Board 8 > Raging Loop: A KCF playthrough topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Excluding my unexpectedly brief playoff topic for NBA 2K19 back in January, I last did one of these in October 2020 with Until Dawn. I considered that one to be a success, so back to another horror (maybe?) title in Raging Loop.

I'm not sure how many users have gone through this (probably not many), but I have had it for almost two years and really want to go through it now. I do have concerns with this being a true visual novel, at least that is the impression that I got. I have gone through a handful of true visual novels before, but I found them all to be kind of boring with significant pacing problems as a result of no true user interaction. The premise seemed so cool though, so I'm hoping I can l look past the inevitable and enjoy my time with this.

I will hopefully start later tonight and maybe give an update then.
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Tag

I enjoyed Raging Loop a lot, but I don't think this'll be the VN to change your mind, unfortunately. Hopefully I'm wrong, though!

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Yesssssssss.

TheArkOfTurus posted...

Tag

I enjoyed Raging Loop a lot, but I don't think this'll be the VN to change your mind, unfortunately. Hopefully I'm wrong, though!

I would not call Raging Loop a quintessential VN, but I enjoyed it a ton and it's a "personal favorite", like Fatal Twelve. If I were to recommend VNs that aren't, like, the real obvious ones everyone always talks about, then those would be my two (I feel like Fata Morgana has gotten pretty popular here, so...)

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This is one I haven't gotten to myself. I do own it though

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I played through this recently so tag!

I heard of this a while back and it's still on my Amazon wishlist.

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Just so I am explicit about this, anything in relation to this game will be unmarked, so expect spoilers to be out in the open in the (unlikely?) event that you are someone who has not gone through Raging Loop but was paying attention to my playthrough. If I ever reference another work in a spoiler-ish fashion, I will spoiler tag it and hopefully preface what work would be referenced in the spoiler tag.
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5/11 Sun (which I came to realize meant Sunday and not some other symbolism)

Oh god, with this being a Japanese game full of Japanese character names, I realize while watching this opening video that the cast is probably large enough to where I'm probably going to struggle to remember character names.

I think the main is named Haruaki or something along those lines. Anyway, this guy seems dumb. If I gathered things correctly, this was a totally preventable mess, but he decided not to have a GPS, his phone doesn't have one built in/have an app, and his map sucks or something? It just seems like he didn't even do the bare minimum in preparation for driving through an unfamiliar part of the country for some reason I was either not told or missed.

Oh, and this guy is apparantly a psycho. Some random deer looked at him funny or something, and he vows to eat venison at his earliest convenience. He saw boars and deer and fears he will be eaten if he camps at the side of the road. Okay, he is definitely dumb. A dumb psychopath. Great.

Before Haruaki opened his mouth to give his two cents, I immediately got werewolf vibes from this convenience store employee. Her eyes were hidden, she had a stern, maybe even cold-blooded expression on her face, and her hair, I don't know, just seems primal in a way. Like she could flip a switch to become a werewolf and I can see the the hair fitting perfectly. Once they showed her eyes, their contempt didn't exactly help her case, but at the same time, it did make her less mysterious.

"Yes, I was actually buying. She was the clerk, and I'd be her god, the customer. She didn't even scan it! This scan was at the mercy of the clerk! God is dead!"
- What the fuck even are these lines? Haru may have had some funny, astute observations earlier in the convenience store, but here he comes and reminds me that he is an idiot.
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Oh God it's all coming back to me. I need to replay this game again so bad.

Haruaki GoaT

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Tagg

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It was suspicious that the employee knew the directions, landmarks and all, to get to this very remote settlement, so yeah she's not off the hook. On the way there, I was subject to an overly dramatic recount of Haru falling a very short distance, but apparently his bike was totalled? Unless I am missing something, the accident was just pavement/asphalt coming to an abrupt end into grass and dirt, and Haru wasn't prepared for that. I'm not seeing how the bike came to be in its current condition, but whatever, it looks like we are walking the rest of the way.

I was half expecting Haru to be attacked and killed at this point, but with my only choice situation up to this point with two options, one being locked behind metaphorical keys, I guess that I should be in the clear for awhile. I met someone out here at a river in the middle of nowhere, Chiemi. She never explained why she was out here in the middle of the night in a pitch black and dangerous area like 10 minutes away from civilization while also not being with her only source of light. Haru also didn't think to ask. Why are characters always like this?

I guess I was expecting a town full of wooden or brick houses, but here we are at an apartment building? I get to go through this whole scene inside Chiemi's apartment while staring at her creepy drunk face and her totally barren bookcase. This shit is totally sketchy, and now I am feeling uneasy.

"Any girl's room was a wonderland to me."
- Oh Haru, I don't know if I find this more sad or creepy.

I've been thinking about Chiemi's witch sound effects being splosh splosh for awhile now, and I am no closer to coming to a conclusion as to what she could have possibly been thinking.
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I finally get my first true choice in the game, and while I absolutely think that the choices don't matter, I said she invited Haru into her place out of genuine concern instead of the silly ones in the remote chance that calling her a serial killer would actually result in her killing you.

Now Chi is referring to deer as being dangerous to humans. Unless she is talking about how pretty much every animal can be dangerous when provoked/cornered, are there species of deer that I don't know about that will actively attack humans? I come across deer on a near daily basis in my neighborhood. We acknowledge each other's presence and move on.

5/12 Monday

After a heavy night of drinking, Chi has vomitted all over herself and her surroundings, and Haru decided toilet paper was the best way to clean up the mess. What a pair. My confidence is growing that these two will only make great decisions in the inevitable murder spree.

Once Haru stepped outside, I saw the girl I want to say was in the tutorial-ish segement in the beginning. They at least have the same hair. Didn't get a chance to talk to her or get a second look. Following her footstepts, I am feeling more concerned how eerily quiet and empty this place is. Then the ominous sound from the speakers came on, and it sounds almost like a sacrificial ritual or something. I definitely agree with Haru's decision to hightail it on out of there.

Oh no, I meant out of there and back to Chi's apartment, not drop off some money and go back to where you crashed the bike. This can only end badly, and I do not consent to it! Oh thank god, children stopped Haru from making a terrible decision. Oh these teens referred to Haru as an old guy. It's one of those stories.
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There's a second Haru!? My shorthand plans are already foiled. I suppose that unless one or both identify as non-binary, I can refer to them as Haru M and Haru F.

Well, the taller boy with the glasses seems okay, but Haru F and the smaller boy are kind of annoying. It's always a great sign when the most of the kids are annoying. Immediately after, the smaller boy is threatening to poop on someone, and I honestly can't tell if he's joking. I wish that I remembered either of the boys names, but I think one of the two had a first or last name of something along the lines of Otabi.

Haru M knows effectively nothing about this village, and he was quick to be judgy by calling it a poor excuse of a community while about to enter the dining hall. Damn that is savage! Just before entering it, the kids came out, and I find out that they are in high school. My opinion of poop boy and Haru F have worsened as a result.

There's a little bit of an explanation as to why people are freaking out about Haru M. Apparently a little girl also came in from the river. I'm guessing that the white-haired girl from outside the apartment is a young woman or high schooler, so my first thought was that this little girl must be dead for them to have this kind of reaction.

Chi finally revealed why she was at the river last night, and it was a pretty underwhelming response, which I should expect in something like this. She simply had a hunch. Well, okay then. I stopped after heading over to the only phone in town and being introduced to a few terms that I will probably forget like Yomibito and Yasumizu. I think the former referred to those who came back from the dead at that river (Saranaga).
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Until I can get a handle on some character names, this is how I identify with every character I have met thus far:

Haruaki - Haru M
Chiemi - Chi
High school girl - Haru F
Smaller high school boy - Poop Boy
Taller high school boy - Otabi
Elderly woman - Tae (I think that is right)
Elderly man - Haru F grandpa
Dining hall woman - Otabi mom (I swear they had the same last name, so I am making assumptions as to their relationship)
Farmer - Muscles (I think his last name began with a T)

If the convenience store employee shows up again for whatever reason (like as a murderous werewolf!), I will think of something then, and right now the white-haired girl is just priestess to me until we actually get introduced.
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I'm definitely not a fan of hearing the sound of a wolf howling upon entering the loading menu. It's like they are taunting me about my inevitable violent demise. After meeting this asshole kid who is apparently an Oribe, maybe I would rather hear the wolf howl on loop, no pun intended. Man, this kid is a terrible son, calling his mom an old hag. Crap, the taller of the two high school boys from before is Yasu, but the village is also called Yasu(mizu). Hopefully I won't have to reference the town again.

Oh, there are three outsiders in the village excluding Haru M. The little girl is alive, and there are two journalists. The villagers are relatively okay with the journalists since they came in through a normal route and not the river like the girl and Haru M.

