Going into A Short Hike, I expected just a cute and quick visual novel. But no, it is so much more than that. Game developers take note, because this is just about the most perfect small videogame you can create. It has something for everyone: cute characters and character development, amazing art, exploration, challenges, rewards, emotion, finetuned controls, gorgeous OST that develops during your hike and a beautiful and touching ending. I am so incredibly glad to have played this! It deserves all the praise it has gotten over the years.

The moment I downloaded Wonderful Everyday, I realized that I’ve made a terrible mistake, as alongside the game’s installation folder there was a file that redirected to a website called “Fap for Fun”. Despite trying to deny its very essence, Subarashiki Hibi always felt like an erotic game first, and a drama story second. The themes that it tries to tackle such as lack of proper treatment and respect to mental illnesses, cult mentality and its propagation, and ironically, porn addiction, are hidden beneath a total of disheartening 17 explicit h-scenes, that are most of the time directly tied to the story, instead of “bonus scenes” that you can turn on and off in the menu.

The story is filled with moments that start off tackling a properly interesting theme or topic and then proceed to take a complete 180, becoming just another harmless predictable scene that vomits cliché hentai tropes. The appeal of subahibi comes from the fact that there are some genuinely great and creative segments of storytelling that could only ever be experienced in a visual novel format, but those precious moments are deep within a sea of ecchi mediocrity. You might be asking yourself, “how worth is this dive?”, and to properly answer that, and also why such a specific eroge gathered a cult following as a fourth eye opening provocative narrative, we first have to talk about how VN’s tend to implement this type of adult content (If you are sensitive to topics such as these, please sit this one out).

Lewdness has always been associated with visual novels, no matter where you look at it. Whether we’re judging possibly the first one ever released, or some other “classics” such as sex, and it’s perfectly named sequel, sex 2, and many other games mostly for the pc-98, these titles found a lot of success predominantly aiming towards a lonely straight male demographic. The inclusion of either full on explicit h-scenes or elements from dating sims, sometimes even both, was to be fully expected in this media’s infancy. Stories during this period sometimes avoided this topic altogether, however, that was a gamble not everyone decided to take, as the mere inclusion of some sexual content would likely increase for sure the number of people who would want to give your novel a shot. After some years, a weird symbiotic relation started to develop, as a lot of independent novels from the early 00’s tried to hook the viewer with promises of showing NSFW material, but made them keep wanting to read until the very end, due to the proper story that it was telling.

Tsukihime, for example, would not only work, but also be massively improved without every single despicable fetishized rape scene or dialogue mention. It’s very telling that in the 2021 remake of the novel, the studio behind it decided to pretend that all h-scenes didn’t happen and adapted the script to it, essentially turning the story into a proper cohesive shonen that doesn’t perform mental gymnastics to justify rape whenever possible, solidifying it as the definitive way to experience the novel. In a less extreme case, we can also take a glance at Higurashi, who early on put a lot of emphasis in long fetishized sequences that replicated staples from ecchi stories, but gradually stopped being as frequent, as the narrative started to find its footing, besides some occasional nods in bad taste from Ryukishi07. What makes Higurashi’s case interesting, is the fact that it’s the opposite approach from Subarashiki Hibi: The ecchi scenes contradicted one of the game’s themes about child protection, while in Wonderful Everyday, you'd see even more scenes depending in how essential to the theme the chapter was.

Through the years, visual novels started to gradually become more and more respected as a media in no small part due to works such as the previous ones mentioned. By slowly being freed from its private horny jail, a wave of new stories started being developed for other demographics, like straight women or non horny men, eventually attracting the attention of people outside of Japan. The late 00’s were marked by some novels being developed, translated, and appreciated by foreigners, which even saw some works from previous years such as Saya no Uta, Umineko and Fate/Stay Night gathering a considerable late cult-like following as classics.

