Misao - 2024 HD Remaster

a must-play if you like RPG horror! a total classic, horribly tragic with a bit of a sense of humor. great remaster!

Achievement Completion: 100%

Another one of the "Must plays" for other games similar to it, Misao is something I'd describe it as more of a trial and error game since there should be a lot of death expected both in game and towards the player, Aki, as you learn more and more about the fate of Misao and solve various puzzles.

w t f

<33

Misao was a fun quick game to play. I will say it was kinda funny how many ways you can die lol. The story is very similar to Corpse Party!

MIbao

THIS SHIT HYPE

I enjoyed it, if you like RPGs, you'll like this at $10 or less. 4.5/5 recommend.

This game is a perfect encapsulation of the horror RPG genre that really blossomed in the mid-2000s, and I mean that for both its positive and negative aspects.

On one hand, it has good puzzles, it does a good job at utilizing a mix of macabre humor and horror in its set pieces, and the story is captivating to a fault. Plus, it has great atmosphere, and the music is memorable.

On the other hand, it has a lot of "shock elements" that don't really add much to the overall story, and are seemingly just there because the creator was making a horror game, and then thought "why not? it fits". I suppose it does, but it could have been MUCH more nuanced with its themes, at least in my opinion.

Not only that, but like a lot of other horror RPGs, the game has a nasty habit of killing you without warning. This isn't that much of a problem if you save often, but it's still worth keeping in mind.

I'm not certain if this is worth 10 dollars, but it is an important piece of horror RPG history, so if you're interested in that sort of thing, then this game will be right up your alley!

Really good story and game, loved all the silly deaths

If rpg pixel horror is up your alley you might as well.

Even after all those years, it still manages to hit differently

Played it because of Mad father and I don't regret it. It's a really good game and the story is interesting. I hope to see more games from the dev in future.

it's really good.

Mess around and find out at it's finest. You are rewarded when you die since the deaths are the collectibles. Yes it's a horror game technically but once you get past the whole "self preservation" nonsense it is actually a really fun time seeing all the creative ways the game devs kill the protagonist. Story is pretty good but not the reason i keep coming back. Seeing how many times I can suffer a Final Destination like moment, now that is what makes this game worth my time!

thank you for this amazing game :)

The lore literally makes me cry, poor Misao. :'(

The quizzes are kinda hard to figure out, so it takes me 3 hours on my first try.
(Also the game just constantly gave me "game over" treats everytime I tried to search for clues...)

Still a good puzzle-oriented RPG Maker game.

666 ways to die

Мисао добрая девочка. За что с ней так?

very good rpg

just wanna kill everyone
they don't deserve to be forgiven

original doomed yuri

play now

It's crazy just how bad this gets in the true end. It was already bad in the main endings but true end was a new low.
I enjoyed Mad Father which is also by the dev but I cannot rec this at all.

I found her

Fun and creepy game on the late night.

My name is Yoshikage Kira. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink. I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone.

Yoshino made me want to punch my a hole through my monitor, so I didn't have to see her ass anymore. <3

"Misao" is a 2D horror game where you explore the disappearance of a girl named Misao. You explore around a creepy and supernatural school looking for clues about who Misao was, but end up finding horrifying incidents instead! Since playing the game, there has been a graphics update so I would presume the already amazing jump scares and sprites look even nicer! However, this 2024 remaster has increased the price from $4.99 to $9.99 and while I think this may be worth it with the revamp, I would not purchase the game at this price as I have only gotten 5 hours from it due to 100%ing the game and it now offers little to no replayability unless I desire to experience the story again. I would say that the average game time would be around 2 hours long, so at $10 this may not be the best use of your money.

