Children of the Belgrade Metro (Psychic Battle & Psycho-Suspense Novel): Introduction, Impressions, and Analysis

Preface

I finished playing "Children of the Belgrade Metro," a visual novel game created by "Summertime" (by Reizōko).
This is the latest work from Reizōko, the creator of the free games "MINDCIRCUS," "Midday Darkness," and "CODA," which I've introduced on this blog before.

This time, it's not a free game, but a paid indie game.
Because of that, a lot of effort was put into various aspects such as graphics, presentation, and music, and I think it was designed to keep you engaged while playing.

As with previous works, I felt that the scenario and writing effectively conveyed a gloomy and decadent atmosphere through literary expression and description.
If this is your first time playing a "Summertime" game, you might want to read about their previous works to get a feel for the style before purchasing.

The download version costs 980 yen, and the packaged version costs 1100 yen (as of October 2020).
I bought the physical copy.
The total time it took to complete the game and see all the endings was about 7 hours.

Download and purchase here (DLsite.com product page)
As of November 2020, the price is 1100 yen including tax.

Game overview with impressions (spoiler-free)

This game, "Children of the Belgrade Metro," is a visual novel game where you progress by reading text.
While choices may occasionally appear, the story is basically linear.
There are multiple endings, but you don't need to play through the game multiple times to find them all (see below).

The story is set in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, located on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe.
The setting appears to be in the near future, and is certainly sometime after 2020.
Judging from the depiction of everyday life in the story, I think it's perfectly fine to consider it as being set in modern times.

I myself had very little knowledge of Serbia, and it was a country I wasn't very familiar with.
At best, I vaguely remember from my social studies textbook that a young Serbian man was the catalyst for World War I.
The Seville in the classical piece "The Barber of Seville" is in Spain, so I almost got confused again.

Playing this game might make you feel a little closer to Serbia.

In this work, uncommon words and phrases are highlighted in color within the text.
By clicking on that term, you can view a more detailed meaning as a TIPS.
Being able to learn about Serbian place names and local cuisine in detail, along with images, I think, had the effect of enhancing the presence of the stage.

The main character depicted in this work is a 14-year-old boy named Shizuki.
The story begins when the large corporation Golden Dawn Corporation becomes involved in a struggle to secure "superpowered individuals."
One of the highlights of this work is the psychic battles in which the protagonist, along with his friend Dejan, who is seeking revenge for his father's death, fights against other people with supernatural abilities.
The characters and detailed story areOfficial websiteIt's listed there.

However, what makes this film so captivating is the human drama surrounding Shizuki and the other adolescent boys and girls.
It's not always a story of positive growth; there are many scenes that evoke feelings of decadence and negativity.
Because it contains graphic violence and depictions of bloodshed, it's not a work I can recommend to everyone.
However, I feel that this type of writing is addictive; once you get hooked, it's hard to stop.
In fact, I was captivated by "Darkness at Noon," and since then I've been following all of his works.

I think they put a lot of effort into the sound as well.
I felt that there was a lot of music with an exotic atmosphere, featuring guitars and electronic sounds.
I don't usually wear earphones, but I put them on while playing this game and was completely immersed in the world of the story.
It was a little disappointing that there wasn't a sound room.

Thoughts and analysis (contains spoilers)

About the ending

I've finished watching all the endings.
The ending changes depending on where you go at the end of the episode "TERMINAL".
If you choose "Војводина" (Voyvodina), you can see Dejan; if you choose "Врање" (Vranje), you can see Nederka; and if you choose "Београд" (Belgrade), you can see a little further into the story.

Initially, I could only go to "Врање" and only had Nedelka's ending.
However, the next stop is "Војводина," which marks the end of Dejan, and finally "Београд," and the number of places you can go increases steadily.
It seems that after watching the ending, selecting "TERMINAL" again from the selection screen will unlock new destinations.
(In other words, loading from a save point in "TERMINAL" will not increase the number of available options.)

After watching "Београд" to the end, you can proceed to the final ending by selecting "LINE4" ⇒ "1 YEAR LATER" ⇒ "LINE5 ENDING" from the episode selection screen.

Nedelka's ending was both dark and sweet, as her kindness was deeply moving, but ultimately it seemed as though she would become complacent and meet her own ruin.
While everyone else is evaluating Shizuki as a woman, Nedelka accepts Shizuki for who she is, and I feel that her attitude has been consistent for the past five years.
Perhaps Shizuki wanted Nedelka to blame her for killing Maria, who was someone who understood her.
However, Nedelka accepts everything about him, including Shizuki, who committed murder.
Having killed Mariya, who understood her, Shizuki probably vaguely understood that she would eventually kill Nedelka, her new confidante.
Shizuki's final line, "I'm really going to kill Nedelka," also hinted at such an ending.

Dejan's ending highlighted the contrast with Shizuki's.
Dejan has accepted the guilt of having killed someone and is moving forward, while Shizuki has come to meet her old friend as if she were running away.
Shizuki's fundamental motivation may boil down to one thing: she wanted to be acknowledged by Dejan.
I think the reason Shizuki couldn't bring herself to tell Dejan that she had killed someone, which was "wrong," was because she still wanted Dejan's approval.
I'd like to believe that the final message, "I'll come to see you again soon," is an expression of my intention to try a little harder.
In that sense, it felt a little more hopeful than the ending of Nedelka.