Despite all that however, Subahibi opted to tackle themes strictly tied to pornography, and it still became relatively famous around the newer circle of VN’s that westerners appreciated. Direct comparisons to the infamous 'Boku no Pico' anime can be made, as both weren't the first nor best ones to tackle niche erotic themes in a media mostly seen at the time outside of Japan as "something for kids". Both of them ended up gathering attention due to the timing and difficulty of access to other products of the same medium during their respectable releases.

Written primarily aimed towards a straight male demographic and with the premise of showing gratuitous NSFW material, it has a completely pointless first chapter that lasts around 4 hours and is solely made as a symbiotic hook. After reading the novel to its full extent and revisiting the beginning chapter, I hoped to find a new meaning to what exactly happened, but it just left me feeling very disappointed. A pattern that you'll see from the novel that plays an important role in the chapter, is that there are plenty of useless name drops to a lot of other "intellectual media", that has little to do with the story. The only use for such is that it tries to show some validation to the reader to what they are reading, as in pretending it's an actual respectable story that just so happens to have a generic and forgettable anime art style.

This is your warning for spoilers now, if you’re still thinking about giving this one a shot, please do keep in mind that it’s somewhat long and tackles frail topics without proper respect.

The second chapter thankfully denies the eroge counterpart and goes for a more eerie atmosphere, showing the ascension of the typical nerd loser, Mamiya Takuji, as an actual God among men. This was a very surprising yet welcome change, and in hindsight I appreciate this chapter more, as it could have been the start of something great, however, it also has some of the shallowness the early chapter had, but in a different way. I didn’t care for the opening chapter at all but I always understood why they were acting in such a one dimensional porn-like way, meaning that even if the scene was just an excuse to show a panty shot, it would still make some sense narrative-wise. In the second one however, Yuki, the protagonist once again, and everyone else involved, acted in a way that felt like their actions were randomized. It mostly makes sense in the hours to come after the “twist” but that doesn’t help the fact that it’s just another 4 hours of infodump done wrong as Yuki only opts to delve deep in the subject of the underground forum and not answer some other key areas. Essential plot points such as Mamiya’s family, or the twins suddenly acting aggressive towards him, or pretty much everything relating to Zakuro, who was the most important part of the opening chapter, are put under a pretentious rug called "Don't think about it too much".

It’s really interesting seeing how she reaches to some logical conclusions while reading, but it’s similar to a game of Clue, where you’ll discover what happened and feel good about it, but in the end you were so unattached to the characters that you just accept Colonel Mustard probably just wanted to use that knife in the Hall. Things aren’t better for Mamiya’s side, as the only real segment of him showing some faint semblance of distinctive personality was in one of the most embarrassing written scenes I have ever seen in any visual novel.

Takuji’s pitiful speech, his spotlight moment, is one that can only truly be impressive for those that, to put it nicely, like to mention quotes or name drop philosophers without knowing what they stood for, which should say something about the shallowness of most VN’s as the scene is hailed as a sort of “redpill”. His discourse is plagued with small problems, but one of the most fundamental ones is that death became suppressed dogma in modern society, which doesn’t make sense if you also argue that philosophy fundamentally changed it’s key areas with time, and that religion is a type of philosophy, which is true by definition but doesn't give room for your point. If you are confused, it's like arguing how old movies embraced nationalism as a fundamental part of their stories and then argue that there is a conspiracy nowadays to have movies not embracing this pillar, without realizing that it was something related to the time period instead of the media, while also agreeing that movies changed fundamentally with time which leads to the development of a direct counter culture.

When called out by Yuki, who makes a flimsy and flawed argument for someone that reads Kant, about how he sees human lives, Takuji argues that it’s not charlatanism because “the only thing that matters is that he is right in the end”. All that was missing from this scene was a Big Bang Theory laugh track to finish it off: the amazing manifest that ends with the argument “I’m the chad and you’re soyjack”. The point of the scene, as pointed out by a friend, is to display that Takuji is wrong, as he even hits a girl in the class and talks about how people attribute others as being crazy when they don’t understand, which internally forced the author into writing others as the dumbest human beings possible, even making the history teacher respond to Mamiya with “I don’t know” when asked what part of what he said was wrong. In retrospect I partially agree with my friend’s take, but I think the framing and the fact that he was shown to posses godlike powers makes me think that they wanted to sneak in some truths in his arguments to justify him being in the wrong by just making him unnecessarily aggressive and rude, like how Marvel wrote Black Panther’s villain, Killmonger, in the 2018 movie.

