Episode 21: SWAN SONG / Le.Chocolat meets FlyingShine - Those Who Despair in Extreme Conditions and Those Who Don't

I've come to enjoy depressing games and tear-jerkers at some point, but psychologically speaking, they seem to be addictive, I don't know.

However, when I search for depressing games, gore games also come up, but I'm the type who doesn't play them because the slaughter-heavy ones are a bit too much for me. There are a lot of pretty awful ones out there, and if I only played those, I feel like I'd get sick... I want to play depressing games that are good for my mental health! I say, tilting my head at the contradiction as I write this.

A famous masterpiece of the depressing game genre is "SWAN SONG." It's a 2005 game that I'd been curious about but kept putting off, but I finally cleared it the other day, and I'm so glad I did~~~.

There were many betrayals in a good sense, and I want to share them with someone, but since I have no one to talk to, please let me talk about it here. So, if you haven't played it yet, please squint your eyes or turn back now.

The "Wait, what?" from the worldview and synopsis

A massive earthquake occurred on Christmas Eve, and daily life changed completely. In a tragic situation where more than half of the city's population perished, six men and women of similar ages met at a church. They decided to encourage each other and head to an evacuation center while waiting for rescue, but with information cut off and heavy snow falling day after day, no help came from the outside. To cross the city, which had been submerged by flooding, they decided to build a raft and escape, but...

The copy written on the back of the package was “And so, they met in a snow-covered church. At that moment, people are tested by despair.”.

I thought, "Huh? This is just a total orgy, how pitiful..." but it was completely different. In fact, they were only in the church at the very beginning and escaped immediately, so I thought, "Wait, what?!"

A good "Wait, what?" from the impression of the package

Since the package features a naked girl lying down defenselessly, I had nothing but bad premonitions from the first impression. Because it's called a "masterpiece of depressing games," I thought it would be about some poor girl, and I was too scared to play it... So, to give you the result, no one laid a finger on the girl who was stripped naked on the package, so I couldn't help but say, "Wait, what?!"

Well, but I'm glad the girl on the package didn't have anything terrible done to her... Just that alone made me delude myself into thinking that this game might have a happy ending..

So where is the depressing part of the game?

It was quite different from my impression, so I felt a bit let down in many ways, but I liked how it meticulously and stickily depicted the way people's mental states become unstable as food and fuel run low in a confined space.

Choices appear every now and then, and if you make a mistake, you go straight to a bad ending. That makes you realize even more how tense the world is.

The route is linear. There is a Normal Ending and a True Ending, and the system is set up so that you see the Normal Ending first, and then the True Ending.

The Normal Ending is desperate, painful, heartbreaking, and the worst, while the True Ending feels like salvation. If it had only been the Normal Ending, I think there would have been an uprising.

Postscript: I wrote this on impulse. Sorry, the end of the Normal Ending depicted a beauty without salvation, and it was very good. This was the most important part. Please look at the Unjash-style comedy I'll write next and the symbolism of the title, Swan Song. If you ask which is better, the Normal or True Ending, the True one is happier, but I think the Normal one is more complete. However, since that alone would make you depressed, I think that's why the True Ending is included. Sorry, I'll post this after I properly review it..

As for the gore, there is a slight amount. People die in droves, and the main members also seem to be in pain, but while there are some gore illustrations, they didn't appear as much as I thought... I think... So, I think it's fine for anyone who isn't pure. In the first place, it's designed without character sprites to leave it to the reader's imagination, so maybe that part is also left to the reader's imagination. It's not too extreme, so if you're hesitating, you should definitely play it. The content was so wonderful that the concerns about gore feel trivial, so I think it's definitely a better experience if you read it.

A mismatch like an Unjash comedy sketch

I think what highlights the depression is the personalities of the characters. There are six main members. One is a girl with a disability, and the other five are divided into the "despairing group" and the "non-despairing group," and the mismatch caused by their different natures was the most delicious part to read.

I think it's better for you to read other analyses on this, so I'll post the URL here. My usual 'dump it on someone else' business model.

[Spoiler] SWAN SONG: Those Who Despair, Those Who Don't - (Theme Analysis) / Islands of Stories
http://takobonreview.jugem.jp/?eid=2

I wrote in the heading that it's 'like an Unjash sketch.' It's the complete opposite of comedy, but I guess the feeling is that the dissonance is so terrifying that you have no choice but to laugh...

For example, the term 'deus ex machina' was coined for creative works because, since there's only one author, their personality inevitably gets distributed among all the characters. But in 'SWAN SONG,' that very aspect is the worst part.All five characters have their own distinct traits and never waver. For better or for worse. That is precisely why it is both terrifying and beautiful. The way the couple's conversations never quite connect was so realistic it gave me goosebumps, so I want you to pay attention to that.

Now, back to my airheaded perspective.

Since there are plenty of sites that write serious analyses, I'll give you my own unique impression: The protagonist's voice is incredibly sexy and amazing, so what are you going to do about it!!!!

It's rare for a game like this to have a fully voiced protagonist—90% of the time they aren't—so I was surprised, but the protagonist's voice was just so good... The voice parts were fully voiced.

As for the characters, there's another guy who's like an older brother figure, Mr. Tanomura. Even though he's a side character, he felt more like a protagonist and was so cool♡♡♡ The true protagonist, Amako-kun, is a quiet boy with a talent for piano who looks at things from a bird's-eye view and gets things done when he needs to, but I was left going '???????????' at the sudden sexy scene at the beginning.

What I learned from SWAN SONG

'Even if it's not your preferred genre, you should still play things that are called masterpieces.' I guess that's it! Sorry if I'm wrong!

I really can't handle stories where girls have a miserable time, so I was hesitant to play it for a long time, but when I actually did, the story was completely different from what I expected, and I really understood why it's so highly acclaimed, so I'm really glad I did. In that sense, 'The House in Fata Morgana', which was the reason I started this note, was the same.

Also, I thought people who aren't good at reading text might find it a bit hard to get into.

Well~~~~~ ahahaha~~~~~ I also found myself skimming through quite a bit. But hey, everyone has their own way of reading. It's a waste to just decide not to read something because you can't read it properly. Let's use tools in the way that works best for us, rather than being used by them.

Wow, that sounded like something profound. I'm always ready to take the stage.

Tokyo NEET-style evaluation with high self-affirmation: 'SWAN SONG' A+

#SlightGore #Panic #Apocalyptic #ViewOnLifeAndDeath #CoolSideCharacters #DepressingPlot #Madness #ReligiousViews #ThemeOfDisaster #DepressingGame #GeniusAndOrdinaryPeople #QuietProtagonist #FullyVoicedProtagonist