this. was certainly an undertaking, i can tell you that much.
i came across this game through a youtube channel, saw about 30 seconds of it's concept and immediately knew i needed to play it. this beautiful game is a PS1 game about three schoolkids and their dog who investigate strange paranormal rumours in their town. the gang hear about an old shrine to a crow god, and rumour states that those who see the human faced crow diety are doomed to be cursed for 100 days until they die. the kids investigate, get cursed, and in 100 days, one of them will die. you spend the game looking into weird stuff and spooky happenings to try and break the curse, all the while watching as the kids' personal lives start to crumble around them as the curse worsens.
this game, i think, was made for me. it hits everything i love on the head. narratively, it's beautiful. the animations are amazing - mocap pixels against stunning backgrounds, incredibly natural movements and quirks for each of the characters. gameplay is pretty strictly timed and there's loads of stuff you can miss out on if you're not careful. the world continues to exist whether you interact with it or not, which is delightful. each day, the gang will take the dog for a walk and look into whatever rumour you'd like to investigate that day. you can play as any of the three kids and the way you interact with the world - or the way the world interacts with YOU - is different based on whoever you are playing each day. i cannot effectively state how well written, good, and human these characters feel. i didn't expect to come out of this game with such a fierce attachment to them but GOD. this is something i rotated in my head over and over and over when i wasn't playing it. the story is just fucking delightful. i love this game. the atmosphere is beautiful. i'm gonna be thinking about it for a long time.
now, the caveat: it's a PS1 game, so. it needs to be emulated. that part is easy! it's also a japanese game. it never got an english translation. when i say that playing this game was quite the undertaking, i mean that i was running my screen through a translation app the entire time so i could read any of the text and actually progress anywhere, alongside having a playlist of the english translated game up to reference if i ever thought there was a dodgy translation in there somewhere. it was a VERY slow and finnicky process but ultimately...yeah, worth it in the end. the game expects you to do several playthroughs to fully grasp the story, as you can only experience each day once and you have to pick which character you'll experience it as. sometimes, this will lock you out of stuff. you gotta do it again on the second run if you want it. i love games like this. i really, really did love this one a lot - if it sounds good but you're not quite this level of unhinged then i strongly recommend the video that piqued my interest in the first place!