The first time you put on the mask in this game it feels wrong. Not in a broken controls way but like you're actually doing something you shouldn't. The marketplace under the mountain is this grimy little pixel hellhole where everyone's hiding their face and probably their intentions. I spent way too long just clicking on the same merchant three times because I couldn't figure out if he was lying to me or if the game was just being obtuse. Turns out it was both.

The blackmail stuff hits different when you're the one getting squeezed. There's this one scene with the female protagonist where you have to choose between giving up information or watching her corruption meter tick up. I picked the wrong thing obviously. The graphic violence isn't over the top but it's there in these little moments that make you pause. Like when you realize what that stranger actually wanted from you in the back alley. The multiple endings thing is real but some of them feel like the game is just fucking with you. I got one where everything seemed fine and then the last screen was just... wrong. No resolution. Just this sinking feeling.

The 2D art is rough in places. Not charming rough, just rough. But somehow it works for this dystopian setting where everything's supposed to feel broken anyway. The fantasy elements are there but they're more like window dressing for the real horror which is just people being awful to each other. I wish there was actual sexual content beyond the implications but that's not what this is. It's more about the threat of it. The corruption mechanics are simple but effective. You watch characters degrade and it's never satisfying, just sad. Which I think is the point maybe. The adventure game parts are fine. Nothing revolutionary. But the atmosphere in the market itself, with the masks and the whispered deals, that's going to stick with me. Not sure if I want it to.