Akka Hana (Torture RPG) Introduction and Review

I played "Akka," a free game made with RPG Maker.
It was given the rather ominous genre title of "torture RPG," but it's more like an adventure game combined with an RPG.
This is a work I would recommend to anyone who likes a death game-like atmosphere.

Game Overview

The story begins with seven "lethal" individuals, destined to die in the near future, being gathered in "Limbo."
This is a death game where the goal is to return to the real world by torturing an opponent to steal their "cause of death."
The game has multiple routes, and each route further branches out into different storylines.
The story revolves around whether the protagonist, Akka Kuroura, will be able to return to the real world safely.
There's a lot of wonderful background music centered around the piano, drawing you into a world with a unique atmosphere.
One route can be completed in 2-3 hours.

It has RPG-like elements, but it's more of an exploration adventure game without levels or anything like that.
The rewards you get from normal battles are equivalent to money, so there's no problem with continuously avoiding them.
However, if you use the money you earn in battles to stock up on healing items, fighting tough enemies will become much easier.
Additionally, you may learn new techniques by completing specific events.

The difficulty of the battles isn't that high; once you understand the system and get the hang of it, it's not difficult.
In this game, you can earn a reward by reducing your opponent's willpower to zero before reducing their BP to zero.
However, if you don't need to earn any rewards, you can defeat them without much trouble by simply using a powerful attack to reduce their BP to zero.
Since you can control the difficulty level to some extent yourself, it can be said that this is an easy game to play.

The route details are as follows:
The "Yuai" route is an RPG adventure route that is perfect for getting a feel for the game's atmosphere.
The "Byodou" route delves deeper into the characters introduced in the Yuai route, offering a full-fledged mystery adventure experience.
The "Freedom" route is like Romancing SaGa, where you can enjoy sub-scenarios and battles against deadly enemies in any order you like.
While there are multiple endings, the combat balance is designed to provide a challenge even for players familiar with RPGs.

Review (contains spoilers)

Since each playthrough doesn't take very long, I was able to complete it in one go.
It was interesting to see how the backgrounds and stories of each character were explored in more detail as I progressed through the different routes.
I'll write some brief impressions about each route.

Yuai Edition

As this was the first route, it was a standard scenario, perfect for getting a feel for the atmosphere of this work.
The story branches depending on the choices made along the way, making it a route that can be enjoyed twice.
The branching scenarios allowed me to uncover the different causes of death for each character, which was great for understanding their backgrounds.

The battles were not very difficult, and I felt that I rarely got stuck.
The appearance of a mysterious eighth demon at the very end, and the ending that leaves some questions unanswered, was great as it raised expectations for alternative routes.

Byodo Edition

It was a full-fledged mystery game.
At first, I was worried about whether I could actually solve the mystery, but it turned out to be a solid mystery adventure.
Ingrid looks and speaks very similarly to Beatrice from "Umineko When They Cry," and because this route is a mystery, they seem even more alike.
I was happy because it's one of my favorite characters.

The reasoning using the Penetrator is so thorough that I think many people were able to guess the culprit.
In my case, I was able to guess who the culprit was, but I was very surprised because I had never anticipated the trick involving the internal phone call.
Indeed, the culprit's name also hints at the trick, and I was impressed to realize that this was the meaning behind his appearance after his defeat in the Yuai arc!
The scene at the end, depicting what happens after they return to the real world, felt like a continuation of the Yuuai arc, and Akutaba's helpless feelings really resonated with me.

Freedom Edition

It was a free-scenario-style route, similar to Romancing SaGa, where you could progress through it in any order you liked.
There are causes of death that can only be seen through this route, and there are also a variety of endings.
While the high degree of freedom might leave you wondering what to do, there aren't any complicated strategies to follow, so in a sense, you can freely immerse yourself in the world of "Akutagawa."

In the Freedom Arc, various mysteries that have not been revealed will be unveiled depending on the player's choices.
If you want to fully enjoy this game, this is definitely a route you should play.