MiSide – PC Review

Anime horror created by two developers from AIHASTO unexpectedly exploded on Steam: in less than a week it collected almost 50 thousand reviews, 98% of which were positive, got into the top 10 sales in the Chinese and Russian segments of the platform, and its peak online reached more than 17 thousand players – more than, for example, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

The anime department of the oldest Japanese film company Shochiku (the one that Akira Kurosawa once worked for) volunteered to promote MiSide in Japan on its own initiative. What are the reasons for its sudden success?

At first glance, it is unclear where such an explosive interest comes from. Surely anime horror can’t be that good? Besides, having already seen Doki Doki Literature Club, what else can scare players so? Having such thoughts, I purchased MiSide and… realized that I was very wrong about this game.

Let’s take a glance back to the development of MiSide. The game was created by two friends from Russia with incredible persistence. The production process took almost 2 and a half years, which might seem like a short period in the current reality. The studio worked not only on MiSide, but on other projects as well, none of which became particularly successful or famous.

Even taking into account the positive reviews on each of the games before MiSide, the titles lacked when it came to the number of players. But the developers did not lose heart and returned to game development time after time.

And so, on December 11th, MiSide saw the light of the day and started rapidly gaining in popularity. 98% positive reviews on Steam, with tens of thousands of reviews. An unimaginable level of hype and a rise in interest from such a small title. It became clear to everyone who follows the charts, we have a new masterpiece on our hands. And it is worth noting: the price of the game is simply ridiculous for a product of this level.

The project overwhelms the player from the very beginning, featuring interesting and even unexpected decisions, and I can’t avoid the plot spoilers completely in a review of this size, so my advice is to give it a spin yourself: there is a free demo to try out.

Our protagonist, a random shy shut-in, gets a new mobile game mysteriously sent right to his phone. Tired and in dire need of a portion of escapism, the MC boldly launches the program, which is not unlike a type of Tamagotchi where we need to take care and look after a little girl named Mita.

Mita asks us to perform simple actions, such as play mini-games and take care of her. And after a little more than a month, something strange happens. Mita, bored with her digital loneliness, drags the main character into the game world in order to finally see him face-to-face. And this is where the spoilers begin. Some very serious spoilers that are next to impossible to avoid when talking about the game. If you want to find out for yourself what is happening instead of relying on my words, you really should buy the game.

After all, the story turned out to be incredibly competent and filled with interesting details. When it all comes together, the reaction is positively jaw-dropping. The plot may not be an absolute masterpiece for centuries, but all of its parts are in the right places and touch on important topics. There is not a single unnecessary scene, not a single empty moment, not one unnecessary character, every second of the story is recreated with a stunning level of elaboration in all aspects.

Furthermore, I would like to note the extremely thoughtful structure, MiSide masterfully flirts with the emotional spectrum of the player. A good horror gives a certain emotional release, but MiSide will also make you laugh, jump in surprise, reel back in fear, and even feel touched. Sometimes the devs even skillfully bring you to tears! There are also a number of loaded Chekhov’s guns scattered around the game (a seemingly unnoticeable small detail in the plot – capable of subsequently turning it upside down), and they will also provoke you to create theories. Personally, I had a lot of theories after completing the game, some of them even scared me.

For those who decided to stick around, the moment your protagonist finds himself in the game is the moment that horror begins. It would take more than empty words to describe what is happening in the game.

The story uses a wonderful postmodernist approach, skillfully discussing the topic without slipping into populist nonsense. The developers could have followed the path of Silent Hill, telling the story of cyberbullying and the internal problems of a teenager (I’m talking about Short Message and not about the recent remake), but instead the team decided to focus on disturbing topics that few people discuss out loud.

For example, the epidemic of mass loneliness, as well as the rampant escapism that is capturing more and more developed countries. And although the disclosure of these problems in the game could have been better, even in its current version it tugs and makes you think.

After playing, you realize how much diversity of user experience is available in a quite short game, and this diversity is the cornerstone of MiSide. This is noticeable not only in the rich narrative, but also in terms of gameplay. I haven’t seen so many unique mini-games and gameplay mechanics per minute of gameplay in a long time.

From the very beginning, we are given a segment with a Tamagotchi, then sent to a dating simulator, smoothly flowing into a horror, then to a visual novel, and so on and so forth… in 4 hours of gameplay, the protagonist will have time to do more unique activities than some manage over the course of a full AAA game.

One of the most important parts of the game are puzzles, they are quite simple, but there are a lot of them and they are all quite different. The low difficulty plays into the hands of the project, not breaking the gameplay but complementing the pace of the game. So, for those who are expecting riddles with a solution barely fitting on 3 pages, there isn’t anything of that sort in MiSide. The game is not about that, but there is still something to think about, especially at the end.

The plot leaves quite the room for imagination after you beat the main story. And the number of collectible items and secrets, with interesting references and nuances, will add spice to the 2nd and even the 3rd playthrough. Most of the open questions will concern the game world, although the project tries to explain everything from to the smallest detail in such a short duration, but it is simply impossible to fully understand the world order of such an intriguing universe.

