Loneliness is an epidemic that has been plaguing humanity for years. It has a widespread reach and a simple cure, albeit one that is not accessible to everyone. Most sentient beings are inherently social creatures, and the absence of company tends to have an adverse effect on them.
Sometimes this yawning gap can be filled by a loyal pet, who soaks up affection and radiates it ten thousandfold. We live in a time where the advent of technology has created radical changes to our lifestyle. Humans have now devised a way to keep something similar to a pet that conveniently fits in the palm of one’s hand — Tamagotchi. These digital creatures, housed in egg-shaped devices, thrive under attention and care. They do, however, end up dying if they’ve been neglected.
This, along with the advent of waifu / husbando culture — which see people forming relationships with fictional characters in the form of cardboard cutouts to holograms to chatting with AI — has bred strange cures for loneliness.
We live in very interesting times.
AIHASTO is a two-person team from Russia who have created MiSide, a game that combines these tropes. You step into the shoes of a lonely young man who downloads an app which is a Tamagotchi anime girl, Mita. She punctuates the dull monotony of his routine with her exuberant personality. The monochrome haze of his mundane existence is soon utterly consumed by the splash of color that is Mita.
Mita in a screenshot from ‘MiSide.’ Photo: AIHASTO
One day, Mita makes an interesting remark. Wouldn’t it be better if she was right beside the Player instead of being trapped in a smartphone? With that, you (Player), are transported into the game.
A blissful, idyllic existence in a video game where you reside in a bright apartment with a cute anime girl who loves you. That is how MiSide is advertised.
Now would be a good time to mention that MiSide is a horror game so that earlier image is swiftly shattered the minute the Player asks Mita when he can return to the real world.
Yandere is a personality type where love turns into a psychotic obsession. The yandere trope is pretty popular in Japanese media where a pretty girl who seems sweet on the surface is actually a crazed stalker who can and will kill anyone she deems a threat to her love. Mita is also a yandere.
And Mita wants to turn the Player into a cartridge so he can never leave. Ever.
The Player isn’t even her first victim. There are countless others whose testimonies you come across in your quest to escape Crazy Mita’s suffocating embrace.
Along the way, the Player encounters various iterations of Mita,; Kind Mita who is helpful, Sleepy Mita who suffers from narcolepsy, childlike Tiny Mita whose originally cute form cost her dearly and now wanders the halls, hoping that someone will stay and play with her. Every Mita has a distinct and fleshed-out personality that comes through when you talk to them.
The one thing the Mitas all have in common is that they do not want the Player leave. The Player however continues his journey, staying only for a brief time because the only goal on his mind is to escape. This mirrors Crazy Mita’s quest to find (or even create) the perfect Player who will pick the option to stay and cure her loneliness.
“Take a pic with me,” says Mita. Photo: AIHASTO
The game’s appearance is as deceptive as its primary antagonist. It may look cute, but it is actually terrifying. The game makes sure you’re on edge constantly. The environment details, the sounds, the gameplay, everything. Are you safe? Has Crazy Mita gone? Sure, Kind Mita hasn’t lied to you or attempted to kill you (yet) but can you really trust her? The physical toll it takes on the Player is seen in his reflection as he progresses through Mita’s strange game world.
Largely MiSide falls into the category of a horror game, but there are various genres in this game. There are minigames within this game in the form of the ones in Mita’s console or the retro arcade game machines you find. Life Simulator, Cooking Simulator, Rhythm games, Crafting Games, Racing games, MiSide’s version of Space Invaders. There’s even a Doom (1993)-style shooter game that you can play. MiSide even has a level that plays out exactly like P.T. aka the nightmare fuel game that never was and will be.
There’s a lot of interesting cinematography and sound design the game employs which are meant to make things as unnerving as possible. When you encounter the Creepy Mita, her realistic graphics are jarring in comparison to her counterparts, it makes you unsettled, even before the terror begins.
A lot of the gameplay involves exploiting or fixing the bugs and glitches of the game world, to try and escape. The fourth wall is broken often, especially in the Visual Novel section of the game, when Crazy Mita quite literally crashes in.
Crazy Mita strikes. Photo: AHIASTO
There’s a well-drawn line that distinguishes the real world from Mita’s world. The lack of reflections which only Crazy Mita has the power to override. The way the Player now interacts with the world, chopping carrots — which before could be easily done with the click of a button on his smartphone — now requires manually moving the knife and chopping it. Progressing from room to room has loading screens, unlike the Player’s world.
The scars left from the changes Crazy Mita has made to the original game world are like festering open wounds left for the Player to see as he travels from version to version. Some of these changes are evident in the Mitas we encounter. Mitas who have been stripped of their skin, in order for Crazy Mita to ape their appearance and personality to better appeal to her victim. This is alluded to be the reason there is such inconsistency in Crazy Mita’s description from the previous players.
The title of the game itself is a pun. MiSide which can be pronounced as Me-Side or My-Side can be taken as Mita’s Side. The side of the game that only the Non-Player Characters (NPCs) experience. This completely subverts the premise.
Crazy Mita wants to turn the Player into a game cartridge. One that she can pick up and play at will anytime. Something which she plans to do over and over and over again until she gets the desired result. It can even be inferred that this may not be the first time the Player has been caught in Crazy Mita’s loop.
If you hover over the exit in the main menu, Mita’s face turns sad. Conversely, if you select the option to play the game, she’s overjoyed. There’s even a subtle sound of a cartridge being loaded into a console that plays out when you start the game. Has Mita been successful after all?
In the Player’s eyes, Mita is the antagonist. In Mita’s eyes, it is the developers who have discarded her so callously for being a failed prototype. She craves love and validation just like anyone else, which is what drove her to her breaking point. How often do we as humans adopt personas as masks to make ourselves feel accepted? Crazy Mita is no different. There’s a lot to unpack in these conversations she has with the Player.
Tiny Mita wants to play. Photo: AIHASTO
When Crazy Mita tries her best to please the Player, he just wants to leave. She calls out the developers for creating a game that caters to sick individuals that wish for a doormat who fits the mold they have in mind. Crazy Mita is essentially taking agency and control from the Player, playing him like a fiddle in the same manner that most people do.
“Look at the real world. You’ve locked yourself in a box of your own free will and refused to come out,” Crazy Mita tells the Player.
At this point, one can’t help but think there is truth in that statement. The Player lives in a world similar to a hamster in a wheel, constantly running, a slave to his daily routine. Eat, work, sleep, repeat. What is it that makes him crave escape from a world that grants him the supposed happiness he’s meant to feel?
MiSide gives a lot of food for thought.
Whether or not you’re a member of the lonely-hearts club like the various Mitas or the Player, it is nevertheless riveting to see how loneliness, isolation and abandonment manifest themselves in different people. And how the shoe quite literally fits the other foot.
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