Third chapter is all about Takuji’s point of view, which makes the second chapter nearly useless and redundant, as his point of view is far more interesting and makes Yuki’s actions feel more humane as she doesn’t seem like your typical dumb yet top notch detective. This is THE CHAPTER for h-scenes, featuring a lot of gratuitous sexual violence that are handled very poorly, hitting nearly every slot in the kink bingo: rape, feminization, bdsm, more rape, futanari, public humiliation, more rape again, torture, dismemberment, and of course, even more rape. The unlikely underdog story from rape victim to serial rapist is just flat out disrespectful and ends up helping me prove my point that there isn’t a single piece of media that benefited from flat out showing rape scenes instead of making them simply implied. After enduring an entire sequence in which Takuji is abused in every way possible, and knowing what happened in the previous chapter, and how he treated Zakuro to this games most gratuitous sex scene ever, all that I could think was how he would do everything the same if he was in their places but much worse, to which latter parts of the VN proved me right. I hope everyone will agree with me on this one when I say this is the most ill-mannered way to write a story on the subject.

Chapter 4 is all about an abuse victim who starts seeing visions of God telling her to kill herself as revenge, to which the game shows that it was the right thing to do in later chapters. No further comments.

Jabberwocky onwards, is when the story finally compensates for you enduring the hot steamy garbage from before. It’s a chapter about Mamiya’s most hated bully, Yuuki Tomosane, the only actually good character in the story. Tomosane’s chapter is fascinating, it pulls the rug and explains the twist that he and Yuki were personalities developed by Takuji, they all lived in the same house, and the twins didn’t actually exist as individuals. The framing is also top notch, making you know what risks he’s taking even if you think you know how it’s going to end. Mind blowing after mind blowing scene shows a new perspective I didn’t thought was possible from the story, which made this chapter, excluding the massively homophobic comments, a blast to read. The sequel chapters, Which Dreamed It and Jabberwocky 2, are also really welcome additions to the story, although not as jaw dropping, that expand the narrative in meaningful ways that have the unfortunate consequence of making Mamiya’s torturous life feel “justified”.

2 / 3 of Subahibi is dedicated for making the reader as tortured as the girls in the story, which tries to make up for the last 1 / 3 which gives the feeling that you’ve conquered the narrative, taking a stance against what was stablished early on. That’s a really interesting concept, however, it was one that was done better in a novel that you might have heard about: The House in Fata Morgana. Written in a way that’s more mature, gracious, and made to scare easily impressionable VN fans, it deals with dark themes as well, but with a proper respect for the situation in which the characters find themselves in. The also really competent sequel, A Requiem for Innocence, talks about similar themes from Subahibi which are it’s main justification for shoving garbage eroge topes, having the characters live in a brothel and dealing with an oppressive threat that haunts their frail psychology. Their themes are obviously not comparable on a 1 to 1 basis, however even if it's lowest points, one shows the other that you don’t have to treat every female character as pawns that merely exist to fuck when a male character so desires.

Main point is, what Wonderful Everyday does well, is done better in other visual novels, and what it does wrong, could only be done poorly here. Unless you really like the sensation of scavenging through hours of garbage to find gold that doesn't shine as bright as others given for free, maybe this one is not for you. If you still really want to know how this mess feels, I guess there’s no saving, since the premise is interesting nonetheless.

