Recent reviews by A satisfyingly fluffy cat

Give us the option to play as a girl in future Persona games, you cowards.

WILL: A Wonderful World made me cry…. But probably for all the wrong reasons.

I had first learned of this visual novel because of the high praise it had gotten, and bought it shortly after it received its English translation because I figured I was going to read something good, great even. The game started out pleasantly enough, I dug its gimmick of playing as a god changing the fates of people. It was definitely one of the more interactive visual novels I’ve played.

But then I read more and the aggressively maudlin tone got overbearing real fast. I don’t really know how to describe the stories presented in this game other than the Sadness Olympics™ because every character is determined to be more miserable than the next. There’s human trafficking, sexual assault, child abuse, a “romance” between a 35 year old man and a 17 year old girl where the game desperately tries to convince the player that it's actually not the creepiest thing ever. You know, just general human depravity. Herein lies another problem, the short vignettes the stories are presented in have no real connective tissue. ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan constantly as characters try to earn gold in the Sadness Olympics™ that things happen so quickly and lack any real depth. The game tries to draw emotion in an almost robotic nature with its predictability. Literally, and I mean literally, every sad cliche in the book is done in this visual novel in the most overbearing manner ever. I can understand what the characters are going through are terrible and that it’s something no human being should have to go through, however I would like the game to let me feel sad for these characters myself, not to have it smashing me over the head with a frying pan while yelling “ISN’T THIS TRAGIC? LOOK AT HOW SAD EVERYONE IS! CRY ALREADY!” It’s made even more laughable that every time you boot up the game it tells you to have a box of tissues ready because I guess the author(s) were that convinced that their factory-churned heart-tugging attempts would be successful.

At some point in the game it was describing some pretty graphic child abuse with the soundtrack belting out what I think was a saxophone solo and I lost it. I think the constant barrage of literally everything going wrong for these character made me lose my mind because I ended up laughing my ass off. I thought, wow, how does this game have this much good reviews? Am I missing something here? Is this part of an inside joke I’m not a part of? Surely it’s one of those cases where it gets better later on, but that’s like saying an electric shock gets better later on because you’re numb to the pain. Then I figured it out. This game must be in the “so bad it’s good” category, that’s the only way I can describe it. No longer did I start these stories with mild frustration because of the absolutely asinine drama. Rather I started them with glee to see what next overblown shenanigans I’d be witnessing next.

What terrible thing could happen to Alicia next? Oh, she gets her arm blown off? It must be Tuesday. I get to hear overbearing piano music as a stalker realizes the object of his affection wants to ♥♥♥♥ someone else and not him; and then use my god powers to prevent the dumbass from drinking face cream because he mistook it for milk? Comedy gold. A female student’s art teacher makes her heart go doki doki, despite him being the most boring man alive? I gotta screenshot some of this to go “you see this ♥♥♥♥?” to my friends. The frankly laughable portrayal of mental illness? A knee-slapper. Someone gets cancer? I guess the author took the Chick Flick Tear Jerker 101 class.

I laughed at these character’s misfortunes because frankly the cartoonish level of hell that exists in this world was terribly written with its complete and utter lack of nuance or subtlety. I just couldn’t get myself to care anymore. I think this wanted to be deep. It’s all about Themes and Issues that are Like Totally Ser­i­ous. But this ended up being one the most unintentionally hilarious games I’ve played in a while because this a visual novel that just tells you that life just sucks sometimes, I guess.

What's better than this? Just gals being pals.

These girls are as gay as I am. Would recommend.