fnaf 3 is ass. it's ass and it's boring, and it's unintuitive and its completely based on rng. fnaf 2, at it's core, was about reaction time and learning how to work under pressure. in the later nights there was certainly the argument to be made(and i agree) that it relied heavily on rng to win, based on how many withereds appear and if you keep getting fucked by so much before you can wind the music box... but not like this....

i know nothing of fnaf 3's gameplay loop. i mean, you have to keep springtrap away and reboot systems, yeah, but like... there never felt like a way to win. it felt entirely luck based. i cant fucking tell where springtrap is on about 75% of the cams because of SO MUCH FUCKING STATIC AND EVERYTHING BEING GREEN. like seriously, i cant fucking tell where he is unless he's in a position his eye shows up. so im just randomly shooting off audio lures hoping he gets to 8, 9, or 10 where i actually can tell where he is. hell i cant even look at the fucking cams most of the time, because all of that time is spent rebooting. so you finally get done rebooting all your systems after like 20 seconds, and hes fucking gone. 5 seconds after that he just peeks into your office. guess im dead. OR... the "winning" strat, where you're lucky enough that he hangs out in cam 10 for hours at a time... until its 5am , he disappears and you scramble sending off random audio lures hoping to get saved by 6am. thats it. thats the winning strat. get lucky and get him in cam 10 or somehow avoid him without knowing where he is, like i did for many nights. so i never learned the systems, i dont get any of the gameplay loop.

another thing is this game needs negative fucking sound to be played. fnaf 1/2 sound wasnt a big deal either, but at the very least you had to listen for mangle or the ambience and the vent sounds. here, i was so bored that i just blared the tartarus theme and won fine. your nights are so boring, btw. either he kills you at 1am with the most lukewarm scare or youre stuck watching him get trapped in one cam for the rest of the night and rebooting when necessary. its the antithesis of fnaf 2 where there was so much to keep track of all at once, theres like nothing to keep track of now, because you either cant tell where he is or hes stuck in the same cam.

lets talk about phantom animatronics. theyr're basically nonexistent for me on my winning runs, yet more proof the winning strat is entirely luck based. when they do show up theyre a nuisance/annoyance, full stop. not like the withered when they became frustrating as i got better, but instead theyve always been an annoying thing to deal with since night 2. anyway, I LOVE THE REBOOTING DOWNTIME. STAYING ON ONE SCREEN FOR A MINUTE AT A TIME IS THE GAMEPLAY LOOP I LOVE IN FNAF!!! IM NOT BORED AT ALL!!

night 5, on the other hand, seems to be the antithesis of 1-4. i beat those fairly easily, but night 5 took me hours. and not in the way fnaf 2's night 6 did. fnaf 2 was 80 percent skill and reaction time. but on most runs, even the ones where i blare music, i get to either 5am or he kills me at 1/2. theres no inbetween, honestly. it was the only night where i actually felt the need to learn the gameplay systems because getting 20 seconds away from victory, randomly, 3 times, is not the same as actual victory once. so i somewhat learned that sound does kinda matter but only for this night. it's weird. even if you didnt use sound you could just give mr afton a staring contest and it would work lol. im not sure if it was stockholm, but i did somewhat enjoy learning these systems for night 5.

that being said, it's not as if the other 4 needed them. night 1 has nothing at all lol. and even then, it was still entirely luck based. on my penultimate run of winning night 5 he killed me at 1 am again. so it's not like it's my problem like in fnaf 2, where i consistently got stuck at 3am because i didnt have solid enough reaction time, no it was just 100% rng on my winning runs for each night. sometimes i die at 5 am. sometimes 2 am... and that really fucking sucks, much like the game. if i used the number 5, it would likely be scored as such, but its gonna sit at 4.

i will not be attempting night 6 in this game.

too much content dawg…. this game is incredibly disappointing, no new map, sky and depths are underwhelming, the building is cool but it’s not like bad piggies or other mechanical builders where you can activate a button to do an action to prevent blowing your vehicle up, I don’t even have much motivation to finish the game, that’s how much fun im not having with this. this sucks man.. >~< weapon fusing is fucking awesome though. honestly if this was in botw i’d be havin a fuckin BLAST! its so awesome. this is as close to the homestuck alchemize system we can get in gaming… for now….the only time ill replay this game is when i download the wolf link mod :3c

content warning
i will start out by saying that this game and any other games of its nature are very difficult to recommend to people simply because of the content in them, so a huge content warning beforehand for:
- rape & sexual violence
- child exploitation
- animal abuse
- incest
- beastiality
- pedophilia
- gore
- necrophilia

i also want to say that this game in no way tries to romanticise any of those themes whatsoever and paints them in a very negative light. all the erotic scenes are fan disservice and exist to be unsettling while moving the story forward.

context
i haven't read many visual novels and prior to reading sayonara o oshiete i'd just finished reading saya no uta and my friend said he really enjoyed sayooshi. i'm not the best at reading and this game as of writing this still doesn't have an official english release, but the fan translation i read was very good.

spoiler free summary
the protagonist is a young teacher trainee suffering from repetitive nightmares of an angel being assaulted by a monster as he starts his teacher training at an all girls school. every day he wakes up in a dazed state and tries to get through each day of his training, but he keeps thinking about the dreams he's having and one of the girls at the school shares an uncanny resemblance to the angel in his dreams. he meets 4 other girls that seem to never leave the school in the late hours of the evening, and they all remind him of different aspects of his own childhood.

characters
every character in sayooshi is so perfectly written and individual, making them very easy to get attached to. this may be a coincidence, but as i was reading for the first time i found that each of the characters reminded me a lot of alice in wonderland characters.

