A Rare Kusoge

That day, a coworker recommended a game to me.

A new release titled "Kaito a Luise". A fantasy-themed game you could casually play on your phone — beyond that, the details were a mystery.

The key visual from the URL they'd sent over chat showed a saintess-like girl clutching a staff in a prayer pose.

I frowned at how suspicious it looked.

"I mean, there's plenty of other games out there. Why'd you have to dig up something this sketchy?"

"It's a rare buy-to-play mobile game these days yo. Not an MMO, a mobile game. But nobody knows anything about it! Releases tonight! Whaddya think yo? Doesn't this kinda thing get you excited yo?"

"Huh? Hold on. Any reasonable person would expect a game like that to shut down immediately. It's obviously a cash-grab-and-run scheme."

"Even so, it could become legendary and you could brag about being one of the players yo! No loss there!"

True enough, that sort of thing does make for good conversation among friends. I was convinced.

He probably wanted to drag me into it because talking about a game nobody else plays isn't much fun. Plus, we could share strategies and progress faster together. That's all there was to it.

"So whaddya say yo? Five convenience store onigiri to claim legendary status ain't bad yo?"

"Convenience store onigiri are a luxury item, you know. That's actually pretty expensive… Well, maybe they'll add microtransactions later. Or paid DLC."

"If that means it keeps going, then no problem yo～"

That was also true. If it kept going, users could just play until they got bored.

"Besides, these kinds of games should get offline support when service ends yo… probably… maybe… surely! So it won't be a waste yo!"

"If you say so."

"It'll definitely be fine yo!"

He was probably trying to convince himself. Or since it was chat, maybe I should say he was writing to convince himself? Whatever.

"Fine, fine. I'll give it a shot. Pre-order clicked."

"Ohhh! THX yo! Man, the more people to share the misery when it bombs, the better～"

"Hey, coworker."

"Ahahaha～, just kidding yo! I wanna play the moment it launches, so pre-download recommended yo!"

"I know. That's common sense these days."

And so, I ended up playing that game — "Kaito a Luise".

While pre-downloading… back then, I still thought it was just a game.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

9 PM — the game's release time. Done with work, I launched the game in my room.

The usual problems with these games — maintenance hell right after launch, login being the first boss — were absent, and I smoothly logged in with the account I'd created during the pre-download.

The opening movie played. In a fantasy world of swords and magic, a glowing orb-like spirit helped a girl and faced off against powerful-looking monsters. They exposed and destroyed an evil organization lurking in a town. It ended with a scene of charging toward a demon lord-like black dragon while wielding a massive sword.

Then, against a backdrop of an Earth-like planet, came the text: "The spirit overturns the fate of death and brings salvation—" followed by the game title "Kaito a Luise" logo.

Hmm, since I had no prior info, I watched the whole OP without skipping… but there wasn't anything like actual gameplay footage. It really was just a fantasy world movie.

If I hadn't already paid five onigiri's worth for a buy-to-play game, I might have quietly closed it and uninstalled. But I paid, so I'll play.

"Oh? Scenario selection — I see, I see."

Several options appeared: "The Thief's Prey," "Fertilizer for the Great Tree," "Sacrifice to the Great Turtle," "Before the Monster" — roughly ten choices in all. Each one must be someone facing this "fate of death" thing. Long-pressing on the screen showed details, revealing each was in a critical situation. Or had already died.

The options also had timers. The one with the shortest countdown, "Before the Monster", had 10 seconds left. 9, 8… while I was deliberating, time ran out. The option vanished, and a new one, "The Villainess at the Guillotine", was added.

… Damn, was that a rare one? Regretting it wouldn't help. I tried to tap the top option, "The Thief's Prey" — but the moment I did, "Selected by another player" flashed briefly, and it disappeared too, replaced by yet another new option.

"Wait, are the scenarios unique AND a competition between players?!"

If so, this was nothing but a kusogeShit Game. I'd seriously uninstall if I hadn't paid five onigiri for it. Not being able to discuss the same story even when playing the same game is a fatal flaw for any game… Well, the world seems to be shared, so maybe it's designed for practical information-sharing like "this town is good"…?

"Then the story's only different at the start, and you converge later? … Yeah, probably any choice leads to the same town eventually… so it shouldn't matter which I pick!"

I tapped randomly. The scenario I chose was "Sacrifice to the Great Turtle".

A story scrolled across the screen.

—"A certain impoverished village. It hasn't rained for over two months, the river has dwindled, and the wells are nearly dry. An orphaned girl has been chosen as a sacrifice to the monster said to bring rain — Great Turtle-sama. Her limbs crushed by rocks so she cannot escape, all she can do is await death. Will you save her?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll save her."

Tapping YES brought me to character creation… Character creation let you set appearance and skills, all managed within a total of 100 SP.

The default character appearance was a simple village girl. A stylized girl character that matched the scenario. Since the scenario said her limbs had been crushed, the arms and legs faded to black partway through…

"Oh, I can change quite a lot… Hm? You can just add limbs normally, but it costs SP? This must be one of those things where if you don't have them, you get debuffed, right? I've seen games like that."

That game was a creature-creation thing where if you didn't add eyeballs, your vision was nearly nonexistent, and without legs, your only movement option was crawling. No thanks — limbs are mandatory.

Hmm, needing to spend SP on limbs for this scenario makes it seem like a bad draw? Well, I can't cancel now, so I'll keep going. The countdown from when I selected the scenario shows 3 hours left… Ah, if you don't finish character creation in time, it resets and you pick a scenario again?

Some people spend a whole day on character creation, so maybe having this limit is for the best.

Wait, then the one with only 10 seconds left earlier — even if you picked it, you'd have to start immediately without any character customization? That's brutal. Is this really a kusogeShit Game after all?

But I already paid five onigiri… and it'll be something to talk about with my coworker. Might as well embrace the kusogeShit Game experience at this point.

Anyway, since I'm playing from launch day, I want to keep character creation simple and get into the story.

"… Huh, so when a spirit attaches, a halo appears behind the head. And you can design that too, for free? I'm torn on whether to make it something silly…"

… I want to keep character creation simple and get into the story!!!

I wound up spending an hour on character creation before beginning the actual game.