On the surface, MiSide looks like a dating simulation game. And I very nearly passed right over it in the Steam store. But then I caught the “psychological horror” tag and thought, ‘That’s an odd tag to put on a dating sim.’ At worst, maybe it’s commentary on dating sims as a whole; letting you experience a loving relationship with the perfect partner that you may never find in the real world. But at best…
This game just released on December 10th, just over a month ago, and it was currently for sale on Steam, so I figured, why not? I’ll give it a shot and see what it’s all about. And it’s even better than I imagined.
By the way, I want to apologize in advance for the subtitles in these screenshots. They moved so fast, they were already swiping away at the beginning of the line as the end of the line appeared. So some of these subtitles might not be very legible. Hopefully you’ll still understand the context.
MiSide starts out a little meta; you’re hanging out in your bedroom when you get a text from a friend, suggesting you download this cool new game. As a former IT guy, I was internally screaming at the fact your character just installs a random file someone texted him, especially with a vague clickbait message like “check this new version!” But… there wouldn’t be a game if you didn’t. So you install the game and check it out.
You boot up the game on your phone and are greeted by Mita, the protagonist, who asks for your name. You can type any name you want and she’ll use it to address you throughout the game.
She asks for help tidying up her home a bit, and you assist her in a mini game.
You play more mini games with Mita, helping her cook, find lost items, and even earning money in-game to buy her nice things. Time passes in the “real world,” and after about a month of playing this phone game, Mita suddenly shows a desire to meet in person. After a dramatic pause, she just announces that now you’re together! Huh?!
You look up from your phone and you’re no longer in your bedroom, but in a familiar apartment…
You can explore the empty apartment if you like. I especially enjoyed the “Love Note” notebook; a cutesy version of the Death Note. Also, some of the books on the bookshelves were a bit concerning…
In Mita’s bedroom, you find a machine hooked up to a platform. The whiteboard on the wall gives you directions to get it updated and functioning.
You get it running and it opens a portal on the platform. Having nothing else to do, you step into it…
You find yourself in a creepy, dark bedroom. The machine tells you to go hit the breaker in the living room, then track down four batteries to get the portal back online.
Things start to get a little weird. The rooms have a nasty habit of changing when you go through doorways, and creepy scribblings start appearing on the walls.
When you get the machine working again, you jump on the portal pad and find yourself in a normal bedroom. When you step away from the pad, you might find yourself jump-scared by Mita suddenly being right behind you.
She’s so grateful to see you! She explains she built the machine to bring you into the game world with her, but you accidentally ended up in another version of the game. But none of that matters now, because you’re finally here!
At this point, you start getting some different paths you can follow. I tried my best to explore every option, but some choices required you pick one of two options and forced you down that path. So my gameplay may not be exactly the same as yours, but the overall game probably went down the same path. Probably.
I helped Mita cook some food, got drugged by some “love sauce” which made me sick, and Mita forced me to take some pills to help me recover.
She also wanted to play games with me. I picked a card game, but I kept hearing an unsettling banging noise coming from her wardrobe.
I wouldn’t drop it, and when I went to investigate, she threw herself in front of the closet door, desperate to change my mind.
Finally, Mita grows tired of everything and her personality shifts. She decides, with an evil grin, to let me check out the wardrobe… if I dare. She snaps her fingers and the room goes dark.
Suddenly, I found myself in a horror game, terrified of what’s lurking in the dark. The wardrobe had a door inside it, but it was locked, so I grabbed a flashlight and explored the dark apartment, looking for a key. All while terrified of being jump-scared by Mita.
I found the key and unlocked the door in the wardrobe, to find stairs leading down into a basement. In one small room, there’s a studio with a camera, where it looks like Mita was broadcasting herself on an overlay of the apartment for the mini games. You can see yourself on the screen when you step in front of the camera.
And in a locked cage under the stairs is… Mita. Except not the same Mita.
You help this Mita escape (dubbed “Kind Mita”) and she sends you on a journey through multiple versions of the game and its backdoors, trying to find a way to stop “Crazy Mita” and get yourself home. You even run into many other versions of Mita, some that are exceptionally fun…
And some that are quite terrifying…
…As well as a variety of different looks and personalities. Cool Mita, a.k.a. “Cappie” (because of her cool cap) is by far my favorite Mita. She’s funny, playful, and a bit flirty.
