So I played a shitload of Japanese adult games again this year, but compared to last year there’s actually some progress. Last year I think I played 80. This year I counted… 77. See, fewer than last year. That proves I’m one step closer to becoming a normie, right??

We’ve always said the Japanese have an island mentality. What does that actually mean? It has two senses. One is the textbook island mentality — a reluctance to take in culture from the outside world. The other is the one we toss around online when talking about Japan, which is sort of the opposite but comes from the same root: the feeling that you’re on a tiny patch of land with no resources and no long history, squeezed on one side by America and on the other by a rising China, with things not exactly peaceful at home either. So you’re always on alert, feeling like you’re at rock bottom in the dark, on the edge of being ruled by someone else, and you’d better be ready to suffer. Honestly that sense of crisis is correct. The old saying goes, “Born in adversity, die in comfort.” Which is why the Japanese work so hard — and at least on that count, I’d say it beats China’s habit of being woken up from its “celestial empire” daydreams by a slap across the face. But “island mentality” isn’t a nice word. It’s distorted, a little forced, and a little delusional, and it shows up in Japanese culture and all sorts of works. You’ve seen it in anime — Japan gets colonized, Japan needs a revolution, Japan gets surrounded like livestock, the world ends with Japan at the center. Etc. Etc. (I’m just talking off the top of my head. I didn’t name Guilty Crown, I didn’t name Code Geass, and I certainly didn’t mention Attack on Titan.) And by extension, of course there are visual novels that display the same mentality. Like the one I played this time… From the Future Undying.

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.