Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea

This game is enigmatic.

A long story short, I played this game around 2 years ago, and it's still stuck with me to this day. Recently I've been chatting with a friend who watched me play the game... here's what I have to say about it.

This game is basically simulated grief. A mental paradox. You're thrown into a pretty sea world with lively character designs and a generally happy vibe. Then the second half of the game starts, hell is let loose, and then all of the sudden Wadanohara gets sexually assaulted. Is this good storytelling? Absolutely fucking not. Does it stick with you? Yes. Does it work? Yes. The entire game is watching the world slowly deteriorate around you while Wadanohara and the others slowly but surely lose their happiness. It's tough to play through, especially through the nightmare scene.

The endings are where things get really weird. I can't really describe my thoughts on this section well, but I'll try.

To start, you're forced to experience the bad endings before getting the good/true ending. As far as I remember, there is no way around this. This serves as a way to both add to the absolute horror show this game set up for you, and to display a more important message: what Wadanohara has been through couldn't have gone any different. If she chose the options you went through to get the bad endings, she wouldn't even be alive to tell the tale. It's a really bittersweet irony. Wadanohara (during the true ending) is shown grieving, wishing that things could've just gone a bit differently-- you, as the player, however, knows what would've happened to her. The irony is obviously simple, but it doesn't need to be any more complicated. It's honestly great storytelling.

Am I looking too deep into a free RPGmaker game made in 2013? Probably. But I still wanted to show my perspective.

I don't care though, this shit is awesome.
Great art, great character design (would go out and have a nice fancy dinner with at least 90% of the characters here), music and story that WILL make you cry, all that fun stuff. My only gripe with it is that the actual gameplay is kind of piss-easy... which even then is acceptable because the game is focused on story. Fucking beautiful game though.

Interesting game, it has great character design and pixel art, but unfortunately was a little boring and repetitive for the first two thirds of its story. the dialogue generally uses way too back and force conversations than necessary, and also will often have an annoying amount of blank "..." text boxes in a row at dramatic moments. I would rate it lower but it really picked up towards the end with the plot; its one of those games that start cutesy but gets edgy later on, I think it was done quite well.

Excellent visual design, tons of beautiful characters. But the whole thing seems to me too chaotic and lacking in literary sophistication. This could have been a great game if only Deep-Sea Prisoner teamed up with a smart writer/editor.