This was a unique twist on the horror genre. I haven’t beaten it yet, but I’ve been enjoying it thus far. I’m still not sure where the plot is heading, but I’ve heard that there are at least three endings that have been discovered, so it will be interesting to see where my initial run lands me. Here’s hoping I can survive and escape the game world!
r/no-sleep material where husband keeps playing a sim game until he eventually becomes the character he modelled after himself in the game.
This reminds me of a no sleep material from reddit that I read, in that story there was a husband who kept playing a sims like game. He created himself and his wife in the game, even going as dar as naming them after themselves and creating the sim in a way that it resembled them and modelling the house after theirs. He kept role playing and playing that game for hours that it did affect his relationship with his wife and she was generally unhappy with him, at one point when he kept playing he noticed that his irl wife was getting distant and distant, meanwhile the sim wife was really happy with her husband. There are a lot that happens in between and then the story goes that one day he noticed his wife was really happy with him. But there was something weird with her, her eyes always fixated straight not showing much emotion other than the smile when she told him she loves him. It was like her wife went from really unhappy to happy but still weird. He passed his days doing his job, coming back to his house playing the sim game on his PC afterwards, his wife was not even bothered about it. One morning they were watching the TV together and she kept saying the same thing over and over again, he knew something was wrong and then he realised almost everyone in his work and other social setting was like that, he realised he has became a character in his own sim game.
I have not; although I have been warned that it’s not at all what it appears to be and that I should go into it blind for the best experience. So I’m assuming it’s going to be something like MiSide. It’s definitely on my list of games to play!
We can’t say anything else about the game without spoiling anything, so it’s best to avoid spoilers and just start playing while you have the chance to go in blind.
I have not; although I have been warned that it’s not at all what it appears to be
I have heard similar, more specific details about themes of the game. I’m going to put it off until I’m in a better place, mentally.
I don’t know if what I heard was true, but I don’t want to risk finding out more, because it is so highly regarded and I want to play it eventually, also I love entertainment where “it’s best going into it blind”
Oooooh, I just finished this. Really really well done game.
There are some minor parts that could have been better (like not being able to skip/FFWD text) and it’s not quite as good in its shock or horror as DDLC or so while also not being quite as good in its meta-narrative as Stanley Parable but honestly that’s such a minor criticism it really doesn’t matter. Fantastic experience, and some super nice jump scares in there, including a few where you expected one and then there’s a different one.
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TLDR
r/no-sleep material where husband keeps playing a sim game until he eventually becomes the character he modelled after himself in the game.
This reminds me of a no sleep material from reddit that I read, in that story there was a husband who kept playing a sims like game. He created himself and his wife in the game, even going as dar as naming them after themselves and creating the sim in a way that it resembled them and modelling the house after theirs. He kept role playing and playing that game for hours that it did affect his relationship with his wife and she was generally unhappy with him, at one point when he kept playing he noticed that his irl wife was getting distant and distant, meanwhile the sim wife was really happy with her husband. There are a lot that happens in between and then the story goes that one day he noticed his wife was really happy with him. But there was something weird with her, her eyes always fixated straight not showing much emotion other than the smile when she told him she loves him. It was like her wife went from really unhappy to happy but still weird. He passed his days doing his job, coming back to his house playing the sim game on his PC afterwards, his wife was not even bothered about it. One morning they were watching the TV together and she kept saying the same thing over and over again, he knew something was wrong and then he realised almost everyone in his work and other social setting was like that, he realised he has became a character in his own sim game.
BTW, is there any no sleep or equivalent Lemmy community?
Have you played Doki Doki Literature Club?
I have not; although I have been warned that it’s not at all what it appears to be and that I should go into it blind for the best experience. So I’m assuming it’s going to be something like MiSide. It’s definitely on my list of games to play!
Start playing it as soon as possible.
We can’t say anything else about the game without spoiling anything, so it’s best to avoid spoilers and just start playing while you have the chance to go in blind.
I have heard similar, more specific details about themes of the game. I’m going to put it off until I’m in a better place, mentally. I don’t know if what I heard was true, but I don’t want to risk finding out more, because it is so highly regarded and I want to play it eventually, also I love entertainment where “it’s best going into it blind”
Highly recommend this.
+1
It’s a really good game. I finished it in one go.
Oooooh, I just finished this. Really really well done game.
There are some minor parts that could have been better (like not being able to skip/FFWD text) and it’s not quite as good in its shock or horror as DDLC or so while also not being quite as good in its meta-narrative as Stanley Parable but honestly that’s such a minor criticism it really doesn’t matter. Fantastic experience, and some super nice jump scares in there, including a few where you expected one and then there’s a different one.