Kimi ga Shine - Majority Vote Death Game -, Final Chapter (Part 1B): Review & Analysis

The latest installment of the adventure game "Kimi ga Shine," which is available on RPG Atsumaru, was recently released.
I wrote the article for the first part of the final chapter (Part A) back in March 2020, so more than a year has passed since then.
Due to the long development period, this part was quite substantial, and the playtime was approximately 4 hours.
Since there are two routes depending on your choice at the start of the game, playing both routes will take twice as long, approximately 8 hours.

I've forgotten some of the finer details from what we've covered so far, but I'll try to write down various thoughts and impressions.
This article contains spoilers, so please be careful if you haven't played the game yet.

Story review (contains spoilers)

As before, at the start of the game, players will choose who has died in the events leading up to the game.
If either Kanna or Sou dies, or if either Alice or Reko dies, there are four possible routes based on these combinations.

The biggest difference in the storyline lies in whether Kanna or Sou survives.
The outcome regarding whether Alice or Reco survived didn't change much.
Each of them offers a glimpse into how they met Midori and how they ended up signing the consent form, so both are worth watching at least once.

So, this story has progressed to the point where we're about to settle things with Midori.
It was satisfying to see Midori, who was always making fun of people, flee in fear, but I also feel a little sad that we've lost such a good villain.

Midori seemed like the mastermind, but in the end, he was just a member of the organization, merely following its orders for his own purposes.
Will the true mastermind and the purpose of this game finally be revealed in the following chapters?

What struck me about this part was the abundance of slightly humorous choices.
When Sarah tried to use Ranmar as a stepping stool to examine the painting, she prioritized making excuses."Sarah, please look into the picture...!" "(Yes...)"The scene where she gets scolded was a reminder that Sarah is a girl.
These options are more tempting than the more serious choices, which motivates you to play multiple times.

There are many memorable scenes, but my favorite is the one in the image above.
This is what Sarah said after Midori told her, "You have beautiful eyes..."
"There are some dirty things in the picture, though."
It's typical of Sarah to be able to respond with such a sharp and witty sarcasm so quickly.
Midori left a strong impression on me, for better or for worse, and I felt that this first part of the final chapter was truly Midori's story.

I like Cage as a character, but there weren't many scenes where he appeared with Sarah in this part, so I felt it was a little lacking.
It appears at delicious moments, so in terms of the instantaneous peak of satisfaction, it was the best.

There were other scenes, like the one where Gin shouts "Q-taro-san," that almost brought me to tears.
It's really touching when Gin, who usually calls people by derogatory nicknames like "muscle gorilla," calls them by their real names in emotional moments.

My impressions of the gameplay (contains spoilers)

Regarding the gameplay, I had a bit of trouble with the puzzle involving the lockers.
It's easy if you realize that the lockers on the left and right represent the 4th and 5th floors respectively, but it's quite difficult to solve unless you remember the relative positions of the 4th and 5th floors.
If you save a screenshot of the relative positions of both objects, it shouldn't be difficult.

In addition, many of the challenges involving finding discrepancies in the characters' memories were quite difficult.
Because even the slightest difference can make a difference, it was important to carefully click on every single detail.
There's no penalty for making mistakes, so you can try every option without worry.

Regarding the battle with Maple and the game involving Ranmaru's collar, there seem to be differences in the order in which the dummies die, but the overall plot doesn't appear to change significantly.
The final round of Russian roulette, where there was a risk of game over, was certainly tense.
Even if the intermediate steps are slightly different, the story will unfold in the same way, but the thought that someone might die because of my choices made me feel an irresistible pressure to save beforehand.

I didn't get stuck, but there were some parts that were a little hard to think of, like using the lantern on the classroom blackboard after obtaining it.
I felt that some people might get stuck in the parts where there are almost no hints.

Questions and thoughts on this topic (contains spoilers)

In this update, I'll write down some new things I've learned and any remaining questions in a rather haphazard way.

Sou and Kanna were siblings.
This fact becomes clear when you play through the route where Kanna survives.
Because they were siblings, Sou was probably so angry about Kanna's death in the route where he survived.

- The paper showing the win rate is the result of an AI test.
From Midori's dialogue, we can deduce that the paper showing the win rate is the result of a test conducted by artificial intelligence.
Therefore, the scene that seemed like it belonged to a different timeline was likely just one of the test plays conducted in the past.
The fact that the numbers are displayed to one decimal place suggests that a considerable number of simulations were performed.
It seems they've gone to the trouble of running simulations to calculate the win rate and then applied handicaps to ensure fairness.
What could possibly be the reason for conducting a death game that is so strictly committed to equality?
Previous discussionAs I wrote before, they might want to put the surviving person at the top of the organization.

Midori's goal is to meet the real Sarah, who has the highest win rate.
It seems Midori's goal was to meet the ruthless Sarah, who had the highest win rate, as a participant.
However, since Midori was killed by Alice, she was no longer able to participate as a fellow participant.
That's probably why he got the opportunity to make contact with them as a floor master.
However, because the organization wanted a fair game, Sarah had to be put in a weaker position by gaining allies like Joe.
This handicap made it increasingly difficult for Midori to meet the real Sarah.
Therefore, Midori may have wanted to reduce the number of Sarah's allies and bring Sarah to a state of "resolve."

・Everyone should have the same chance of winning once the death game starts.
The fact that Sarah, who has the highest winning percentage, is given a handicap suggests that the members with lower winning percentages are given corresponding advantages.
Given Sou's extremely low winning percentage, it's likely he was given a considerable amount of positive information.
Of course, Gin, Kanna, and the others should have been given a fair amount of information as well.
What those positive factors are may not be very relevant now that we're nearing the end, but it's something I'm a little curious about.

コミカライズ: キミガシネ ‐多数決デスゲーム‐ (1)（角川コミックス・エース）(Amazon)

ノベライズ: キミガシネ ―多数決デスゲーム― side ジョー(Amazon)