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This was getting too long for the previous post so here's a standalone review.

Charade Maniacs is a Japanese scifi romance Visual Novel. It's flawed but had enough parts I liked that I had a good time, especially with the non-binary-ish love interest.

It's only available for Switch.

Premise: A group of teens and twenty somethings from Future Japan find themselves trapped in a mysterious and potentially deadly reality tv-ish game. The protagonist has to figure out what's going on and who she can trust, and in the process falls in love.

It contains some violence and consent issues but it avoids anything really dark by otome standards.
( no spoilers )

I was tagged by hmasfatty in a "five songs I've had on repeat" meme, except I don't listen to songs on repeat or even use playlists much. So instead I listened to the radio and took note of the first five songs I really liked. And then I added them to my youtube music playlist, which I basically never listen to but do sometimes use as inspiration for albums to buy (and then also never listen to but hey I'm supporting the artists).
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I'd never watched the music video before, just liked it off the radio, but all the same sex makeouts sure didn't make me less enthused about posting it.

This episode is great. For a start, it actually GIVE SOME ANSWERS. But also it introduces my favourite character in the game, with a very cute associated ship. And in general it's a satisfying culmination of a number of narrative threads.

Masterlist.

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Masterlist.

This marks the start of the "answers" arc. I was like "Do you really need 4 extra chapters to just fill in the blanks?" and I was NOT ready for what I got.
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Masterlist and content notes.

I found a bunch of this kinda boring, since a lot of it is similar to earlier episodes, and couldn't bring myself to rewatch much. But the end is banger.
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Time to write a brand new set of summaries to try and form a single coherent narrative from this mess! I'm focussing on the stuff that matters to the parts of the story I find interesting/important.

I've been skimming through the version with Japanese voice acting and nicer art, it's a pretty good way to experience the story without commentary. Revisiting everything with more context, I noticed a bunch of things which went over my head the first time.

Masterlist and content notes
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Masterlist.

Spoiler warning! I have watched up to partway through Episode 6, and also have some vague memories of discussion I encountered before playing.

Please do not spoil me for anything later in the game, including letting me know if any of my speculation or vaguely remembered spoilers are true.

In general this story is a lot more fun if you go in blind and come up with theories as you go, less to Solve the Puzzle and more to experience the planned out rollercoaster of interpretations and subversions. I have no idea if any of my theories are correct but feel like having worked them out will improve my enjoyment going forward either way.

Feels good to have my thoughts in order, and I came up with some more ideas while I was writing! For now I am going to just keep watching the LP but I might go back to writing summaries if it feels like that would be helpful.

CW: Incest theories
( Spoilers!! )

Masterlist.

Ha, I have now started Episode 6 and once again all my theories are in disarray. Episode 5 was amazing though, a really clever deconstruction of the existing structure and the very concept of a murder mystery.

CW: Suicide. Domestic violence, kinda?

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Masterlist.

I started writing a "short summary" for people who haven't played and to get my thoughts in order, then realised it was (a) getting long and (b) would be easier if I looked up a plot summary to remind myself. So lets go episode by episode until I finish or get bored haha. You can also just read the wiki page I referenced yourself but mine is shorter, if you can believe it, and has a few extra thoughts.

I mostly go through the mystery stuff, there's a bunch of humour and character moments which aren't captured in this summary. I'll avoid anything that significantly spoils later Episodes until a later post, but will not be super strict when it feels more logical to mention things now, or if I have current speculation that I either did or could have come up with at the time.

Please do not leave any comments which spoil past episode 1! I have played up to partway through Episode 5 but some people reading might not have.
( Spoilers for Episode 1 )