Moonlight Syndrome é complicado, eu simplesmente ODIEI o rumo que as personagens dos dois jogos anteriores tiveram, principalmente no final que foi bem revoltante, e na introdução do Ryo e do "bizzare love triangle" dele com a própria irmã e o Sumio, e como o Aramata agora passa uma vibe pervertido total, no geral esse jogo é uma quebra de expectativa e principalmente, suda matando o passado (lol), desde o início do jogo quando tem aquela demolição na escola você ja percebe que não vai ser a mesma experiência dos jogos anteriores, a escola hinashiro não é a mesma, a amizade das 3 protagonistas do twilight também não, e ainda com um deus torando o pau, Chisato sendo um anjo e tendo uma irmã virada no jiraya, mas ainda assim Moonlight Syndrome é hipnótico, e se beneficia muito de uma segunda jogada, foi desconfortável como um todo, mas é bem marcante e não saiu da minha cabeça depois de um tempo, é uma pena que Suda não tenha como usar a IP pra relançar e localizar pro inglês, além dele achar que não vão entender o jogo, mas na real eu me sinto até feliz que o Twilight Syndrome Saikai tenha descanonizado o Moonlight, deixe minha Mika em paz seu animal.

Note: I will keep adding and removing stuff to this until i feel satisfied, it is merely a place for me to dump thoughts into.

extra note: my japanese is only good to an extent so if i misunderstood anything i add into this just let me know

Even though Moonlight Syndrome is an incredible mess of a game, and is really hard to put together narratively because of missing details in the story being cut out. It is also absolutely a thrilling playthrough. Especially if your a fan of Suda51's work.

You can really see that out of this most of if not all KTP games can find their origin in so many ways. Through the rubble the rest of it is birthed and its really fascinating to me.

Its also just a really sick psychological adventure game and the way the storyline shifts in comparison to the original twilight games was really good too. I felt super engaged throughout because of the particular structure and energy the title carries. Like the aspect of having part-only audio, part-only text, ends up making the game feel even more immersive. I was always at the edge of my seat during the game.

The chapter of the "jumpers" was probably my favourite in the whole game as well as the epilogue itself. Even if iv seen in interviews that Suda51 thinks the writing was too rough in these sections I still find it super interesting and emotionally engaging.

And again this game has rough patches but its still such an awesome psychological horror, transition from pure spiritual stories to a kind of psychological collapse with layering. Super good.

I know very little about the Twilight Syndrome series, but from my understanding, the original game was an impressive horror adventure about highschool girls investigating paranormal activities and urban legends active in Japan. Suda51 aided the production of that game near the end of its development period, and its success granted him the keys to the series . . . for a brief moment.

With that, Suda's sequel, Moonlight Syndrome, was basically him going "You know what's way scarier than ghosts and urban legends? PEOPLE. They're fucked in the head, and commit evil when they want to. This sequel ain't gonna be about those ghosts or ANY OF THAT BABY SHIT. The human mind is the true horror! That's what the fuck I'M TALKIN' ABOUT! THAT'S WHAT THE F-" and then everybody hated it, and Suda shortly left Human Entertainment after warping this series so unrecognizably, that Human removed this game from the continuity for future titles.

Thanks to the fan translation by CJ_Iwakura, I was able to play through the first 5 chapters, and the game is absolutely WILD. The depth he goes with these characters is very interesting, and the entire game doesn't stop exuding this discomforting aura, it's a very creepy score by Masafumi Takada, who has incredible range!

There isn't much to the gameplay, as it merely expects you to walk to places and make choices while listening to the characters interact. There's choices to be made throughout, but it doesn't really change the story much, if at all. The story is the real meat, and so far, I love what I've seen! As someone that has experienced Suda's future titles such as The Silver Case and The 25th Ward, it's so fascinating to see the kinds of themes and analogs that this title has in common with those games, such as the dangers of the human psyche, and commentary towards modern housing/infrastructure, along with what that does to a society.