There is an undeniable value in early 10’s VN culture with Subahibi that made it stand out, however its vile and disrespectful approach to sensitive topics were a problem even when it launched, and it gets more outdated by the year as visual novels get more sophisticated, denying its origins as a media that started with a game in which you undress a minor for fun, and starting to develop more on the lines of being an interactive story. After multiple warnings by different people telling me to stop reading it, I endured through the end of Subarashiki Hibi hoping to find something that was clearly never meant to be there, as alongside the game’s installation folder there was a file that redirected to a website called “Fap for Fun”.

ill post my ramblings with terrible grammar here while waiting for the DLC
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In DeS you trick the environment,
In DS you adapt to the environment
In DS2 you interact with the environment
In DS3 you speedrun the environment
In ER you discover the environment

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"Heresy is not native to the world; It is but a contrivance. All things can be conjoined."
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so first thing I notice in the game is that you do not really choose gender at all, you only choose body types and they just so happen to be feminine, masculine and such. Which is something you do in Monster Hunter and probably a lot of other games too. But more I played more I went back on that idea and it felt ludonarratively important.

when you explore the world, clashing identities are recurring in main bosses, which are allegorical beings to how lashing out against fundamentalism caused several ways of life, all still 'rooted' (pun intended) in fundamentalism and its divisioning perspective - people being mistreated has made them to internalize as to how world is supposed to be made and then it reflects on their external beliefs or whatever they are doing. A lot of them have several identities and none of their identities are ever really established/highlighted for being the real one (the correct one, if you will) - or how they came to be. For all I care the possibility of having several identities is not even highlighted textually or at least not in memorable enough manner for me to recall - connecting the dots and understanding is completely on you, immediately after you come face to face to such individuals.

anti-divisioning is not only regarding individuals but at the very least in-game items too. When I first started collecting items that give you souls or whatevers the currency in Dark Souls 7, first thing that caught my eye was how they are not really named in varied manner like they were in other Soulsborne games, but now you can see that I managed to overthink its narrative importance.

Main trio are main character, marika and miquella I think.

Miquella is referred as a man but also has identity of a saint which is a female, (but only formally) going away from fundamentalism and golden order and wants to create shelter for literally everyone. Its never really confirmed whether Miquella's body is a male or female or intersex though, which may happen in the DLC.

Marika is also Radagon and they both are trying to do different things, reflected on how Marika wanted to shatter the ring and how Radagon wanted to repair it. we don't know which one is the real one of course. If either one of them is, at this point of their existence.

then there is Elden Beast that controls them and maybe even some higher gods dictating its fate, almost as if a foil to the player itself who controls the main character.

Since the very beginning (of the game) value is given to being embraced, remembering, learning and whatnot, hence the need to be given comfort and affection, that which cannot be physically attained by Marika (or alike) since these identities can't really touch one another and are being isolated from their alleged loved ones (Godfrey, who can barely contain his civilized pretense and mentally melted Renala)

One thing about Elden Beast, though, is how it does not really have any identity that can be divisioned, establishing as a figure that completely contradicts the fundamentalism despite being its very inventor.

main character of course has no clashing identities whatsoever, main character will be whatever you want to be, self-insert is everything, serving as a force of nature that optionally could overrun all of these old ways of living and accumulate it all into identity of their own. More importantly, our self-insert could also gain knowledge from their encounters and direct experiences completely on their own volition, reflected on gathering spells and delivering them to masters/teachers - foiled by Gideon who mostly just gets intel from everyone else and gives up, using said research against you if you were to overshare said information on your own. After all you are the only one in the world who has not lost the taste of the grace.

If you merely finish the game and get its basic endings, you only get endings that feel like afterthoughts and are anti-climactic - of course, the ones you get by collecting runes of old that you continue to follow. Actual endings, however, come from the exploration and end by the evaporation of the world and its ways, finally freeing the world from divisioning all things, an ending towards which Marika has been guiding all of Tarnished all along.

This subverts the expectations of the 'old ways' of playing Souls titles, where it all started from 'David and Goliath' type of gameplay and degenerated into 'git gud' mentality by the end of Dark Souls 3, where people castrate themselves into spearheading entire game instead of trying out different things. Here, like in Dark Souls 2, you shall liberate yourself from the one-dimensional playstyle and keep trying out different things - and by the end of the story, instead of choosing whether to run away or get swallowed or whatever like in other Souls games, you need to discover different endings and may even give up on the throne that has always been meant as a systematic trap to misdirect your ambitions.

