We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

I've seen a couple essays get passed around on tumblr, what kind of game is it and where did it eff up

it was basically butterfly effect: the game? You play a girl who returns to her hometown to go to a prestigious art school, and you run into your old childhood friend who has changed a lot in between. Also hey! you can rewind time now, fun

and now we enter the spoiler zone

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SpoilerYour art teacher is also drugging and abusing the teen girls from your school; he's being helped+funded by resident richboy douchebag who really needs some therapy. Since you left, your galpal made a new bestie who has since gone missing, and you can guess where thats going :l

Anyway things get progressively gayer as they go on, and the game is clearly about choices and how small things we do can affect situations v differently. Its mentioned throughout that doing things like watering a plant or saving a bird from smacking into your window will have effects later. (to be fair the plant one did have an effect; i overwatered it and killed it. :c)

The game is divided into 5 parts and you learn more+the stakes get higher in each part. The first two were unremarkable, the 3rd and 4th were all whoa shit this is really good! and the 5th... Totally shit the bed. It left a lot of small mysteries and plotlines hanging. All your small choices were meaningless and led to one big choice at the end: kill your galpal or destroy the bay that you live in. (context: a storm is heading at the bay, probably caused by you getting a bit too eager with the rewind button). It doesn;t really make sense to rewind back to the start t not fuck with time any further, but whatever. If you pick that and have chosen romantic options with galpal before, you kiss her then go let her die. Its followed by a 9 minute cutscene. This is clearly intended to be the 'right' ending. If you destroy the bay, (implying everyone else dies, which doesn;t make sense b/c you saw people escaping) you don't tell chloe you love her, you get repeated music from earlier and a 3 minute cutscene of them driving through the wrecked town and away to wherever.

Basically: Kill your gays or no gay at all, and also you are horrible and selfish. Even though the whole game has been about you saving Chloe so far.

It also inexplicably keeps pushing you at your kinda awkward and weird male friend; despite your character being clearly not attracted to him and vaguely uncomfortable with people thinking that you are (including said friend who has a crush the size of jupiter) the game keeps trying to pair you with him. If you accept his invitation to watch a drive in movie that he's clearly excited for then it must be a date and another girl gives you the cold shoulder. Even though you kiss chloe and she texts the guy to step the fuck off. Your final meeting with him has you able to hug, kiss, or not do anything with him, which is more than you get with your best friend and actual love interest? Wtf.

I might have been a bit more annoyed about that last part because it reminds me a lot of my high school experience and various friendships with dudes i've had, ugh.