They showed me a drawing of a map of the area. I can't say it was incredibly helpful, but from what I gather, there are actually two villages in the region, Yasumizu and Kamifujiyoshi, and they are separated by a mountain. The highschool is in Kami for what it is worth.

Even Chi notices how unprepared Haru M has been. She's probably my favorite character thus far.

There's a random mansion here in the village, owned by Nos. Aside from kind of being a jerk but also helpful and that he doesn't follow traditions, he mentioned that outsiders used to be thrown off of cliffs.

Oh boy, more characters to meet and thus more foreign names to remember. The journalist is Hisa and the photographer is Hashi. Oh jesus, who is the guy with the dead eyes? The wolf is coming. Great. Oh, and he's named The Old Man Who Cried Wolf. What on earth am I supposed to shorten his name to, TOMWCW? You know what, Tom will work.
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Honestly, the whole scene with Haru M fixing the bike outside of the dining hall while people stop by and comment might be my favorite scene in the game so far. That isn't an indictment on the premise and what is clearly going to start happening soon, but I like quality small talk that doesn't really do anything for plot or character development. That being said, and Haru M did mention this regarding the tea, but I wonder if Chi ate all of the food on purpose. This might be a stretch, but maybe the local food/drink is bad for outsiders and the locals have some built-in resistence for it. Maybe the stuff meant for Haru M was poisoned in particular because he came in from the river? I don't know, just a thought swirling in my head.

Oh, Haru M and Chi potentially made plans for a happy ending (I'm not convinced Chi was even being serious about skipping town on the bike). Now I know some awful shit is about to go down. Instead of finishing up the bike to leave, Haru M makes the ill-advised decision to go to some tree with a bunch of stones lying around with some purpose where we meet the little girl singing, and the priestess also makes an appearance. She tells Haru M that he probably won't make it, but he should run. Then mist covers the area. Oh. Shit.

Chi is furious and tells Haru M to hide. I am totally going to get murdered. I didn't have the keys to choose otherwise, so I guess I am hiding in an outhouse all night, not to make a noise. All this teasing of explaining everything in the morning after survival is just mean lol. I welcome this calm of recapping before the storm:

Protagonist - Haru M
Main Girl - Chi
Elderly Woman - Tae
Grandpa - Kanzo
Female Highschooler - Haru F
Taller Highschooler - Yasu
Shorter Highschooler - Kamo
Jerk Highschooler - Yoshi
Dining Hall Cook - Kaori
Farmer - Takumi
Journalist - Hisa
Photographer - Hashi
Mansion Owner - Nos
Old Man - Tom
Little Girl - ?
Priestess - ?

I hope that covers everyone, excluding the convenience store employee
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Oh fuck me, the scream. My guess is that unless whatever lurks outside there mimics humans that the scream came from Hisa, an outsider who presumably ate at the dining hall given her reason for being here. My only option available to me is to go outside and check. Oh, this is going to get ugly. I am not looking forward to this at all. I'm sitting here at the decision screen psyching myself to go through with this now, late at night and with the game not setting a standard for how gory this is going to be and what will be illustrated. Clearly, that is going to be set now, but man I am going to have to play some Peggle after this.

Okay, I stepped outside...lots of mist...heard another scream...grabbed a rock. Oh god, now green mist and no screams but a wet, cracking sound. Probably something eating the corpse of the woman. Okay this isn't so bad, Obviously that giant wolf is about to murder me, and while it does look very imposing, it doesn't look super scary or anything. LMAO to Haru M's first reaction to seeing the wolf just being, "Oh."

Okay, so Haru M survived the attack or became the Yomibito or whatever emerging from the river, but somebody finished him off. She was referred to as the girl but knew Haru by name. I guess it doesn't matter, but I want to say the voice was Chi's.

I don't know what Hint Corner is, but why would I need a hint? All I need to do is make whatever decision change I can based on this key I was given, which is apparently keeping still after hearing the scream. Let's do that...after I wake up.
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I'm not sure what this green misty screen is supposed to signify, but it's definitely not good and fills me with dread. Now the door is shaking. I never got an image of the outhouse, but I can't imagine that a hulking humanoid wolf like I saw just before would have any trouble just ripping a door off. There weren't any screams or other noises that would suggest it was a human either, so I don't really know what to make of that scene.

5/13 Tuesday

I guess the mist is here to stay, and everyone is walking around normally-ish, so I guess we are safe? Along with Chi, Haru F makes an appearance, so unless there's a character we haven't seen yet, the woman screaming and likely victim was Hisa, Kaori, or the priestess. Hmm, they were all pretty shocked that Haru M was awake the entire night. Is that what the food and drink were for, to ensure the villagers slept through the night? Again, Hisa was implied to have consumed food and drink, but maybe that means one of my outlandish theories is on the right track.

I may have a decent idea of how the region looks, but I have a really bad idea of the exact layout of Yasumizu. I remember the still image of the surroundings of where that wolf was presumably consuming its victim. It was up some stairs with a lone, single-story building next to them. We are at the dorms, which I had been operating under the impression that they are on the outskirts of the village near the river. I bring this up because it seems as if the victim is just a short distance away from the dorms. I had a hard time making out the corpse other than the hand until I finally recognized a head. That body is very contorted. Yikes! I feel like it has to be Hisa, and we get confirmation soon after it was her. She was crushed to death (via stomp?) and then partially eaten post-mortem? Something tells me this won't be the most brutal death.

Okay, Hashi is also dead. I will admit I was a wuss and didn't put my headphones on when the second scream came. I'm guessing it was male then. This death scene doesn't add up though. The description of the van doesn't make it sound as if it was crushed/flattened, but Hashi's body seems to be in a similar state to Hisa's. That makes it seem as if he died elsewhere and his mangled corpse was placed into the van at a later time.

That makes a lot more sense that unless someone in the village is sabotaging things for some unknown reasons, the wolf or wolves are quite intelligent/cognizant of human civilization and know how to neutralize the village after rendering their transportation and contact with the outside world unusable. It stands to reason that the wolf or at least one if there are multiple is a villager here.
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Gathering at the dining hall, we finally get names for the final two unnamed. Meiko is the little girl and Rika is the priestess. In the end, Haru M will not be "invited to the feast" because his unusual survival circumstances. Ignoring that last important bit, I remember someone talking about the feast having begun when Haru M was finished off by the villagers. More on what went down during the night, you were supposed to "purify, shelter, and dream" in order to survive. Haru M, Hisa, and Hashi did not, but Haru M managed to survive. This begs the question if Hisa and Hashi were even warned about this or were deliberately not in order to have them killed? Haru M wasn't really warned until the last second with virtually no explanation. Meiko is just a little girl (in appearance at least), so pity was probably a factor regarding her, so I'm thinking that this village is full of sociopaths and/or someone had to die last night, and they decided it should probably be the adult outsiders.

Witnessing the gathering inside the other hall while Haru M sleeps in a cage, they are talking about hanging people, so wow this really is like mafia/werewolf. I'm confused as to why Kamo changed into a dress, but nobody is talking about it, so maybe they just dress however they want and everybody accepts that.

So hearing them explain the details, it isn't as if one has always been a wolf demon from birth. Instead, the villagers have been replaced by wolves (we are operating under the assumption that there are two because of a pair of symbols shown earlier). I guess that means the people they are replacing were killed. There has been no mention of wolves possessing any sort of role-based power like you might see in mafia/werewolf, so right now, I am operating under the assumption that they are basically vanilla baddies. Several townies do have special roles though:
- Snake sees: Can ask the gods if a villager is wolf at night
- Monkeys hold hands: They are informed who the other monkey is, but only if one was protected at night?
- Crow tastes: Can ask the gods if the person hanged was a wolf
- Spider protects: Can ask the gods to protect someone at night

I'm not sure if I got the specific details down, especially the monkeys, but I at least have the basics of what each role does. If I have done my math correctly, with Hisa and Hashi being dead and Haru M exempt, we have 13 people participating in the feast. Five are town power, six are town vanilla, and two are evil. I realize that I probably have no agency for this, but I am very intrigued by it all and it has my attention. I'm hoping that sense this game has branching paths and all that, there will be different combinations of wolves/town powers/victims. It might make it tough to figure out the big picture, but it would keep things more exciting in the present.
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That being said, witnessing this has brought up so many more questions regarding this village. Things just don't add up. Many villagers expressed confusion and skepticism as to what is going on, but the way they were acting before made it seem that they were all keenly aware of this dilemma, that it was going to begin last night, and what would have to be done. For obvious reasons, it can't be explained with something like all the villagers were replaced by wolves during the night (I'm willing to accept that the replacements obtained all the memories and can perfectly mimic their personalities and replicate their rapport/relationships with others without a hint of faltering). There is something that just very off about this village and its inhabitants, and I would love to visit Fuji just to compare to the two.

