No. It was the disparity between her external personality and her internal personality that jarred on me. Also, her voice grated on my nerves, along with all the upuu~ hanyuu~ and whatall else she added into her speech.
Sakihata Rimi: She takes #2 in how much I liked her, but only by the barest of margins. The way she kept me on edge, flip-flopping between being kind and sweet and cold and untrustworthy, and finally reaching an end with her (apparently she’s the heroine and all) was so amazingly well done. The feeling of “I could trust her. Wait. What was she doing? Is she plotting something? Oh, she’s not suspicious at all, no, wait!” through the entire thing was so awesome. It was the journey I made with her that made is so rewarding, so enjoyable. Riding that mix of paranoia and hope, fear and empathy from start to finish was simply amazing. When Taku was at the darkest points, when things couldn’t get any worse, those clear, openhearted moments of pure human kindness made me fall so hard for her.
Nishij? Nanami: By far and above, #1 in my book. From start to finish, there wasn’t anything at all I didn’t like. She’s a good girl. No crazies, really! Her honest purity is soothing, I mean, come on I’ve been having to deal with Taku’s shit for a while and frankly, Nanami was a breath of fresh air. Beginning, middle, and end, she was simply amazing. Part of it, I suppose, was the fact that she was one hell of a moe-bullet, but from start to finish she was wonderful. An excellent contrast to Taku. I’m not a fan of tsundere, but her bouts of mild tsundere were well orchestrated and that was actually a part of why it is I liked her so much. I regret being unable to share her fish sandwich. I would have.
Overall this game was superior to most I’ve played. Rich and rewarding, disturbing and hillarious. There were a surprising amount of things in the game that exist on “teh interwebs”, making it alot more… interactive than I’m used to, but in an excellent “I’m participating in the story” sort of way. on a 1-10, I’d give it a solid 10.
Patching: It is complicated, and it’s very much an effort. Also, it’s clearly and blatantly a beta patch. It’s a shining fucking example of why I refuse to help people with patching problems. If you can’t get it to work, don’t ask me, because I had problems too.
Downloadables? You bet! I’ve packaged up Nanami’s ringtone, Suwa’s ringtone, and Let Me Pass into *.mp3 format, so you too can use them for your own nefarious preferences. Right click, save as. Link verified working as of 12/19/2008.
Whose eyes are those eyes?