While I've really enjoyed the "patient zero" of Suda51's 'Kill the Past' ethos, I can't give this a full score, as I didn't finish the game, but intend to once the translation is finished.

The dark edgy "Spiderman 3" sequel of Twilight Syndrome franchise is what I would describe this game with.

This is purely written by Suda from what I read and yeah it's evident that it's a different product entirely from what come before.

Forget the old cute cliche taste of let's go on a ghost hunting adventureee!! And put the new feeling of murders, serial killings, psychos and suicides. While the old series touched a bit of these subjects they never went that deep and often hold it with in the respectable boundaries, but this game does not give a f.

Incest? Here. Yandere psychos? Here. Child suicides and deaths? Here. Rape? Here. Body horror? Here. Garbage adults that use children? Here. Deaths? Here and More.

To the point I think just only 3-4 people just leave this game alive.

What I am getting at is I think Suda used every no no no subject ever and filled in this game. Does this make it a good game? Certainly a shocking one and probably scarier than any what come before. The uneasiness it gives is on entirely an another level than any other syndrome game. But it does this with taking away the unique style from what came before and that's a damn shame.

Story is on the other hand about two sides and Also with bunch of other filler cases.

One is about some student named Ryo that lost his sister a short while ago to a suicide?(game doesn't make it clear) and also gets bullied everyday, one day sees Mika and realizes her similarity to his own sister and stalks her throughout in the journey.

Other is rumor addicted Mika and her search to save herself from a powerful evil ghost that tries to torment and haunt her.

Story structure looks fine enough at first glance but when you play the game, you realize that only first and last couple of the chapters tries to progress the story and middle parts are just about Mika's variety of troubles or cases a bit like the older games.

Is this a bad thing? Not exactly. I would say filler cases feels full of content and dark stories to interact with and long ones(half of the chapter count to be exact) is full of thoughtful and philosophical ideas in it. Be it about the struggles of kids or be it bad teachers that torment students from behind the scenes and more. Also easily the best part of this game.

It looks like I am happy with the game right? Not exactly actually.

I said filler parts are the best parts right? Because When it comes to overarching narrative, game drops the ball at the last chapter so hard that not even the any bad case from old games can get that level. I really really don't know what happened at there but finale chapter feels really rushed and poorly written to the point makes you wonder all the build up was worthless?

Was it all for the edginess sake to the point it feels like Suda's revenge for getting forced onto this franchise or just a state of rushing the game out? I don't know but unfortunately that case really really soured my enjoyment on this game. Funny enough it's a really short case too! So that makes me wonder if it really rushed? I don't know and probably never will.

Also my other reason of not liking that much is like I said, it butchers the style from what came before in my opinion.

For example new sprites for characters suck and less detailed from what came before. Also old game's characters Yukari and Chisato looks unrecognizable. Also 3d scenes didn't aged good and I wish they use 2d cgs like the old games. Lastly compared to what came before, environment looks uninspired and lifeless even, probably because again it uses 3d objects more rather than 2d.

So yeah, it's a polarizing game for me. I enjoyed the shock, surprise and the uneasiness it gave me with nonstop forbidden subjects. Also enjoyed the filler cases that delves into a lot of different variety of dark subjects. But also it's ending disappointed me so I really didn't left this game happy also it's style wasn't to my tastes too.

Still it's just a beginning and I heard this case will connect to silver case somehow... So see you later at there hopefully. And let's hope that it does have a less rushed narrative progression then this one.

(I played while syncing up my gameplay with the translations. First half with izzeybee's text translation, second half with paradise hotel 51's video translation)

Very very good

Now in more detail, it is the first time that I see something about suda51 and I understand that being confused is part of the experience, for example I did not understand that final scene very well. I guess some things will be explained in TSC

Removing that, it seems to me that for a game from 1998 it is very well done, although playing it must be torture.