Death end re;Quest is the only game I’ve ever played that gets BETTER when it goes meta

[feotakahari]

“Just like how there’s a bug-killing programmer that can manipulate World’s Odyssey, what if someone was capable of manipulating and distorting our reality? In the same way I can see whatever Shina’s doing, what if there’s someone watching me?

“I finally understand how ignorant I was. That’s right. This world is a lie. I am not, however. I am DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH”

That's right; you just got Doki Doki Literature Club'd. Who knew Compile Heart had it in them?

Comments

[lb_lee]

I almost feel like having context would make my enjoyment of this post worse.

[feotakahari]

It’s like, you know that thing Undertale does where the player in an evil run is basically a malevolent entity possessing the protagonist against his will? Imagine that in a JRPG. (On the path to the best ending, it also does the Earthbound thing where the boss enemy is so unkillable that the characters directly ask you to beat it for them.)

[lb_lee]

Huh! I'm actually not that familiar with any of the games, but it sounds neat anyway! (I mean, technically I own Undertale, I just haven't managed to play far through it.)

[feotakahari]

Oh. Sorry for the spoilers.

I always thought of myself as hating postmodernism, but apparently I have Opinions on it anyway. I keep mentally comparing this game to the game that looks like it’s third-person over the main character’s shoulder, but turns out to be first-person from the POV of the invisible alien controlling him, or the game where you turn out to be playing as a psychic gestalt that was accidentally created in a lab experiment and is now trying to guide and protect its creators, or the game where the player character kills civilians and the loading screens try to make you, the player, feel guilty for it. Apparently, “who exactly am I playing as?” is a question a lot of games want to handle in new and exciting ways.