A curveball was thrown off the bat as Takumi claimed to have the snake powers. Nobody counterclaimed, so I'm taking this as legit. Now I wait for either the spider to not protect him or the wolves to go after someone else, like maybe his target Nos or someone like Tae or Kanzo.

I'm reminded of Chi claiming she has met god. I forget the context of why she said that, but I wonder if that means she has one of the four remaining power roles. I vaguely remember Tae saying something to that effect, but she might have said that everyone in the village has met god, which obviously means the phrase has a different meaning.

Getting some lore as to the differences in legends between Fuji and Yasumizu, the main takeaway for me is that the wolf deities, Ookami, have different perceptions, and here in Yasumizu, the humans, and other animal deities conspired to kill the wolves. That lines up with what is going on now, but of course everything isn't that clear-cut. I just hope to keep this in mind as the game goes on.

Hmm, curious that there is no guarantee that there are just two wolves, but there can be a max of three. I'm hoping that this means there will be different town/wolves/victim combinations in other branches. I would like Hisa and Hashi to be more than mere initial victims at any rate.
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When you decided to call Haruaki "Haru," I was immediately amused.

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Humans can kill one person during day, and the wolves can kill one at night. That lines up with my limited exposure time playing mafia/werewolf, but there were two victims last night. I guess that this rule didn't apply yet as everyone had to "prepare" first? Chi also mentioned that wolves are probably not doing this because they want to. That can be interepreted in many ways, such as the wolves are doing the bidding of someone else, like Shin'nai, they are not affiliated with Shin'nai and are basically a third party with an unknown purpose, or they lack any self-awareness act purely on instinct. All of these are problematic for multiple reasons, but you know, food for thought.

I'm not sure about the revelance, significance, or even the reasoning behind it, but Yasumizu is basically the village for those ostracized from Fuji. After this, I was actually given a choice between leaving or staying in Yasumizu. I felt like leaving would clearly lead to a swift and gruesome death, but the possibility of leaving meant going to Fuji was quite enticing I will say. I made the practical and boring choice to stay here though.

Haru M finally asked Chi about why he hasn't been eating or drinking anything local. I was met with a predictably vague non-answer, so thanks for wasting my time. After seeing Rika trip and fall, I'm glad that she isn't serious all the time. She's one of three characters on the box art and I think the tutorial character, so I'm guessing she's a big deal when it's all said and done.

More hints were dropped that the wolves/Ookami might be on nobody's side and have their own agenda, but that just raises more questions if they still have to follow a set of rules, like only one victim each night.

5/14 Wednesday

There were no screams during the night, but I'm sure there's a victim. The students and Nos are safe. With Haru F's reactions, I'm leaning toward Kanzo being a goner. Kaori and Takumi are fine. Dead prospects are dwindling here. Tae, Rika, and Meiko are still here. We just have Kanzo and Tom. We are outside of Kanzo's place, and his door was unlocked/opened. I guess it is time to head in...when I resume next time.
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KCF0107 posted...

I don't know what Hint Corner is, but why would I need a hint?

You don't, but you do get some extra dialogue which you may or may not find to be worth reading.

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Kanzo had his head repeatedly bashed in with a blunt object, but his body is otherwise intact, so there's not much in common with the previous deaths. I realize that the game has thrown so much at me that it's hard to absorb it all and keep things straight, but Haru M is saying that he believes the wolves and corruption are different. Wolves killed Hisa and Hashi and Corruption killed Kanzo. There are no signs of forced entry into Kanzo's place, the floor is damp, and there are visible footprints. That is certainly odd.

Even though he made a strong first impression, I completely forgot about Yoshi's existence. He was missing and oh boy, he was completely dismembered and clearly killed by something inhuman. He had fur in his mouth suggesting the wolves again, and the theory that Haru M laid out is that Yoshi went out at night, violating the rules, specifically to seek out and fight the wolves. The theories revolving around Kanzo and Yoshi's deaths make sense, but I don't know. If Kanzo was killed by a human and Yoshi by a creature, couldn't it also be that the wolves targeted Yoshi and someone else targeted Kanzo for unknown reasons? I guess that I am operating under the assumption that the wolves role is somewhat literal. If it is just figurative and the people with that role don't actually change shape or have any sort of powers (this would also mean that nobody was actually replaced), then I guess it has to be the theories that Haru M laid out, but almost nothing is certain at this point.

Now we have yet another missing person in Haru F. I could do without Haru M having a theory about everything because that's my job, among other things. That being said, believing her to attempt to leave the village makes sense assuming she isn't a wolf, and that it was because of something she witnessed or realized. If she figured or outright knew that someone was a wolf, then basically the candidates are Yasu, Kamo, and Kanzo. The idea that Yoshi is who killed Kanzo with the former believing the latter to be a wolf and then Yoshi getting killed for violating the rules is a possibility, maybe a remote one at best though.

After Haru F was found and brought back, a conversation with Yasu further suggests that the wolves are indeed just villagers given the task of killing the rest of town and surviving. An unsubstantiated claim related to that is that and that they are going along with it because they might have been led to believe that what they are doing is ultimately the right thing. I have no opinion on that for the time being, but I will file it under the endless amount of info and theories that have been presented to me thus far.
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I do want to say that I find it odd that outsiders are involved with this, or rather it may be more accurate to say that I find it odd that they are subject to this. If I am to believe the legends, maybe just Yasumizu's, the Ookami want revenge on the village, so why do they care about outsiders, especially those that didn't come in through the river like Hisa and Hashi? There's basically no debating how they died that first night, so this has been troubling me for awhile.

Another thing that I find odd is about Kanzo's death. There was no forced entry, so Haru's leading theory is that Kanzo let their killer in? For starters, Kanzo seems like one of the most serious and traditional villagers. I cannoth fathom, and I could be misremembering it, that he would violate the rule that states one has to be alone at night. Related, but I thought that those participating in the "game" were basically unconscious once they went to sleep. Otherwise, what would happen if the target was one of the students. Wouldn't their neighbors be fully aware that someone was being attacked next door and find out the identity of the attacker one way or another? I don't know if this supports or not the theories that Kanzo was a wolf and/or was not killed by the wolves, but I have been told a lot of "rules" and such, but the events playing out don't exactly make sense. Someone or multiple people might be feeding me bogus intel about this basics of all this.

In a solo conversation with Yazu, he mentioned that Chi almost killed someone before and is a completely different person now. Uh huh. Just what I need, more ominous, vague insight to potentially throw me off. While I have played mafia many times, I wouldn't say that I am an expert, so I was a little puzzled when Haru M suggested to Chi that she suggest during the feast that the monkeys should reveal themselves. I guess that since there are no neutral roles, it does help lower the search for the wolves, but at the same time, Takumi and subsequently the spider need to stay alive, and assuming that neither Kanzo nor Yoshi were the spider, that just gives the wolves a much higher chance of hitting on the spider, which would effectively doom the villagers.

And now we get our first real feast. I have no idea how anyone can get a read on Tom. That just seems to be an exercize in futility. Hmm, Takumi knows that the road to the neighboring village is blocked. I suppose it isn't out of the question that he would go all the way up there during a routine check around the area, but I don't know. I feel like he would mention it earlier if he had, and he seems to still be hard at work as a farmer despite the circumstances. Nobody has counterclaimed his snake role, and it would be pretty idiotic for him to make a bogus claim the first day if a wolf, so I don't really have a valid reason to suspect him of anything. His remark is odd though.

Oh, the voting isn't going to be anonymous. This might be hard to witness. Nos being pretty bold by implying that neither Kanzo or Yoshi were spider makes me thing one of the two definitely was. Meiko and Kamo are the monkeys. Rika claims to be powerless, so maybe an indirect vanilla town claim? Oh man, Chi and Tom tied, so a re-vote, and oh that was anticlimatic as everyone piled on Tom. Tom it is, but I highly doubt he is a wolf. My leading wolf candidate is actually Tae. As someone with no agency and no powers, I don't have much to go off of, but her very strong and defensive reaction when someone placed a vote on her struck me as uncharacteristic of her, and I guess ultimately scummy.
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Well the scene change introduced some strange music. I have no idea what to feel, but something clearly had to have happened. People are yelling, so I take it the proposed hanging didn't quite go as planned. Oh, even worse, both Tom and Kamo are dead. Well shit, we lost a town. Their stomachs were sliced open. My first thought was a potential murder/suicide perpetrated by Tom. Then I remembered that Chi had a knife. I'm sure they all own some sort of blade, but we've seen Chi with one. Haru M doesn't consider murder/suicide. I am not a coroner, and I am not privy to the specifics of their wounds to know if that possibility exists, so I guess that theory won't be making any more progress right now. Anyway, he deduces that the culprit is one of Chi/Takumi/Yasu/Rika since they went out searching for them. I don't believe that Haru M has had any inner thoughts about Chi/Tae being the wolf team, so that is my leading theory as of now.