Misao - 2024 HD Remaster is a disappointing, very short, linear, and story-driven paranormal "horror" adventure puzzle game made with RPG Maker. I mention "horror" in quotation marks because the frequent and (often) unavoidable deaths remove any sense of stakes that the game has as well as any pervasive feeling of horror that I feel like it should have. This reduces the game to a process of trial-and-error that doesn't incentivize you to become truly invested in it since dying has no meaning and results in the only real horror being jump scares or paranormal oddities which catch you off-guard. The characters are also flat stereotypical tropes who don't develop or grow throughout the game which makes it hard to care for or relate to them unless you yourself have been through the same traumatizing situations.

Overall, I do not recommend it because it's just another poor story-driven RPG Maker adventure puzzle game with zero replay value. Furthermore, the developer recently remastered the game in HD and released it as a free update but also increased the price 4.99 to 9.99 USD to make up for it and I absolutely do not think that the game is worth double the price because it takes less than three hours to finish and the remastered elements frankly add very little substance to even remotely help justify this huge price increase. I feel like the game was at a decent price point prior to the remaster update but it's absolutely not worth it anymore.

Note: this review is current as of the HD Remaster update released on 15 August 2024.

[hr][/hr]
[quote]S U M M A R Y[/quote]

- The gameplay is composed of fetch quests and puzzles but the game feels as if it has no stakes because dying has no meaning;
- The replay value is non-existent because it's a linear story-driven game with only two endings and no other branching paths;
- The graphics are probably the highlight of the game as they are detailed, well-drawn, and are the main driver of the horror atmosphere that the game attempts to go for;
- The soundtrack is non-descript and forgettable but works well to compliment the atmosphere for the most part;
- The story uses very serious and traumatizing themes but is undercut by the flat characters who don't develop throughout the game and whose true natures are revealed via flashbacks instead; and
- The HD Remaster mostly improves on the graphics and adds a few quality-of-life features which frankly should have been in the original version but it's still missing the ability to fast-forward through text.

[hr][/hr]
[quote]A C H I E V E M E N T S[/quote]

The game has 21 achievements, most of which will be acquired throughout casual play but four of which will require you to complete the game and its epilogue twice each. That being said, this should still take less than six hours even if playing blind the first time through.

[hr][/hr]
[quote]R E V I E W[/quote]

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to the the genre of point-and-click adventure games which require you to explore an area, collect items, and then figure out where to use those items in order to progress. Throughout this process, death is almost unavoidable which makes the game feel more like an ennui chore that has no stakes since dying is merely an inconvenient setback that causes you to lose progress and forces you to restart from your last save. This makes death have no tangible meaning (other than unlocking alternate title screen artwork as you discover the ways to die) while simultaneously removing the permeative horror aspect of the game and relegating the horror to jump scares.

The game is also extremely simple and short and a blind playthrough should take less than three hours which, when coupled with the fact that the game is extremely linear due to it having only two endings and the sole branching path is found right at the end, results in the game having no replay value whatsoever.

Graphics

The graphics use cute and detailed pixel art as well as a variety of nicely drawn character portraits in different poses to display various emotions. The HD Remaster enhances the sprites by making them larger, adding more detail to them, and saturating their colors slightly, but the biggest improvement I found was that it makes better use of lighting and shadows to deliver a darker and more immersive atmosphere; however, both versions look good in their own right and, functionally, there's very little difference between them so it comes down to preference and moreso whether you want to make use of the additional quality-of-life features of the HD Remaster.

Sound

The soundtrack is made up of non-descript royalty-free ambient music which fits atmosphere of the game well enough but doesn't enhance the horror aspect in any impactful way. Meanwhile, the royalty-free sound effects are shrill and don't sound like their real-world equivalents which is actually quite jarring. I initially played this game with headphones thinking that it would enhance the experience and was severely disappointed at the lack of strong audio to truly reinforce the intended atmosphere of the game.

