ok i decided to review this after having played it just a year ago because i just have so many thoughts on it despite my general distaste for it. this isn't a bash on zeno fans, this is just how i feel.

firstly, i'd like to talk positives: the gameplay. it is your general rpgmaker with an interactive narrative, exploration mechanics, and puzzles. but what really stands out that i don't really see in other rpgmakers is the random chase scenes. it was thrilling to randomly hear chase music and be chased by an assailant. while it was easy to avoid, simply by running into other rooms until the music died, it added to the horror aspect. and the puzzles were fun. that is all i can pretty much say about gameplay.

and now the story. i am very disappointed because the premise was so, interesting. there are so many things you can do with waking up handcuffed to someone and amnesia. it is straight and to the point. however, the story does not pick up until about the last half of the game. you're given hints through documents and reports hidden around the facility, detailing zeno as a disease characterized by bloodlust and cannibalizing others. while edgy, it is not a dealbreaker as i can see this being written well. near the end of the game, the sweet-natured, black-haired character has a complete and sudden change in personality; he becomes manic and murderous when his life is threatened by your blue-haired assailant. as you explore the second floor (you start from the bottom 5th floor, and are going up), you find out more about zeno. the more i read about it, the more it felt like there was not much research done on cannibalism at all from marutoku (i could talk prion diseases all day), but that is beside the point. it is entirely unexplained WHY one of the cures to zeno is eating another infected with zeno; it just does. if i were to cure a cold by eating the flesh of someone with a cold, it would simply make me sicker. it doesn't really make sense to me. in all honesty, i would have preferred it to be described as a parasite rather than "genetic disease." it would make more sense that a subject would have sudden urges to eat meat or partake in murder if something had taken over the brain. it is understandable that this disease is in progress of being researched, but the world building feels so lazy because there is lack of biological terminology to explain such things. every observation is more about what the disease is doing externally, rather than researching what was happening on a molecular level. it felt like these people were not allowed to own a microscope in the facility. there was little to no effort in the research to make this aspect of the story, the literal title and main plot, interesting.

while the main plot twist was fun, i don't think it was enough to carry the rest of the story.

now this part is just a personal peeve of mine. the other way to cure zeno is...to completely erase one's trauma. i know i shouldn't think too hard about this because it's a marutoku game, but trauma has to be written very carefully in order to be portrayed correctly. if this is how to cure zeno, then the implications are that zeno patients are trauma survivors. and trauma survivors are dangerous and violent. i am not saying marutoku meant to write this way about trauma survivors. i am saying it is sloppy, and it is insensitive just to throw trauma in for an emotional moment. the cure also sends the message that one should simply "forget" trauma and be over it to end violent tendencies. it was not written with care at all.

the main draw of the game came from the characters. the main two are handcuffed for a majority of the game, giving them plenty of time to interact with each other. however, their writing comes off as rather unsubtle. it felt like there was not enough time for these characters to get to know each other, gaining intimacy rather quickly. this is a normal aspect of marutoku games, i have noticed. these two are perfect opposites, one hotheaded and the other pleasant (but watch out! he's fucked up). it is almost trope-like how that works. a lot of lines between them are one-liner, "i will come back for you" kind of dialogue when things get dramatic. it felt like a dating sim almost, except you only had one character to romance. i have a sneaking suspicion that this writer wanted to write shounen ai in the form of a game but wanted to be dramatic about it.

i talked very negatively about this, i know. it wasn't a fantastic game, but it was fun overall. and as i prefaced at the beginning of this, i am not bashing zeno fans. i simply found this story badly written, and honestly just an excuse to write two men close to each other. ok have a great day everyone