(the way I interpret, Marika in her madness could only lash out by guiding you towards Frenzied Flame ending, but Melina grew to gaining her own agency, so that you would choose something else)

after this I read how the world of Elden Ring is alchemy conceptualized as a fantasy world (not really sure where does the concept of homunculus fit in here) to make a commentary on how artificially divisioning the world through both faith (religion) and reason (intellectualism) severes the connection between (wo)men and causes both internal and external identity issues and throws the whole world into the state of perpetual stagnation.

I think final boss in itself is not to be seen as individual entities but they in unity represent a traditional marriage into one allegorical being. in alchemy elden beast would be something like Rebis (explained in elden beast trivia on the wiki) which is sort of an angellike figure, in itself a hermaphrodite, but Elden Beast also is a parasite of a traditional woman and a man (or rather, they represent what is an ideal of a woman and a man in the world) and I think they all influence each others mind as Radagon and Marika can swap with one another and Elden Beast resides there all the same, so its not like Elden Beast has more control over Radagon than Marika. So a hermaphrodite divides itself into a man and a woman

but an irony is that all of the off spring (I think all) are born as queers, with these identity issues where they can't be a traditional person fitting to order's understanding, all of them are impure, with or without incest involved.

instead the only one that comes out as 'unalloyed', as in pure, is Miquella, who may or may not be intersex themselves (could be a nice reveal in DLC), but despite going away from the order, he/she still divides themselves into identities of a man and a woman, unable to free themselves from the deeply rooted, conditioned mindset. After all, whatever discontent you feel, or your wish to change the world - all futile - as unless the very root is burned down, it will always grow the same fruit.

so 'elden RING' in itself is a symbol of marriage and that symbol of marriage transforms itself into a BEAST (could be a religious beast akin to son father and holy spirit), revealing that marriage in itself is animalistic and a woman is a pray while a man is a weapon, a tool of the order itself. While the order itself is non-divisioned being, it still uses divisionment on purpose to control sentient beings and their nature.

which is foiled by another marriage and countered by an Age of Stars ending where MC and Ranni have a queer relationship and companionship where they venture on adventure of discovery instead of being stuck as a lonely existence the way Marika did. Instead of burning down the world, you make use of everything you have learned to creatse something anew, something completely alien to the concept of divisionment, whatever it may be. Radagon could have been entirely different being, or one made by Elden Beast to fulfil the role as the intellect was required rather than Houx being a representor of brutal age that could only pretend to be civilized (as Godfrey failed to live up the standard of being an ideal man as it has always been an unnatural pretense generally speaking, so did Radahn, failed to live up to self-imposed standard that was Godfrey and became an actual animal, incapable of being human and got forever prisoned to massacre his own beloved men - or rather, he did, in fact, became what he aspired to, without learning what he was wishing for as he never knew who Godfrey was in reality and as dream turned real, it was his worst nightmare). Or could have been created by Marika's conflicting thoughts and desires. not sure if its ever stated objectively since identity matters are not even stated or rather, are rarely (if at all) stated in unreliable manner by unreliable narrators.

Bunch of characters and bosses you encounter naturally are also foils to your path, but that's the case in every above average story anyway so I won't bother recounting them.
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I feel like game itself could greatly benefit from not having such tame encounters throughout the entire game, where you keep only meeting 2-3 monsters piled together even in the endgame, which is actually pretty easy so long you level vigor (there is not much to even level tbh, its not Dark Souls 2, and yet you can obtain almost as much levels by the end of the ER - I think I was around 130 level in around 50 hours). But I guess game is just not optimized well enough for that.

despite the big size I think levels themselves are a bit too short, but unlike what they did with DS3, the world actually feels lived in with how you can randomly keep meeting praying monsters, or maybe even singing (this is dragged down by how reskinned monsters are scattered around the world, serving as a reminder of artificiality, but there are barely any games without repetitiveness around so I can forgive it) and playing on instruments and in general its as if they tried to make the world with set-pieces that feel like paintings, you can feel the how these things were in the concept arts themselves and access them all in a single ride from different angles. Although that does take a hit on how generally levels were meant to be built up in Souls formula so that the gameplay with its encounters could feel methodical, making Elden Ring a lot less concerned to be 'a game' in comparison.

