You’re a 42-year-old middle-aged guy. You’ve got a family, a wife, and a daughter in middle school. Your days never change. One after another, and somewhere in there you’ve forgotten that time is even passing. Sometimes you shoot the shit with coworkers about nothing in particular. You’ve forgotten what the world out there even looks like. Work is a two-point commute with nothing in between — no fun, no passion. Your coworkers are all hooked on one thrill or another, chasing kicks online, hunting for strangers. You figure none of it means anything. Maybe you still love your wife. Sometimes you want to get intimate with her, and you get the cold shoulder. “You’re 42 already. What are you even doing this for? Aren’t you tired enough as it is?” Your wife has zero interest in the bedroom. It’s depressing. Sometimes you have to take care of it yourself. But sometimes your eyes drift toward your daughter. She’s nearly grown now, and she’s beautiful — sometimes she even reminds you a little of your wife. She’s completely unguarded at home, and sometimes you see things you shouldn’t. Sometimes, you even start to react to your own daughter… That’s dangerous.

The reason ISLAND caught my eye was that the other games releasing around the same time were just too easy to read. I was going to use the word “boring” for the others, but Wagamama doesn’t seem quite that boring — it’s just that most titles, from their introductions alone, clearly aren’t going to pull any surprises. So ISLAND came charging out with tags like “all-ages,” “story-driven,” and “highbrow foreshadowing payoff,” and announced an anime adaptation almost immediately. For someone who enjoys plot developments, this seemed like a can’t-miss. But after a long and painful playthrough, I found it wasn’t quite the kind of game I’d imagined. Not that it’s bad — in fact, its narrative rigor is pushed to an extreme. It’s just not for me. Maybe the kind of people who love EVER17 or Steins;Gate and its time-loop ilk will eat this up. In other words, there aren’t many game types I hate, but one on my hate list is exactly the kind of development ISLAND has. So there’s no helping it — this game gave me zero pleasure and nothing but pain.