But let’s get back to the Gameplay. A good part of the game will be spent taking part in the mini-games, both in the slot machines and in the game itself. Here the developers have gone wild, you have races, and a shooter like Quake, Tetris, and all sorts of other activities. Even the Tic-Tac-Toe in the visual novel section, or the segment with the console at the very beginning of the tamagotchi section, which you will later remember more than once.

MiSide skillfully entertains the player by constantly changing the rules and breaking patterns, and it does it masterfully. With the understanding that comes from beating the game, you will look back at these games in a completely different light. But they are also narratively justified, because in essence our protagonist is the player’s guide to the world of the game, which is sometimes noted by the characters of the game themselves, calling the protagonist as “the Player”. You are literally playing a game about a game.

So, what is so scary about the game? MiSide follows an atypical genre path, the game creates the sense of horror by playing on contrasts, there are literally only a couple of screamers in the game, and the entire horror element is wrapped in a certain veil of anime cuteness. A kind of kawaii horror. The characters look and sound extremely cute, so much so that you want to cuddle them.

The environment is similarly done in gentle tones, and that’s why it becomes even scarier when scary things start happening in this cute environment. Despite all the pretentious cuteness, the locations scream about the abnormality of what is happening literally from the very beginning. It is enough to look closely at the objects, although even for the most inattentive the game will be able to convey this simple thought – “something is wrong here.” After all, the game skillfully builds up a sense of tension until the very end. Scary faces? Yes. Impenetrable darkness? Yes. Scary sounds? Yes, but even this is only the first layer of horror that the game can give players.

MiSide flirts with the feeling of impending danger, the whole friendly atmosphere and environment is deceptive, and you will understand this fact every second that you spend there. After all, the game brings a good horror effect exactly when it is necessary, neither too late, nor too early. And it is precisely at the moments when utter horror occurs on the screen that the player receives 200% emotional feedback.

What terrified me about MiSide is not just a few scary moments, but the second layer of its horror component. The semantic load embedded in the story made me both think back to and be horrified by the premise of the game. The main theme of MiSide is escapism, the escape from reality that we all practice, only the game reveals this theme in an unexpected way. After all, the plot not only skillfully revealed this theme, but also made me, as a player, look at this theme from different angles.

The plot shows how our main character, after another routine day, returns home and installs games. We all already know this, yes, but… It all seems to start with simple actions in a game on the phone: buy groceries, cook food, help with cleaning, earn money for a small TV, rearrange the closet. And while we are doing these everyday things, we do not notice how the days are flying by. Mita’s words that she likes us warm the soul. I will not hide, these words were pleasant to hear, even inside the game.

The scene where Mita shows us the main character’s life in a series of endless repeating days without her simply made me freeze. My life… is not that different from this. Routine, day after day, repeating basic actions, where only small things change from day to day. At first I felt it as a gameplay trick, yes, a very cheap trick, to show how boring life is without Mita: do your work, eat, do your morning and evening cleaning, and go to sleep.

But when the counter started to go over 2-3 years, it gave me wild horror from the realization. It made me think about how terrible routine is, and why people turn to escapism. And yes, this thought will not be new to many, but just the way the game was able to evoke it in me struck me to the depths of my soul. The authors managed to evoke a genuine and deep sense of horror. Not so much with their game itself, but with the problems it revolves around and how it chooses to describe them. After all, missing out on a huge number of opportunities, in the mundane everyday life, in the gray days, we forget one thing. We have a limited life time, not like the digital Mita.

But the scariest part begins closer to the end of the game, when it becomes obvious how broken the world is, and that the victim is not only the player himself, but also the characters in it. Loneliness and escapism are shown from very unexpected sides. And if at the beginning, it may seem to us that the object of these problems is our MC, who vegetates away the gray days of his life, and therefore begins to brighten up his loneliness in the game, then by the end you understand. That Mita is not so far from him in the specifics of these problems. And if for the MC it was enough to close himself off and hide in the game on his mobile phone, running away from his problems, then Mita, limited by her four walls, without the ability to go beyond the boundaries of her digital world, is simply doomed to loneliness.

From a technological point of view, MiSide is not Alan Wake or Silent Hill, but it doesn’t need to be them. The picture is stylized and looks great, the atmosphere more than works out. With the game being made by only 2 people, it’s amazing: all the models are created perfectly, the levels and textures with sound do not lag far behind them.

Considering that the entire production was done by only two people, it is quite incredible. The game is made with great taste, in everything and everyone. Even the fanservice in the game is on point, there are plenty of moments with jokes and cute girls. Sometimes even touching on the adult topics, although not really extreme and frequent. The game has a lot of references, sometimes straight to the point, a game segment reminiscent of the famous P.T. (Silent Hill) from Kojima, to Papers, Please, Backrooms and many similar cultural units.

MiSide is not just a gem, it is truly a masterpiece that does not face any real bugs or technical difficulties, but a stunning narrative and beautiful graphics. The secrets and references are plenty. The developers invested not just the skills, but also their very souls into this game – and sometimes it feels like we’re talking literally.

Summary
MiSide is not just a gem, it is a masterpiece that features a stunning narrative and beautiful graphics. The developers invested not just the skills, but also their very souls into this game.
Good
  • Graphics, from the characters to smallest level design details
  • The plot is gripping
  • The horror elements
  • The technical state of the game
Bad
  • Music
  • Way too short
  • One of the endings is not fully realized yet
9
Amazing

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