koyori reminded me of the cheshire cat a lot, being very playful and seemingly absent minded, while also talking in a very mysterious way, subtly trying to help the protagonist while also teasing him. she directly reflects the protagonist's confusion and lack of self awareness and mocks him while doing so. i really loved koyori's scenes the most because of how much they broke the 4th wall. talking to her made me feel like i was going insane, but after finishing each route it all came together and made sense.

miyuki's blunt and pompous personality reminded me of the caterpillar a lot, as she seems to always want to be right and indirectly helps the protagonist by telling him random facts from books found in the library.

and as for nozomi, her loneliness and desire to disappear reminded me of alice's curiosity and affinity for a world outside of our own. the way nozomi talks to the protagonist seems like she's masking her loneliness by acting like a grown up, similar to how alice initially looks down upon adults.

the characters all have a way of making the reader doubt reality. whether it's through the whimsical ways they interact with the protagonist, or how they don't seem to be aware of each others' existence. they are all very likeable and individual from each other, which when compared to saya no uta, i only found myself getting attached to saya herself.

because of the nature of this game, the protagonist obviously is not a good person in the slightest and does some of the most unspeakable things imaginable. but his day to day hysteria and monotony is written in such a way where you do feel for him. his struggles are for the most part all very common and relatable. this doesn't make any of the things he does any less unacceptable, but it does make the overall experience feel a lot more conflicting, as you are lead to feel for this man who acts out terrible things.

visuals
something i feel a lot more qualified to critique and talk about are the illustrations and interface design. but there's really nothing to complain about. everything is so beautiful and tinted in a deep sunset hue. the characters are illustrated perfectly, reflecting each of their unique personalities flawlessly. the art style can definitely invoke a sense of nostalgia in anyone, regardless of whether they've read sayooshi before or not, since the art in some ways is dated and hasn't aged the best from the early 2000s anime style that was popular at the time. but, i find it incredibly charming, and the way the illustrator drew the faces gives them a sense of emptiness and distance from the reader.

the interface design is incredibly beautiful and intricate too, i sometimes find myself wanting to boot up the game just to look at the menus and cg gallery. it's definitely one of the most stylistic games i've ever played

music
if you don't plan on reading sayooshi i definitely recommend listening to the soundtrack. each piece is so full of complex emotion and pretty melodies. especially when it comes to each character's theme, the songs sound like how i picture each character's personalities to sound. i honestly wish the soundtrack cd wasn't so expensive because i need it in my life 😭😭

closing thoughts
if you can stomach the extreme subject matter, i cannot recommend sayonara o oshiete enough. it's one of the most immersive stories i've ever read and probably ever will read. i felt like i was spiralling into madness along side the protagonist the entire time i was reading it and i wish it wasn't over. i forgot to mention also that the voice acting is amazing and so perfectly cast, i can't imagine any of the characters sounding any different.

my only critique is that mental illness is such an integral part of sayonara o oshiete, but in some areas it does feel as though the protagonist's mental illness is being demonised. on my first playthrough i got a bad ending which felt a little offensive, but i understand that the game is rather old now, so i don't expect it to be a perfect representation for mental illness.

tldr: it's a very fun and disturbing experience overall and it made me cry a few times, would recommend.

If you're a Nier fan hear me out:

1) THE STORY IS EXTREMELLY GOOD, it's way worth watching it, it's on pair with the other 2 Nier games, this IS Nier 3, not because Yoko Taro says so, it's because the game's blatantly clear about it.
But most importantly, the story of Reincarnation fills all the holes and doubts in the Nier lore, I literally can't picture a 4th Nier game unless it's thousands of years in the future, but...

2) Gameplay SUCKS, it's not a good game, even for gacha standarts...
The gameplay it's just mash buttons or put auto-mode and make big numbers, if you have low numbers, you can't access Nier lore and have to go to make some pulls or use your sweet credit card.
And when I say you have to use your credit card, I mean you have to use it A LOT, because the grinding required to pass some stupid walls to continue the story is ASTRONOMIC. How ASTRONOMIC? Well, first wall can ask you for 5000 cristals and second wall ask you for 12000 OR 18000 OF THEM!!!
And don't think about using an emulator, yes you can use Macros to make grinding automatic and make sure you get those cristals (because yes, not only you have limited attempts but the fights not always leave you cristals, only the hardest quests guarantee you some) but due to it's gacha nature, your play time is limited with stamina, and it takes 24hs to refill it.

My recommendation:

- First (and this is optional), read the 10H mini-novel "A Much Too Silent Sea".
It's not mandatory, but it gives you context, it's like watching Ant-Man 2 to understand why in Endgame Scott was trapped in that machine.
Here's 10H novel: https://nier.fandom.com/wiki/A_Much_Too_Silent_Sea

2) Watch, the story on youtube. Again THE STORY IS REALLY WORTH WATCHING, but do not lose your time playing this thing.
The story is divided in 3 seasons and is already finished. The story of the 3 seasons together last almost 20hs.
I'll put the videos for all the seasons down below.
Shout out to BuffMaister for his hard work.

Season 1 Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbE-6D_dLPA&list=PLaoKfFfkcXxCHnkLqjm6DUKWpgBaqVBjQ&index=22

Season 2 Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whQCIqiGds8&t=15880s

Season 3 Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAam56qxIK0&t=25197s

And finally, it's a shame that Yoko Taro decided to make the 3rd Nier game a gacha... If this story was made in any other game format (aside of a light novel) it would easily be a master piece on pair with the other 2 games.
It pains me that a story this good and this beautiful won't be discovered for a lot of people because of this greedy and poor decision.