Story

The story contains very mature and traumatizing themes which will not be suitable for everyone but the issue that I found with this is that I never felt an attachment or connection to the characters since the game is so short and there isn't any character development. Instead, their true natures and personalities are revealed via flashbacks which makes it harder to relate to them unless you've personally experienced what they went through (and I find that this is a problem in this sub-genre as a whole, as well as with a number of visual novels that I've read). Another issue I had with the story is that the playable epilogue mode seems tacked on just to give a happy ending to the game which eschews the main story and feels cheap.

The game also has optional lore that you can read which references Mad Father, the developer's other game, and is confusing without context since you might be inclined to think that this lore relates to this game when it doesn't directly.

Miscellaneous

The HD Remaster mostly improves on the graphics but adds a number of minor quality-of-life features such as the ability to skip certain cutscenes (although they forgot the option to fast-forward through text so you still have to mash through it on subsequent playthroughs...), the ability to quit from the in-game menu (previously you could only do so via a character who let you save and load a file), automatically opening the item menu when interacting with objects or locations of interest (which has the unintended side effect of dumbing down the already elementary game), and trivial collectibles. It also changes some scenes and dialogue very slightly but these have no profound effect on the game as a whole.

One gripe that I have with the game is that the menu is clunky and requires a confirmation whenever you choose an option which is redundant and irritating and I'm surprised that they didn't remedy this with the HD Remaster...

Conclusion

Overall, I absolutely do not recommend this game whatsoever at its current price. The game is extremely easy, very short, the gameplay is very rudimentary, there's no replay value, the suffusing feeling of the horror that the game should have is undercut by the constant deaths which eliminate any stakes that the game should have, the story is mundane, the characters are mundane and don't grow or develop, and the HD Remaster adds very little of value to even begin justifying the now-doubled price of the game. The amount of playtime you'll get out of the game is simply not worth the price and that's my biggest point of contention with the game as it currently stands.

cinema, had fun, definitely worth a shot

that is one of the greatest games in the universe

Good game remake, like the effort of a polish up, the game needed one. Giving the teacher the option to be even saved is a good writing choice, you don't have to for the true ending. Which makes it nice if you don't want to (which I did for one of the versions).
But there is 2 caveats:
Kudoh was released in 1 version, or at least I remembered that as such, I feel like he didn't have to be reincarnted, but it's a small thing.
I don't think there was an extra room, but the main game being more fleshed out made up for it. Sadly, it makes the game feel fleshed out on the main road, but rushed on the climatic ending.
Finally I love how the girl is a lot more crazy using the bat than the male counterpart. I wish the secret machine could be used to switch characters so I could have gotten both ending achievements faster.

One of the best RPG maker games I've played. Loved mad father and the connections to the game with in Misao. Those who wish to play please be warned as the game has goes over a very serious topic.

peak af. truly life changing.

how no one sees the dialogue as anything other than atrocious is beyond me. you could probably enjoy this as a comedy but the gameplay wasn't good enough for me to continue.

One of my favorites growing up, so I'm happy to have finally played!

good game

GOTY

mussu :3

One of my favorite games of all time, I've loved it since the first version came out! This version is just beautiful, so many plot holes or things that didn't quite make sense in the first version were done here. I'm not usually affected by horror too much but this game had me jumping sometimes and sent a few chills down my spine. I could talk about this masterpiece of a game for hours and I absolutely cannot reccomend it enough to others!

Would i recommend this game to other players?

OF COURSE I WILL!

IT IS A GREAT GAME! and it has connection to mad father.

play mad father then this game

I can't believe I got an achievement by sniffing a toilet.

i sure do love dying 50 times in a row

very fun game/ story highly recc.

this is a great remake of the original misao and it really does it justice

A compelling story with complex characters. Shorter than I expected, but did a good job completing the story in that small time frame. I came to this game right after playing Mad Father and will honestly say I didn't enjoy it as much, but I think that's more on me and my expectations than the game. One thing worth noting is that you die a lot easier in this game, so make liberal use of the quick save feature.

🥕

very nostalgic, truly a game of my childhood