It's time for Desgame! (Free Adventure) Introduction and Review

I generally like death game-themed works, regardless of the medium.
Death games offer many attractions, including the tension of being constantly on the brink of death, the thrill of finding loopholes in the rules, and the battle of wits and deception.
It already seems to be an established genre in various forms such as manga, games, dramas, and novels.
While there was a period when the genre was overrun with similar works, I think it's a genre that has a solid template that makes it easy to create interesting stories.

This game, "It's Time for a Desgame!", takes about an hour and a half to complete.
Although it's a short story, it covers the basics of a death game while also incorporating some surprising plot twists.

Game Overview

The game's premise is that three fifth-grade elementary school students are kidnapped by a mysterious female student and forced to participate in a death game.
The opening, which is essential for death game stories and even possesses a sense of stylistic beauty, provides a sense of reassurance.
The characters all have cute graphics, but there are also many brutal scenes, so those who are sensitive to such content should be careful.

At the start of the game, you will choose which of the three characters you want to be your protagonist.
The three are Mizumori Nozomi, a serious and excellent student; Hinami Akari, an introverted and game-loving person; and Natsukawa Shuuya, a laid-back and easygoing person with a natural personality.
The story and the content of the death game change drastically depending on which character you choose.

While it depends on the player's preference, I think you'll enjoy the game the most if you play in the order of Nozomi ⇒ Akari ⇒ Shuya.
If you don't have any particular preference, we recommend playing in this order.

Due to the nature of the game, instant death resulting in a game over is very common.
However, there are 20 save slots available, so you shouldn't run out of data.
It's not a particularly difficult game,Saving frequently is very important.

Review (no spoilers)

This game can be completed in just 15 to 30 minutes per person, so you can enjoy it casually.
I think you can complete it in about an hour and a half, even with three characters plus the bonus content.

While adhering to the basics of a death game, it has its own unique twist with its focus on cute male characters.
Because you can progress through the game quickly, you can play through it in one go.
The difficulty level isn't high, but you might encounter some questions you don't understand, so in those cases, please refer to the walkthrough page.

There are two endings for each character, plus one ending that is unlocked at the very end, for a total of seven different endings.
There's no need to play through the game repeatedly; you can collect everything by saving and loading and re-selecting the previous choice.

I played in the order of Nozomi ⇒ Akari ⇒ Shuya, and I think that was the order I enjoyed the most.
It's like a basic death game story, then an evolution of that, then a twist, and finally a true ending.
Although it's a short story, it's packed with all the excitement of a death game.
This is a recommended work for those who want to see a story where a young boy suffers a terrible fate.

Review (contains spoilers)

There were two endings for each character, plus one final route, for a total of seven endings.
Each of the two endings for the main character presented a harsh choice: either sacrifice yourself or sacrifice your friends.
Since Haruki's motivation is revenge for Kanade, he naturally expects the protagonists to sacrifice their friends, so sacrificing himself would probably not be interesting to him.
However, even though she sacrifices her friend, she leaves the surviving protagonist with lifelong trauma, making her a rather unpleasant woman.
However, the background that led Haruki to commit such a heinous act is thoroughly depicted, so I think that aspect was convincing.

Nozomi's route was just right as an introduction to this work.
The death game itself was simple, and even if you made a few mistakes, it was fine as long as you saved your progress.
It was interesting to see how they threw in a bit of a curveball by using dumbbells and tissues.
The structure involves having students solve only multiple-choice questions with two options, and then presenting them with another multiple-choice question at the end.
If you were to choose the "correct" answer, the correct answer would be that the cage the two people are in is heavy.
Haruki is testing Nozomi, asking, "Can you make the right choice even if it means risking your own life?"

It's only natural that they would look displeased if I answered that sacrificing my own life to carry the weight of the two of us in a cage would be too much.
Haruki must have thought that if Kanade was willing to risk her life to make that choice, she wouldn't have died.
Whether you live or die, it's an ending that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Akari's route is mainly puzzle-solving and is more complex than Nozomi's route.
However, the content wasn't that difficult, so as long as you were careful not to get instantly killed, you could clear it without any problems.
The final choice presented was similar to that of the Nozomi route.
The puzzle game has an answer, but the final choice has no answer.
Making that choice is arguably the highlight of this route.

Now, in Nozomi's route, as you can see in the image above, Shuya is met with disbelief from Nozomi.
However, players who have completed Shuya's route will have realized why he is the center of attention on the title screen.
In Nozomi and Akari's routes, she was simply a comforting presence, but in Shuya's route, a deep darkness was revealed.
He wasn't born a psychopath; he has a horrific past where he was abandoned by his mother and forced to eat his younger brother.
She's usually so gentle and cute, so the contrast is frightening, but at the same time, it made me very sad.

In Shuya's ending, I was able to even shock Haruki, so I felt like I had gotten my revenge.
The fact that the character's favorite food is listed as "meat" in the gallery's character introductions makes you think a lot after you've finished the game.

In the final route, based on Shuya's route, all three characters manage to survive, which is a relief.
However, since Haruki has already killed Tanaka at the start of the story, there's no way to change that, so it's inevitable that she can't be saved.
Judging from her diary entries, it seems she had decided to die from the very beginning.

The words Haruki gives to the three of them are quite realistic, and you can see that he is giving them advice with great sincerity.
Is the specific advice given to Akari, who is also bullied like Kanade, based on her own experiences?
There is little advice given to the model student Nozomi, and it seems that the problems Shuya is facing are beyond his capabilities.

"You should go to the hospital."...Although it's a serious scene, if you take this image in isolation, I think it could be used by a variety of people.

Although it's a short death game story, it's a work that will overwhelm you with a whirlwind of emotions in a short amount of time.
You'll definitely want to watch a shota-lover play this next to you and see their despair.