Haru M strongly believes that Haru F is a wolf because of her erratic behavior, while I believe the exact opposite for that very reason. I'm not sure why he isn't considering Kaori for a similar-ish reason with her unraveling mental state. I have been on this path for a long time with only one choice and path split in the past several hours it seems. I have this feeling that this is still sort of an introductory period and they are having Haru M come to the wrong conclusions. I'm feeling better about my Tae/Chi wolf team theory, especially with the former. Haru M also suspects Yasu as he notes their critical thinking skills but is perplexed by only giving minor helptful advice instead of what Haru M believes to be glaring, much more helpful advice. I suppose that's a good argument. Haru F is still completely off my radar.

Just as nightfall was close, Haru M and Chi had a conversation that was veering into heavier material only for the predictable cut off and Chi leaving. We just need for them to be unable to pick back up the conversation to complete this.
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5/15 Thursday

5 AM seems rather earlier to be having a visitor. Shouldn't it still be dark out to where the wolves/corruption are still out and about? Well, it is Yasu and Chi, so that was a little unexpected that both Haru M and Chi survived, unless Yasu/Chi came to kill Haru M. I guess not. I wonder who the target was. With Nos basically being the defacto leader during the feast, he's my guess. Haru M suspects Takumi, which would mean he also is convinced that one of Yoshi/Kanzo/Tom was spider. Time will tell.

Well Meiko is alive, but there's no Rika. Something is in her house at least, but nobody is responding. That can't be good, but since I have no agency, we are already moving on. Well then, Takumi was the victim, and he was shot to death with Kanzo's rifle. Being told that everyone in town basically knows their way around a gun doesn't narrow things down, but what is most interesting is that Takumi's facial expression suggested he was awake for all of this. This just reminds me that after many hours into this and many in-game days, I am not much closer to filtering out the misconceptions and lies and figure out the true mechanics and rules.

Why on earth would someone bother to remove their fingerprints. We have absolutely no way to test or compare them. For some reason, this makes me suspect Chi. Being the only remaining villager known to have spent a lot of time outside of the village and maybe, I don't know, being subject to more ideas and tech and whatnot, she just had it in her mind to wipe away the fingerprints.

While transporting Takumi's body, and I don't know the village's concept of an adult, but Chi calling Takumi the youngest of the adults is clearly not true when she and Rika exist. It means nothing I know, but I have opinions and comments for just about everything the characters say. When we dumped the body into the river, there was no sound of it hitting the water. As far as I know, we weren't privy to a scene like this when dumping anyone else over the cliff, so I don't know whether this is a first or Haru M has never been paying attention for that sound until now.
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Uh what, the fuck is going on? Is Rika one of these Yomi or something? Well, almost immediately after, Tae suggested just that. She could have become a Yomi as punishment by the Corruption for violating the rules? Again, vague, but I suspect that I am supposed to believe that Rika was behind Tom and Kamo's deaths, a clear violation if she was town or a wolf.

I'm really not liking Haru M's further insistence that Haru F and Yosu are the wolves and his growing belief that Chi is not a wolf. Nos is the person he should be confiding with, so I am becoming more convinced that the wolf team is Tae/Chi, and the situation will go from bad to worse to unsalvageable.

I'm finally gaining some insight into why the wolf team could have been convinced that the spider was dead and risk going after Takumi. Kanzo would have normally taken charge during the opening feast, but him taking a backseat could have been a tactic to not be a target for the wolves if he were the spider. The wolves then targeted him first thinking that he had a guardian role. I don't have a counter argument to this, and honestly it seems like the most likely case.

Meiko taking over Tom's role of simply saying the wolf is coming. Awesome. She is obviously a very important character for arriving under mysterious circumstances, but she gave some ever so slight insight that she was running far away from something.

I noticed earlier in a swift line of dialogue that Kaori asked Yasu to go and retrieve something with Haru F eventually assisting. Going to check up on them caught them off-guard despite warning them ahead of time. They asked Haru M if he saw anything. I'm sure that it is something innocent like a surprise, but given that the game is pushing harder for me to suspect Yosu and Haru F being the wolves, I take it that I am supposed to interpret that differently. Before anything could be explained, a loud crash came from below. I'm sure it is just like a bowl or pot, but I will have to find out next time.
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Before checking on the source of the noise, a pair of thoughts came across my mind. The first was the identity of the crow. Sure, they don't have any use until we actually hang someone, but at this point, they should out themselves if they are alive. Town has pretty much nothing to lose. The second was what if Haru was somehow the spider? Now I acknowledge that the odds of it are pretty low and this is more wishful thinking than anything, but in similar stories like this, I approach them similarly and just come up with theories about everything. Anyway, what if she had planned on healing Kanzo but was told to heal Takumi because the latter came out as the snake. Maybe she is informed in her dreams if the person she healed was saved, so by waking up and realizing that Takumi was not targeted, she feared she failed or maybe even outright assumed that Kanzo was the likely target.

Back to the present, the sound was a bowl hitting the floor as Nos believed that one of the plants used was poisonous. Eventually, Kaori totally snapped and was wielding a poisoned knife. Both of my options seemed bad. Trying to tackle her almost certainly would result in my death while searching for a weapon I believed would result in Nos' death. Fuck it, I'm tackling her. Yep, I died. I'm glad they didn't drag that one out.

Now I am presented with another choice. I can go back and choose to find a weapon to use on Kaori or I can go back to whenever I was speaking to Chi at the graveyard and choose to leave the village. I'm sure it would be easier to follow along with me if I stick with what I was just doing, but I do like to swerve, and I am about 95% sure that I will die if I attempt to leave. I assumed that I would soon be back to grabbing a weapon, so I went ahead and turned back a day or two and attempted to leave the village.

Haru M talked about the deaths of Hisa and Hashi. They were apparently forced to sleep in their van due to the landslide, which brings up some questions. Hisa and Hashi were not found together. I could have thought that Hashi was killed first (I didn't listen to the second scream to know if it was male or female) and then Hisa ran as far as she could until suffering the same fate, but I had previously mentioned that it appeared that Hashi was killed elsewhere. and placed inside of the van. Where were they killed and why were they there at the time? The still image of where Hisa presumably was didn't give me much of a hint as to what building that was. There was an outhouse, so I doubt the building was a communal bathroom. Plenty of mysteries surrounding their deaths. Anyway, I guess that Haru M was stuck in limbo or something for eternity. I didn't exactly understand what happened, but it didn't seem like he was killed.
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Back to finding a weapon, a chair was ultimately the choice, and it was effective! Usually I think that with some of those still images, they distort the color for exaggeration, so when we saw Kaori brandishing the knife, I chalked it up to just that. I suppose she could be a Yomi though. I'm not sure what that exactly entails, but going by discussions about Rika, I thought that meant she had to violate some rule and not just attempt to.

Man, it kind of sucks not having any agency in these feasts. They are deciding between hanging Kaori or Rika, which is a terrible idea to me. Even if one of the two turns out to be a wolf, which I doubt, we would still be left with wolf with all of their mental capacity intact. While the town has not played well, it is clear that the wolves are making all the right moves. Perhaps Yasu being a wolf is a lot more plausible than I originally thought.

In the middle of the feast, Reiko mentioned that "they" are eating Rika. I don't know if that is a euphemism for like the corruption or something mental, but maybe that means something is literally eating her at this moment. Nos makes his case for Rika not being a wolf as assuming she is Yomi, wolves are beings already corrupted by the Yomi, so they something separate from the Yomi.

Each time it is brought up, if feels as if the details of those given the role of wolves keeps changing. Now they are back to assuming that the wolves have replaced the people they are inhabiting. I wish I could say that I am done thinking about it, but I know that I will continue to rack my brain over it until there's a clear answer lol.

Curiously, when Chi made her move to accuse Yasu of being a wolf, she mentioned that Kamo, Tom, and Takumi died to humans, but she did not mention Kanzo. I don't know if that was a gaffe or she knows something.
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Kaori ultimately received the most votes, was hung, and now Haru M has decided that he and Meiko will escape tomorrow. I am curious if Haru M can pull it off, for himself anyway, because he wasn't part of the feast, so I wonder if he is truly bound by the same rules. I realize that he was killed before for leaving the outhouse, but you never know. Talking with Chi back at the dorms, they were making a genuine conversation about the possibility of Meiko being a wolf, but how could they forget about her being a monkey?