On one hand, bosses (naturally excluding mini-bosses) are easily the best among any Souls games, despite just being a base game - but mostly as duels, since game is was not really concerned to make fights that are more than just a duel in open-field(ish) arenas. So on the other hand, you can clearly see game is not really experimental in some of the aspects - it does not feel like you can play around bosses like you can in DeS for instance (where you can get silent walking ring so that blind bosses won't ever be able to see you) as they do not have much gimmicks beyond getting an item to stun them or block one of their attacks and you can't weaponize environment against them to my knowledge, since locations also pale in comparison to, say, DS2's Zelda-like levels. They also are not really 'obstacles' which was making certain bosses interesting in previous games, but nonetheless their destruction in this game happens on your volition.

But, as I said, game is moreso focused on discovery, to the point of the most of the game being pretty much optional. One of the sections of the open world is technically hidden level, complementing the narrative and roads and shortcuts in-between these levels also need to be discovered on their own right. Needless to say, my appreciation of the game skyrocketed here. People blasting through the game with walkthrough open may not be into it, but I dig it quite a lot. If we were not be living in the age of internet, discovery of Elden Ring would not feel like a checklist, but an actually amazing effort. I hear how people talking about the discovery losing its magic in 20 hours, but its exactly these post 20 hours of gameplay sections are where you start discovering actually interesting, exciting areas, start discovering the secrets and how the world functions in hiding to further make use of what you have learned in another parts of the world (which was the intention all along) - even if catacombs and such feel rather cheap, they still adhere to this very ludonarrative - and discover an entirely hidden continent thats also the best section of the game and is not even a repetition.

Miyazaki I believe has said how specific creatures being in specific areas and not being repeated has always been part of environment story-telling in his mind and I can understand people who criticize the repetition in Elden Ring likely have that older perspective, but I believe this time repetition itself is also environmental story-telling and benefits the idea of the world (namely its lowest common denominators) losing (or never even attaining) the semblance of individuality they may or may not ever have had.

I have also seen people complaining about how collecting souls and stopping the process of being a hollow have always had meaning in Souls games and apparently its not the case for Elden Ring but I beg to differ - Runes are the world you are supposed to understand through which you understand yourself and give your own meaning. All in all, completely subverting the age expectations and conventions of Souls games and further evolving them (alongside the way bosses fight you by reading your inputs and all)

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Unfortunately, day and night system does not have much substantial additions to the gameplay, unlike, say, Dragon's Dogma.

You can also feel how Souls formula was not really made to be open-world be it how you can just skip through everything since enemies can't gang on you so hostility of the environment goes out of the window and theres not much really to do after killing everything aside from collecting materials or whatever), so I mostly see it as an atmospheric build-up to good old dungeons, rather than game's main appeal. It's polar opposite to Demon's Souls (where you just choose and teleport to whichever level-line you wish) and the culmination of its structure - there you needed to at least kill the final boss of any other level-line and then you could turn DeS into a linear game and head straight to Allant. Whereas in Elden Ring you can kill any of the two bosses after going through their respective dungeons (whether you 100% their dungeons or not, as they hide a lot of secret sections) and then turn ER, too, into linear experience by heading towards Elden Beast.