The Zima that appears in "LINE4" is, as Zima himself states, likely a Zima created by Shizuki's shadow ability.
(The still image of Zima lying on the bed was as sexy as Koda from "CODA".)
As can be seen from the diary, Mariya bestows the power of shadow upon Shizuki, who seems to be drifting away from her.
To interrupt her shadow abilities, Shizuki needs the control agent that Mariya provides, so if she gets separated from Mariya, she will be replaced by her shadow.
It's just like Doraemon's "Shadow Cutting Scissors."
Since Mariya hadn't told Shizuki the details of her shadow abilities, she probably never imagined she would be killed.
Ultimately, it seems Shizuki took action to prevent the switch with Zima by taking her own life.
After the scene where she appears to be hit by a train, Shizuki gets up and walks, making it unclear whether she is dead or not.
If they continue to survive, Shizuki and Jima will switch places, and they will no longer be able to exist in the sunlight.
There is no direct depiction of whether Shizuki is still alive or dead, but either way, it seems unlikely that she has a bright future.

One point to note is the description that the manuscript is sent to Katarina afterward.
In other words, the descriptions of the correspondence between Katarina and the protagonist up to that point were part of the script and were fiction.
If our world as players is "reality," then the first level below that is the world where "●●" (the scriptwriter, who is believed to be the model for Shizuki) lives.
And within the script written by "●●", there is a world that could be called a second layer, where Shizuki and Katarina exchange letters.
The majority of the main story consists of the script written by Shizuki in the second layer, which represents the third layer.
The content of the second and third levels is uncertain because ●● can write as many lies as they want, so it's impossible to know if it's factual.

The content of "1 YEAR LATER" is likely the first level of the story, given that the person speaking from a subjective point of view is referred to as "Mr./Ms. ●●".
From what I can read here, it seems the sister is actually alive, as she made a phone call at the end.
However, judging from the "Letter from Dad" in DOCUMENTS, in the first layer as well, the sister is said to have died a long time ago, just as in the script.
I'm not entirely sure what this discrepancy means.
Since it's a Russian phone number, it seems unlikely that this sister is a fake created by shadow magic.

In this way, the complex shifts in the hierarchical structure make it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction, and everything feels as ambiguous as a mirage.
This type of structural presentation is a technique also seen in "Darkness at Noon" and "CODA," and I feel it plays a role in enhancing the sense of nonfiction within the world of the work.

The "LINE5 ENDING" that appears at the end is a happy ending, but because it is explicitly stated to be fiction, it leaves a somewhat empty feeling.
The reunion with old friends on a hot beach, reminiscent of one of the endings of "MINDCIRCUS," felt like a happy ending, like an intangible mirage.
The fact that Dejan is the friend who brings that happy ending to the story suggests that Dejan is the person Shizuki considers most important.
Since Mariya is alive, I think this ending must have been depicted before EP9.

About abilities

This work features a large number of characters with special abilities.
Based on what we've read about Dejan's parents, the reason he awakened as a person with superpowers was due to an experiment using the Golden Dawn drug.
Nedelka, Milo, Nicoletta, and others may have been involved in such experiments at some point and given drugs or other substances.
The reason Nicoletta's parents were estranged might be similar to Dejan's, and Nedelka might have been in a similar situation.

What made the battles in this work interesting was that Shizuki, who has no special abilities, acts as the brains of the team as they fight against those with special abilities.
Dejan is a user of convenient psychokinetic abilities, but he gets hot-headed easily and tends to be at a disadvantage against strong opponents.
The fun of the psychic battles in this game lies in how Shizuki skillfully supports the characters and sees through their opponents' abilities and weaknesses.

My favorite battle is the one where I team up with Milo to face off against Michelle.
It was quite interesting to see how they cleverly utilized Milo's time-rewinding ability and Michelle's light-based abilities to inflict damage.
The ability of light to travel at a constant speed is intriguing because it could potentially counter time-interference systems (though Michelle didn't understand it).
In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3, if there is any ability that could rival DIO, it might be a similar time manipulation ability or an ability related to light.
(In other words, a Hanged Man who could move at high speed might have had a chance of winning.)
However, the fact that Shizuki was casually sending messages to her past self via smartphone is a bit puzzling, as the mechanism behind it is somewhat intriguing.

I liked how Yelina's mocking attitude and controlled pyrokinesis made her seem like a formidable opponent.
She looked so young that I never would have guessed she was Dejan's mother.
Just like during his father's purge, I regret that things didn't end tragically if he hadn't tried to force things through.
In the sense that they've given up on dialogue from the start, it might be realistic.

Many different abilities were introduced, but I think Milo's ability was the most fascinating.
However, as Milo explains, the ability to start over at any time can sometimes be a source of suffering.
Even with talent, life isn't always rosy; ultimately, everyone faces worries and problems.
Even if you can use pyrokinesis, it doesn't necessarily mean you can build a happy family, and the ability isn't omnipotent.
Reading this book made me feel less envious of those with special abilities and more determined to do my best as someone without them.

Afterword

I've written a long, rambling post.
Compared to previous "Summertime" films, "Children of the Belgrade Metro" feels a bit more mainstream, and I got the impression that it can be enjoyed by a wider range of people.
That said, it definitely has that "Summertime" feel to it, so there might be some parts that won't appeal to everyone.
Personally, I was very satisfied with the game.

However, compared to "Darkness at Noon" and "MINDCIRCUS," where the fact that it's a story within a story is of significant importance, the significance of that aspect felt somewhat weaker in this work.
I may have overlooked something due to my own lack of reading comprehension, but this structure sometimes made it difficult to understand the chronological order.

But even so,If you simply view it as a visual novel game set in a foreign land, where boys and girls with special abilities fight and struggle, you'll find it more than worth the price.
There isn't one absolute hero; the way these relatable characters struggle and live their lives has deeply moved me many times.
If you're hesitating, I would definitely recommend you buy it and play it.

コミカライズ: ベオグラードメトロの子供たち(1)（モーニングKC）(Amazon)