The conversation became dark and then things got weird when this entity was just outside the door. My first thought was Rika if only because I was trying to make out the color of the hair, but Haru M insisted that it was the body of a child. The legs looked too long to be Meiko's, so I'm guessing this isn't a villager. "Wolves come to smell of Yomi. Cleanse, shelter, dream daughter of Fushiyoshi." I guess they were telling Chi to quickly prepare for the night, but the first sentence is what caught my eye. For starters, I don't know if they are referring to wolves as in the villagers with the role or the creatures that killed at least Hisa and Hashi. Maybe they are one and the same, but characters basically keep telling me they are separate entities. If they are referring to the latter, then I guess those labeled as rule violaters or also considered Yomi, which would make the most sense with the warning. If it is the former, then perhaps Chi is a wolf, and they were telling Chi that their time to act for the night was coming soon. When a howl was heard and Chi fell, I was convinced she was going to regain consciousness as a wolf in whatever form and then kill Haru M. Well that didn't happen.

5/16 Friday

Chi survived the night and handed Haru M a hunting knife. She "lost" her kitchen knife. Uh huh. Haru F's room was unlocked, a mess, but there were no signs or a struggle or a corpse. Same with Yasu and Meiko's rooms. Rika's room was still locked but no noises could be heard from it. Everyone was in the non-dining hall where I think they do the daily feast ceremony. Well, not Nos as everyone assumed he was last night's victim.

Things got heated quickly, and everything just snowballed from there. It appears that both Haru M and I were right on the money about half of the wolf pair. It was Yasu and Tae. I wondered why they would reveal themselves if town still had majority, but then Haru F was happy about the reveal. Shit. Apparently some legend says that the Ookami/wolf deities were good but the other animal deities joined up with the humans who turned out to be Yomi. With the region still under Yomi control, the Ookami could purge the region of the cursed Yomi and take their revenge using the feasts. Or something like that.
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However true that is, everyone has lost their damn mind except the two outsiders, so I guess we are bouncing with Chi in tow. Eventually, Meiko and Chi said the wolves were on our trail, so the situation became more dire. Things just got stranger as we seemingly weren't making any progress escaping. Chi explained that because she was born and raised here (I guess eating local food makes you tainted?), she could never leave and was why the three were stuck in purgatory. Her body then like fell apart. Meiko was later grabbed by presumably a wolf.

Haru M was making his way across the river when three wolves showed up. He recalled not hearing Takumi's body hit the water, so I figured the implication was that the deceased thrown into the direction of the river turn into wolves/corruption. Assuming everyone who died except Nos had their bodies disposed of this way, we are talking around 10 wolves, if that matters at all. They still killed Haru M, so that answers if it mattered that he participated or not.

This gave me my first official ending (#1) and key #4, and my only option is pretty much right at the beginning of the game. I must say that I find it disappointing how linear this has all been so far. I was hoping for more immediate branching paths, but that just hasn't been the case. Other than that, I have been enjoying this quite a lot. There have only been a few times where I felt the pacing was a problem, so they've mostly done a great job not having scenes overstay their welcome. I wish there was more agency. Ideally that would involve the feast, but I understand that would result in substantially more branching paths that they probably didn't have the budget to do. I also wish that there just wasn't so much to digest or for the lore to not be so vague or constantly contradict itself. I know it is being used as a narrative device, but its torture for someone like me who is constantly analyzing things and coming up with potential solutions/theories lol.
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Yeah the first path is very linear. Other paths have more choices for you to pick from and branches to go down.

Going back to the beginning, we meet the convenience store employee again. I want to pat myself on the back when they are eventually revealed to be an antagonist, but honestly they are kind of going out of their way to make her suspicious. She gave the directions to make Haru M an outcast, her appearance stands out and they hid things like the eyes (most of the time) and her forehead (has a third eye like those beasts!?), and they don't refer to her character as an employee or anything of that nature. Her identity is still shown as ???. If she isn't part of the problem or was using Haru M to end the feasts for good, I would be totally shocked at this point.

Oh wow, I am given three distinct choices this time, none of which are locked. Two of them seem like obvious dummy choices, but I will pick them in the off-chance that I get out of it. Kind of lame that both passing by Fujiyoshi and turning back results in the same death by crashing after the mist came, but the first time hearing the crash startled me because it came in pretty loud in my headphones.

Entering the normal way it is. Looks like I need keys to enter Kami/Kamu/whatever, so back to Yasumizu it is. Oh my mistake, it the opposite. I finally get to see what this other village is like. Here Haru M theorizes about the opening night of the mists and the deaths of Hisa and Hashi with his takes on answering some questions I had pondered earlier.

If the wolf creatures possessed attributes of the very creatures they resemble, they should be able to smell a sweaty human through a mere outhouse door. When the door of the outhouse shook, the wolf could have just been making sure that the door was locked and not trying to open it like they should have easily been able to. Did they do this with every door in the village and every night since the cleanse, shelter, and dream rule seems to apply every night and not just the pre-feast initial night?

Those with the wolf guardian role probably have the ability to open any door, locked or not, given what went down during the first ending route, so that does suggests that the wolves that roam at night and the wolf villagers are different in regards to abilities. This also begs the question as to why the nightly killings are so brutal. It sounds like the targets of the wolves are in no position to resist, another reason why I was under the impression that when they go to sleep at night, they are basically unconscious until morning (I know that Takumi's death calls into question that theory, so it would have been nice to see Nos's corpse). Why have the murders seem so savage?
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Here at the police station, there is a mention of a serial killer on the loose. Great, now I have to spend the entire game wondering if that is a red herring or not. I had to give a reason as to why I was coming into town so late, and I didn't like my choice of answers. Getting lost is technically correct, but saying that they wanted to seek shelter for the night/get some sleep after a long ride and there was no other town for hours is more accurate and a more sympathetic story. Both this and saying you were looking for your girlfriend both resulted in driving on the road and crashing because of the mist. That is four times in a row now, and they actually consider them all to be different endings? At least the streak ended with me getting shot shortly after.

5/12 Monday

So the music playing through the speakers in Yosumizu also plays in Kami, and then seemingly everyone in town goes to the local dining area because they are unable to cook in their homes due to a law forbidding fire. I'm getting major cult/manipulation vibes from all of this.

We get our first appearance from another family head, Higuchi. Given he is not part of Yosumizu, I doubt that I will be seeing much of him, but the fact that they showed him, named him, and voiced him pretty much guarantees that he/Kami/the four families factor in mightily when it comes to the big picture.

On my way to the job at the dining hall in Yosumizu, Hisa and Hashi seem to know a lot about the region. I figured this was their first visit here and a short one, so I'm a little skeptical about how they know enough about the local economy to question how the main families are so wealthy and history/customs regarding local etiquette and the relationship between the the communities. Hisa seems to know Nos, so I guess that have been here long enough. I just wouldn't think that a story on a local dish/cuisine would take more than a couple of days.

Now Chi crying when seeing Haru M could be just some dumb plot device about love being so strong that it transcends time and space or some drivel. I mean, it probably is. However unlikely, she could have retained some of her memories too and was playing dumb because she thinks that she's the only one.
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While Rika was taking me to a vacant room, she fell twice. I know it is low-brow comedy, but this is like the third or fourth scene that she has fallen, and I keep finding it funny for reasons unknown. I'm sure the entire purpose is for comedic reasons, but what if there's another? You would think that she would know her body well enough and be used to her attire to not consistently fall. I don't have a specific theory in mind, but maybe she isn't quite who she says she is. She also had a curious line of saying that the Uemasu of old had a role of protecting the dreams of the villagers. Maybe this is a stretch, but my first reaction of seeing that entity in the doorway of the final night in the first route was of Rika. I mean, the hair color does match and the sutras or whatever they were bandaged with fit her role. I was under the impression that she is kind of short, and seeing as she is always wearing that outfit, we don't really know her body type to know if she could pass for a child. Also of note is that Haru M views even Yosu and Haru F as children, so maybe his perspective and observations aren't especially reliable in some regards.

The vacant building is one that I haven't seen before, but the previous occupant, Gen, died recently. Of course they won't divulge the circumstances. Now that Haru M has a place to stay, Hisa and Hashi are next, and the van has to be sabotaged well before the mist rolling in to give them a chance to secure sleeping quarters. I'm noticing the tone of this route is a lot different now that Haru M came in through a normal way. I wish the humor wasn't 80% about acting crazy or sexual innuendo/misunderstandings, but it hasn't been too cringy.

Hmm, in the last route, Tae said that this was her first feast. Now, she was a wolf, so her word then can't be fully trusted, but that doesn't make a lot of sense. They keep mentioning there was mist less than a decade ago and people at the construction site died, so I can put two and two together. Once again, Rika knows the mist is coming, so what, is she a guardian in human flesh or something?