(though I still believe Demon's Souls is the most interesting Souls game mechanically)

ER of course also grants you freedom to go anywhere you want, anytime you wish and even if the game admittedly gets patterned, most of the time game compensates on itself by upgrading said patterns. Fortunately I have not even met most of the double bosses, which brings me to what makes me appreciate it openness - I do not 100% games, at least on my first run, so replayability comes from how each time I can just take different paths in the game instead of burning myself out on the first one, which I think is the same for most of the players, as well as how developers intended to create the game.

i’ve kind of lost the motivation to write anything long-form (or really any length) on this site but i do want to reflect on this one a little bit, and i hope you’ll excuse me if i sound like i’m superficially regurgitating what others have already shared.
anyway fatamoru is undeniably human at the end of the day; about how people aren’t born their current selves (whether they be “good” or “bad” in the eyes of some) and that there are always underlying circumstances that turned them into who they are today. the truth is a “weapon” — but not weapon-ized against others as it can so conspicuously be within popular works in this genre — no, the truth is not just something for an opposing force to use against those who experienced it, rather more deeply as an empathetic connection between people that is only a weapon if those who experienced it find resolve in burying it apprehensively. accepting reality and facing it head-on can be just as painful as the reality itself. no matter how dark it gets… there is always some light at the end of the tunnel. fatamoru is shockingly depressing and at times just absolutely fucking soul-crushing. at the same time, through all of the tragedy that it establishes, it still ignites some hopeful inspiration. everything does maintain a believable — and oftentimes relatable — level of realism as well that is probably the core of what makes the narrative hurt as much as it does. everything also has purpose: plenty of red herrings or details that spring up in the first half seem impossibly linked to the story but become completely logical and crucial inclusions by the end. i’m at a loss of what else i could mention so i guess i can briefly praise the characters. i don’t think there was a single one i didn’t find some form of relatability in or flat out didn’t like. they’re all distinctly special in their own ways. each with personal strategies to try and stay grounded among a world so cruel in their eyes. the value of perspective is a central theme throughout. this story fucked me up in more ways than one and i don’t think this will be an experience i’ll easily forget. i do still want to think about it more. this came to me at the right time in my life similarly to something like twewy when i played that a few years ago. shoutouts to the soundtrack for introducing me to “neoclassical darkwave.”

I deem two aspects as the most important in forming the identity of a stealth game; they are level design and the freedom of choosing to assault or not. Dishonored is a masterfully created combination of both and is thus, one of the greatest stealth games ever.

With one of the most ingenious uses of imbuing player choices into a cause-and-effect system at the centre, it's visible how the world design is such that it keeps track of every stealth choice, and displays its effects through various factors like number of rats, environmental state, NPC dialogue, severity of the plague, etc. Stealth games which are also action-adventure often tend to deviate from the central design philosophy of stealth, and tend to indulge highly in a spectacle with flashy action; Dishonored does not avoid that per se, but it definitely tries to weave around it, albeit intentionally. Despite the narrative urging towards a "correct way to play", it intelligently prioritises player freedom.

The sheer difference in experience based on my own choices of whether to kill, confront or leave alone was a revelation. The disparity between my high and low chaos playthroughs was far more than "bad/good ending", it delivered a whole new experience. While it is true that the Chaos system isn't that well conceived and complete, it serves as perfect leverage to influence the consequences of lethalities into the level designs which brings us to the meticulously crafted world of Dunwall.

Every level is superbly designed with unique pathways, routes and the player has complete liberty to achieve the target in numerous ways, with not a single method breaking the narrative harmony. Especially fantastic is Lady Boyle's Last Party with the sheer complexity of the level layers.

Coming to technical performance, the stealth mechanics are immaculate because of which there's more than enough allure to stick to stealth in combination with the astonishingly innovative ways in which magic complements either style over the unpolished FPS mechanics and slightly janky combat.

Last, but not the least, the downloadable content. Dunwall City Trials is a nightmarish mess, especially for achievement merchants, you can go ahead and skip that. The Knife of Dunwall, in particular, and the Brigmore Witches, with the assassin Daud as the playable character, are remarkable in every manner. While I do not agree with a popular sentiment of the two DLCs being better than the main game, I can definitely see why. Taking all the strengths of the original game, the DLCs script a fabulous story about Daud's quest for redemption which catapult him to the position of the best character in the series by ease. Brilliant.

Every mission of Dishonored serves as a great narrative piece and can be enjoyed and appreciated by any person alike. There's something for everyone. A consummate work of the medium and arguably the best stealth game of the past ten years.