Now that places for Hisa and Hashi are secured, I'm worried about the cleansing and sleeping parts, especially with the construction site. I guess Hashi might not be as bothered about this as Hisa might have been, but he just has a bucket and a towel to cleanse himself. I can honestly seem him just skip that part and also have trouble sleeping in such a place. I got a choice here where it seems to be implied I could offer/insist to switch places with Hashi, but that was presumably behind a lock. I get there being locks for choices you wouldn't think of without knowledge of previous events, but this situation doesn't apply to that, and I'm disappointed that they keep going with this forced linearity. Hashi is clearly going to perish as a result.
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Well, clearly not eating the local food didn't mean shit last route as the wolves still considered me a threat/Yomi, so whatever, might as well taint me. Hmm, so the guardians are informed by a bloodmark. Yosu and Tae were informed of being wolves via a dream right? This also calls into question Haru F's betrayal since she claimed to have been informed in a dream that the wolves are good. Is there a previously unknown role that makes a human's allegiance switch to the other side? Another thought I had is this game could be totally bogus, like this whole yomi stuff, whether that would mean wolves, humans, or both, is just total nonsense and there's something else at play here. That was my initial reaction after learning there were different methods to informing roles. I suppose though that by informing seemingly evil roles through dreams, you would have a better chance of manipulating the person to actually perform said role.

Not even Tae knows of Tom's deal/origins, so that's troublesome (and lame). I realize that I didn't do a character ranking/assessment after the first route, and honestly I might not given the nature of this game, but I will say that I hate the existence of Tom/Meiko. Whatever role they have in the story and whether how they are presented matches up with the reality, I greatly dislike the archetype of senile old man and a four-year-old in an unreliable supernatural murder mystery. Not only do conversations predictably go nowhere, but their involvement in the feasts and just the thought of them being in a power role, taking them at face value, is a waste. Give me 15 or however many characters with sound minds and able to handle a conversation that gets into heavier subjects instead of these two that break immersion and halt momentum.

Well, whatever, this mists came back. I guess Haru M's memory of past events is more sparse and selective than he let on because he claims that he came back here on his own volition, but he ended up trying to leave four times only to die from a fatal crash. I'm certain that the roles will change this route, so I'm excited at the prospect of Haru M getting snake or spider. I realize that I might be limited to a single choice most or all the time, so I can be disappointed then, but I'm hoping that I get some agency with my night action.
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5/13 Tuesday

No screams, but I guess that didn't matter since Haru M fell asleep this time. Fuck yeah, we have the snake power! I forgot that during the feasts before, I was a disembodied third party as Haru M wasn't there, so he doesn't know anything about how to use his role. Someone died and since those with the wolf role shouldn't be active until tonight, it just has to be Hashi. Yep, and same fate as before. When his body was dumped into the river, I did hear the sound of water. Is it because he's an outsider?

We get three wolves this time, possibly due to having an extra survivor. It is also implied that Tae is older than Tom, so I'm kind of confused about their history in this village. Has Tae not spent her whole life here? I feel like Kanzo has been here a long time, so he should at least know more, even as anti-social as he is.

If drinking the sake at the begining of the feast is to ward off corruption shouldn't that supersede drinking age laws in the eyes of the village?. I mean they, or at least the leaders Tae and Kanzo, take this affair pretty seriously, so I would think that warding off corruption would be far higher on their priority list than moral/legal issues with Meiko drinking alcohol. I mean, they committ murder through lynchings after all.

It has all but been confirmed that a feast did occur in the last decade with at least Kanzo and maybe Haru plus others participating with both of Haru's parents dying. Unlike the previous route, they, namely Kanzo seems adamant about hanging someone. Maybe the belief by Haru M that he was spider last game was spot-on if he's taking charge like this right off the bat. Of course, his first target is Haru M and not Hisa or Meiko because he won't hang women or children. I don't even need to poke holes in that argument for someone who is all "all wolves must hang!"

Rika claims to not be a guardian, and after a long roundabout conversation, Yasu and Kanzo are the monkeys revealed to be monkeys. I know these are "simple" people, but how can they not see the terrible odds of doing a blind lynch right away. Rika grabbed some paper to do an official vote count, and what the people before had placed in this cabinet or whatever all seemingly have some relation to the feasts. There's the sake for warding off corruption at the beginning, paper and ink for voting, rope for lynching, but the sickles? The only thing that springs to mind right now is that some people could use the mist to disguise themselves as literal wolves and their claws are actually sickles? Stupid I know, but I can't help but craft a theory or two in every scene.
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I noticed it last game, but the word god triggers some mental breakdown in both Chi and Haru F. This is like testbook cult/manipulation shit. This whole feast I'm finding to be kind of funny because everybody has such terrible rationale for whom they voted for and the subsequent knee-jerk reactions of those who receive a vote. Rika is being awfully protective of Meiko for unknown but obviously major reasons. She wants people who wish to vote for Meiko to vote for Rika instead. At the end of the opening vote, there were five tied for the lead. I don't have any agency, so I don't know why they bothered to do such a detailed breakdown on how to ultimately get a tied vote to end the day with no lynch. You can just say that he was voting in a way to increase the odds of no lynch and move on.

Good, there was no lynch, and doubly good that they didn't do something lame like force Haru M to reveal he is the snake. I don't like his declaration to protect Rika and Meiko. It isn't as if they are absolved of being a wolf or anything. For someone who views himself as being the one of the only sane and rational people here, he is just as swayed by his emotions as the rest.

Ah, we might have our answer to the existence of another role. The children's song I have heard at least a dozen times that obviously has to do with the feast has a line referencing a badger and further discussion led Haru M to believe that they served the wolf, a la Haru F last round. I don't know how he also came to the conclusion that the wolves won the game from about a decade ago (number of potential survivors maybe?), but he is convinced that Kanzo was a wolf/badger then. There are too many angles to post regarding the validity of all the beliefs introduced so far as to why there keep being feasts, but I feel like it just helps my basic theory of this all being bogus to some level.

I'm seeing lots of locked choices needing the #20 key, so that must be a big one, or maybe the one that finally opens up the game to get me out of this linear rut. I was a little surprised that during the conversation with Yoshi about fighting wolves, I didn't have an option, so I'm back at my house and waiting to see if I can chose who to investigate or if that decision will be made for me.
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One thing I have been thinking about is the ending sequence of the first route where Haru M, Chi, and Meiko attempted to escape. Meiko was grabbed by the wolves. Now they could have a line that they wouldn't cross and depict a child or character in a child's body dying, especially in the gruesome fashion that this game has already displayed. But what if Meiko was grabbed and not killed?

Back to the present, I'm now a little worried since I am participating in the feast since that makes me eligible to be the choice of the wolves. I know that the inevitable death scene(s) is going to be sudden and scare the hell out of me. The positive way to see it is that I will finally get some answers on what goes on in that situation. I should be safe for this night at least due to a lack of branching paths prior to this.

I know that Haru M declared that he would protect Meiko and Rika, but now I find out why. He is convinced that Meiko has a guardian (spider specifically) and Rika is vanilla town. His theory makes sense, but I don't believe it to be the case. It could just as easily be that Rika is the badger and Meiko the wolf.

I wanted to investigate Kaori or Chi, but I will accept being given three options. I went with Takumi, and he is human. The fact that they are making this revelation a key makes me wonder if the true route is tied with this one. The chart doesn't show any branching paths but seems to imply that each of my choices would result in a key. No deaths in the night, hell yeah!

Now I am sort of regretting not investigating Nos because they brought up that none of the final seven voters (Haru M included) went for him. If he is a wolf, then it does stand to reason that at least one of Yoshi/Chi/Haru F/Rika/Meiko/Hisa is a wolf too. I feel like if Hisa was a wolf, she would have acted completely different yesterday since it seems that becoming a wolf involves brainwashing/manipulation that would make it difficult for me to believe that she could totally fool everyone by her seemingly genuine responses to events. Aaaand she claims to be the snake and accused Tae of being a wolf. What the fuck!? Am I about to eat crow. More importantly, I hate this situation because I pretty much have to reveal, and I don't want to lol. Like if I let it slide, I will never be able to successfully claim that I am the snake for the rest of this route. That and Tae will die, and I find it preposterous that a wolf/badger Hisa would put up a wolf Tae, especially with no deaths last night. I know what the decision has to be, but ugh I hate it, and I had to get this off my chest before I officially make the call.
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Well revealing ended up being a pretty short discussion. If they plan to hold off on voting against Haru M or Hisa, then what do we have to go off of for voting today lol? Well, it was Nos, and I really don't know how I feel about that. His calmness makes me believe that he is probably. Back at the house, giving me a flashback line about when Takumi revealed he was the snake is all but telegraphing that tonight is the night I die. Yeah, I had no choice who to use my snake powers for, and I wasn't informed who Haru M chose. My fate is all but sealed. Well, that was interesting, I just simply died. In fact, the narration just said that Haru M never woke up. So if they kill you in your sleep, that calls into question the circumstances around Takumi's death since it appeared that he was awake at the time.

I could go back and immediately not reveal, but I might as well investigate someone else before. I feel like Hisa is a waste to a degree. I suppose that knowing if she's a wolf or a human with wolf allegiance is worth knowing, but being certain about Nos feels more important. He's human as well. I don't feel good about not revealing, but I'm also not an expert in mafia/werewolf to realize all the angles. I think more than anything, I would just feel like shit about letting someone die when I could have spoken up.

That being said, I'm not convinced that Tae/Hisa aren't both wolves or a wolf/badger combo. After all, Haru F, presumably the last badger, didn't know the wolves until the final day, so it would stand to reason that the wolves do not know the badger and vice-versa. Hisa could be the badger and making a risky ploy to aid the wolves picked a random person to call a wolf and was actually correct. I think it is less likey that they were playing some sort of 4D chess to have a wolf fake claim a role to hoist suspicion upon another wolf. When Chi asked Hisa straight up if she was the badger, Hisa hesitated a little in her response.
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I wasn't expecting this, but I was actually given an option on who to vote for. Hisa seems like the obvious and trap answer. It would then go to a tie vote, which I am guessing Tae would still end up winning the vote. I voted for my other option in Takumi, calling any potential bluff and Tae predictably was chosen. When she was thrown off the cliff, "an inhuman sound" was heard when her body was hidden by the mist. While various theories swirled in my head, my immediate thought was that Tae was given the wolf role again this route. It was also revealed that the sickle being at the feast hall didn't have some big reveal in the grander scheme of things. It was used to cut the rope after the person was executed.

In another one of those weird, "humorous" tangents with a large group of people, as the Oribe family had a suspicious family meeting I might add, Nos uttered the most relatable line in the entire game, "This is a living hell." If I had to rank all of the characters, Nos would honestly rank high despite his abrasiveness.

I'm kind of confused how everybody knows exactly when they need to head back to do their nightly preparation. Like the scene is showing it to be totally nighttime, so why couldn't those humanoid wolves attack people now? I don't recall anyone explictly stating when you must begin adhering to the cleanse, shelter, dream rule. It was only that first day that you had to immediately begin it when the mist rolled it, but it was sunset. This is clearly much later.

So Haru F's "mental illness" is her seemingly possessed, and everyone seems to be intimately aware of it. I could be wrong, but the voice sounds like the entitity that appeared in Haru M's doorway in the final night of the first route. I mean, Haru M does think of Haru F as a child, and she was alive at that point, so it does check out. I can't explain the change in hair color, but the supernatural doesn't exactly follow logic and science.
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Kamo seems to suspect that I have a guardian power. He seems to be acting like he did last game, so I can't say that I am too suspicious of him at this point. I have seemingly talked with half the town here during this scene outside of the dining hall, but my final discussion is with Rika, and she says that Yasumizu is the only place where the legends say that the Ookami are dead.

I now have a whopping five people I can choose to investigate, all but confirming I will survive the night. I really dislike some of his rationale for not allowing me to investigate someone, especially Kaori because it had virtually no merit or revelance. Kaori is my #1 wolf suspect, and I feel like this nonsensical defense Haru M made for why he doesn't need to target her only makes me believe my intuition even more. Chi is probably my #2 suspect, but she's also off-limits.

I can re-investigate Takumi or Nos, but there has been no indication that roles can change mid-game, so it seems pointless. I can finally give in and investigate Hisa, but I feel like that has lower priority since she is all but confirmed to not side with town, and I do think that she's more likely to be the badger. Haru F feels like the one the game wants me to investigate given her abrupt possession just a short time ago, but that feels too obvious and a trap. My only other option is Kamo, and I'm leaning toward him when I resume playing.
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5/15 Thursday

So Kamo is a wolf. I really shouldn't be surprised, but I sort of am? Unlike the last route, the crow actually has some use. I figure that if Tae was a wolf, they would out themselves and reveal that info, but that would be kind of bad for me since it would make Hisa appear as the real snake. I can't say that I was expecting Takumi to attack me first thing in the morning, but here we are. One of the first things he said was that two died, so we know some extraciriculars went on in the night. Because I previously investigated him, I could reveal that I was the snake. I feel like choices with keys probably lead to more relatively positive results, and I can't say that I share Haru M and the rest of the village's paranoia that someone is listening at all times no matter the location, so I went and told him but not the latest result. Takumi did make a scene barging in, so someone could have been lured by the ruckus, but I'm under the impression that my place is pretty secluded from most of the village.

The two deaths are Haru F and Hisa. Well, I'm more certain that investigating Kamo was the right call. Without even finding out the circumstances, I'm guessing that Haru F was the wolves' target. The only reason that I can come up with is that they were convinced that she was the spider, but I am sure there are plenty more viable ones. If Hisa was a wolf, then there's no way they thought she was the real snake because Haru F would be one of the likeliest characters to immediately claim that they were the real snake. Anyway, that would mean Hisa died under mysterious circumstances. Perhaps someone killed her certain that she was a wolf (before or after the corruption monster period of course) or she was the badger and was tricked by the wolves to get herself killed so the crow could never find out her actual role. Though to be honest, maybe the wolves would have preferred that she was hung to waste a day from town if the crow finds out that Tae was in fact town. There is the remote possibility that fake snake Hisa was right on the money and the wolves killed her thinking she was the real deal, but the other two situations seem much likelier, though I am getting ahead of myself.

Hisa was basically torn apart thoroughly all over. A human could not do this. The still image was identical to what happened with Yoshi last route, so it seems safe to say that she was killed due to violating a rule of some sort. I don't know if this is important, but she was killed just outside of her room. Haru F on the other hand was completely crushed from the neck down. How is that physically possible unless those with the wolf role actually turn into wolves at night? Haru M made the observation that these wolves are much crueler than the Yasu/Tae combo. That would almost suggest some of the more mysterious or violent people like Yoshi or Tom or even Meiko, in addition to knowing Kamo is one.
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When we passed the construction site where Hashi died while looking for the missing Kanzo, I found it unsettling when Haru M referred to it as "supposedly" empty. After awhile, we found Kanzo in the feast hall where Takumi and Kanzo just duked it out because everyone is insane.

When all of that shit died down and the feast began, Takumi confirmed my belief that the humans were basically unconscious at night when he tried to stay awake but simply couldn't at one point. I'm more intrigued about his death last route. Kaori outed herself as the crow and confirmed Tae as town. I don't understand the tactic, but nobody counterclaimed what is an otherwise useless role, so I'm willing to accept it. That means the wolf team could be Kamo and some combo of Chi/Tom/Yoshi/Hisa. I do have some suspicions toward Rika/Meiko, but I will go ahead and accept Haru M's strong belief that both are town. I have a hard time thinking that Hisa is a wolf because of her play and reactions in the first two days. There's no way the she on a wolf team would have been suggested to fake claim snake or done the suggesting and have that plan be approved. Certainly the others would have realized that right? I think it is more likely that she is the badger, and someone on the wolf team figured that she was the badger when she put up Tae. I forget who was all recepetive to bringing up the idea of a wolf-allegiant town member, but I know Chi was one.

Yasu said god and it didn't trigger Chi, so I guess that only happens when it is convenient for the plot. I'm not sure if this matters, but Kaori, Yasu, and Yoshi's husband/dad participated in the feast less than 10 years ago and died to the wolves on the first day. I'm assuming that means he was the wolves' first target because the statement otherwise doesn't make any sense given what I have experienced and assuming that the (perceived) rules are consistent. Kanzo also mentions that this is his third feast, and that he and Tom were the only survivors of the last one.

I know the plan is the get a fixed majority so town can always be in a foolproof situation against the wolves, before things obviously fall to pieces, and the ideal situation is to reveal two town members. Because I made the best investigation choices, I have two options, well three. I can keep my role hidden, but that seems like it would result in disaster. Because I told Takumi that I am the snake and know that he's town, I can reveal and say that Takumi is the town and Kamo is a wolf or that both Takumi and Nos are town. Part of me wants to out a wolf right now, but seeing as I believe that Hisa is more likely to be the badger, there would be two remaining, and I feel like Nos could be the lynch target if I don't put him in the clear.

I will decide tomorrow what I am going to do, but I am heavily leaning to sticking with Yasu and Takumi's plan and reveal two town members. We would then have Yasu/Kanzo/Takumi/Haru M/Kaori/Nos as town, and that's a good set to secure as a town assuming this isn't some bizarre nightmare situation where Hisa was neither wolf nor badger and Nos or Takumi is actually the badger. Regardless, we would then likely lynch one of Tom/Yoshi/Kamo/Rika/Meiko/Chi.
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As I tend to do with my playthrough topics, I think about the game quite a bit outside of playing, and I came to realize that there could be a route where Haru M is given the role of wolf/badger. I'm also considering that the badger role could be a red herring given that it was alledgedly Haru F who had it last game, and we know there's something up with her, but I digress.

I'm also wondering more about Meiko. I noticed that after the endings a sheep shows up, and Meiko says baa somewhat frequently. I thought that the sheep was just some mascot character, and they simply used an animal because of the guardians, but maybe there is a sheep guardian? I'm not familiar with Japanese folklore to know if the sheep is a commonly used animal in them, whether as a deity or something else.

Back to where I left off, I was considering one last time if I wanted to out Kamo. He couldn't be investigated until the second night, so I feel like that has to have some significance, but I stuck to my guns and the plan for fixed majority and tried to convince everyone of my confirmations of Takumi and Nos being town. They were pretty accepting of the idea, well, except Kanzo who still wants to hang seemingly everyone.

Rika claimed to be the spider and that she protected Kanzo the first night and Yasu the second. I'm starting to have this sinking feeling that she or Kaori are lying, but then Tom comes in to claim spider himself and that he protected Yasu both nights. Well then. Haru M is so certain that Meiko is the actual spider and that Rika is simultaneously controlling and protecting her, and also that Tom is the badger. I still like Hisa as the badger, but I will go along with his Rika/Meiko belief for now. He was most certain that Yasu was a wolf last game and turned out to be correct, so there's some history there to believe in him.

Kaori said that she was leaving her vote to Yasu and that would make it easier for people to believe her. Maybe I misinterpreted what she said, but that sounds kind of scummy. Like I get that she thinks Yasu is better at this than her, and that Yasu is confirmed town, but i don't know why she threw in the "believe her" bit.
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I greatly dislike this next vote between the two spider claims. I don't think the votes were publicized, so I guess that who I vote for will ultimately be hung. Part of me feels like voting for Rika is the right play here. The "obvious" move is to vote for the enigma who is basically impossible to have a conversation with and thus difficult to trust their ability to help town win. Notwithstanding his choice of protecting Yasu both nights, I just don't feel like he's a wolf. Maybe he's a badger, but I just don't think he's a wolf. Rika is basically the Chi of this route, developing the big rapport with Haru M, but maybe unlike the last route, this person is an actual wolf and was manipulating Haru M from the start. I don't have any real evidence to suggest that she's a wolf, and she might very well be just a townie who is protecting Meiko. In the end, I feel like Tom has a higher chance of being the actual spider than Rika, and Rika has a higher chance of being a wolf than Tom. If the point is to lynch all wolves and keep the snake and spider alive as long as possible to keep those odds high, then voting for Rika seems to be the more logical play here.

When she threw herself off the cliff, there was no water splash but a crunching sound. I'm not sure what to make of that, and what's this now. I have been poisoned to death in the dining hall? If I interpreted the scene setup correctly, only the Oribes were involved in the meal prep process. I'm ruling out the possibility of Yasu. While I do have some suspicions toward Kaori's crow claim, I'm choosing to believe her for now, so that would leave Yoshi as the likely suspect. Yoshi as a wolf does make a lot of sense. If Kamo truly did suspect me as having a guardian power before my reveal, I'm thinking he might be the brains behind the group as a potential Kamo/Yoshi and likely one of Tom/Hisa wolf team. I still want to think of Chi as a prime wolf candidate, but it just doesn't seem likely based on investigations, past deaths, and role claims. Kamo could have encouraged Yoshi to convince Haru M to attack the wolves at night know that Yoshi wouldn't be subject to the corruption and thus Haru M and a guardian power would die as a free kill.

I actually have quite a few options on what to do next, such as and possibly limited to:
- Investigate Hisa, or Haru F I guess
- Vote for Hisa during the second day of the feast
- Do not reveal my role when Takumi forces his way in my house
- Do not reveal my role during the third day of the feast
- Claim the snake role, Takumi is town, and Kamo is wolf during the third day of the feast
- Vote for Tom during the third day of the feast

Some of these seem likely to result in bad ends, but bad ends give more, potentially necessary even, insight, so I started with not trusting Takumi. I, of course, was killed by the hoe he brought with him, but I learned nothing in the process. I then went and investigated Hisa, and it turns out she was a wolf. That uh, okay. She played it so horribly that she had to have been put up to the task and made into a sacrifice. I just don't see the long game here that Kamo and the other wolf had in mind. This also calls into question her death. If the wolves are permitted one death per night, and that was used on Haru F, then the only option known at this point is that she was killed by the corruption. The question is what rule could she have violated because the cleanse/shelter/dream doesn't apply to her in this case. I also realize at this point that the wolves should be dead tired from a lack of sleep if they have to do a lot of strategy and stuff at night, but I willing suspend my disbelief for this, for now anyway, even if the truth is that they do the night stuff in their sleep somehow.

I went back and decided to vote for Hisa over Tae, and after she lost the sudden death vote, she went nuts and tried to flee. When she was thrown off the cliff, I heard a crunch. So to recap the four actual hangings that we've had:
- Tae -> inhuman sound heard, presumed town a la crow-claiming Kaori
- Nos -> water splash heard, confirmed town
- Rika -> crunch heard, claimed but unconfirmed spider
- Hisa -> crunch heard, confirmed wolf

I have no reason to believe that they are being thrown/jumping off in different locations, so maybe I am looking too much into this, but Tae and Rika throw a wrench into being able to extrapolate good info from this. Haru M absentmindedly put someone's name down at time, which meant that he was going to die from the wolves.

I won't bother investigating Haru F yet, so my remaining options all have to day with the third day feast. I'm still weighing my options.
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I voted for Tom instead of Rika. With this being the second time that he has been hung, this was also the second time that he had one of his more lucid moments indicating there was something that he wished to do before the execution. However, Kanzo punched him and said he wanted to hang him alone. That is both excessive and a little out of character. Kanzo was already dead when he was hung the first time, so I'm guessing the reason has something to do with them being survivors in the previous feast.

I also heard the disembodied voice from that entity outside of the dorms the final night of the first route. This confirms that it isn't confined to Haru F. Haru M was poisoned in an identical fashion as when I voted for Rika instead of Tom, so it seems as if it was a targeted poisoning. I didn't understand why he could be saved in this route until they eventually played their cards and had Rika come in and save the day.

I don't like how I didn't have a choice of who to investigate. Because Yoshi was chosen, I am now convinced that the wolf team is Kamo/Chi/Hisa. Someone knocking on my door when this could be corruption cannot be good, deadly even.

It was Chi. While there have been multiple scenes about this during the two routes, I haven't talked about the "romantic" elements because it is just contrived nonsense that I don't care about. This conversation was especially bad and I am completely convinced that Chi is a wolf, like she knew that I was going to be protected by the spider and wanted me to open the door to violate the rules so the corruption could get me. I imagine she was probably the one who convinced Hisa to get killed and honestly probably to get Hisa to make a bogus role claim. Maybe Kamo came up with the plan, but Chi is clearly the better of the two in conversation. The fact that Rika later entered the conversation and wasn't immediately killed suggests that this was still during the safe zone, but in my mind, it doesn't make me waver in the slightest in my belief that Chi is a wolf.
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I feel like I must be on the right path in this route, but I had an unexpected lock in my conversation with Rika that makes me believe that I won't be able to complete this route until I die again. Just when I was getting very confident about my chances.

Yoshi, as expected, turned out to be human. The only viable choices are Chi, Kaori was lying about being crow and isn't badger, or the deceased Tom wasn't the badger. Well, Kaori was the night's victim, so that pretty much settles it. Are the wolves throwing the game. After making excellent decision after decision last game, the wolf play this game has been less than stellar, to put it mildly. Like Takumi in the previous route, it seems that Kaori was conscious for her death. She also left a dying message that included a code for her wolf suspects. This doesn't appear to be a hard code to crack as the fingers on her hand show Kamo and Rika as her suspects. Well, she's 50% wrong, which, as a human being, is entirely possible for her to be wrong about stuff. It seems more likely that the wolves tampered with her body. I don't know how they would know about the message, so maybe they saw the fingers and changed the numbers not knowing the code.
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Just want to say that I am thoroughly enjoying these writeups, and the only reason I'm not commenting is that this is one of those games where you can't talk or comment about literally anything without it being some type of implied or vague spoiler.

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